Winter Apocalypse: Zombie Crusade V

by J. W. Vohs

  Andi turned around to check on the surviving soldiers she’d fought shoulder-to-shoulder with since the explosion had rocked the settlement. Their numbers were few, and those remaining barely had the strength to continue resisting. What had been a platoon of crack western infantry had been reduced to less than a full squad. The remaining warriors were making their final stand at the base of a massive mound of corpses piled at the very edge of the shattered wall. A continuous wave of hunters were still scrambling over the dead, slipping and falling in the gore and snow as they mindlessly pushed forward with their suicidal attack. In spite of the appalling losses they had suffered fighting in a blizzard against such lethal defenders, the tide of battle was inexorably turning in the flesh-eaters’ favor.

  The hunters were quickly gaining the upper-hand in the slugfest, the more sure-footed among them now able to leap upon the remaining human warriors from well above head-height. The only reason a breakthrough had yet to occur was that most of the creatures were sliding down the pile of bodies rather than ferociously launching themselves at additional prey. Some of the attackers had actually stopped to feed, but that didn’t do much to slow the wave of flesh-eaters crashing toward the settlement.

  Andi realized that the fight was lost. Now the biggest challenge for the stout warriors was to somehow disengage from the monsters without being swarmed, hauled to the snowy ground, and ripped to pieces by the hungry beasts. The experienced officer read her mind. “Just give the order!” he shouted with a hint of exasperation as he pulled his .22 pistol.

  “You still loaded?” Andi hoped to be pleasantly surprised. “Can we jump in there hard for ten or fifteen seconds and give these guys a head start?”

  “Hell yeah, three mags in my pouch and one in the gun; let’s kick some ass!”

  Andi had sheathed the short sword she’d nearly sliced her ally’s head off with, and picked up a halberd still lying next to the dead warrior who’d wielded it until his neck had been broken by a hunter that had leapt on him from the rubble pile an hour earlier. The unfortunate soldier was one of the few human corpses still visible; virtually all of the fallen had been pulled into the mob of flesh-eaters and hungrily devoured.

  Heder was an expert with a handgun, a skill honed in deadly combat around the Great Lakes over the past five months. He immediately shot two flesh-eaters trying to regain their feet after sliding down the corpse-mound before killing another about to leap on one of the exhausted westerners. He was shouting for the gore-crusted defenders to retreat but they didn’t know his voice.

  Andi had entered the line next to the trusty sergeant who’d informed her of the hole in the wall hours earlier. When she screamed at him with the command to run for the docks, he followed orders without hesitation. “First platoon!” he shouted at the top of his lungs. “First platoon retreat to the docks. Now!”

  All but one of the surviving soldiers turned to run as commanded. They seemed to sense that Andi and the stranger could cover them, indeed, they’d already gained a bit of separation from the enemy that gave them a chance to escape. The fighter who didn’t retreat obviously was suffering from some sort of wound to his leg or foot. Even during the confusion of combat, Andi saw that he was badly limping about even as he still fought with the desperate ferocity of a cornered leopard.

  The rest of the warriors from Utah headed toward the docks as quickly as they could, snow drifts and bone-deep weariness limiting them to a slow trot away from the bridge where the last three humans stood defiantly amid the rubble and corpses. But they were three deadly humans. Andi caught a small hunter in mid-jump by thrusting the spear-tip of her halberd through the creature’s mouth as it roared in anticipation of sinking its teeth into flesh. Then she expertly flipped the dying beast to the left before bringing the butt-end of the weapon, covered with a sharpened steel-point, smashing down into the skull of yet another hunter that had slipped and fallen from the mound.

  Heder was putting nearly half of his bullets into the brains of flesh-eaters, no simple task when most of the monsters were either sliding or jumping in his direction. As he replaced another empty magazine, he realized with a jolt of surprise that he only had one more remaining in his pouch. Coming from upstate New York, then living on Middle Bass Island for past the few months, he really hadn’t had the time, or sparring partners, to work on his medieval weapons training. He needed to find a way to get Andi out of there in the next minute or so, while he still had the rounds to create some sort of gap they could use for a head start as they ran from the monsters. Fortunately for him, the injured soldier now fighting next to him had already decided he wasn’t ever leaving this place, at least not alive, and he planned to go out in a blaze of glory.

