Eastern Front: Zombie Crusade IV (28 page)

After briefing Deb and Hiram about Cairo and making a few perfunctory introductions,
Carter was anxious to hear about what was happening back in Fort Wayne. The most interesting new developments were occurring on Lake Erie, with Father O’Brien scouting potential hideout locations and making a connection with some Canadians who could prove to be valuable allies. Deb was fine, and Christy was still pregnant. She’d gone to visit her mother on the ranch out in Noble County, but left a message for Deb to relay to David. “Write this down if you have to, Carter,” his wife entreated, “there’ll be hell to pay if you screw this up.”

Carter laughed, “Now, Deb, if ya can handle bein’ married to me all these years, ya should be able to keep Christy in line fer a few weeks.”

“I guess my feminine wiles just don’t have the same effect on her,” Deb retorted. “Just get the message straight.”

“Okay, shoot—I got me a notepad in case it gets complicated.”

“She says, ‘J. Hope is fine, I know who passed the test, and I’m sure you’ll do the right thing. No more secrets, but I’m keeping yours—I miss you like crazy, keep your head down.’ That’s it. Did you get it all?”

Carter scratched his neck
, “I think so, but can’t she talk like a normal person?”

“People say the same thing about you
,” Deb giggled. “Now you better read it back to me, just to be safe.”

Carter was about to repeat
Christy’s message when his sister’s face flashed through his mind. Carter changed course, “I’ll get to that in a minute, baby—is Momma there by chance?” He knew very well that she was since she made it a point to show up for her son’s radio reports, mainly just to hear his voice.

“She’s right here.
” Deb handed the microphone to Carter’s mom. “Why don’t you share some words of wisdom with your son?”

Carter’s voice
cracked with emotion when he said, “I met somebody in Vicksburg ya might want to contact. I’m sure Deb can get it all figured out, radio-wise.” He paused for a second, not sure exactly what to say. “It’s Charlotte and the kids, they’re holed up in Vicksburg. Curtis didn’t make it, but the folks there all say he’s a hero. Say he saved a bunch of ‘em on the way outta Tennessee.”

For a minute there was no response, and Carter thought that maybe they’d lost the connection. Finally, Deb spoke up, “Are you sure, Carter? Are you sure it’s them?”

“Course I’m sure. We’ve had some conversations. They look good, fer the circumstances.” His mother started to breathe again, and Carter heard her choking sobs. “Momma, I’ll bring ‘em to ya as soon as I can. Maybe I shouldn’ta said nothin’—“

“No, Carter, you did the right thing,” Deb cut in. “She’s just overwhelmed—she’s crying for joy, you lunkhead.”

“
Can ya get her in contact with Charlotte fer me? Ya know I’m no good at this touchy-feely stuff.” He was glad that Deb couldn’t see the tears welling up in his eyes. “Gabe and Bobby are there; they should be able to help ya out.”

“I’ll take care of it, baby. Now dry your eyes and go save our butts.”

Carter smiled, thinking that Deb probably knew him better than he knew himself. “Aye, aye, hot stuff. I’m on my way.”

By the time the three men were motoring up the Ohio
, they were all thankful that the stop was behind them. The pilot owed people money, David owed his wife a call after her mostly incomprehensible message about hoping to pass some test, and Carter greatly appreciated the simplicity of the need for absolute focus on the mission at hand after the emotional family episode over the radio.

The biggest decision they had to make concerned the first river to search. If they chose the Tennessee and Jack wasn’t there, they would risk missing him on the Green. But if they went to the Green River first and found the bridges blown, they would have to backtrack over a hundred miles to the Tennessee. David tried to do the math, working on a formula that involved the time of the assumed defeat at Bra
ndenburg, travel to Cloverport, outcome of the Clover Creek plan, wiring of the Green River bridges . . . at that point he just gave up. There were simply too many variables concerning Jack’s whereabouts to make a legitimate attempt to scientifically try figuring out where he was. He might not have even survived the fall of the bridge. In the end, Carter’s gut feeling was that Jack’s forces held out for a while at Brandenburg, delayed Barnes’ march at Clover Creek, and he now was doing everything possible to prevent a crossing of the Green River anywhere north of Bowling Green. If he managed to do that, Barnes would be forced to backtrack scores of miles, buying almost a week for the Vicksburg defenses to be improved. With little more than Carter’s educated guess to go on, they chose to search the Green River first.

Kentucky had spent a great deal of time and money working to turn the Green River into a navigable waterway far beyond what Mother Nature had initially intended. Not especially wide nor exceedingly deep, the river could still accommodate barge traffic destined for the Ohio
, so it was more than enough water to stop hunters in their tracks. The first major bridge the pilot guided the boat to was the one built for Highway 60 to cross, and the span stood strong and empty in cold autumn air as the crew floated beneath. Carter and David were a bit disappointed at the discovery, but the map of northern Kentucky revealed the shortest route from Owensboro to the Green River was a four lane highway simply titled 9005. They ordered the pilot to head upstream toward that crossing as quickly as possible, and when the bridge came into viewing range of binoculars Carter found a soldier on the span staring back at him and the boat.

A few minutes later there were at least a dozen men gathered on the bridge
to get a look at the boat. Carter smiled from ear to ear and waved when he saw that one of the observers was Chad Greenburg. Seconds later, Carter’s former platoon sergeant was joined by Zach, Maddy, Luke, and finally, Jack himself.

             
CHAPTER 17

“Looks like my big brother managed to live through another battle,” David muttered as he gazed through his field glasses. “And he kept Luke alive too.”

“Ya sure it weren’t the other way ‘round?
” Carter mumbled.

