Rolling Thunder - 03 (10 page)

I quickly moved to the front corner of the idling truck,
resting my rifle across the hood and sighting in on the open warehouse door. 
It didn’t take long for running figures, weapons in hand, to appear and I
started dropping them as fast as I could acquire them in my scope.  Three of
them went down, permanently, before the rest realized what was happening and
scrambled for cover.  They started sticking rifles and pistols around the door
frame and firing, but their shots weren’t aimed and my odds of winning the
lottery were probably better than their odds of hitting me.  One guy kept
sticking his whole arm around the doorway at the same spot to fire a round from
his pistol, and after his third shot I was ready for him and drilled a round
through his forearm as soon as it appeared.  The pistol fell to the ground and
I could hear his screams over the shouts and firing coming from the rest of
them.

I was trying to decide the best way to break off from the
firefight and get out of there with the truck and women when Rachel and another
woman appeared beside me.  Rachel was holding her rifle and the woman had the
dead guard’s rifle in her hands.  I glanced at her and recognized the pants and
shoes she was wearing as most likely being part of a law enforcement uniform. 
She saw me look, met my eyes and nodded her head.

“Who’s your friend?”  I asked, involuntarily doing a double
take at the woman.  She was shorter than Rachel, more compact with long blonde
hair, but even disheveled and dirty she was a stunning beauty.

“Eyes on the target, big boy.”  The woman said.  “I’m
Melanie Fitzgerald, Tennessee State Police.” 

“What do you want us to do?”  Rachel asked, frost evident in
her tone.  She had her back against the truck’s door and rifle held high across
her body, but still managed to convey her displeasure that I had noticed
another woman.  Melanie was right next to her and looked pissed off and ready
to kill anything.

“Is that a full mag in that AK?”  I was referring to the
guard’s rifle.

“Yes.  30 with another 30 taped to it.”  She answered.  I
hadn’t noticed the spare magazine.

“Will it go full auto or is it legal?”

“Full.  What do you have in mind?”  She moved in front of
Rachel so we could talk while I kept the assholes in the warehouse occupied. 
Rachel looked ready to shoot her.  What is it with women?  I wasn’t even
involved with Rachel, was married to someone else, yet here she was acting like
I was betraying her or something.  I put her problems out of my mind and
focused on the task at hand.

“We need to keep these guys occupied long enough to get out
of here.  You two in the cab with Dog.  Get him on the floor.  I want that AK
out the passenger window and when I get behind the wheel you need to keep their
heads down so we can get the hell out of here.”

“You got it.”  Melanie said and wasted no time in climbing
up and scooting all the way across the bench seat, Rachel and Dog right behind
her.  “Ready!”

I fired two more rounds at body parts I could see, smiling
when one of them blasted a knee cap that had been carelessly stuck into the
open.  The owner fell across the opening and I followed up with a round to his
head, slung the rifle at my side and jumped up into the cab.  I slapped off the
parking brake, pressed in the clutch and rammed the truck into reverse.  No
sooner had I started us moving than Melanie opened up with the AK on full auto,
leaning out the passenger window and expertly controlling her rate of fire. 
With enough room in front I slammed on the brakes, jammed the gear shift into
first and floored the throttle.  The big turbo diesel engine spun up and we
shot forward, the turbo whistling as it reached full speed before I slammed us
into second and bounced across a curb and into the street.

Melanie was leaning way out of the window and firing directly
behind us at this point, pausing to change magazines before pulling the trigger
and holding it as she hosed down the front of the building.  It didn’t take
long for the AK to run out of ammo and she sat back in her seat and leaned
forward to look in the mirror bolted to the outside of her door.  She watched
for a bit then ducked and shouted “incoming!”

Rachel instantly ducked and leaned into me.  Moments later
bullets started slamming into the cab of the truck.  There were screams from
the women in the back, one of them most likely taking a round.  The mirror in
the middle of the windshield shattered when a bullet came through the cab and
struck it, then two more holes appeared in the windshield.  I started swerving
the truck as much as I could, but these things aren’t exactly sports cars and
it takes a lot of wheel turn to get a little movement.  I did the best I could
and it must have been good enough because no more rounds hit us.  By now I was
in fourth gear and stayed on the throttle when an abandoned Toyota loomed up out
of the dark.  The heavy steel bumper smashed it to the side, the truck barely
shuddering and not slowing from the impact.  God I love military vehicles!

