Apex Predator (22 page)

Then it was hand to hand.  At that point, it was over.  He could see several large gaps between vehicles.  Maybe some of the troops were able to remount and escape.  There were certainly not enough bodies on the ground to account for an entire brigade of U.S. Army soldiers

SSgt Brown heard the sound of an LMTV starting.  He was about 100 meters from the vehicle.  Next a humvee started in the same area.  He saw the trucks pull to the median, Jackson waiving from the passenger seat of the LMTV and Mike from the humvee.  The humvee had a .50 M2 heavy machinegun on top and two antennas rising from the back of the hard top.  He turned to the redhead with a smile.

“Join me for a ride in the new limo?”

“I thought you’d never ask,” she replied smiling for the first time all morning.  The rest of the group also rallied around the two vehicles.

“How are we set for gas?” SSgt Jackson asked.

“About three-quarters of a tank,” replied Jackson.

“We’re good,” answered Mike.

“Any spare gas in that thing?” SSgt Brown asked Jackson.  Theresa looked through the back window.  “Doesn’t look like it.”

“Ok folks, scavenge some of these trucks for gas, food, ammo, anything,” the NCO ordered.  “Load up the LMTV.  We’re outa here in like five minutes.”

The group scattered to the closest vehicles.  They began removing gas cans and tossing MRE cases off to the side of the road.  Willie was carrying a couple of gas cans from an LMTV to their vehicle, when he noticed a light machinegun mounted to a humvee.  It wasn’t the M-60 that he remembered carrying when he was a young infantryman, but it was obviously a machinegun.  And, it had a box of ammo connected to it.

He put down the gas cans, and opened the back door the humvee.  The seat was occupied by a dead soldier, pistol lying next to his lifeless fingers.  Sitting next to the dead soldiers hand were 3 cans labeled: 200 cartridges 7.62 mm.  Sweet!  He reached across the soldier and grabbed the ammo cans, placing them on the ground.

He then climbed over the body in order to stand in the turret.  He began unscrewing the locking mechanism of the machinegun.  As he was removing the gun from its mount, he felt a cold hand grab his left ankle.  Looking down, he saw the dead soldier attempting to pull his leg to its mouth.  He let out a scream, and tried to pull his leg free.

The soldier held on with a strength that surprised Willie.  He tried to kick the soldier away with his right foot.  It didn’t work.  The zombie bit into Willie’s leg, tearing a chunk of flesh from its victim.  Willie screamed again, shoving the machinegun into the face of his attacker.  He pulled the trigger, squeezing off several rounds.  The zombie’s head exploded.  The gun jumped in Willie’s hand

The others heard the shots.  SSgt Brown and Mike were the first to reach the big black man.  They all saw the decapitated zombie hanging partially out of the rear seat of the humvee.  Then they saw the wound on Willie’s leg.

“Mr. White,” SSgt Brown said softly.

“Yeah,” he answered.

“You ok?”

“Fuck no!  Fucker bit me.  Fuck!  I thought he was really dead.”  The other two survivors just stood there.  Everyone knew what it meant but no one wanted to be the one to say it.

“You don’t have to say anything guys.  I know I’m gone.”  He took in a deep breath, and reached into his pocket, producing a long, fat cigar.  He bit the end off, spitting the tobacco over the other side of the truck.  Lighting the cigar, he cursed.  “Mother fucker!  I should have been more careful.  You know, I figured he got bit and did himself.  I didn’t even look.  Guess I’m Darwin’s next victim.”

“Darwin?” asked Mike.

“You know survival of the fittest” replied the black man.  “I guess I’m not fit for this new world.”

“Oh,” Mike mumbled.

They heard another scream.  They turned.  It was SPC Wilcox.  He was being dragged to the ground by two zombies.  Both were wearing military uniforms.  One was clinging to his back, its feet dragging as the young aviation trooper tried to run.  The other had his right arm in a death grip as it tried to get to its feet.

Some of the other fallen soldiers began moving.  The ones closest to SSgt Brown and Mike began trying to get to their feet.  One made it to the standing position.  He was about three feet from the big NCO and wearing the uniform of a Captain in the Air Force.  The monster’s eyes met his.  It let out the loudest moan SSgt Brown had heard yet.  It reached for him with both hands.  SSgt Brown took one step back as he drew one of the pistols from its holster.

