“Neville, swap targets,” Shaw yelled. Neville instantly pivoted to target the men who were sitting up from being launched out of the truck bed. One man who was holding his arm, which was bent at an unnatural angle, received a round in the left cheekbone that exited the right side of his head. Half his face exited with the round. Another man lost his throat and half of his neck. Blood spurted out of his ravaged neck as he fell to the ground.
Meanwhile, Shaw had focused his fire on the last remaining truck. The men in the window seats were trying to pull out their rifles to get shots off and were failing miserably. Their shots were wildly off target, but their truck navigated through the ditch in the median.
As they can up on the highway, Shaw shifted his aim to the rear of the truck to take out the back tire. He concentrated fire toward the rear, punctured the gas tank. After a couple seconds and a few rounds, BABOOM! The entire truck went up like a fireball and it launched bodies into the air, looking like Molotov cocktails.
Fire flashed through the truck cab like a back draft and it engulfed all the men inside instantly as they struggled to exit the vehicle. The bodies finally started pouring out as their faces were melting because of the intense heat. They escaped the truck only to have their liberation short lived as Shaw cut them down one by one.
Priest could feel the heat on the back of his neck from the truck exploding, but he didn’t take his eyes off of the approaching threat. The two other trucks were about a ¼ mile away when he saw movement behind them. A smile crept on his face, “Right on time,” he said to himself. “Shaw, Neville, are you girls done playing around back there, we have company of a unique sort.”
“Damn Sarge, I’m getting seasick from all this pivoting around,” Neville joked. He scoped down the highway. “Is that the Captain coming?”
“It sure is,” Priest responded.
“So, you knew they would send multiple troops from multiple directions during different times?”
“I didn’t know, but I assume and planned for it just in case. I gave these guys the benefit of the doubt and expected them to send their people in waves. That’s why I radioed the Captain at the time I did. Hopefully giving it enough time for the last wave of these guys to start and our guys come in behind them.
“Father to Spider, do you copy?”
“Go ahead, Father.”
“Spider, eliminate those two trucks just ahead of you. They are unfriendlies.”
“Copy that.” Around Priest, Shaw and Neville all was silent except for the crackling of the car-b-que that Shaw had lit off. The gun fire from the approaching Jeep was heard. Webb and Lia were firing upon the two trucks coming toward Priest’s team.
“Shaw, hold your fire but Neville, you can engage if you can put rounds on the target and not into Webb’s Jeep.”
“Understood, Sarge,” Neville acknowledged. Neville sighted on one of the two trucks. He saw the driver looking back to see where Webb was and that’s when he put a round in the side of his temple. As with all the others, his blood and brain matter splattered onto the face of the passenger. He freaked out and didn’t grab the wheel as the driver slumped over toward him.
The truck careened out of control and bounced off the guardrail, then launched into the median and nosedived in a washout ditch. The abrupt stop catapulted most of the occupants out through the front windshield. Some of them hit the grass and bounced twice, while others hit the pavement and left parts behind on the blacktop.
Scraps of flesh and smears of blood were seen for 50 yards. Captain Webb’s team finished
any others who survived the guardrail crash. After seeing the destruction of their friends, brothers, sons and fathers, the remaining truck turned tail and ran, heading west. Webb’s Jeep arrived at Priest’s location.
“You know to throw a party!” Webb said.
“Don’t I know it!” Priest responded. “Thanks for showing up, I had a feeling these knuckleheads would try something.”
“Yeah, we arrived just in time.” Priest was getting ready to answer when Neville spoke up,
“Sarge, that truck is coming back this way.”
“What? Are they stupid? We’ll shred them to bits.”
Still sighting through his scope, Neville answered, “Ahh, I know why.”
“You plan on letting us in on it?”
“There is a large horde chasing right after them.”
“What is large?” Priest asked.
“Quick guess, I’d say a couple thousand.”
“Fuck, are you serious?” Webb got out of his Jeep and he and Priest pulled out their binos for a look.
“Holee shit! There are tons of them.” Priest looked at Webb.