by W. J. Lundy
Shane looked in all directions. His vision was choked with smoke and falling debris. Meyers was already at the ladder firing into Primal bodies lying on the ground and others that were trying to get up. Shane leaned forward, righting himself, and pulled Ella to his lap. She was sobbing, her hands gripping his shirt so tight, he could feel the pinching. He used the pack as balance to climb to his feet. Chelsea was next to him. She took the girl and tried to comfort her as Shane grabbed his bag with the SKS tied to the top and tossed it over the side of the car. He grabbed the M4 and clipped it to his harness, then took Ella. She was still sobbing uncontrollably and he wanted to comfort her, but there was no time. He moved to the ladder and crowded behind the other soldiers scrambling to the ground.
Brooks reached out and took Shane by the back of the pack, helping to steady him as his feet found the rungs of the ladder. He slid to the ground quickly, only catching every other rung as he dropped. Gunfire was on all sides as the men moved west, firing into any body that moved. He caught his bearings and aligned himself into the formation of soldiers while Ella clung tightly to his shoulder. A wall of Primals was rising at them from their flank. Shane spun and let loose several shots. Some dropped, others broke though; a skinny man dove at him and Shane narrowly dodged it, deflecting the man with the stock of his rifle. The Primal’s body hit the iron railroad track and thudded to a stop a moment before Chelsea fired her rifle into it.
“Move,” she screamed at Shane, pushing him forward.
Shane nodded and rushed ahead. He saw Doctor Howard in the middle of the group chasing after Meyers with a small pistol in his hand. A Primal lunged at Shane, who juked and jumped out of the way, barely avoiding the Primal’s attack. The crazy changed course and tackled Parker from behind. Parker hit the ground hard; he rolled and wrestled with the beast, nearly sliding down the embankment. Joey jumped in and the Primal turned its attention toward him; clawing, scratching, and knocking the Marine to the ground. Joey was pushing the thing away while stabbing it in the ribs with his K-bar. Gunner was quickly at his side and shot the creature with his sidearm. He kicked it away, then yanked Joey to his feet as another broke through the cloud of dust. Nearly flying, it caught Gunner across the body, tearing a long strip of flesh from his face. Gunner fell to the side, rolling on the tracks. He popped to his hip and pushed his pistol under the thing’s chest, firing wildly.
Parker was on the ground, unconscious, with a large gash across his neck, blood pooling around his shoulders. Chelsea was quickly by his side and reached down to help.
“Leave him! He’s done. Get the girl out of here,” Gunner ordered before climbing to a knee then firing more shots, knocking down a screaming woman. Cussing and screaming, Gunner swapped out magazines. “Go, go,” he yelled, pushing the others ahead of him. He removed a bandage from his belt and lashed it to his face with his left hand while still firing at the charging beasts with his right.
A large mob charged the flank. Shane turned into the screaming beasts, raised his M4, and fired. Gunner moved up beside and again unloaded his pistol. He tucked the sidearm into his belt and grabbed the SKS from the back of Shane’s pack. He leveled the heavy rifle and fired, point-blank, into another cluster, knocking them off their feet with hits to the chest. “You have a reload for this piece of shit?” he yelled as he covered their position.
Shane paused to look at Gunner. He could see the field bandage soaked with blood. Shane knew Gunner was finished, he’d been infected, and from the look on Gunner’s face, he knew it too. Shane reached into his cargo pocket and handed Gunner a stack of three magazines. The old soldier accepted and tucked them into the straps on his belt. “Now get the fuck out of here! Get the girl to the highway, I’ll catch up.”
Joey turned to the tail of the group. Brooks and Meyers were ahead with Howard, clearing the way with suppressed weapons. “Come on, we have to move! What are you waiting for?”
Shane looked at Gunner; Joey saw the blood running down his jaw and neck. Gunner raised his rifle and fired at two more running directly down the tracks.
“Go, I’ll cover the rear. Keep moving to the highway, don’t wait for me,” Gunner ordered.