BANG!  The Captain’s head snapped backwards just before it fell to the ground.  The second zombie had gotten to its feet.  This was a female with buck sergeant stripes on the front of her army ACU’s.  Mike kicked her square in the chest just as she let out a moan.  She stumbled backwards, falling over another body lying on the ground.

Both Mike and SSgt Brown looked up at Willie.  He was re-mounting the machinegun onto the humvee.  “You guys go.  Looks like I’m going to be busy for a while,” he said grimly.

The two began to run.

“Don’t forget the gas!” Willie shouted.  Mike turned and grabbed the gas can.  The female-sergeant-zombie had regained her feet, and was shuffling towards Mike.  As he ran, he could see that more zombies were struggling to their feet.

“Back to the trucks,” SSgt Brown yelled.  Jackson began firing from the turret ring of the LMTV.  SSgt Brown could see that most of the fire was directed east, in the direction Wilcox and Maria had went.  Soon Jen joined in the firing from the turret of the humvee.  She was using a military issue M-4.  She was having trouble controlling the three round burst, but she was putting out some lead.

As SSgt Brown reached the back of the LMTV, he could see that Wilcox had fallen to the ground.  He was trying to crab walk away from several zombies that were crawling in pursuit.  Jackson was doing his best to cover the aviation trooper but there were too many zombies and they were too close to him.  They finally pulled the soldier’s feet out from underneath him.  That was the last SSgt Brown would see of him.  Not even the rifle fire from Jen and Jackson could drown out his screams.

He and Mike climbed into the back of the LMTV.  Kerry was back there already, tying down the gas cans that had been collected.  They dropped their gas cans at her feet, and began firing over the side of the truck in an attempt to save Wilcox.

Maria screamed as she ran towards the group.  Several zombies were in a slow pursuit.  Jen was hitting a few of them as they reached for her.  One fell, tripping another one.  SSgt Brown was beginning to think she was going to make it.  Then a hand reached up and tripped her.  She stumbled several steps forward and fell.

Willie’s M-240B began firing.  His 3 second bursts were catching many of the zombies at chest level.  He wasn’t killing any of them, but the force of the impacting bullets was definitely slowing the pursuit.  Several were even knocked over by the machinegun fire.

Maria crawled for several steps and then launched herself back to her feet.  C’mon!  You can make it!  The zombies were right on top of her, but she managed to evade their grasp.  Jen continued to cover her retreat.  Suddenly, a look of pain and surprise crossed the girl’s face.  She stumbled forward again, this time her right fist grasping her chest.  From 25 meters away, SSgt Brown could see blood begin to run down the front of the girl’s shirt.

She fell forward, reaching for the group.  NO!  She tried to stand again.  A look of pain crossed her face.  She collapsed to the concrete, a bullet fired from one of their rifles had hit her center mass.  She was swarmed by the hoard of recently animated zombies.

SSgt Brown counted noses.  He could see everyone but Theresa.  Shit, where was she?  The humvee with Jen still firing from the turret ring pulled out in front of them, Theresa at the wheel.  Well, that answers that, he thought.

“Jackson, follow the girls!”  The young trooper stopped firing and dropped into the driver’s seat of the LMTV.  He gunned the gas.  The truck lurched.  SSgt Brown and Mike almost fell over.  Kerry did, sliding face first all the way to the tail gate.  She split her chin open on the steel floor of the truck bed.

Theresa stayed in the median for about 500 meters before she pulled out onto the empty highway.  Jen couldn’t help but think that for a kid who is too young to drive, she did a good job of getting them out of that death trap.

About two miles up the road, the median rose above the road, and there was a stand of trees there.  Jen could see tire tracks leading into the trees.  She remembered this was one of the places Louisiana’s finest liked to hide and run radar.  She told Theresa to pull in between the trees.  Jackson pulled the big truck in behind her.  Everyone dismounted.

“Is everyone ok?” asked SSgt Brown.  They could still hear Willie’s machinegun firing in the distance.  They all shook their heads.  He could see that Jen and Theresa had tears rolling down their cheeks.

