by SD Tanner
***
Gears
“Are ya sure he got the message?”
An image of Pax hunched inside of an overcrowded truck filled his mind. Pax didn’t look happy, and he was talking rapidly into his headset. Through Ip’s mind, he was seeing what BD could see. Ip and BD were both infected with the counter virus which meant technically they were dead, not that being dead seemed to mean much anymore. The infected could always talk to one another telepathically, but he later found out the dead could always communicate with one another this way.
With over eighty vehicles plus the riders, the enemy convoy was spread along the road for about three miles. He had fifty armored trucks, and planned to park them in the forest next to the road about fifty yards apart. If Pax did the same thing, he would use the birds to bomb the enemy line, and when they headed into the forest, his troops would be waiting to gun them down. It wasn’t a good plan, but it would tear the Crusader convoy apart, and they’d be forced to break up into smaller groups. His troops could then pick them off in a fight that was more equally balanced.
They could match them soldier for soldier, but his troops were poorly trained, badly motivated, and too few had any real heart for fighting. With such a poor excuse for an army, he couldn’t expect to win the battle, the best he would achieve was to disrupt the enemy, and give them no chance to regroup.
Unable to give his brother any clear orders, he would have to rely on their decades of battle history together, and hope that Pax would know what to do.
***
Benny
Pax had ordered him to take twenty of the vehicles down a narrow road, and then have them cut through the forest approximately five hundred yards apart. His orders were to engage with all enemy trucks and use any tactic possible to disable their vehicles. He didn’t like the plan, the enemy were just as able to damage their vehicles, as they were theirs. It was going to come down to which side knew how to use their weapons best, and he knew his shooters were close to useless.
The driver of his truck was struggling to find a clear path through the forest, and the vehicle was sliding in the mud as he navigated around trees. Worried they might get stuck or even overturn the trucks, opening a channel to all the vehicles under his command, he called through the radio, “Take it slow and easy. Steady as you go. Get ready with M3 anti-tank weapons, and aim for the center of the enemy vehicle. Shooters aim for tires and anyone shooting at us. If it gets too hot, then retreat and try again. Just remember our motto, ‘live to fight another day’. It’s better to retreat, regroup and attack again, than die or lose our trucks. They’re the only defense we’ve got.”
***
Jack
Listening to Gears bellow his orders, he asked, “What about the riders? Strafing them from the air isn’t likely to kill enough of them. They’ll be highly maneuverable, and they’ll cause a lot of damage if they’re prepared to die.”
“Fair point. We can drop smoke along the route, that’ll at least disorientate ‘em, plus it’ll make it hard for them to use any surface-to-air weapons,” Gears replied steadily through his radio.
“Do they have those?”
“I dunno, but let’s assume they do. I get the feelin’ Cain’s Crusaders are more than just an angry gang. They’re operatin’ like an invadin’ army.”
“Gears, if you drop smoke, how are the birds gonna target the vehicles?” TL asked through his own radio.
“We’ll do a flyover first, take out what we can and then fly back dropping smoke.”
Gears had ordered him and TL to start parking their vehicles approximately fifty yards apart. They were to pull off into the forest and wait for the Crusader convoy to pass. Coming down from the north, Gears said he was hoping Pax thought of the same tactic. All their trucks were to be on the north side of the road to avoid catching one another in crossfire. On Gears orders, all trucks were to open fire and advance on the Crusader convoy in one coordinated attack.
He wasn’t worried about the trucks, but the Crusader riders were interspersed between the well spread convoy. As soon as they attacked the trucks, the riders would know where they were and it would be easy for them to overwhelm a vehicle.
It wasn’t a good plan, but he guessed it was the best one they could have.
***
Cutter
He’d lost the coin toss with Jack and was now sitting in the rear with the supplies and ten small four-wheel drive pickups. His job was to deploy the unprotected vehicles into the combat zone with weapons, ammo, Water of Life and anything else they needed. He wasn’t sure who had the worse job. Being with the main force, and protected by an assault vehicle, Jack was in a better position, but then Jack only had one working arm. He had all his limbs, but the pickups offered almost no protection other than being more maneuverable than an assault vehicle.
On reflection, he decided both jobs sucked.
***
Ashley
“But I should be leading one of the trucks,” BD complained.
“Well, you can’t,” Pax replied bluntly. “You’re my radio to Gears now.”
“But I don’t want to be a radio,” BD said with a pout.
What the hell is going on, she wondered worriedly. BD had passed a message to Pax from Ip, but she couldn’t understand how that was possible. Puzzled, she pulled deeper into her seat, frightened of the strange abilities her new friend seemed to have. BD had the odd blue eyes she knew belonged to the super hunters, but it never occurred to her she was one. The super hunters were demonic creatures more dangerous than even the hunters.
Not wanting to disappoint BD, she’d only joined the convoy at her insistence. Now she wasn’t sure if BD was even human. Maybe I should run? The thought crossed her mind a thousand times a day, but this was the first time she thought she might. Lots of the soldiers had run. Like her, they knew nowhere was safe and no one could be trusted. Feeling anxiety rising in her, she looked at the door at the back of the truck, and wondered if she could leave now. There was a big metal handle, all it would take was a single pull, and she could tumble out while they slowly drove away.