  “Give me your gun!” the western fighter shouted at the young lieutenant.

  “What?” Heder yelled back incredulously.

  “I’ll give you and Andi cover; get her the heck out of here before we’re out of ammo.”

  Heder didn’t hesitate to accept the brave warrior’s offer to sacrifice himself for their sakes, shoving the pistol and the last full magazine into the Utah soldier’s bloody gloves before grabbing Andi and pulling her from the wall.

  “What about him?” Andi pointed even as she allowed herself to be dragged through the snow.

  “His idea,” Heder shouted back without breaking stride. “He knew he was a goner and wanted to cover our escape.”

  Andi followed Lieutenant Heder without thinking. After a minute or so of stumbling through the growing drifts, she realized that they were heading in the wrong direction. She planted her feet in the heavy snow, forcing him to come to a complete stop.

  “The boats are on the east side,” she panted, “where the floodlights are still shining. We’re running west.”

  “I know,” he replied, equally out of breath. “I’ve got a canoe over here, and we’re safer going this way. The hunters that just broke through are probably chasing the soldiers.”

  As if to reinforce the lieutenant’s claim, Andi suddenly heard a chorus of triumphant howls from behind. “Yeah, they’re through the wall now. Lead on!”

  A few minutes later they were approaching the river bank when the pair were suddenly bathed in a blinding spotlight from above. Hovering in the blizzard, shrieking over their heads, was an enemy Blackhawk. A voice from a loudspeaker commanded them to freeze in place. Andi immediately tried to run, but Heder held tightly to her hand as he loudly ordered, “Stand still. There’s no way out of here.”

  “No way,” she yelled in reply, continuing to fight to free herself from the officer’s grip. Then she saw Heder’s gloved fist coming straight at her visor. The blow wasn’t enough to really hurt her, especially through the helmet, but precious seconds were lost as she struggled to regain her footing. By the time she steadied herself, the chopper was landing, and the young lieutenant grabbed her from behind and held her in a vice-like embrace. Three fully armed soldiers in U.S. Army uniforms immediately jumped from the open side-door and ran at the battered fighters.

  Andi froze, hoping that Heder would raise a hand in surrender, giving her an opportunity to run. A bullet in the back was better than falling into Barnes’ hands. There was no way to know what Barnes’ soldiers would do with her before they discovered that she was Jack Smith’s fiancé, but once USAMRIID forces realized who she was, there was no doubt she’d be used as a tool to sadistically torment the man she loved. The mad general would make some ridiculous demands for her ransom, and even if they were met, she knew she’d never live to see Jack again.

  Her racing thoughts were suddenly interrupted as one of the soldiers shouted, “Good work, Heder. Keep that damn sat-phone on you and catch up with the rest of the group. Major Jackson will send new orders as soon as he processes developments on the ground. You sure this is Smith’s woman?”

  Andi looked toward the young lieutenant in stunned astonishment. As the reality of what had just happened sunk in, Andi felt a cold rage building inside. Right before the soldie
rs shoved her into the Blackhawk, she shouted over the blizzard. “You’re a dead man, Heder. Jack and his people are smart; they’ll figure this out, and one of them will kill you. I have two daughters you son-of-a-bitch!” The betrayer didn’t look up, didn’t move a muscle as Andi yelled one last curse before the door of the chopper slammed shut. “Burn in hell you bastard!”

  Deb was as tired and angry as she’d ever been in her life. The people who’d put together the evacuation plan, her husband included, had somehow missed several important factors regarding the escape route. Nobody, for example, had considered the chance that the people of Fort Wayne might have to leave in the middle of the night, a blizzard raging around them as they struggled to overcome the darkness and the river. The second problem was even worse; none of the planners had apparently considered the possibility, or affect, of shallow water on overloaded watercraft. The early winter had locked up a lot of water in the frozen countryside that made up the Maumee’s drainage basin. The river itself was still flowing, with ice only covering the pools and backwater areas, but the depth and current were proving to be extremely problematic for the refugees.

