Eastern Front: Zombie Crusade IV (14 page)

“Sure
thing,” Luke agreed. “It looks like the wave is thinning. Keep an eye on these sorry hunters and let me know when they’ve all passed through. I’m going to take some notes about what we’ve seen so far.”

After fifteen mi
nutes passed with no sign of further packs of infected following the last group of limping, rail-thin creatures they’d watched stumble off to the east in pursuit of the main body of hunters, Luke was ready to report their observations and resume their trek toward Elizabethtown. He was confident that if Jack had been inclined to call them back after first spotting the Blackhawks, thousands of infected moving to the east would convince him that they needed to know more about Barnes’ movements. Maddy had decided to set up her spotting scope and take a final, careful look in every direction while the radio call was being made. Something on the southern horizon seemed to be moving, so she whispered for Zach to take a look as his eyes had proven to be a bit sharper than hers in the past.

After a long minute he said, “The entir
e landscape seems to be moving . . . wait—holy crap!”

“What?” Mad
dy urged. “What is it?”

Zach kept his eye to the scope as he slowly explained, “That’s the biggest herd of cattle I’ve ever seen; I never even knew this many cattle existed.”

Maddy pushed him away from the scope and took another look. “Wow! Unbelievable.”

Luke finally joined them as Zach offered, “Take a look, amigo. I bet you’ve never seen anything like that before.”

Maddy surrendered the scope and Luke took his time scanning the horizon. After several minutes of silent observation he wholeheartedly agreed, “I didn’t grow up out in the country like you two did, but I can’t believe what I’m seeing.”

He moved away from the scope and Zach took another look.
He watched the cattle approach for about thirty seconds before stating, “Now I think that those choppers were just clearing the route for this herd: the mother of all herds!”

Maddy was scanning the scene once again, eventually mu
ttering, “Can you imagine what it would be like if they stampeded?”

Luke and Zach just looked at each other in astonishment before they both started chuckling.

Maddy turned away from the scope to stare at the two. “What’s so funny?”

Zach impulsively hugged her and explained, “A stampede, babe. We need a stampede.”

As he pulled away she smiled mischievously, “You just called me ‘babe.’ You have ten seconds to take it back. You know I don’t respond well to cutesie-pie terms of endearment.”

  
Zach grinned, “Sorry, my killing-machine, girl-of-steel. Wait, is that sexist? Should I say ‘person-of-steel’ instead?”

Maddie punched him in the arm, “I’ll settle for ‘your highness’ or maybe ‘annihilator’ . . .”

“Maddie the Annihilator—sounds like a professional wrestler.”

Luke interrupted
, “Hey, you two can play battle of the nicknames once we get home. Right now we need to figure out how to start a stampede.”

“Everything I know about stampeding cattle I learned from old westerns on television,” Maddie offered. “I’m not sure how helpful that may be.”

Zach shook his head. “It’s not rocket science. Loud noises, fire, anything that spooks enough of ‘em to get ‘em running.”

“Okay,” Luke turned back to the scope and took another long look at the approaching herd. “Well, looks like Barnes is moving his food supply along a different route than his hunters. If hi
s army was behind the herd, the group of infected that passed us earlier just would have stayed put and joined the main group when they came through here.”

“So we don’t have to go all the way to Elizabethtown
after all?” Maddy asked.

“Nope, I’m pretty sure Jack is gonna consider the info we’ve gathered and come to the conclusion that Barnes is taking the hunter-army along I-65. That highway le
ads to the Louisville bridges. He’s keeping the cattle out of the city and away from the flesh-eaters by sending them toward the small-town river-crossings.”

“But we are gonna try to mess with these cattle
, right?” Zach inquired.

Luke smiled
with satisfaction and promised, “Oh yeah.” 

Chad Greenburg was more than a little nervous at the thought of relying on a few inexperienced teenagers to rel
ay important intel regarding the location and movements of Barnes and his forces. He found Jack mixing up a cup of instant coffee just outside of his tent. “Mind if I join you, Professor Smith?” he asked as he sat down on a tattered folding chair.

“Be my guest, Sarge. Can I offer you some of our best house blend?” He held out his cup. “It almost tastes like coffee.”

Greenburg pulled out a flask, and tipped it toward Jack. “I prefer my bitter, brown beverages to have more of a kick,” he said.

Jack raised his cup in salute, “To each his own. Cheers.” He grimaced slightly as sipped the drink. “What’s on your mind?”

“You know I trust your judgment, and I know that Luke is about as bad ass as they come, though you wouldn’t know it to look at him. Still, I don’t know why he’s off with a couple of other teenagers instead of a few of my experienced soldiers.”

“It’s nothing against your men,” Jack explained. “Your guys are instrumental as the re
lay team. Luke chose the people he feels the most comfortable with, and I trust that he knows what he’s doing. I trust Maddy and Zach too. It would be different if this were anything more than a scouting trip; they’re supposed to avoid the enemy, not engage with anything or anyone.”

“That’s the plan,” Greenburg pointed out, “
but how often do things go according to plan?”

Jack sighed. “I know what you mean, but all those kids can handle themselves.  They may not be professionally trained soldiers, but
there’s a lot to be said for on-the-job-training where you get eaten alive if you fail. Survival of the fittest at its most brutal.”

Greenburg frowned, “You gotta point there.
”

“I think we have to realize that anybody who has lived through this pandemic has faced unspeakable horrors and has somehow made it through. Maddy, Zach, and Luke may have started out as normal teenagers, if there ever was such a thing, but they’ve become seasoned survivors.”

After taking a long draw from his flask, Greenburg replied, “Honestly, I don’t know how they do it.”

“You ever read
Night
by Elie Weisel?”

