Eastern Front: Zombie Crusade IV (38 page)

Luke nodded, “We’ll be outnumbered at least ten to one there, and even if every one of us dies in that phalanx, there’ll still be several tens of thousands to take the walls on the bridge. I just can’t see, after all the losses we’ve already absorbed, how the human race can afford to lose its strongest, bravest, and most capable people in this battle.”

“So what would you have us do, Luke?
We’ve all agreed that we can’t wait Barnes out—that he’ll only get stronger with time. I’ve got thousands of people from all over America here, now, willing to make a fight of it.”

Luke just shook his head, “They have no idea what they’re volunteering to do, and you know it.”

“How many soldiers do have a good idea of what they’re getting into, in any battle?” Jack argued.

“Stop!” Gracie nearly shouted. “Just stop.”

Both men looked at the furious young woman with open-mouthed shock, so she took a deep breath and continued.

“We have to fight, Luke, so help Jack figure out a way to stop Barnes without getting all our soldiers killed. Jack, every time Luke mentions the possibility of stopping this horde of infected he might as well be talking about defying gravity or something. We
both know he isn’t stupid or a coward, so what has him in such a defeatist frame of mind?”

Jack was the first to gather his wits and reply. “With over a hundred thousand prime hunters pushing in a certain direction
, we haven’t figured out a way to keep from being overrun. They smash into a wall until the bodies are stacked high enough for the others to climb over. They can run and fight almost indefinitely while we tire and weaken. They’re learning how to duck and avoid our blows, basically still evolving, and we don’t know how far they’ll develop. Even at Pickwick Dam, where the hunters were forced to funnel into a column six or seven abreast, they still eventually pushed a five hundred-strong phalanx into retreat. If we could take out all the helicopters, or if we had a way to use the ones we’ve captured to redirect the hunters, it might be different, but right now that’s not an option. The bottom line is, we don’t know how to stop them.”

G
racie had calmed down, and she nodded once, curtly, before turning to Luke. “And you, how do we stop them without getting everyone killed?”

Luke just looked at her helplessly until
Gracie stomped her foot, grabbed his arm, and shook him gently. “No! Tell me how we can do this.”

Luke bit his lip for a moment. “Build a series of berms on the open ground where we’re gonna use the phalanx. Every time we pull back we’ll have a shorter line to defend and continue to hold the advantage of higher ground.”

“More,” Gracie demanded.

“Make sure we have a viable retreat optio
n available at the river’s edge—don’t make this an all or nothing fight. Hurt Barnes here, hurt him real bad, but don’t sacrifice all our soldiers to do it.”

Gracie finally nodded, “There, was that so hard, boys? Now, I don’t know how high and strong your walls were at Brandenburg, but my limited understanding of physics leads me to believe that the hunters won’t succeed here just by doubling their effort. These walls are twice as high, right?”

Without waiting for an answer she continued musing over the walls. “The higher the hunters have to climb, the more difficult it will be for them to use the corpses of their pack-mates as a stable ladder to scale the wall.”

“So we shouldn’t necessarily give up on the walls yet?” Luke prodded.

Gracie wasn’t listening; she was looking intently at the wall in the distance. Her brow furrowed in thought as Jack and Luke wisely decided to leave her alone for a moment. They had learned during their months together that Gracie was a literal genius, able to see through many problems other people just couldn’t seem to solve.

Without taking her eyes from the walls she called out in a distracted tone, “Jack?”

“Yeah?”

“Picture a pyramid, just like the ones at Giza.”

“Okay, I’m seeing a pyramid,” Jack played along.

Gracie finally looked at the two men. “Luke, you seeing a pyramid?”

“Yeah, babe, I see one.”

She turned back to her view of the wall. “Now turn the pyramid to the left, but stop the turn when the ridge is facing you.”

“Okay,” Jack agreed, followed by Luke a moment later.

“Now,” she ordered, “p
icture that pyramid beneath a guillotine, cut in half, from the peak all the way to the base.”

Again the guys reported that they had the image.

“Good,” Gracie encouraged, “now push that half-pyramid up against our wall. Maybe spray water on it so ice forms. Tell me how the hunters get to the top without falling into the river.”

She turned to face the dumfounded soldiers. “You might have just thought I was being a jerk, but I think you’ll
agree when I say that gravity can be a real bitch.”

Jack mumbled, “Oh my God . . .
” and sat down on the cold, hard road as he stared at the bridge.

Luke sat next to him, subdued. “Can you think of any reason why her idea won’t work?”

“Well, we may need to disguise what we’re doing so the helicopters don’t change the strategy—we’ll want them to attack the wall if we pull this off.”

“We
could build phony walls and maybe a roof over the new design, make it look like we just wanted a deeper fighting platform at the top of the wall.”

“That would work,” Jack admitted. “I think the whole idea will work. Gracie may have just won the battle for us.”

“Yeah,” Luke agreed with exaggerated understatement, “and I’m pretty sure I’ll never hear the end of it.”

A war council was being held every night in the meeting house, but Jack decided that Gracie’s bridge idea couldn’t wait
.  He sent word out by radio and runner to gather the various commanders together. Well before noon everyone who could make it to the meeting was there, with so many leaders packed into the building that it was standing-room-only. Jack had asked Gracie to draw a few basic diagrams on the dry erase board at the front of the main room, and she stood just to the side of the drawings in case she needed to elaborate on what was already prepared. Luke stood next to his girl, looking out over the sea of faces for the people he knew, of which there were very few in attendance.

He realized with a jolt of surprise that Jack wasn’t exaggerating when he’d argued that people from all over America were gathering her
e in Vicksburg to try to stop Barnes. Luke saw Captain Hardin, Generals Carlson and Anderson from Utah, along with most of their battalion commanders, but they were outnumbered by a motley collection of fighters he’d never seen before. David was suddenly at his side. He noticed where Luke’s attention was directed and began to point out some of the strange leaders in attendance.