“It’ll be alright,” BD whispered in her ear. “I’ll keep you safe. Nothing bad will happen to you, I promise.”
***
Marcus
Gears had given him five trucks to manage, with two on either side of his position buried in the green ferns and shrubs alongside the highway. He’d never done anything like this before, and he wasn’t sure he knew what he was doing. The tension in the people sitting with him in the assault vehicle was mounting, and the smell of sweat was adding to the already claustrophobic conditions. The Crusader convoy was slowly rumbling past them. Being well spread out, a truck passed by every twenty seconds, and between each truck, riders were keeping pace at top speed on their beasts. He supposed it was lucky they were distracted by riding so fast. It would only take one to glance to their left, and they might see the armored vehicles barely hidden under the foliage.
Swallowing his own anxiety, he looked around the cramped cabin. “Hold your fire and wait for the order.”
***
Ip
So much fuss for so little gain, this enemy are no more than a pain. War was hanging out of the bird wearing an angry expression, but she knew he was enjoying himself. She could feel his excitement at the opportunity to defeat his enemy, except these men weren’t his enemy, they were only the enemy of man.
Since being woken at the insistence of the dead, she did as she always did and obeyed the orders of her counterparts. The universe knew it was possible for man to behave so badly the species would need to be eliminated. Being Death, it was her role to kill, but for all the lifetimes they’d lived together, she’d never been asked to end mankind. She would if they agreed man didn’t deserve any life at all, and then she’d slaughter every living soul on earth. As it was, they had yet to decide this time whether man deserved a chance to learn and try again.
Sharing his mind, she could hear War
contemplating his options, thinking one way and then another, but regardless of what he concluded the future was already told. The world they saw in her home in hell wasn’t something that might happen. Ruler knew as well as she did that this was their future, which was why he persisted in fighting with them. He knew he would win and so did she. The only thing she didn’t understand was how. It implied the Horsemen either lost or changed their ruling, but they’d never lost a battle with Ruler. It didn’t mean they couldn’t lose to Ruler, and she wondered if they changed their mind or the Devil was getting smarter.
Deciding she didn’t really care how man ended up in hell again, she sighed to herself, bored with sitting on the bird. They were flying over a long line of trucks and foolish men on beasts. Any moment now, War would order them to destroy their vehicles, and a flutter of excitement that she knew wasn’t her own, flooded through her. Knowing War had made a decision, she heard him speak.
“Fire at will.”
***
TL
The sound of explosions reached his ears as the birds flew low and fast along the road. Gears was hitting every truck using all ten birds in the assault. In front of him, riders were veering into the foliage and he said, “Fire at will.”
All down the line of trucks, he heard the combat leaders repeating his command through his headset. Above him, his own gunner was firing steadily, and peering through the narrow opening on the assault vehicle, he watched as a rider and his beast crumpled to the ground. The beast immediately scrambled to its feet and raced past their truck into the dense forest behind them.
“Don’t waste your ammo,” he ordered. “You’re gonna need it when we move out onto the road.”
***
Gears
The strafing and bombing was going well. With ten birds appearing almost simultaneously, the enemy had very little time to escape. His pilots either missed or failed to disable some of the enemy trucks, and those vehicles were driving off the road and into the forest. He didn’t have time to deal with them, and he left them to his shooters on the ground.
Each bird was breaking away once they’d completed their run, and as promised, they would sweep past again with smoke bombs to give their shooters in the trucks some cover. It wasn’t a good plan, and they’d be equally as blinded, but at least they knew where the enemy vehicles were, and could drive away if the smoke was too dense.
They were sweeping back to drop the smoke when he saw one of the birds begin to spiral out of control. He was right, and the enemy had surface-to-air weapons. With a grudging respect, he thought, damn, these guys know what they’re doing.
“Evasive maneuvers,” he said to the pilots. “Drop your load and go.”
***
George
Peering through the narrow slit in the truck, he couldn’t see a thing. One moment he was staring at an enemy truck, and the next, everything went a murky grey. The truck had to be there, it couldn’t have moved away that fast.
“Fire at last known position,” he ordered.
Taking his own advice, he opened fire into the smoke, hoping he was doing more than wasting ammo. His own truck was bumping and swerving as it gained traction on the road, and he wasn’t sure if he was still aiming in the right direction. Gradually the smoke began to clear, but he was disoriented. Pulling the nose of his M4 from the slot, he shuffled until he was next to the feet of the gunner.
“What can you see?”
The gunner couldn’t hear him, and pulling himself into the turret, he peeked over the top. They were facing west, and all around them were bodies of riders and there was an enemy truck on fire. It looked like they’d done their job and cleared their section of the road.
Dropping back into the body of the vehicle, he said, “We need to move back into the forest and chase down any enemy on beast or foot.”
