Eastern Front: Zombie Crusade IV (23 page)

“Well, as a matter a fact, we have,” Carter replied, barely able to contain his excitement. “Are ya sayin’ that w
e can set up a route from Vicksburg to Utah?”

“Oh, I’m sure all right; worked on the railroad for over thirty years after ‘Nam
’.”

David let out a slow whistle, “We need to get our butts down there ASAP; sounds like Vicksburg could be one of the most important crossings on the Mississippi.”

“Well,” the mayor offered, “Memphis is really where the rail lines and highways converge, but this Barnes character would have to be crazy to try to go through there. The city burned, gas lines blew, whole place flooded three months ago . . . nobody’s using Memphis again for a long, long time. Hell, it’ll probably end up as one those ruins future civilizations wonder about.”

“Yer makin’ a mighty big assumpt
ion there, sir,” Carter pointed out. “We gotta win this war or there won’t be any future civilizations.”

“Rabies, sort of an obvious choice,” Vickie observed. “It even explains the creatures
’ hydrophobia, but this isn’t really rabies anymore. It’s been altered in some undecipherable ways.”

“Let’s hope they’re not undecipherable,”  Doc Redders said as he stretched his neck from side to side. “Take a look at this magnosensitive protein.”

“Isn’t that what some animals, like bats and bees, use to navigate using the electromagnetic spectrum?”

Redders nodded. “Not just bats and bees either: sea turtles, stingrays, some fish, and even some types of bacteria—“

Vickie interrupted, “What are you doing with this?” She held up a small container labeled
Sample A
.

“It’s a human DNA sample,” Redders began to explain.

“I know what it is,” Vickie said quickly, “I asked what you were doing with it.”

Redders turned the tables on Vickie, “I know it’s a sample you were running tests on—whose is it?”

“That’s rather personal,” she demurred. “I should have destroyed it when I was done with it.”

“You left a couple samples in the cooler,” Redders said as he unexpectedly snatched the sample from Vickie’s hand. “And we’re not destroying anything.”

Vickie was incredulous, “You just grabbed that right out of my hand!”

“I . . . I’m sorry if I was rude,” he stammered, “but you don’t understand.”

Vickie sat back on the lab stool and folded her arms across her chest. “You are acting really weird, Doc. Weird even for you. You need to tell me what’s going on.”

Redders sighed. “I have a few tissue samples from various creatures, and they all exhibit an unusual phenomenon. The samples I have come from different pl
aces; there should be no genetic link between the humans they once were and the human part of the mutants they became. But there is.”

“There is what? You’re not making any sense. When is the last time you had a good night’s sleep?” Vickie was beginning to think that Redders was in need of some time away from hi
s lab. He was definitely spending too much time in isolation, with only the former sheriff to keep him company.

“I know it sounds crazy, impossible even, but there is a genetic link between the person in your Sample A and every one of the infected I’ve been able to
test.”

CHAPTER 14

              The city of Cairo had a fleet of hundreds of watercraft available, including boats with huge motors and experienced pilots who claimed they could make the run to Vicksburg in twenty hours or less. Before leaving, Carter and David tried to use the best local radio to reach Jack, with no luck whatsoever. They were able to contact Fort Wayne, where they spoke briefly with Andi and asked her to relay the latest developments to Jack if and when she got in touch with him. Of course, the entire message was encoded with a series of numbers so she wouldn’t know what was going on until the decoding occurred. She was happy that she could tell Deb and Christy that their husbands were safe, but she sounded anxious as she talked over the radio.

             
“Actually, Carter, I’m damn worried about Jack and the rest of our people down there,” she confessed. “Last transmission we received this morning said that they were coming under attack by a huge force they presumed was Barnes. We haven’t heard anything since then.”

             
“Don’t ya worry about Jack,” Carter tried to assure her. “They eventually had to blow that bridge and run if the main hunter-army showed up. Can’t use that big radio till they can find a place to set it up, and I ‘spect they’re on the move right now.”

             
“All right,” Andi tried to sound convinced. “You guys be careful out there, and let us know what’s up as soon as possible.”

             
“Will do, Andi. Don’t worry so much. Carter out.”

             
The team left Cairo at seven that evening as the last rays of the setting sun were slipping from the western sky. The pilot had insisted that everyone store their armor and weapons in floating, water-proof bags and wear high quality safety vests. When asked why they needed to take such precautions, the river-runner grinned and explained, “High-speed run to Vicksburg in the dark . . .”

             
Enjoying the look Carter and the others shared with one another the pilot added, “This strange weather has the water colder’n I’ve ever seen it, so y’all are better off safe than sorry while we’re on this river. Of course, if we go down at night out there in the middle of the channel, I doubt any of us could reach the bank without freezin’ to death first.”

             
Gabe shared a wry smile with the pilot before turning to the rest of the team. “We’ll be fine, but he is right about the vests. The running lights should be able to pick out any dangerous obstacles before we hull the boat, but you never can be a hundred percent sure on a river.”

             
Bobby grumbled something about the difference between SEALS and Rangers, but took solace in the fact that there were several bunks on the craft as he hopped into one and scrunched up another life-vest into a pillow. He was asleep before they reached top speed.

             
Gabe seemed content to stick close to the pilot as they headed south, so Carter and David found a secluded spot just outside the cabin and talked over the next step in their mission.

