by David Peters
Dylan and Cap-Cap low-crawled past the rising flames and stood up. The Sappers were having trouble getting across the moat without being engulfed in the ever spreading river of fire they were creating. Another body cartwheeled through the air and exploded against the base of the wall. Dylan could feel the wall shake and shift as the fire burned through the last layer of logs on the outside of the wall. With nothing holding it in the soil and rock that made up its core began to pour into the field and across the flaming moat. The superheated soil crushed out the flames as it flowed out from the wall and into the moat forming a bridge through the fire.
A long row of tracers walked towards one of the three remaining Guards and simply shredded it where it stood. A small cheer went down the wall as the defenders focused on the two final Guards. Once again the line of tracers began their walk across the ground as Jokester aimed the large weapon like a garden hose. As the rounds began impacting at the Guards feet the gun went silent. Dylan looked up to the tower and could see the weapon glowing red from the wall. Jokester had asbestos gloves to protect him from the heat but with no barrel to change out he was left with nothing he could do but wait for the gun to cool.
“He’s got to let it cool Dylan!” Cap-Cap shouted over the battle. “It isn’t designed to fire that long, he should have known to control his bursts.” The captain was shaking his head.
The final Guard was focusing all of his attention at the now breached point in the wall. As three more Sappers slammed into the top of the wall and showered it with burning liquid. Dylan and Cap-Cap were hunkered down behind a support column as several more explosions rocked the wall.
“How long is it going to take that thing to cool down?”
“Too damn long.”
“I’m down to my last few rounds, how are you doing.”
Cap-Cap held up his pistol, “I’m down to this and two mags of nine. This peashooter won’t stop those Guards even if I could hit them at this range.”
Just then Travis darted past holding a short olive green tube, “Hey Boss-man types. Give me one second with big fat ‘n ugly out there.” Popping the small covers on both ends of the tube and flipping up a small device on the top center of it he looked at the men one more time before standing up, “I’ve been dying to try this out.” He looked around behind the wall then stood up and turned towards the battlefield. The tube blew fire out both ends and sent a small rocket that was designed to penetrate bunkers protected by sandbags and concrete towards its target. This missile struck the Guard in the center of the things chest. Another explosion rocked the battlefield as the warhead vaporized the Corrupted from the waist up. The smoking legs stood for several heartbeats then fell over backwards into the ash and mud.
Travis dropped the now empty tube over the wall and gave the two stunned men a huge grin and two thumbs up before running back towards the fire detail.
Dylan looked at the captain with a smile, “Who was that masked man?” He stood and looked up and down the length of the wall. About thirty feet to his right the pathway on the top of the wall fell into blackness. The outside was completely burned away and the fill dirt had flowed out forming the nice bridge across the moat. There was nothing but one thin layer of stacked logs keeping the entire section from becoming a new gateway into the heart of Paradise Falls.
“I think that was our only rocket.” Cap-Cap stated flatly.
“Great. Try to keep the good news to a minimum, will ya?” Dylan stood as close to the blown out hole as he could. Several of the larger rocks at the base were still glowing red. He could also see the interior wall of logs was burned nearly half way through, the logs still glowing red where the embers still burned. He had no clue what their next move should be. Without the wall the Corrupted could overwhelm them with sheer numbers alone. The cries of Hunters and another long deep howl from a Guard came from the woods grabbing his attention. Once again he could make out the thumping of the massive feet as something ran towards them.
The lone Guard entered the battle field at a dead run. It carried two bloated Sappers under each arm while several more tried desperately to hold on as it flailed across the battlefield. The Guard made no effort at all to dodge incoming bullets. It was making a straight run for the wounded section of wall a scant ten feet from Dylan.
“Kill it!” Dylan screamed as he began putting his few remaining rounds into the thing as fast as he could work the lever action on his rifle. He could already tell they weren’t going to stop it in time. At just over thirty feet he centered the crosshairs on the Guards forehead and pulled the trigger on an empty chamber. The beast disappeared into the gaping hole and hit the interior of the wall with a thunderous explosion. Dylan was thrown off the wall and landed on the soft grass over twenty feet away. He painfully rolled over and could see the flaming outline of the now breached wall in front of him. It made a perfect fire-ringed doorway for the hell that was about to pour in.
Dylan felt a wave of dizziness wash over him and thought he was going to lose consciousness. He started to stand and felt his legs give out beneath him. The world spun around him as he tried to shake the shellshock off. The pain was finally beginning to set in from being so near the large detonation. His head was swimming and even though he was sitting on the grass leaning back on his hands he felt as if could lose his balance any second and topple over. He could see small bits of burning embers on his legs and tried to brush them off. For a second he found himself fascinated by the still smoking holes they had left in his heavy pants.
From the forest line Hunter screams again filled the valley. These were different cries, cries for blood and vengeance. Dylan could feel the hatred and anger in their unknown words. The cries echoed through the forest and across the valley as they broke out of the woods sprinting for the now breached wall. Dylan looked up and could see the defenders firing into the horde that was undoubtedly running across the field.