We roared around a curve in the road and Melanie leaned way
out her window to look behind us.  “No signs of pursuit.”  She pulled herself
back into the cab.

“Do you know how to get to the train station?”  I shouted
over the noise from the rain, wind and roar of the engine.

“Stay on this road.  I’ll tell you where to turn when we get
there.”  She shouted back.

I wanted to talk to her and get her story, but it was just
too loud in the truck.  Besides, all we had to do was make the train and there
would be plenty of time for talking once we were aboard.  I looked over quickly
to make sure everyone was OK with no bullet holes and didn’t see anything to
worry me.  Dog was squeezed into the passenger side foot-well and Rachel had
her legs tucked behind mine to give him room and not interfere with me shifting
gears.  Dog was sitting up looking at us and raised a paw onto Rachel’s leg. 
There was enough light from the dash to see the blood that started soaking into
her pants.

Rachel reached over and grabbed the flashlight off my rifle,
clicked it on and leaned forward to check Dog.  I had to focus on my driving,
smashing through a couple more abandoned vehicles and keeping an eye on my side
mirror for signs of pursuit from the guys at the warehouse.  I had just been
starting to think we were free and clear, then saw two sets of lights bounce
over a rise in the road a half a mile behind us.  Rachel clicked the light off
and snapped it back onto my rifle, telling me Dog had lost a nail and part of a
toe, but was OK otherwise.  I didn’t have time to worry about him right now.

“We’ve got company!  Half a mile back and closing.”  I
shouted.  I pressed harder on the throttle, but it was already on the floor and
the truck maxed out at a blistering 60 miles per hour.  These things weren’t
built for speed.  “How far to the turn?”

Melanie looked around quickly before answering, “Two miles,
I think.”

Shit.  They’d catch us before we got to the turn.  They
couldn’t run us off the road with the light pickups they had, but they could
sure as hell catch up and start pumping bullets into us or our tires.  I
glanced over my shoulder and confirmed there was an opening behind the seat
into the cargo area.  Shouting for Rachel to drive I let off the throttle long
enough for her to slide across my lap and take the wheel as I clambered up and
over the seat back and into the cargo area.

The women in back were sprawled across the floor, trying to
hold on and I couldn’t help but step on arms and legs as I made my way to the
back of the truck.  Yanking the flap of canvas out of the way I handed it to
the woman closest to me and told her to hang on to it so it didn’t get in my
way.  On my knees I looked out at the quickly approaching trucks and raised my
rifle, taking aim at the lead truck’s windshield.  I couldn’t see the driver
behind the glass, but that didn’t matter.  Rifle in burst mode I pulled the
trigger twice in quick succession, sending six rounds into the cab. 

At first I didn’t think my shots had done any good, but the
truck slowly started to drift to its left, moving faster and faster until it
slammed head on into a steel street light pole at an intersection.  The pole
didn’t move and the truck disintegrated when it hit.  The other truck swerved
around the wreckage and kept coming, the driver weaving at random times to try
and prevent me from getting a shot.  I had his rhythm figured out and was
starting to pull the trigger when Rachel hit the brakes and skidded into a
turn.  I was thrown off balance and tumbled across the floor, ending up in a
pile with three of the women who had also been thrown by the sudden change in
direction.

Fighting my way free of the tangle of limbs as well as
centrifugal force, I crawled to the back of the cargo area and looked out.  The
second truck that had been pursuing was stopped at an angle in the intersection
we had just passed through.  As I watched, it reversed, turned and disappeared
back the way we had come from.  What the hell?  That question was answered a
moment later when Rachel hit the brakes, too hard, and I wound up in another
pile of women at the front of the cargo area.  There was a point in my life
when this would have been a fantasy come true.  Now it was just a pain in the
ass.

“Why are you stopping?”  I shouted to Rachel, grimacing as
one of the women stepped on my left hand as she climbed out of the pile.

“Roadblock,” was the answer.