As the boat pulled close to the bank
, David and Carter hopped ashore. The pilot was content to pull out into the channel and anchor away from any infected roaming the area. Luke was the first to reach the two men, grabbing David in a strong bear-hug and gushing, “Glad you guys are okay.”

David pulled back and looked
over his young charge, “Well, apparently you haven’t been bitten since I left you.”

“No,” Luke grinned, “but not for lack of trying, I can promise you that.”

Jack came striding up, “Okay, enough of the man-love already. Took you two long enough to get back.”

“
Yeah,” Carter retorted, “ya’ll have to forgive us for believin’ ya could hold onto that bridge for more’n a few minutes. I mean, I expected ya to retreat as soon as Barnes’ monsters came into view, but I thought Chad’s bein’ here might give ya some backbone.”

“Good to see you too, buddy,” Jack quipped. “Hope your float down two of the nation’s most historic, beautiful rivers hasn’t left you too tired to help us lousy soldiers do a better job in our next fight.”

After trying, mostly without success, to keep the cold winds from blowing through his clothing for most of a week, Carter quickly reverted to old-fashioned name-calling. “Listen here you rear-echelon mother—”

“Hey!” Maddy loudly interjected
, “since Deb and Andi are back in Fort Wayne, I’ll take charge of keeping you two children separated. Now, I believe we have a bridge to blow.”

Sure enough, most of Chad’s men were scrambling beneath the dual spans with wires and explosives, working quickly to prepare the structure for demolition. For the first time, David noticed the number of missing faces and the seriousness with which the experienced soldiers were conducting their task. He looked over at his brother, “Tough fight at the bridge?”

Jack nodded. “We have a lot to talk about.”

“How close is Barnes?”

Jack shrugged before giving his head a slight shake. “Close enough to keep us hopping. He can make forty miles a day with that army of his, at least in the short term. They closed on Owensboro faster than we expected; they’re probably in the eastern neighborhoods right now. We think they’ve outrun their food supply, thanks in part to a little strategic stampede, and Barnes is maybe reconsidering just where in the hell he’s going.”

“Ain’t he still after ya
?” Carter asked with concern.

Again Jack shrugged, “I think maybe after the debacle back in Brandenburg he just sent his hunters west as fast as they could go, hoping they might trap us. Now he’s probably realizing that he should look over the map before deciding which way to go next.”

“I was wonderin’ ‘bout that,” Carter said. “If I was him I’d be headin’ to the Tennessee and Cumberland fast I as I could, maybe cut yer guys off instead of the other way ‘round.”

Jack smiled slightly, “He might have been able to pull it off too, if he could have gotten over this river. As it is now, we’re gonna wreck every bridge between here and Bowling Green.”

Chad jumped in, “By the time we’re finished with the bastard, he’s gonna wish he’d headed straight back to Nashville and turned west from there; we’re gonna use these rivers to move him all the way back there anyway.”

One of Chad’s soldiers shouted down that the bridge was ready to blow and everyone needed to clear out. Jack led Carter and David back to the impromptu laager the soldiers had formed with their v
ehicles the night before. The young cowboy, Jared, had a delicious stew bubbling in a massive pot as well as a score of large steaks sizzling over an open fire.

“We found a stray cow this morning,” Jack explained. “I know you two have probably been eating well on the river
, but we’ve been on MREs for a few days.”

Carter smacked the back of Jack’s head.
“You jack-ass! We ain’t had a hot meal since we left Brandenburg, and here y’all are eatin’ fresh beef?”

“Relax
, killer,” Maddy interrupted, “we really did just find this critter.”

“And,” Zach added, “Your buddy, Jack, is pretty stingy when it comes to rations.”

“Two MREs a day, kid,” Jack shot back. “I’m not the one who stowed away in Chad’s convoy to get down here to enjoy these skimpy rations. Stay home and eat real food next time there’s fighting to be done.”

“He’s a danger to the rations wherever he is,
” Maddy remarked not quite under her breath.

“Everybody shut up and eat,” Chad demand
ed. “I call dibs on that fillet . . .”

An hour later, after much discussion,
a new plan of action was in place. Jack would be heading west with David and Carter to work on organizing the defense of Vicksburg, leaving Chad in command of the team tasked with keeping Barnes occupied for a few more weeks. Carter was already waving the pilot towards shore when David stepped over to his brother with a worried look on his face.

“What is it?” Jack asked.

“Luke.”

“What about him?”

“He needs to come with us.”

Jack looked surprised, “Chad may be in charge of this mission, but he has no better soldier for the type of work that needs to be done out here than Luke. And if anything should happen to Chad,
I need Luke here to help keep things on track.”

David nodded, “I understand what you’re saying
, but he needs to come with us. Just trust me on this.”

Jack put his hands on his hips and cocked his head in confusion. “What the hell are you talking about? He’ll be in Vicksburg before Barnes.”

David shook his head, “It’s a damn big continent, Jack. We need to keep him near us. He has his ‘feelings’ sometimes, and they’ve always steered us in the right direction.” He put his hand on Jack’s shoulder and looked him square in the eye. “I’m having one of those feelings myself right now. He comes with us.”

Jack growled in
frustration, knowing that the kind of bond that developed between the various members of the group that had survived the harrowing journey from Cleveland months before gave them a special intuition about each other. He shared the same kind of connection with Carter, and he’d come to trust those sorts of instincts. In addition, he’d promised David that he planned on keeping the group together as much as possible as they fought the war. “Fine. Whatever. You tell him to pack his kit; I need to talk to Maddy and Zach before we leave.”

Thirty minutes later the pilot was heading back to the Ohio River as fast
as the Green would safely allow; the four soldiers on his boat were less than friendly with one another as they sat silently about the cabin.

Luke finally broke the spell, “I should have stayed with Zach and Maddy.”