All time and sound stopped for Dylan as he stared at the hole. He had failed and the wall was breached. He looked over his shoulder at Jokester up in the tower, turning his head brought another massive wave of dizziness. Jokester had pulled the small squad automatic off of its mount and was shooting it like a regular rifle. Already the belt fed weapon glowed a dangerous red as he sent streams of tracers into the field. Jokesters looked as if he was screaming but no words were reaching Dylan. The squad automatic ejected the spent brass casings into the open air beside the tower. They caught the light as they spun free from the weapon and started their long fall to the ground. Up on the wall Cap-Cap calmly fired his pistol as the Hunters closed the distance to the breach. He could see the Captain had a bayonet in his other hand. Dylan reached for his holstered pistol and found the flap open and the gun gone. At some point when he was thrown down from the wall the gun had fallen out. Off to his left a distant voice was calling to him as if from a dream. In his dazed state he turned to see Travis leaning against the nearest cabin screaming to get his attention. Travis sounded like he was yelling into a pillow, his voice distorted and strange. Dylan tilted his head slightly at the sight of Travis, the young man was always so calm, and why is he yelling at me? He turned back to face the breach and saw the first Hunter jump through the burned out hole. It was instantly cut down by gunfire but was almost immediately replaced by two more. Once again the voice caught his attention. As Dylan began to catch up with the world things around him began to move faster. He looked over at Travis again.
“Get down!” He was screaming, “Cover your head man, please!”
Dylan rolled onto his stomach and covered the back of his head with his hands. He threw another quick glance at Travis and saw the man twist the handle on the small military issue detonator he was holding. Thunder struck all around him and the world went blindingly white. His ears rang painfully from the explosions mere feet from his body. As his vision cleared he could see nothing but blue smoke and over the ringing in his ears he could hear the muffled cries of pain from the Hunters as they dissolved around him.
He found he was shaking so bad he couldn’t stand. The blue smoke covered the entire wall in front of him and the light breeze was taking the cloud through the burned out breach and out towards the battlefield. The shrieks of pain were moving slowly out past the wood line. There would be an occasional shot from the wall but the invaders had been turned once and for all.
“’Scuse us Boss.”
Dylan looked towards the voice and saw one of the fire crewmen was trying to get a hose around him without knocking him over. Dylan struggled painfully to his feet and stumbled back to where Travis was leaning against the cabin laughing.
Travis was covered with soot and bleeding in several places. Dylan crashed down next to him, “If I look half as bad as you do they may need to put me down. So what the hell did you just blow my ass up with?”
“An unfinished project I had been working on in my spare time. I had a test rig set up so I threw it out around the busted wall when I saw it lookin’ like they might blow through. The other night I was looking at some blasting caps with Whitey and we figured out we could make a pretty good anti-Corrupted mine using one of these.” He held up a normal looking brick. “The three holes are supposed to help keep the weight down but if we seal one end and run caps in each, we pack the uCD…”
“Slow down, uCD?” Dylan interrupted.
“Sorry, we are still trying to come up with a cool sounding name. We were calling it Corrupted Dust but it sort of un-Corrupts ‘em, so uCD.” Travis coughed several times and leaned his head back, “Holy crap I hurt. Anyway, you follow me?”
Dylan smiled, “Ok. I’m with you.”
“Anyway, I didn’t get much of a chance to test it. You were sitting in the middle of them and I knew if I ran to get you I wouldn’t get back in time to light it up. Sorry about blowin’ your ass up Boss man.” Travis looked slightly sheepish but still had a grin a mile wide, “We argued about how many caps to use. Whitey wanted to use one, I wanted to use two.”
Dylan held up his hand to stop him, “Let me take a wild stab in the dark, you two couldn’t decide on whether to use one or two, so you used…”
“Three, Boss man.”
Dylan nodded then smiled genuinely back at him, “Travis, you are amazing. Don’t ever let anyone tell you different. On days like today you can blow my ass up anytime and even multiple times if need be.” He rested his head on the building and smiled as he caught site of a very torn up and soot covered Cap-Cap limping towards them.
The captain was using his rifle like a cane as he limped over to Dylan and slid to a seated position next to him, “That was one solid beat down Dylan.” Cap-Cap patted his shoulder.
“We have to get that wall patched fast. I don’t think they will be back for at least a week, maybe longer. They sure as hell ain’t comin’ back tonight. But they have found something that works. They adapted to our range advantage and nearly got through. They paid heavy though.”
“From what you have shown me you have more than enough timber ready to be slapped into place and I would imagine people will be quite anxious to seal up the hole sooner rather than later. So take a second and allow us to enjoy the victory, will you?” Cap-Cap pulled out two cigars and handed one to Dylan.
Dylan blew a large cloud of smoke into the air and let himself relax just enough to enjoy the victory. Once the initial rush began to fade it occurred to him not only how tired he was but how badly and in how many places he hurt. He must have landed flat on his back after being blown off the wall and he was really starting to feel it.