Joey went to speak, but Gunner turned and again fired into the darkness, walking backwards. He would fire to the left and shift fire to the right, one to two round volleys, taking out targets as fast as they became visible. Shane turned and, with Chelsea at his side, they ran ahead to catch up with the others. Joey fell in on the right side, looking into the darkness. As they approached the impact area of the cluster bombs, the earth became churned and cratered. Observing noise discipline and now relying on suppressed weapons, they saw less and less of the Primals as they traveled.
Shane didn’t want to look back. As he ran, the sounds of the SKS became more and more distant. He knew that Gunner wasn’t behind them, that he broke away and was running into the city while drawing off the horde with the sounds of the 7.62 rifle. They heard the loud crack of a frag grenade and saw a building ignited in flame. Shane dropped his head, thinking Gunner was finished, when he heard more firing from the SKS. Brooks stopped the group at a cross street near a turned over school bus. Just ahead was a high embankment that led to the highway.
The sun slowly moved above the horizon. The ground was blanketed in a heavy layer of mist and smoke that helped conceal the team as they knelt beside the burnt remains of the bus.
“Up the hill and to the highway. I’ll go first to secure it and then the rest of you keep moving,” Brooks whispered.
Several blocks to the north of the railroad bed, two shots of the SKS sounded off.
“We should wait for Gunner,” Chelsea whispered.
Joey shook his head. “Gunner’s dead and he knows it,” he said looking down to hide his emotions. “He saved me. I watched the Primal take his face… right after one killed Parker.”
“But we can’t just leave him out there!” Chelsea argued looking around the group at the solemn faces of the team.
Joey forced a smile as the SKS fired another salvo. “He’s right where he wants to be. Let’s go, Pops will be pissed if he sees us standing around.”
CHAPTER 34
The Primal horde charged the school. Enraged by the flares and starburst grenades, they rushed the fences and crashed their bodies against them. All too soon, they were at the walls. The chained doors held, but they broke windows surrounding the perimeter. Brad watched as he saw several collide with the glass office doors and pour inside the building where he’d previously stood.
Brad pressed his back against the wall and raised his scoped rifle to the window. He scanned the area of the stone chimney and spotted a row of four blacked-out SUVs parked online behind the ruins of the home.
“There’s a—”
“I see them,” Sean said. “Figuring to let the Primals do their dirty work, huh? Yeah… let them wipe us all out and then withdraw in the afternoon sun without firing a shot.”
Brad watched the SUVs. A man clad in black stood between two of them, shielded from the charging Primals. The man raised an older style M79 thumper into the air and launched another flare. He cleared the round and loaded another before he moved beside the SUV and prepared to fire again.
“They know we killed their scouts; won’t they guess we moved?” Brad asked.
The man raised the M79 and fired a red starburst round that exploded high above the school, streaking streams of red back to the ground.
“Probably; that’s why I’m going to put a round through our little fireworks coordinator over there. Don’t return fire unless they pinpoint our location.”
“Wait, but won’t that—”
“Firing,” Sean whispered as he pulled the trigger. The first suppressed round exploded the glass of the insurance office.
Brad watched as the man aimed the M79 at a point high above the school, then stepped back as Sean’s high caliber round impacted his chest. His arms dropped and he fired the round, point-blank, into the ground. A brigh
t flash illuminated as the parachute flare exploded at his feet between the SUVs. The man rolled to the side and went to stand.
“Fucker’s wearing a plate,” Sean whispered. “Firing,” he said again.
Brad watched as the man’s head snapped back and his torso rotated and smacked into the SUV next to him. A rear door opened and another man ran forward, kicking the bright burning flare into the street. It was too late; the Primals had taken notice and were moving in the SUVs’ direction. The man turned and ran for the SUV door when Sean fired again, low this time, taking out the man’s unarmored leg. He fell just feet in front of the SUV and crawled forward. Another man left the passenger side and ran to the injured man’s aid. He grabbed the back of his shirt and dragged him to the vehicle. Just as Brad thought he might make it, Sean fired again, hitting the assisting man low in the torso. The assisting man staggered to the left and bent over at the waist. Dropping to the ground, the assisting man fell on top of the first wounded man just as the horde hit the SUVs.
