Eastern Front: Zombie Crusade IV (17 page)

A lump rose in Luke’s throat as he thought of Jerry
, and Gracie’s father, and Christy’s dad. He wasn’t about to argue against Jack’s logic.

Jack continued,
“So I learned to plan better, and work together with my fighters. Not because I was afraid of dying, but because I was terrified of not being around to help the people I cared about live through the flipping apocalypse. Even then I half expected John or somebody else to start giving orders, but everybody looked to me to lead them. There we were facing the destruction of the human race, and the only group of survivors I was aware of was expecting me to lead a resistance movement against an army of monsters.”

“
That makes sense to me,” Luke interjected. “I don’t think anyone else could have come close to what you’ve accomplished—part of that is because you were prepared and knew how to fight, but mostly I think it’s because you’re truly a great leader. You can’t escape the simple truth that people will always depend on you and follow you with all their hearts.”

Jack shook his head as he remembered the early days of the war. “I don’t know
what to tell you, Luke. People who get to know you, and especially those who see you fight, instinctively want to follow
you
.” He emphasized the last word for effect. “You can lead them, or you can be a soldier who can’t stop himself from killing every infected he sees, but you can’t do both. You’re a smart kid; I suggest that you think about the best ways to achieve your most important goals. I won’t force you into anything, but if I’m going to trust you with the lives of people under my leadership, you’ll have to be willing to change your approach to destroying the enemy.”

Luke was staring at the floor again
, but he nodded his understanding. “I promise, Jack, I am now, and always will be, on your team. I never want to let you down again.”

“All right,” Jack
relented, “go clean up and get some sleep . . . I think you’ll have the chance to fight soon enough.”

Just after full dark, shouts rang out through the camp as the guards on the bridge watched a raft floating toward them from the east. Jack was at their sides in less than a minute, and stood watching the craft approach with increasing apprehension when he realized it looked just like the boat his eastern patrol had left in the night before. As the raft grew closer he could finally make out two bodies huddled beneath the gunwales, apparently unable to do anything more than allow the current to carry them along. Jack shouted down to the pier and ordered the shore guards to take one of the powered watercraft they’d scavenged out to help.

Jack could hear the soldiers arguing with one of the men in the raft shortly after they reached it, and a moment later they pulled a lethargic soldier into their boat before attaching a tow line to the other
rubber craft. By now most of the troops stationed at the bridge were congregating down near the shoreline, eager to see what all of the commotion was about. Jack joined Chad Greenburg, who was pushing his way through the gathering crowd and bellowing for people to make way. Both commanders were anxious over what they had already seen of the patrol, and now they wanted to hear a report from the returning scouts.

As soon as the boat reached the
pier, gentle hands were lifting out an obviously injured soldier who’d been slumped listlessly against bottom of the craft. The wounded man’s face was covered with mud and gore, but one of the guards sent to retrieve the raft called out, “It’s Shafer!” before turning his attention to the man’s motionless partner.

Once
Shafer was on the bank, somebody tossed a blanket around his shoulders, but the clearly spent soldier made no move to pull it closer as he sat shivering with his back against a sycamore tree. He clearly had some broken bones, but no bite wounds. The injured soldier kept mumbling about Jenkins, and Chad turned to the troops who’d towed the patrol boat to shore and asked them about the man still lying in the raft.

“Bitten,” o
ne of them whispered.

Chad’s face sagge
d for a moment before he set his jaw and cooly asked, “Dead?”

The soldier who’d just spoken shook his head, “Not sure. He’s gotta be close though; there’s
a lot of blood pooled in the bottom of the boat, and he isn’t moving.”

“
Damn-it! Bring him up here, and keep your guns on him.”

The raft was quickly pulled to shore
, where Chad and Jack looked the doomed man over to see what condition he was in.

“He’s dead,” s
omebody observed from the crowd gathered about.