“Shit guys,” he started.  “I’m sorry.  I had no idea…”

“Stop,” Kerry interrupted.  They all looked at her, shocked that she would choose this time to say something.  They stood there, jaws agape, staring at the still bleeding cut on her chin

“Just stop,” she continued.  She wiped some blood from her chin with the sleeve of her shirt.  “We all agreed that it was a good idea.  Not one of you, or them for that matter, objected to it.  SSgt Brown, it wasn’t your fault.  It wasn’t Willie’s fault, or even that piece of shit Wilcox’s fault.  Let’s just not do it again.”  She turned and climbed into the back of the LMTV.

Jackson took a step closer to his sergeant.  “It wasn’t your fault, boss.  Hell, I didn’t think about it either.  You doin’ a good job keepin’ us alive.”

SSgt Brown looked into his trooper’s eyes.  He could see that Jackson meant it.  He shook his head.  “Thanks Jackson.”

“Hey boss, we need you up and in the fight.  You the only thing keepin’ this bunch of misfits from gettin’ eaten.  So, what’s next?”

“Let’s see where we stand on ammo and supplies,” replied the NCO.  The NCO turned to the group.  “Who managed to grab their rucksack?”  Jackson, Jen and Kerry raised their hands.  The others did not.  “Ok, let’s check ammo, and see what we still have for supplies.”

He was not happy about the results.  They had lost one of the emergency radios, a bunch of ammo.  They were down to about 800 rounds of 5.56/ .223 and 100 rounds for the M2 on the humvee.  That was the good news.  Theresa only had about 15 rounds of 12 gauge shells in her pockets.  Mike had about 40 rounds for his pistol and SSgt Brown was down to about 28 rounds for his .45’s.  Those would be hard to come by.

The good news was they were able to scavenge about 50 gallons of fuel for the trucks, and a couple of cases of MRE’s.  That should keep them going for the next two or three days.  The humvee also had 2 radios, and they both worked.  One was set to an encrypted channel, the other was unencrypted.  They would need to monitor both.

The humvee also had a camouflage net strapped to the top.  SSgt Brown ordered them to leave it behind.  He didn’t think that they’d need it anytime soon, might as well save the weight.  Both vehicles also had a set of pioneer tools: an ax, pick, and shovel.  He chose to keep those.

He looked at his watch: 11:35.

“Alright folks,” he announced.  “Grab some chow.  We’re moving out in 30 minutes.”

Jackson broke into one of the boxes of MRE’s.  He took one he like and handed one to each of the group.  He sat down in the bed of the LMTV and ate his lunch.  SSgt Brown took his meal and sat in the passenger seat of the humvee.  While he ate, he flipped the radios through the preset channels of the radios:  nothing.  Well, he’d keep an ear out for something.  He finished his meal.

“Ok, let’s mount up.  Jackson, you and Mike take the LMTV.  Jen, Theresa and Kerry are in the humvee with me.  We keep moving east.  We’ll lead.”  They mounted their respective vehicles, and began driving.  Kerry drove the humvee, Jen and Theresa took turns in the turret ring.  SSgt Brown continued to flip through radio channels.

They continued down the empty road.  The road here was flat and wide.  There were trees on both sides of the road.  Through the few breaks in the trees, SSgt Brown could see zombies walking in the fields.  Usually he saw one or two.  Occasionally he could see a larger group.  Most didn’t pay attention to them.  One group in particular did seem to begin wandering toward the road as they passed.

About 15 miles down the road, Kerry slowed to a stop.  There about a half mile in front of them was a large group of zombies.  They hadn’t seemed to have noticed the living yet.  Jackson pulled the LMTV beside the humvee.  Mike rolled down his window.

“What the hell is that?” he asked.

“Looks like a pack of bad guys,” SSgt Brown replied.  “You think it might be the ones that hit the convoy back there?” 

“Could be,” the young trooper responded.

“You see a way around them?”

“Not from here.  It looks like there is something across the road.”  SSgt Brown climbed out of the turret ring, and stood on top of the humvee.  He could see several metal struts hanging over the road on the north side.  It looked like the Eiffel tower had fallen over.  Ah, now he recognized it.  There was a cell phone tower crossing the road.  He wondered if this was an accident or maybe someone got smart and dropped a road block across the path of the pursuit.