  What really angered Deb was that she, or someone else in the settlement, should have foreseen this problem when the evacuation order was issued. They could have kept the canoes and boats anchored out in the middle of the deeper water that stretched several miles above the dam. The refugees would have been uncomfortable bobbing in the waves while enduring a snowstorm all night, but they wouldn’t have been exposed to the dangers they were now facing as they tried to navigate the pitch-black Maumee as it flowed eastward toward Ohio.

  Deb was concerned that the pilots of the Blackhawks that had led thousands of hunters to attack the settlement’s wall were just biding their time, waiting for the flotilla to reach a point along the river where the flesh eaters would be willing and able to wade into the shallows and resume their attack upon the humans. She hoped the aviators didn’t want to risk losing any of the choppers to wind or ice now that the enemy had overrun the settlement, but she still heard spinning rotors echoing through the storm. When she reached the dam, she found dozens of craft floating in the relatively deep pool just below the wall, following orders to wait for all of the boats to clear the structure before continuing downstream.

  Carter had always stressed the importance of people sticking together in dangerous situations. Never divide yer strength unless ya got no other options, Deb heard her husband’s words clearly in her mind. There ain’t no lone wolves out there, just lone sheep; them hunters’ll get around ya and drag ya down if nobody’s watchin’ yer back.

  Already this night had seen the separation of the Castle and Fort Wayne’s inhabitants, and even now, Andi, Lieutenant Heder, and the remaining soldiers defending the bridge were somewhere behind the main body of refugees. Deb was determined to keep everyone currently in her group together until they reached safety. The boats and canoes waited below the dam until all other watercraft were lowered over the wall, but it was a time-consuming process. During the hour it took to complete the procedure, several canoes from Fort Wayne caught up with the fleeing civilians. Six soldiers, including the heroic sergeant who’d led the stout defense of the breach, were huddled in two boats that emerged from the slowing storm.

  As the western soldiers climbed stiffly from their canoes, Deb realized that Andi and Lieutenant Heder weren’t with them. She tried not to panic as she rushed toward the new arrivals. “Where’s Andi? And the young lieutenant from Middle Bass?”

  The sergeant shook his head, “They covered us, and they headed west after we took off for the docks. They were moving just fine, so I don’t think either of them were wounded. We figured they had an alternate way out.”

  Deb felt like she’d been punched in the gut. She couldn’t bear the thought of leaving Andi and Heder behind, but hundreds of others were waiting for her orders as they huddled on the frigid water in the middle of a winter storm. She had just turned to motion the hoist operator to begin lowering the remaining boats when somebody shouted, “Here comes another one!”

  Deb strained her eyes against the wind and stinging snow, able to see the silhouette of a canoe approaching the dam but nothing to indicate who was in the watercraft. Finally, after several agonizing minutes, she could see that only one person was in the boat; now she felt guilty as she found herself hoping that the survivor was Andi. Then a male voice called out across the water. “Lieutenant Heder here, hold your fire.”

  A minute later, the dam workers were pulling the exhausted soldier onto the wall. He looked about frantically, and when he saw Deb he lunged toward her. “Have any choppers landed here? Have you made contact with the enemy?”

  Deb didn’t have any patience for his nonsensical questions. “The choppers don’t land, and the infected don’t negotiate. Where’s Andi?”

  “A Blackhawk landed, and two soldiers jumped out and grabbed her. She’s been captured.”

  “What? That doesn’t make any sense; what are you talking about?” Deb couldn’t get a read on the young lieutenant; he seemed anxious, but not disoriented.

  Heder drew a deep breath. “For some reason she broke for the west when we retreated from the bridge. I followed her, figuring that we could find some type of boat along the riverbank if we could escape the hunters. Spy Run Creek forced us north until we came to Lawton Park, where we ran over that little footbridge. We were crossing what looked like an old softball field when a helicopter popped out of the storm right above us. They had a spotlight on us and everything. I screamed at her to run, and we headed toward the river. At least, I thought we did. She was right behind me, then the next thing I knew she wasn’t with me. When I looked back I saw that the chopper had landed and two soldiers were dragging her aboard.”