Nobody said anything for a long moment, months of experience leaving the jaded fighters as wary of their bitten comrade as they would have been if an angry cobra was lying in the boat. Suddenly, the soldier formerly known as Jenkins turned his head to stare at those around him.
He fixed his dilated, coal-black eyes on Jack, and moaned an odd, high-pitched wail as he began struggling to rise from the blood-slickened, rubber surface beneath him.

“Son-of-a-bitch!” Chad nearly shouted as he reached for his handgun.

Jack’s pistol was already in hand, his instincts warning of the danger as soon as he gazed upon the infected soldier. The first .22 round through the forehead dropped the poor creature, and two more fired into the back of the skull made sure it stayed down.

  The fighters at the scene had all witnessed this sort of situation before, but the absolute silence and bowed heads following the shooting proved that they still hated it. Chad finally broke the spell, “Wrap him up and find a place to bury him. I wanna say a few words before you fill the grave.”

There was no shortage of volunteers to help with providing for Jenkins’ final resting place, and as the crowd slowly cleared
, Jack and Chad turned their attention back to the slightly recovered Shafer. The medics had cleaned him up a bit and figured out that he was suffering from shock and two broken wrists. After feeding him a candy bar and two strong painkillers they moved aside so the two leaders could question him.

“Go easy,” o
ne of the medics warned.

Chad nodded as he took a knee next to the veteran soldier who’d been with him since the early days of the outbreak. He tenderly pushed a lock of grimy hair back from Shafer’s face and gently asked, “Can you tell us what happened
, son, or you need some more time?”

Shafer gulped and slightly shook his head before croaking, “No time
, Sarge, the hunters are close.”

Chad gave Jack a sharp look
just as his radio crackled to life, “Greenburg here,” he bellowed into the walkie-talkie.

The message was heard by e
veryone within six feet of Chad. A shaky voice reported, “The outposts were overrun about five minutes ago. Two guards in the south are holed up in a crawl-space, and the north-team is heading our way on the river. We spotted the east team coming in by raft.”

Jack looked at his watch and muttered,
“Hell, they’re only three miles out. We need anyone who can safely get back here to come in immediately.” He turned to Chad, “Tell them to sound the alert.”

Chad re
layed the order, and seconds later an air-horn shrieked over the camp, warning everyone who wasn’t already up and about to get to the bridge immediately. He then turned his attention to his injured soldier. “We’re ready for ‘em, kid; now why don’t you start from the beginning. We need to know what we’re up against.”

With the painkillers obviously taking effect
, Shafer began to calmly recount what had happened to the patrol. “Our first stop was near West Point just after dawn. We slipped through a small woods on the outskirts of town with no problems, and we decided to climb up on the roof of an elementary school to get a better view of the area. No sooner’n we got up there a Blackhawk flew by a few miles to the south; that’s when we saw the hunters movin’ along Highway 31, thousands and thousands of ‘em. Hell, an ocean of ‘em. A lot more’n we saw in Buffalo, I’ll promise you that.

“The leading edge of ‘em was right under the cho
pper, and more birds were flyin’ circles to the east. ‘Bout that time we realized there were thousands more of ‘em comin’ through the town right toward us. They were everywhere. There was a big hill just south of the highway, and the hunters seemed to fill every square inch of ground between that hill and the river. I’m pretty sure the horde was flowing to the south of that hill, too, but of course we couldn’t see ‘em over there.

“Right about then
Jenkins said we needed to get the hell outta there, but those bastards saw us while we were climbin’ down from the roof. He shouted for us to head into the nearest buildin’, and once we were in there he explained that we were gonna have to fight our way back to the river before that part of town was completely overrun. He said the key to street fightin’ was to stay outta the streets.”

Chad grimly nodded his approval, “He was with the Marines in Fallujah.”