The SUVs’ doors slammed shut, locking the wounded men out. The vehicles slowly backed up away from the horde that was now swarming the downed men. “I’m going to try and disable a vehicle,” Sean whispered.
Brad watched the blacked-out vehicles slowly reverse, staying in line.
“Aiming for the engine block, fir—”
The window above Brad’s head exploded. A round smacked through the drywall above Sean’s head. Sean pulled back from the window and rolled across the floor. Brad ducked and dropped below the bookshelf as more rounds exploded into the room.
“Well shit, son! Looks like they have a sniper on their side too. If not for that plate glass, that round would’ve been in my head.”
“No shit, Sean!” Brad yelled.
Rounds snapped over his head and exploded into the walls around him as the men outside opened up with a light machine gun. Brad pressed his face against the dirty tile floor, pushing his body away from the assault, desperately searching for cover. The interior space thundered with the sounds of return fire. He rolled to his side and saw Sean with his weapon at the ready. His shoulder was pressed against the wall; not bothering to look, Sean lifted the MP5’s barrel over the edge of the shattered window and let loose an extended burst of suppressing fire.
When the magazine was empty, he pulled the weapon back to his chest just as a barrage of counter fire again ripped through the room. “You’ve got to move and you got to move now!” Sean yelled over the intense fire.
Brad looked at him and struggled to nod, fear and adrenaline causing his muscles to tighten. Sean pointed a gloved finger toward the back of the room. “You need to move. I’ll be right behind you,” he said as he used his other hand to switch out magazines in the submachine gun. “I’ll cover you. On my fire, go!”
Brad rolled back to his stomach and readied himself for the dash. Before Sean’s first shot, he was blinded by a bright flash and thundering explosion coming from the rear of the building. A cloud of smoke rolled up the hallway, pushing debris and a toxic ash that burnt his lungs and caused him to choke. He heard Sean’s weapon fire. Brad willed himself up and took a long step trying to steady himself. He stepped out fast; surprised that he was able to stay in motion, taking step after step, he rushed down the long hallway that was now quickly filling with smoke.
His ears were ringing, his senses deprived by the thick cloud of dust and acrid gas. Brad took another lunging step and hooked the toe of his boot on rubble. Already unsteady, he lost his balance, fell hard to the floor, and slid headfirst into the hallway. He caught himself with his left elbow, wincing in pain. He rolled to his right side and pushed his rifle forward as he saw the first of them. Emerging out of the smoke, they moved in; dark silhouettes standing out from the gray haze of the smoke. Two by two they came, wearing all black and protective masks, rifles at the low ready. Their lasers cut the space, but they were looking over and beyond him—not at his lifeless form prone in the rubble and blanketed in dense smoke.
Brad twisted hard and leaned into his rifle. He leveled it at the chest of the lead man and pulled the trigger. Three rounds tore into the point man; dust and smoke popped from two hits to the center of his tactical vest, the third striking the chin cup of the man’s protective mask. Brad shifted the barrel to the left and with quick pulls of the trigger took down another. The remainder of the opposing team fired blindly through the haze in his direction. Bits of sheetrock and shattered glass pelted his face and exposed skin. Brad rolled hard and reached out. Grabbing the edge of a nearby doorway, he pulled himself into a room that intersected with the hall. Brad low-crawled forward, away from the doorway and deeper into the room, ducking under a round conference table. While rounds were cutting the walls and zipping over his head, he dragged himself to a sitting position against a chair. He leveled his rifle and aimed into the open space of the door.
He watched as a barrel cautiously broke the cover of the door frame. Brad raised his own rifle and aimed just to the right of the barrel, firing rapidly through the wall where he knew the shooter would be standing. He paused as a masked figure dropped forward, still clutching the weapon. Brad launched himself back to his feet. He hugged the door frame, then spun into the entrance, firing blindly as he flew across the open space to the opposite wall. He saw another man fall victim to his fire. Brad paused against the wall, holding the rifle to his eye and focused down the long hallway toward the rear entrance. The firing behind him had ceased; he could hear Sean reloading his rifle and the clinking of spent brass as he crawled across the floor.