Now I’m as chivalrous as the next guy, probably more so or
my dad would have kicked my ass when I was growing up, but that news got me
moving and pushing struggling women out of my way.  Reaching the back of the
truck I swung a leg over the short tail gate and dropped to the ground.  Moving
around the truck I was surprised to see the mob of people filling the street
right in front of the truck.  The street we were on wasn’t wide, just a single
traffic lane in each direction with a narrow turn lane down the middle, but it
was clogged with bodies.  I couldn’t see far to tell how deep the mob was and
hopped up on the driver side running board to talk to Melanie.  Dog had moved
up onto the seat earlier when I’d climbed into the back and when I appeared at
the open window he stepped into Rachel’s lap to greet me.  With a grunt she
pushed him away, looked at me and pointed through the windshield.

From the higher vantage point the truck provided I could see
over the heads of the crowd and spotted the bottleneck.  Not more than a block
in front of us were two cops with half a dozen men standing behind them.  They
had blocked the road and seemed to be looking for someone as they would
occasionally pull a person out of the crowd and send them to stand in a parking
lot next to the road.  Was this really the right time to be doing this?

“Notice anything wrong with this picture?”  Rachel asked.

I looked at the crowd, the cops and their helpers, but
didn’t see anything. 

“Look at the parking lot,” Rachel said, exasperation clear
in her voice.

I looked where she indicated and got pissed off all over
again.  Every person in the parking lot was female, and from here they all
looked fairly young and attractive.  You’ve got to be kidding me.  These guys
were that brazen?  Movement at the roadblock drew my attention and I watched a
pickup drive up behind them.  Two men got out and ran up to the ones manning
the roadblock where they started having an animated conversation.  There was
lots of arm waving and then one of the new arrivals started pointing in our
direction. 

There’s two ways to deal with people like this.  You can try
to avoid them and get on with your day, or you can confront them head on and
hurt them bad enough that they decide to run away.  Avoiding bullies isn’t in
my DNA.  I don’t like them and quite honestly, in my day, have had some fun
putting bullies in their place. 

“I’m going to put a stop to this.  Are you with us?”  I
asked Melanie.

“Yes.”  She answered with a frown on her face.  “But I don’t
think it’s going to work to try to arrest them.”

“Arresting isn’t what I have in mind.”  I answered.  I had
Rachel give her one of the pistols we’d taken off the men we’d killed outside
the warehouse.  I was kicking myself for not having brought the shotgun, but it
got left behind when we traded the Nissan for the deuce-and-a-half.

“Melanie, the days of civil obedience to the law are over. 
Not only do we need to get past these guys to get to the train, I don’t like
what they’re doing.  You’re right about arresting them not working.  You know
what the alternative is, but let me be very clear.  If they aren’t willing to
just walk away there’s going to be blood.  There’s going to be bodies on the
ground.  Are you OK with that, or do you want to get out here?”  I looked
across the cab at her, Rachel turning to gauge her reaction as well.

She looked back at us for a moment, turned to look at what
was going on at the road block then made up her mind.

“I’m in.  Let’s stop these fuckers.”

I had Rachel and Mel, she liked the shortened version of her
name, climb into the back of the truck then slipped behind the wheel.  A quick
check of my weapons and I was ready to go.  Sounding the truck’s air horn I
revved the big diesel and let the clutch out just enough to cause the truck to
start rolling.  Slowly the crowd parted, frightened and angry faces looking up
at me as I pushed through.  It took a couple of minutes to make it to the road
block.  Arriving, I intentionally kept the truck rolling when the two uniformed
cops stepped in front of it with their hands raised for me to stop.  There was
a moment when I thought they were actually going to keep standing there until
the massive front bumper bulled them aside, but at the last second they both
jumped back with angry shouts.

Introduction complete I knocked the shifter into neutral,
set the parking brake and hopped down to the ground with Dog on my heels.  The
two cops were already striding towards the driver’s side of the truck, the
anger obvious on their faces, and I stood waiting for them.  My rifle was slung
on the front of my body, my right hand resting on the pistol grip.  They came
charging around the front of the truck and saw me standing there with Dog.  One
of them faltered when he saw us, but the other kept right on coming.  He had
his baton in his left hand, gripping it tightly as he advanced.

“What the hell is going on here, officer?”  I barked out in
my best military growl.  I was going to give them a chance to get out of this
in one piece.

“You’re under arrest,” he answered, face florid from his
anger.  “Take those weapons off and get on your knees.” 

He was an arm’s length in front of me and had come to a
stop.  He was big and beefy, and probably fairly strong, but he was used to his
size and the uniform intimidating people.  I was going to have to disappoint
him.

