They were rolling down Rt 69 and approaching Indianapolis, as they had planned to say out of downtown and take the beltway around. They had had no communication in the last 24 hours, either with their team or command. Stopping just outside of the city limits to top off with fuel.
“Ok Shaw, take it easy. We have to navigate some of these roads, as we enter populated areas, potential road blocks from abandoned cars are likely.” The route around Indianapolis was uneventful. There were a few cars piled-up they had to navigate, multiple sightings of infected who were a little distance away but posed no threat.
They made the decision that Franklin, Indiana, would be a fit place to refuel. The truck wasn’t the most fuel efficient, but it made up for that in utility. Two traffic pile-ups they encountered required them to detour off-road, which wasn’t a problem. The huge 5-foot tires, the 4-wheel drive and the weight of the vehicle enabled it to run right through the ditches and mud. Priest had to admit he was impressed with the vehicle, and Tug had an enormous grin on his face during the sloppy detours.
As they came down Rt. 65, they could see a roadblock ahead. Shaw spit a glob of tobacco juice out the window, “You see that, Sarge?”
“Yeah, hold on.” Priest gets his bino’s and looked. “Well, it looks like a bunch of rednecks have blocked the road. I don’t know what their intentions are, but be ready in case they get stupid. They could take advantage of the evacuation and trying to rob everyone coming through here, or they could be legitimately trying to steer people away from harm. Seeing how we don’t know what is going on further south, these guys might offer us some decent information. Proceed slowly and we’ll see how they react, but be on your toes.” Doc and Tug checked their weapons, with Shaw and Priest doing the same. They were approximately a half mile away and Priest trained his binoculars back on them.
“They don’t appear infected, but they can’t seem to stand still. The boys are looking a little fidgety.” As the team grew closer, the men at the roadblock leveled all their rifles at them.
Priest looked back, “Allison, get on the floor just in case the shit hits the fan.” The vehicle had a loudspeaker, so Priest keyed it, ”We are with the US Army Special Operations on our way to Fort Campbell. Please lower your weapons and we will pass through nice and easy.”
Priest lifted the binoculars back up to his face and gave the Team a play-by-play. “Ok, they are looking at each other a little confused and seem to argue about what to do. Looking at the surrounding area, I see some stuff thrown around the area like bags, suitcases, clothes and such. I don’t think all that shit is theirs, so we could be heading into a shakedown roadblock. They haven’t lowered their weapons either.”
Priest keyed the loudspeaker again, “Please lower your weapons and allow us to through and we will be out of your hair in no time.” One man took a shot, and it ricocheted off the metal frame on the front of the vehicle. “Well, that was rude. Shaw, my good man, would you be so kind as to ram through that mother fucker? We really don’t have time for this shit.”
With a huge shit-eating grin on his face, Shaw sped up and got the truck up to speed.
Priest turned back, “Get ready for impact and stay down as much as possible.” Priest took one more look through t
he binoculars.
The men took up their positions behind their truck. “Horrible place to stand,” Priest thought. Shots peppered the vehicle, but none of the shots seem to be very accurate.
Shaw started giggling like a maniac, which made Priest take a quick look at him just to make sure he wasn’t infected.
“Ramming speed!” Shaw yelled. It took the men at the roadblock too long to realize that the vehicle approaching them would not stop. They tried to jump out of the way or run down the ditches on each side of the road, but most were a day late and a dollar short as the old saying goes.
Shaw plowed through the middle of the two pickups they had blocked the road with, causing them to spin out of the way and the one on the right to flip over. Two men got dragged underneath the spinning pickups and the front of the truck struck another man trying to run. The crumpled front launched the man into the air and into the ditch, while another man became wedged underneath as the front tire slid across his body. The tire flayed him open, taking half his skin with it. His entrails spilled out as it pressed him into two separate pieces.
One truck flipped and landed on top of one of the fleeing men. The side of the truck ground his body and face into the ground, decapitating him. Another other man was pinned under the truck when it stopped rolling.
Shaw stopped the truck and Priest walked over to the pinned man, screaming in pain. “Give me a perimeter while I talk to this gentleman, “All right, all right, calm down.”
“You almost cut me in half, you fuck!”
“Well, I tried to be nice before and you shitheads got stupid. So, what is going on in this area as far as the infected?” The man just kept screaming and cussing them. Priest stood up, shook his head and pulled his Walther PPQ. “This guy is worthless.” Finger, trigger, bam. The screaming finally stopped, and he walked over to verify the rest of the men were dead. The last man on the right side, launched by one of the spinning trucks was still moving, so Priest walked over to him.
“My back is broke and I can’t move. Help me.” Priest kneeled down to get closer to the man.
“How would you like me to do that?”
“Kill me.”
“Well, no problem there, but I will need something from you first.”
The man groaned, “What?”. Still in excruciating pain.
“What is the infected situation farther south?”
“We-we are from Columbus, that’s a-about 20 miles south of here.” Distant pounding and muffled voices yelling for help interrupted their conversation.
Priest turned his head to the direction of the noise, “Shaw, Doc, go check that out.”
The two listened to see where the noise was coming from and followed it to a batch of trees a hundred yards from the highway. Parked in a clump of trees was a white box truck, and the pounding seemed to come from the back. The truck was strategically placed as to not be viewed from the highway.
“Could be an ambush, so let’s go nice and easy,” Shaw said. They scanned around for any potential hiding spots, but came up empty. Doc creeped up to the back of the truck and saw there was a combination lock on it.