             
“Vicksburg’s pretty far south,” David observed.

             
“Yeah, it is, but there really ain’t many bridges over the Lower Mississippi. Take out Memphis and our options are purty slim. Jack wants us to find some place we can make a stand on the east bank, sounds like Vicksburg has some advantages.”

             
David frowned, “I just can’t imagine Barnes travelling so far from Louisville, especially with an early winter coming on.”

             
“Ordinarily, you’d prolly be right ‘bout that, but Barnes wants yer brother real bad. S’pose he wouldn’t mind nabbin’ me too. But ya know, if he wants to hole up somewhere for the winter and give us time to build up our forces . . .” his voice trailed off.

             
“True,” David agreed. “and Jack wouldn’t wait.”

             
Carter nodded, “No good commander would, but I can’t say Barnes is a good commander. What I can say is we all know that Barnes ain’t the sittin’ around type. I was just dreamin’ fer a minute.”

             
“Too damn bad,” David conceded. “So how do we know that the people of Vicksburg are going to believe us or want our help?”

             
“Hey, they already got run outta one home by hunters and choppers; all we gotta do is explain who ordered the attack and offer an alliance fer the next time Barnes shows up at the gate.” Carter flashed a smile, “Plus we got the folks from Cairo vouchin’ fer us.”

             
“I guess you’re right, but I’ll let you do the talking down there. I strongly suspect that they’ll be more inclined to cooperate with a southerner than a Yankee lawyer from Cleveland.”

             
“Ya know I am really from Kentucky, right?” Carter declared. “There’s real hillbillies where we’re headed. But yeah, they’ll talk more like me than the Smith family. In fact, ya just keep quiet unless I ask ya to speak up.”

             
I’m a Yankee, Carter, not an idiot.”

             
Carter couldn’t help but laugh. “Some places down here, well, they don’t see much of a difference. Can’t say I blame ‘em!”

             
The trip downriver was uneventful but offered plenty of interesting scenes. As with the Ohio, a good number of survivors had used the water of the Mississippi to protect themselves from the infected. There were even people apparently living on houseboats, all of them heading south as the temperatures continued to plummet up north. The pilot never stopped, only slowing and yielding the wheel to Gabe when he had to piss over the gunwales. The experienced river-man drank coffee by the pot, and said that he’d eat and sleep after delivering his cargo to Vicksburg.

             
They made excellent time in the cold daylight, despite passing through a few snow-squalls that the pilot could only shake his head in wonder at. He finally asked, “What’s the date, anyway?”

             
“I believe it’s October 14th,” Gabe answered.

             
“Damn, should be sixty or seventy down here right now.”

             
“Not this year,” David said under his breath.

             
“Well,” the pilot finally responded, “we’ll be off this freezing river soon.”

             
He pointed ahead and explained, “Vicksburg’s just on the other side of this loop, or at least the bridges are.”

             
Ten minutes later the town was in sight. True to his boast, the pilot had covered the distance in just over twenty hours. He guided the boat toward a dock on the Louisiana side of the river, a few hundred meters north of the bridge. A handful of men and boys were waiting to see if anything needed to be offloaded, all of them recognizing the craft as a fast-runner from Cairo. When they discovered that the only cargo being delivered was four strangers carrying a lot of baggage, they sent one of the youngsters running back to the main camp.

             
A grizzled old man who looked as strong as a gnarled oak tree in spite of his age explained, “You men go on and have a seat there on yer bags. Cap’n Harden’s in charge of security here, and he’ll be down directly to see what y’all are about.”

             
Carter nodded at the rest of the team to follow the old man’s orders and take a seat, and when some of the people on the dock started asking questions, the Indiana soldiers politely demurred as they waited on the security chief to arrive.

             
Just a few minutes later they saw the boy who’d run off earlier come trotting back down the trail by himself, but by the time he reached the dock a tall man in uniform, closely followed by two young soldiers wearing holstered revolvers, could be seen approaching the new arrivals. Carter was sizing up the “Captain” as the man came closer, but just then one of the armed soldiers walking behind the officer, a light-skinned African American youth, stepped around his boss with a look of wonderment on his face.

             
“Uncle Carter?”

The generally unflappable Kentuckian stared as if he was see
ing a ghost, until the young man cried with enthusiastic recognition, “Uncle Carter!”

             
Suddenly Carter was on his feet as the teen ran forward and leapt into his arms. In disbelief, Carter choked out, “T.C., oh my God—yer alive.”

             
The boy managed to rasp out through his sobs, “I got Momma and Lucy here too.”

             
Carter’s grip on the boy remained tight as he incredulously observed , “I can’t believe y’all survived, and yer here in Vicksburg.”

             
T.C. smiled through his tears. “I can’t believe you’re here either. You were right about everything.”

             
David had sidled over to Bobby, where he leaned close and whispered, “What do you know about Carter’s nephew?”

“When Jack and Carter saw those Marines on the news with bite wounds
, they started calling us all to get our butts to The Castle,” Bobby whispered in reply. “Carter’s mom drove up from Kentucky, but there was some kind of dust-up concerning his sister and her kids. They apparently refused to come up, and Carter didn’t find out till his mom arrived alone. By then it was too late for him to go off hunting for them. The subject’s been kinda taboo since then.”