“Officer, I know what you’re doing here.  Now this can go
two ways.  You and your buddies get in your vehicles and drive away, without
those women you’ve pulled out of the crowd.”  He stood staring at me and I
could see the wheels turning.  We stayed like that, frozen, staring each other
down for nearly half a minute.

“You said two ways.”  I knew he would have to ask.

“You won’t like the second option.  It involves pain, and
probably not very many of you living for more than the next couple of
minutes.”  Now I’m not one of those guys that likes to threaten.  It’s always
seemed like a waste of time to me to talk about what I’m going to do before I
do it, but I was playing to my audience and had a goal in mind.

I saw the flicker of uncertainty pass across his face then he
looked around to make sure the other men still had his back.  Just as I’d
hoped, they’d moved in tighter to be able to hear the conversation.  They had
bunched up when they should have stayed spread out.  I let a smile spread
across my face, knowing I must look rather fearsome with blood still running
down the side of my head from the wounds I had taken fighting the female
infected in the warehouse.  Some people, however, have either lost the inner
lizard brain that tells them they are in mortal danger, or they choose to
ignore it.  Whatever the case was with him, he made the final mistake of his
life when he reached forward to grab my vest.

Instead of pulling away I stepped into his reach, grasped
his hand, twisted his arm until his palm was facing him and snapped his wrist. 
I didn’t let go, hanging on tight as I drew my pistol, pressed the muzzle to
his forehead and pulled the trigger.  If I had still had the .45 I’d acquired
in Atlanta the round would have blown a hole out of the back of his head and
hit one of his friends, but the lower powered 9 mm hollow point stayed inside
his skull.  Either way he was dead, the body dropping to the ground.

After I pulled the trigger there was a moment of absolute
silence, from his buddies as well as the crowd pressed up at my back.  I kept
the pistol up and pointed at the face of the second cop who was less than ten
feet away.  The silence stretched until one of the men at the edge of the group
started to reach for his pistol.  I caught the movement out of the corner of my
eye but before I could react Dog snarled and attacked.  They fell to the
ground, the man screaming as Dog clamped down on his wrist.  The man next to
him turned and started to raise his shotgun in Dog’s direction, but a shot from
behind me sounded and he kept spinning around and fell to the ground with a
gout of blood from a bullet hole in his neck. 

Everyone else froze again, staring over my shoulder.  I knew
they were looking at Rachel as the shot I’d heard had been her suppressed
rifle, not the pistol Mel was carrying.  I called Dog off, figuring the man was
now too chewed up to use that hand for anything.  Dog gave another snarl then
released his hold and trotted over to stand a couple of feet to my side, facing
the group with bloody fangs showing.  None of them moved.

“Last chance,” I said.  “Lay your weapons on the ground and
leave, or more of you are going to die.”

The group stood and stared at me, some of them frightened
and some angry.  It was the angry ones I had to watch and a moment later there
was movement at the back of the group as one of them who had been staring at me
with clenched teeth raised his rifle in my direction.  I didn’t have a shot but
a loud pistol spoke from the right side of the truck and he dropped dead into a
large puddle of water.

That was enough for the rest of the group.  At first only
one of them bent forward to lay his rifle on the ground, but that was like a
dam breaking and soon they all disarmed themselves and started backing away
towards their vehicles with hands up and empty.  As the distance opened up I
quickly holstered my pistol and raised the rifle to cover their retreat.  In
less than a minute all of them had piled into their vehicles and sped off with
lots of tire spinning on the wet asphalt.  When the last vehicle turned a
corner and drove out of sight, I lowered my rifle and looked around.  Meeting Mel’s
eyes I nodded my thanks even though she looked a little green around the gills.

“That’s the first time I’ve ever shot another person.”  She
said.

“You didn’t shoot a person, you saved me.”  I said.  I
remembered my first time and knew there wasn’t anything more I could say to
help her work through the emotions she was dealing with right now.  Looking
around for Rachel I found her at the back of the truck with a large portion of
the crowd surrounding her.  She was explaining to the people what was going on
and the women in the back of the truck had pulled the canvas flaps open and
were looking out at the crowd as Rachel spoke.  This was all nice, but we had a
train to catch.  I turned to ask Mel where the station was but she had already
walked over to the women in the parking lot.  Several of them were crying and
hugging her. 