***
Marcus
The enemy vehicle had veered to the other side of the road, and not willing to let them escape, he ordered his truck to follow. They were both bouncing through the forest, firing at one another. Both vehicles were armored, and neither seemed to be able to best the other. The Crusader flag, once flying so proudly, was now bent on its mast and flapping wildly over the trucks firing windows. The gunner standing in their turret must have taken a bullet, and he was slumped over the gun. Within moments, his body disappeared and another man replaced him, immediately unloading intense gunfire in their direction. His own driver became nervous and skidded their truck sharply to left, throwing his shooters out of position, almost causing them to fire their weapons inside of their own vehicle.
It was only a question of time before they both ran out of ammo, or one of them flipped their vehicle. Conscious he’d left his other four trucks still fighting along the main road, he reluctantly said, “We need to break off the attack. Pull back to the main road and rejoin our troops.”
***
Gears
“What the hell is he doin?”
Below him, a single truck was in pursuit of another through the forest in a mad game of chase. It was a stupid tactic, and neither vehicle could win against the other. It was only a question of time before one of them rolled or got stuck.
Every one of his trucks had a number hastily painted on the top of it. Ordering the pilot back to the main road, he saw four trucks spread along it, firing on riders and enemy vehicles.
“Team twelve. Go four hundred yards west and then head south into the forest. We have a truck in pursuit of the enemy and they need back up.”
“Roger that.”
While he watched, the truck that was pursuing the enemy turned around, clearly breaking off the pursuit.
“Squad seventeen, get back on the ass of that enemy truck. Back up is on its way.”
“Roger that,” Marcus replied.
***
Jack
“RPG!”
“Out! Out! Out!”
The back door of the assault vehicle swung open at the same moment it rocked with the force of the shell. Eight men and women were tumbling and falling from the truck straight into enemy fire. To his surprise, their burning truck was still firing, and he assumed the gunner was somehow holding their position. Collapsing to the ground in a tangle of limbs with his shooters, he felt something jar his leg, and knew he was taking fire.
With two prosthetic legs, to say he wasn’t nimble on his feet was understatement, and he immediately began firing on the enemy truck, knowing he wouldn’t be able to get away fast enough. While he unloaded continuous fire aiming at their gunner, he felt himself being dragged along the gravel-covered road. As he disappeared around the side of his own burning vehicle, he looked up at his gunner, and saw the man was on fire and still shooting at the enemy.
“Get him down!” He shouted, waving vaguely at the gunner.
Hands left his shoulder straps, and he flattened himself to the ground. After quickly reloading, he fired rapidly at the enemy gunner. Above him, he was aware the two soldiers who dragged him to safety were pulling the gunner down from the top of the burning truck. Shuffling back behind the truck, he watched as they rolled the still burning figure, extinguishing the flames.
Still on his belly, he crawled forward to look at the face of the burnt gunner. The fire resistant Kevlar helmet had protected the head, but the face was red and puffy, with patches of skin already curling and peeling. The gunner’s gloves had practically burnt off, and their hands were held in the shape of claws. The gunner was emitting a keening sound, like a high-pitched whine, and he could sympathize with the degree of pain they were in.
Pulling a bottle of the Water of Life from his vest, he fumbled to hold it firmly, while he unclipped the top with his good hand. Still shaking, he poured the water over the gunner’s face, and tipped some into the reddened hole that was all that was left of the mouth.
The effect was almost instantaneous, and the gunner lifted a still injured hand and began to rub their face, peeling away burned skin and revealing the healthy pi
nkness underneath. While the gunner massaged the skin on their face, he poured more of the water onto their hands, marveling at the speed of healing.
Finally, the gunner sat up, and in a distinctly feminine voice, she said unsteadily, “Thank you. That really fucking hurt.”
***
Pax
They were spread too thin chasing riders and trucks through the forest. It was only a question of time before they ran out of ammo, or started shooting one another by mistake.
Finally in radio contact with Gears, he said, “We’ve got too many fronts.”
“Yeah, I know,” Gears replied tiredly.
“Our squads aren’t trained well enough for this kinda independent combat.”
“Yeah, I know, Pax,” Gears replied sharply.
“Well, if ya know, why aren’t you recallin’ ‘em.”
He could almost feel his brother’s frustration when he replied, “All trucks return to the main road for reassignment.”
***
TL
Their troops were involved in skirmishes along the entire road, and he was travelling in his own armored vehicle providing support. Most of the enemy trucks left on the road were heavily damaged, and those that could had abandoned their post to run into the forest on either side of the road. Gunfire was erupting from the forest, and he knew the enemy were being caught in the trap Gears had laid.
It was a strange sort of battle, and while their troops were taking damage, they were being healed by the Water of Life and immediately returning to the fight. In all his decades in combat, he’d never seen anything like it. Shooters were now hard to kill, and it would be a question of which side ran out of ammo first, except he wasn’t sure their enemy had the Water of Life. According to anyone he’d spoken to, there was only one lake in the whole country, and maybe Cain didn’t have access to it. It was possible he didn’t even know about it.
His gunner was firing at an enemy turret, and while he watched through the narrow window, the gunner slumped over his gun. The man was probably still alive, and he wondered what the policy was about saving their enemy using the Water of Life. He was about to ask Gears, when through his radio, he heard him say.