The Sargent
shook his head.

“We had to read it in high school,” Jack explained. “He was a teenager when he ended up in Nazi concentration camps with his father. He witnessed, and eventually wrote about, some of the most horrible atrocities people have ever committed against one another. I mean, he suffered in almost every way imaginable, physically, with hunger and cold and illne
ss, but the psychological assault he survived was literally unimaginable. Near the end he had to watch his dad die too. Somehow he lived through all of that, and went on to live an incredible life. I mean, he was horribly scarred, mentally, but he pushed on and worked hard to try to make sure such things never happened again.”

Greenburg stared at the ground, “All of these kids are gonna be screwed up, even if they eventually win this war.”

“Yeah, they are,” Jack agreed, “but it’s better than dying. Plus, they have a chance to make a new world for their kids and grandkids, who hopefully won’t have to witness the same horrors. And the main point I was trying to make is that kids are amazingly resilient; most of them will be able to force these horrible experiences into the back rooms of their minds and stay busy with life.”

“I hope so, but I doubt we’re gonna completely eradicate this virus in our lifetimes. This fight’s gonna go on for decades.”

“You’re probably right, but we have to try. There’s a certain nobility in knowing that whatever damage you’ve suffered, it was for a just cause. These kids are all traumatized, but as they get older they can at least know that their wounds came from fighting a war against an enemy trying to exterminate them.”

“Damn right,” Greenburg spat. “Not like the men we lost fighting the so-called war on terror. Hard to convince ourselves that our nightmares are due to fighting for a just cause.”

“They are,” Jack argued. “I fought for you, and Carter, and the rest of our guys. And Sarge, you’ll never convince me that the world didn’t become a slightly better place every time we killed a Taliban or Al Quada fighter.”

  “I won’t try to convince you of that, Jack, and I hope every
one of them is zombie-poop by now. I’m just saying that I don’t think I ever fought an absolutely necessary war until this virus hit. This time it’s fight or die; absolutely no other options.”

Jack slowly nodded, “And these kids know that very well. Hopefully, knowing they had no real choice will help them to live easier with their experiences down the road.”

After a long silence Greenburg shared a wry smile. “Well, even taking their future PTSD into consideration, these youngsters are the reason we’re gonna win this war.”

The trip to Noble County from Fort Wayne was remarkably uneventful considering the current state
of affairs: a short boat trip to waiting vehicles, then an almost scenic country drive to the first checkpoint on Highway 9. At the checkpoint, they changed vehicles and were chauffeured to the horse ranch where Christy’s mother was anxiously awaiting a visit from her daughter.

Trudy and th
e Alberts’ children were watching for their visitors outside, on the front porch, appropriately bundled up for the unseasonably chilly morning. Frost still covered the ground, and steam billowed from the nostrils of the huge Belgian horses confined in the small lot in front of the barn. Christy flew out of the SUV and ran straight into her mother’s arms, sobbing like a little girl. She hadn’t anticipated being so overcome with emotion, and she tried to blame her current condition.

“It’s just the hormones,” Christy blubbered as she s
tepped back and wiped her eyes.

“Well, then, what’s my excuse?” Trudy asked through tears of her own. “I can pretty much guarantee that I’m not having a baby any time soon.”

“We made you all breakfast,” ten-year-old Jenny Alberts said as she grabbed Sal’s hand and started pulling him toward the door. “Why didn’t you bring Chewy?”

Vicki
e had come along so she could spend some time with Doc Redders in his lab. The doctor had sent word that he’d discovered something unusual and wanted Vickie to have a look, so she’d arranged a ride from the ranch to The Castle later in the morning. Dr. Martinez was painfully aware that Jenny and Addison had no idea that Blake and Lori weren’t back in Fort Wayne, but rather were risking their lives on a dangerous mission along the Ohio River. She forced a smile and asked playfully, “Why does Sal rate such an enthusiastic welcome, and not me? I actually wanted to bring Chewy but Josh and Manny wouldn’t have it. They said to tell you that they don’t want you brainwashing their dog.”

Addison, also ten but small for her age, threw herself in
to Vickie’s arms and squeezed her tightly. “You know we love you, even if your sons keep trying to steal our dog.” Vickie squeezed back, remembering how Addison had been rescued from the creature who had formerly been her father. The child had lost everything, survived a harrowing cross-country journey through hunter infested territory, and yet somehow still appeared to be just a normal little girl.

Trudy laughed, “You know, we’ve got quite a few dog
s around here now, but none of them can replace Chewy for these girls.”

Once inside,
the travelers were impressed with the generous breakfast spread out before them. They feasted on scrambled eggs, corn bread, bacon, and hot apple cider. As they ate, Christy brought up the subject she was most interested in at the moment.

“Mom, do you know when Daddy
talked to cousin Michael on that island in Canada? Do you know what was said? How far away is it?”

“One question at a time please. But why are you so interested in Michael?” Trudy wondered. “You’ve only seen him a few times in your life.
Have you heard from him?”  

Christy stopped eating and sat
back in her chair. “No, it’s just that Father O’Brien has been in contact with a group of survivors on an island on Lake Huron. It got me thinking about Manitoulin Island, and I remembered that Dad said he’d been in contact with Michael. If I remember correctly, the only way to get there from the mainland is a swing bridge, so that island could just swing the bridge and be cut off from everything.”

Sal inte
rrupted, “Not really. Don’t forget about boats.”

Christy rolled her eyes, “Of course, but I haven’t heard of the infected hopping in boats to sail across the water
.  Obviously, infected people could have brought the disease to the island, but what if the people there knew what to look for early on? What if they knew how to fight it?” She looked at Trudy. “Do you know what Dad told Michael, or what Michael said was happening up there?”