Glancing at my new watch I wasn’t happy to see it was 2300. 
We had an hour.  Assuming the train actually waited until midnight to leave. 
Assuming it could.  What if the infected were moving faster than expected?  It
had been hours since I’d heard the midnight timeframe on the radio and as much
as anyone I knew how fluid things could get when trying to evacuate ahead of a
battle.  For all I knew the last train could have pulled out already and we
were about to be royally screwed by a few million pissed off infected.  Time to
move.

Shouting for Rachel and Mel, I waved Dog up into the cab,
turning my head when a hand grabbed my arm.  It was a young boy, actually a
teenager though still in his early teens.  “Please help me.  My brothers and I
are trying to get my dad to the train but I don’t think we’re gonna make it.”

I looked down at him and initially thought about telling him
I had other responsibilities and couldn’t help everyone, but something made me
rethink.  I don’t know why.  I generally have a pretty hard heart, or at least
I think I do.  Katie, my wife, tells me I’m just a big, dangerous teddy bear
that wouldn’t hurt a fly unless it pissed me off first.  Maybe she’s right. 
She usually is.

“Where’s your dad, son?”  Rachel walked up and stood there
listening. 

“He’s at the back of the crowd with my two brothers.  Thank
you!”  The look of relief on the boy’s face was obvious as he turned to lead me
to his dad.  Mel walked up, leading the group of women that had been pulled
aside and I told her to stay with the truck which was still idling and in this
situation would even tempt the Pope to hop in and take off.  She nodded and
Rachel and I set off through the crowd that was now starting to flow forward
towards the train.

I followed the boy, pushing through the crowd as people
rushed forward with whatever possessions they couldn’t leave behind.  They had
them piled in shopping carts, garden wagons, wheelbarrows, anything with
wheels.  I wasn’t sure but I doubted any of them would be allowed to bring their
stuff with them onto the train.  This wasn’t a pleasure trip.

As the crowd began to thin towards the rear I could see two
larger boys, both in their late teens, standing to either side of a man close
to my age who was sitting in a wheel chair.  Next to them a tall pile of hard
sided equipment cases were strapped to a two wheeled cart.  The man was
shifting side to side in the chair, trying to see through the crowd, his face
lighting up in a smile when he saw his boy.  Rachel and I trotted towards the small
group, arriving a moment after the boy who’d asked me for help.

“Your boy asked for help,” I said by way of introduction. 
“We’ve got a truck and can get you in it for the rest of the way to the
train.”  I waved for them to follow me but skidded to a stop when the man
spoke.

“Thank you for your help.  I was ready to send my boys on
without me so they could get out.”  I knew that voice, and the way Rachel
stopped she did to.

“You’re Max!”  Rachel exclaimed.  He grinned at her and
nodded.

“Yes I am, pretty lady.  I take it you’ve heard one of my
broadcasts.”

“More than one, and thank you for doing that.  Now, we’ve
got to haul ass.”  I spoke up before Rachel could start a conversation that we
didn’t have time for.

Turning, I started jogging back to the truck.  Most of the
crowd had moved on and the road was fairly open.  One of the older boys pushed
Max’s chair, matching my pace while the youngest one drug the wheeled cart of
cases, which I now assumed was Max’s radio setup.  The other boy was armed with
a rifle and he stayed behind them, keeping the rear safe. 

We made it to the truck quickly, Mel standing by the open
driver’s door waiting for us with the pistol in her hand.  I ran up to the back
of the truck, unhooked and dropped the tailgate.  With the tailgate down, the
floor of the cargo area was four feet off the ground and it took me helping
Max’s two older boys to lift him in his chair up high enough to clear the lip. 
Several of the women who had stayed in the truck reached out and grabbed the chair,
pulling Max safely into the cargo area.  The radio equipment was lifted up next,
then the three boys scrambled aboard.  Tailgate secured, Rachel and I joined Mel
at the cab and moments later we were rolling again.

We drove for nearly four more miles, passing everyone that
had been in the crowd but were now jogging or walking as fast as they could to
the station.  We passed a couple of families and I slowed at tearful pleas from
two mothers who ran alongside and handed small children up to the women in the
back of the truck.  Fuck me, this sucked.