“We didn’t have a single loss Dylan. Not one. Some of the guys in the first battlement have some pretty good burns but they will recover. Second battlement cleared out the instant they saw the Sappers in the air.
“Good, I’m glad to hear that. I’m already thinking of a few design changes for those, sheet metal probably wasn’t the best plan but it was lite.”
Travis saw Whitey running toward the three of them and stood up to meet him. They threw each other a high five then jumped and bumped chests as they laughed. They started to rapidly exchange their battle stories while they walked towards the blown out portion of the wall. Travis was obviously recounting his rocket shot with an invisible rocket held on his shoulder while Whitey told him about the skeet shooting Corrupted.
“Those two are going to be insufferable now.” He was pointing at the base of the wall where Travis and Whitey continued their victory dance. “Not that I’m complaining mind you.” Cap-Cap sent a small cloud of cigar smoke skyward, “I’d put both of them in for medals if I was still in that line of work.”
Dylan nodded his agreement and watched the cigar smoke drift slowly away. Looking at the band on the cigar he commented out loud, “Hope this Drew guy made it, these are really nice.”
Cap-Cap leaned back more comfortably, “Where do we go now Dylan?”
“Where do we go now? Now we take the fight to them before they get back on their feet. Hit them harder than they have ever been hit. With your expertise and knowledge we make my plan work.” Dylan leaned his head against the cabin and closed his eyes. He could only smile.
--2--
Dylan and Niccole both nodded to Whitey as they sat on the couch. Niccole was leaning into Dylan as Whitey held up the suit he wore as a sniper and explained the ins and outs of how to effectively become a bush.
“The key is patience and no sudden or unnatural movements. The life of a field sniper isn’t boring. Boring isn’t a strong enough word. You can wait an entire day for that one shot and then not take it because the wind is wrong, or the heat is too high for a clear shot, or any of another million reasons.”
Cap-Cap interrupted, “But this isn’t that kind of mission, Whitey. You will just be scouting their times and routes. Getting a feel for how organized their movements are and whether or not we can exploit it the way we want to.”
Dylan nodded his agreement, “They are licking their wounds right now. As long as we appear to sit quietly they will build their forces back before they come knocking on our door again. They saw what worked that time and what didn’t. They will improve. If they had used a few more of those Guards, or come at two sections of wall at once, we wouldn’t be here now. I wouldn’t imagine they can put those Guards out very fast or we would have had more and probably seen them earlier.”
“Exactly.” Cap-Cap stood and walked into the kitchen to fill his coffee, “So all the more reason to just sit, watch, and report.” He held up the pot to see if anyone in the room wanted refills. Niccole nodded and held her cup up.
“Thanks Cap-Cap.” She stood up as Dylan stood and began to put on the camouflaged suit.
“What do you call these things again?”
“It’s a Ghillie suit. It’s a Scottish name believe it or not.” Whitey said as he made some adjustments and zipped the suit up. He made a complete circle around Dylan as he checked to see how tight or loose various parts of the complex gear fit him, “Size seems pretty close. Be nice to get custom fitted but that ain’t going to happen. Either way it looks good. Once we get out in the field I can give you pointers on how to sit or lay and still be comfortable and not stand out too much. Assuming someone doesn’t stick you out in the middle of an open field of snow dressed like a damn desert bush,” he threw a look of mock anger in the direction of Cap-Cap and flopped down on the couch.
“Don’t get mad at me! I warned you three times,” Cap-Cap held up three fingers to drive his point home, “Three times! I told you if you let another one go in the cab of that truck I was going to stick your ass out in the snow.” He turned to look at the smiling faces watching, “And I stuck Grossman out there because he laughed so hard he nearly drove us into a damn tree.”
Whitey blushed and started to protest then thought better of it and closed his mouth before saying anything.
“That’s what I thought,” Cap-Cap threw a genuine smile at Whitey then walked around Dylan and made sure nothing was too tight or too loose, “When are you two planning on headin
g out?”
“Right after breakfast. We don’t know what their patrol schedule is like. We know they have them, just not when or where or how tied to a regular schedule they are.”
“Sounds good.”
Niccole stood and hugged Dylan with her uninjured arm, “Please be careful Cowboy.”
“With Whitey’s help, I won’t be careful, I’ll be invisible.”
--3--
They set out from the back gate on foot and fully geared up. Dylan admittedly felt ridiculous in the gear and almost completely naked without his rifle. He felt more like he was heading out to trick-or-treat than scouting out the Corrupted. Both Whitey and Cap-Cap agreed that not having the rifles would keep them from shooting first and asking questions later. This trip was all about stealth. Dylan still had his Colt in a borrowed shoulder rig but it was tucked inside the suit and it would take several minutes to get it out, assuming he could even do that alone. They moved at a normal pace until they were about a half mile from Paradise Falls then fell into the slow hunched walk that Whitey had explained to him. They favored trees and thickets as their path became a meandering walk through the woods. When there was no brush available they would walk just below the ridge line on the opposite side from Sumter. They avoided all trails regardless of whether the local animals had made it or not.