“That old guy in the ugly sweater is the mayor of Cairo; he organized and brought down six hundred fighters with their war-dogs. Fought in Vietnam, and from the moment we met him he’s been with us a hundred percent. Rickers is in back of the room, Jack told him to leave the Utah soldiers in Fort Wayne to provide security and bring every soldier we have down here. John a
nd Tina, Lori and Blake, Marcus, and anybody who wasn’t already down here will be here on tonight’s train from Indiana. We’ll put a hundred and fifty troops in the field, counting Chad’s men.”

David took a deep breath and continued, “Look back in the left corner; any of those guys look familiar to you?”

Luke looked the strangers over carefully for thirty seconds before shaking his head. “Should I know them?”

“Just thought you might know who they are. They came in on the river three days ago with a floating city. The three you’re looking at were all part of a popular television program that focused on their entire family. They were all in Louisiana when the outbreak began, and figured out real quick that the water was a good place to be. A lot of people around them looked to them for leadership, and they took on the responsibility. They’ve kept two thousand people alive, fed, and killing infected all over this area. One of the old guys fought in Vietnam, but the tall one’s in charge. I swear to God he seems like an Old Testament prophet when you talk to him. Polite as hell, smart as anyone I’ve met, but his eyes—well, you’ll see them soon enough. They have over four hundred of the toughest bastards I’ve ever seen ready for war.

“Other local groups have been coming in too; at least a thousand fighters with their families. All told, we’ve got twelve thousand Utah soldiers, and close to three thousand others from all over the Midwest and South. I mentioned to Carlson that Utah was bearing the brunt of the load here, but he pointed out that we’re all in. He’s got a million westerners behind him, whereas most everyone we know in the east is here. In other words, a much greater percentage of our survivors are in danger here than his people.”

Luke nodded, “Makes sense, I guess, but still seems unfair to Utah. You should see them in a fight, David, their discipline is amazing, and they fight like cornered lions. As for the Louisiana folks, I hardly ever watched any television or kept up on pop culture.”

David smiled, “Well, you’ll like them; they seem like your kind of people. And everybody in camp knows who you are; I realized you’d made a few friends over the past few days as I made the rounds while you were sleeping for eighteen hours.”

Luke looked at his closest friend with eyes narrowed in suspicion. “What are you talking about?”

David shrugged with feigned innocence, “It’s probably nothing.  Just a few stories going around town.”

“What kind of stories?”

“Oh, about some young warrior from Fort Wayne who was already a legend before he fought the entire horde to a standstill at Pickwick.”

Luke shook his head in
genuine disgust. “Dammit, David, heroes fought beside me at Pickwick! Do you hear me? I would be hunter-crap by now if it wasn’t for the 1
st
Utah.”

David turned serious, “I know that. Most people who care to find out the truth will know that too. But for right now, this army needs legends and myths. They need to believe that mighty warriors walk amongst them, so just go with it until the battle is fought. Trust me, the stories being told about you only strengthen the resolve and confidence of our troops.”

“When this is over, I’m going to find a little island in the middle of one of the Great Lakes. I’m going to marry Gracie and build us a house there. You and Christy, heck, everyone from our original group can come and live there, or not. But I’m not gonna live my life surrounded by groupies, David, I’m not.”

“We’ll come with you. Blake and Lori will too, and the Martinez family. Trudy might tag along. Maybe even Jack and Andi. But we have to win the war first, so until we do you’ll just have to find a polite way to live with the groupies. You understand what I’m saying?”

Luke had a sour expression on his face, but he agreed. “Fine. Just don’t be surprised if there are a few stories circulating about you.”

David raised an eyebrow to indicate his curiosity, but just then Jack called the meeting to order and all eyes turned to the allied leader.

Presenting the plan for improving the bridge defenses didn’t take long, and every commander in the room promised to send their best carpenters and other construction workers to help with the project. Jack gave all the credit to Gracie, whose blush made her all the prettier as everyone clapped in appreciation of her idea. As soon as the room quieted, Jack cleared his throat and announced, “As you all know, the 1
st
Utah had a hell of a rough fight with Barnes at the Pickwick Dam a few days ago. When they arrived back in town yesterday morning, they all needed food and rest, and too many needed medical treatment. We now know that they lost almost forty percent of their force in the battle, and we estimate that they destroyed twenty to thirty thousand infected before they were forced to retreat. In case you haven’t met him yet, the commander of our forces during the battle was Carter Wilson.”

Carter stepped forward and nodded in several directions as the crowded room erupted in cheers, then he quickly moved back to where he’d been standing.

After a moment Jack continued speaking. “The commander of the battalion is in the hospital with several broken ribs, but General Carlson has assured me that the colonel will recover.”

Following another round of cheering
, Jack had one more person to introduce. “Finally, even though he doesn’t hold a command, one of the most important soldiers in America is also here with us. He’s Gracie’s fiancé, and a young man I love like family—this is Luke Seifert.”

Jack gestured toward Luke, and was surprised when the teen stepped forward and looked over the gathered commanders. After a spattering of applause the room grew quiet, everyone trying to get a look at the subject of so many wild stories circulating the camp. Luke allowed the silence to grow for a moment before beginning to speak. “Two days ago I should have died. For reasons all my own
, I moved ahead of our ranks and single-handedly engaged the enemy. I’d been running from Barnes and his hunters for too long, and something snapped inside of me. I killed about twenty flesh-eaters, mostly with my bow, before they gang-tackled me and started clawing through my armor. It was over. Then the weight on me fell away, and I looked up into the faces of the 1
st
Utah.”