“Well,” Shafer went on, “He saved my life today. Jolsen and Betts had ARs, and me and Jenkins had shotguns. Those two would draw the hunters to one side of the buildin’ while we smashed our way into the next, used double-ought to clear the street ahead of us. Just kept jumpin’ from buildin’ to buildin’ that way. Jolsen got mobbed pullin’ rear guard on one of the jumps, and Betts got bit a few minutes later. We were in the last house before a long stretch back to the raft, and Betts said he just couldn’t go on. We told him we were gonna die right there with him, but he just wasn’t havin’ none of that . . . kept sayin’ that somebody had to make it back to warn y’all.

“Jenkins said he was right, and warned him to keep at least one r
ound in his .45 for himself . . .”

In spite of all he’d been through, Sha
fer choked up until Chad patted him on the shoulder and promised, “You boys did the right thing.” He nodded towards Maddy. “This young lady is going to finish getting all the details of your report, then she’s going to get you to a secure evacuation vehicle.”

Maddy started to speak, but Chad cut her off, “If you learn anything that could be a game changer for us, you let me know. I’m trusting you
to handle this.”

She looked around for confirmation from Jack, but he was already gone. “I won’t let you down, sir,” she said as she grabbed Shafer under his shoulders. “Can you walk?”

Shafer shook his head. “I won’t be running any races, but my legs aren’t the problem.”

Maddy steadied him on his feet. “Can you walk and talk at the same time?”

“Just don’t ask me to chew gum and I think I can manage it,” he cracked.

Maddy smiled, “You’re not much of a comedian, so you better just stick to your story.” She led Shafer toward the
closest group of armored vehicles, and he continued with his report.

“Well, me and Jenkins took off through the trees, but you know how fast those sons-of-bitches are nowadays. I fell about a hundred feet from the river and felt both arms break. Jenkins pulled me up and pushed me toward the raft, and I was so scared I didn’t even look back. I could hear him shootin’ and screamin’, even over the howls of all them hunters. Somehow I was able to push the raft into the river with my knees, then I fell into it and looked back in time to see Jenkins come splashin’ in just ahead of hundreds of those monsters.

“Somehow I was able to grab him with my left hand, the right one ain’t workin’ at all, and pulled him in just before they got him. He was bit bad, but he kept sayin’ that he got ‘em. I used my teeth and left hand to bandage him up as best I could, then made him swallow about five Vicodin. He was hurtin’ to high heaven, but kept talkin’ for hours while we floated back here. He wanted me to shoot him, but I just couldn’t do it, so he made me promise to get here ahead of the hunters. That, and to tell his wife that he died instantly.”

Shafer suddenly
stopped and broke out into deep, racking sobs. Maddy wrapped her arms around him and gently rocked back and forth. She stroked his hair and whispered, “I can’t do anything to bring back your friend, and I can’t do anything to ease your pain, but I can promise you that we’re gonna kill thousands of the infected today, and for every single one I see fall, I’m gonna think, ‘That one’s for Jenkins.’ It’ll never be enough, but it’s a start.”

Shafer pulled away and straightened to his full height. He gazed down at Maddy with a glint of fire in his eyes. “You’re right, it’s a start.”
As they started to slowly walk on, he asked, “How old are you anyway? You seem pretty tough for a girl; are you gonna be doing any of that killing today?”

Maddy grinned. “
Don’t you know you should never ask a woman her age? But you can bet that I’ll be killing my fair share of those monsters today. They don’t call me Maddy the Annihilator for nothing.”

CHAPTER 11

Within five minutes
of the initial blast of the siren, all the fighters assigned to the bridge were present and accounted for. As soon as the tumult following the alert had settled down, every soldier strained to pick up the sound of helicopter rotors in the distance. The night was winter-cold with temperatures hovering near twenty degrees, but there was no wind and the moonless sky was crystal-clear. The minutes seemed to audibly tick by with agonizing slowness as everyone stood anxiously waiting in the dark, their breath floating around their heads in smoky wreaths. Finally, long after chills had set most of the troops to shivering, running lights appeared in the eastern sky. Soon the outlines of Blackhawks took shape in three different places in the distance.