“You alive back there?” Sean yelled.
Brad kept his chin on the stock of the rifle and stayed focused on the far exit. “I’m still standing, if that’s what you’re asking. I have four down back here.”
“Something’s got them pulling back,” Sean said.
“That’s a good thing right?” Brad acknowledged, relaxing his grip on the rifle while trying to control his breathing and fighting the urge to vomit.
Sean moved up the hall and shoved Brad’s assault pack into his arms. “Yeah… it would be great if it weren’t for the hundred plus Primals pouring down the street in our direction,” Sean said.
A man lying face-down moved an arm and went to lift himself up. Sean rushed ahead as he walked past Brad and turned over the dying man. He was wearing a black utility uniform without name tape. A subdued American flag patch was on his shoulder. Sean grabbed the sides of the tactical vest and pulled off the Velcro to release it. He tore open the vest and pushed it aside, then ripped the buttons on the man’s blouse.
Seeing a white cotton T-shirt, Sean pulled at the collar to reveal a blood-spilling entry wound just below the collar bone. Sean rolled up the man’s sleeves then looked him in the eye.
“Who are you with?” Sean asked.
The man coughed phlegm and blood, foam coming from his nose; he smiled at Sean with red stained teeth. “You know who we are. We’re trying to save the girl before you and that hack doctor can kill her.”
Sean looked up at Brad, trying to hide the shock. “Bullshit, what are you doing here?”
The man continued coughing, his face quickly becoming pale as blood spilt from the entry wound with every beat of his heart. “We had her at Collins; the fort was over-run before we could extract her by air, lost her after that, then picked up her signal again on the road… we tried to get a bird in the air… she disappeared from the scanners before we could triangulate.”
Brad leaned forward and put pressure on the injured man’s wound, no longer able to ignore it. “Wait! If you’re trying to help the girl, why did you attack her?”
The wounded man looked up at Brad, his eyes growing faint. “You stupid bastard. We attacked you not the girl, she is implanted with a low level tracking device. She needs to be outside for us to get a signal from the UAV. We know she isn’t in the school; she is south-west of here. We’ve been trying to stop Doctor Howard from getting to her and we know he’s traveling with yo
u.” The man coughed hard; turning to the side and spitting blood, he struggled to take another wheezing breath in. “We’d be with her now, could have followed her away, if you assholes didn’t kill our recon team.”
The man coughed hard again and gagged as he struggled to take another breath. He kicked his leg and choked before his eyes rolled back in his head. Brad let go of the wound and looked down at his blood soaked gloves. Sean reached in, turned the man to the side, removed his wallet, and then got to his feet. He pulled open the wallet, dumping items as he walked towards the exit.
“What the hell are we going to do?” Brad asked as he struggled to keep up.
Sean tossed the wallet over his shoulder and stood in the doorframe. “I don’t know; he wasn’t military. White undershirt, no tags, no tattoos, no military ID. Who the hell are these guys? And who the hell is Howard? Why the fuck is everyone lying to us?”
CHAPTER 35
Shane pulled himself up the highway embankment while holding Ella tight in his left arm. His feet slipped in the mud. He gripped long blades of uncut grass with his gloved right hand, pulling himself up. He looked above and saw Howard standing over him with Brooks and Meyers. Howard reached down as Shane pushed Ella up ahead. Howard took her hand and pulled her up, freeing Shane’s left arm to climb the muddy slope. At the top he turned back and pulled up Chelsea, then assisted the others.
Brooks and Meyers positioned themselves on opposite ends, pointing up and down the highway respectively, providing security and allowing the men to catch their breath before they moved on. The rain had stopped with the daylight but heavy cloud cover still remained, casting a gloomy gray over the terrain. Both directions of US-17 were congested with broken and twisted vehicles; a fire had at one time raged up the highway, destroying everything and leaving black molten hulks of vehicles. Shane walked quietly and retrieved Ella from Howard who glared at him suspiciously.