  Deb was speechless. She knew she should have a hundred questions for Heder, but she couldn’t think of anything to ask. The idea of Andi being kidnapped in the middle of a battle seemed ridiculous.

  Heder looked up with a haunted expression as he concluded, “This is my fault. I told you I’d bring Andi back, but when the helicopter showed up it was so surreal. Once they had her, they didn’t even try to find me, and they had to know there were two of us.”

  Something in her gut told Deb that she shouldn’t be too quick to trust Lieutenant Heder. Even though he was supposed to be Luke’s friend, she didn’t really know the young man at all. She tried not to sound suspicious of his story when she asked, “How did you make it back here?”

  “I found this canoe a few minutes later and paddled like hell to reach you guys. I’m so sorry.”

  Deb nodded. “We’ll talk more about it later. Right now we have to get moving. It’s time to get the hell out of here.”

  Heder slowly turned and climbed back into his canoe. “I’m sorry,” he repeated as the hoist lifted him over the wall.

  CHAPTER 10

  Father O’Brien opened his eyes as Roberto shouted, “Look at that!” He squinted in the direction of the young man’s outstretched finger, and his chest tightened. Scores of infected were tumbling off the ship onto the frozen ground below. Some of the flesh-eaters didn’t get up after the fall, but most did, and they were scattering in all directions in search of food.

  “Bruce, get us out further from the pier! Roberto, Brittany—get our weapons ready—”

  Brittany interrupted, “But they won’t be able to reach us on the water. Are you thinking we might need to worry about humans attacking us?”

  “Right now, we worry about everything!” O’Brien barked. He was glad to see the Canadians’ yacht already anchored about fifty meters out, and he asked the Lord to help Michael Carboni guide his friends to safety. The priest’s mind flashed back to his first experience battling the infected, only he hadn’t battled them at all. He’d let others do the fighting, reasoning that a portly man of God with no physical fighting skills could only be a hindrance to those who were holding their ground against the monsters. But they weren’t holding
their ground; they were being massacred. He lived now only thanks to the bravery of others, and O’Brien felt ill equipped to take charge of the current situation. He decided that fate had brought Jim Carboni’s nephew to this place, and that gave him hope that they would be able to find a manageable way out of their current mess.

  Several minutes later the yachts were tied together a safe distance from the shore, and the pier where the crews had greeted each other only hours before was now covered with at least a dozen infected. It wasn’t particularly challenging for Robbie and Michael to make their way on to O’Brien’s craft, and Carolyn was happy to stay behind as the acting captain of the hybrid yacht. O’Brien was concerned about her safety until he saw her expertly loading a 12 gauge shotgun before positioning herself in a lounge chair in full view of her friends.

  “I don’t suppose there’s a back door out of this place?” Robbie asked sarcastically.

  Brittany snorted. “There are plenty of ways out of here if you don’t mind trying to walk through packs of the infected.”

  Roberto changed the subject. “How much food you guys have on your yacht?” He looked from Michael to Robbie. Michael was studying the wreckage, alternating between the NVGs and the binoculars, apparently oblivious to the conversation.

  “Several days’ worth, maybe a week’s supply,” Robbie replied. “But we did bring a bunch of fishing gear.”

  “We have a little more food,” Father O’Brien interjected, “because we knew we’d be feeding Roberto.” He tried to smile, but it turned into a grimace. “Food may not be our biggest concern, though. I’ve been watching the weather all day, and I’ve got enough experience on these waters to feel a winter storm in the air.”

  Michael grunted and turned to the priest. “You also have more experience dealing with these creatures than we do. How long do you think they’ll hang around the area?”

  O’Brien sighed. “As long as they can see us they’ll be motivated to stay. And if they see us, they’ll start that incessant moaning that attracts any of them within hearing range. I suppose we could try staying out of sight for several days, but I wouldn’t expect the weather to cooperate with that plan . . .” His voice trailed off and he turned and stared toward the channel.