“Ok, Shaw. It’s up to you. See if you can take them out.”
“I’ll give it a go,” Shaw replied. He had one hand holding up his binos to his eyes and the other hand on the detonator. He watched as the truck got near the first C4 mound and he depressed the trigger. BABOOM!!! The C4 detonated with a huge spray of dirt and cloud of smoke. The projectiles could be seen penetrating bodies and embedding into the truck. A couple of tires popped from the nails, but didn’t slow the truck too much. Dozens of infected on either side of the truck went down, but the truck kept coming.
The last explosion caused the following two trucks to steer wide on the left and right to avoid the explosions. Shaw saw the course correction and cursed. “Yeah, these infected aren’t acting like the others.”
The front truck was already committed to its course and couldn’t change. The other two changed their paths to go around the explosive mounds.
Shaw called on Webb, “Switching to the M48 to take these trucks out. I need you to man these detonators.”
“On my way,” Webb replied. He ran over just as Shaw opened up with the M48. He concentrated on the lead truck, trying to put it out of commission. The .50 cal rounds rained all over the truck, taking out chunks of metal and infected. The driver and passenger were eliminated, and the truck lost direction. It drove directly over one of the C4 mounds and Webb pulled the trigger on the detonator. Whoom! The force of the explosion lifted the driver’s side of the truck off the ground and it tipped over on its side. The fuel tank was also hit with shrapnel and was punctured. Fuel was leaking out all over the ground.
Lia witnessed the whole thing and now targeted the fuel tank. Meanwhile, the infected were crawling out of the bed of the truck. A bunch made it to the ground and stood up to run and attack when, WHOOM! The truck went up from a shot Lia put in the fuel tank. It blew the infected around the truck off their feet. The next second, dozens of figures were stumbling around and on fire. It looked like a bunch of match sticks dancing around. It also blew a dozen that had come upon the truck as it wrecked off their feet, but escaped the flames. The other two trucks were coming up the east and westbound lanes of Rt 421.
Webb surveyed the scene as it unfolded in front of him. The rest of the ordnance could take out the rest of the infected who were on foot, but it would do nothing to the two trucks coming up each side of the highway.
Webb turned to Shaw, “Guess we will have to take these things out, old school.”
Shaw chuckles, “That’s fine by me.” He rotated his M48 to send rounds toward the truck coming east. He immediately took out the driver and passenger, which sent the truck careening off the road and into the woods on the south side of the highway. The truck plowed into a couple large trees and stopped. You could hear the infected in the truck bed bouncing off the sides of the metal walls.
Shaw and Webb laughed as they looked at one another. The infected scrambled out of the truck and running for the two. Shaw opened up and Webb shouldered his M4, putting three-round bursts together. They dispatched the couple dozen infected in a couple minutes.
The truck coming west on the highway was coming in hot. Lia was taking shots at the windshield, trying to take out the driver, while Izzy and Allison were aiming at its tires to slow the truck down. The truck was getting close to Lia’s strategic firing point.
A couple well-placed shots exploded the front tires of the truck, sending it lurching to one side. The truck flipped, and it crashed into the north side of the woods. Izzy and Allison started celebrating until they realized the truck crashed right into the wood line where Lia and her tree stand were. Allison pushed on her comms, “Shaw, Captain Webb, that truck wrecked right where Lia is.”
“Shit!” voiced Webb.
“You finish the rest of these fuckers, I’m going to help Lia.”
Shaw nodded and went back to work. Webb jumped over the berm and ran toward the wrecked truck. Allison and Izzy were right behind him. The infected that were in the dump bed came pouring out from around the back end of the truck.
“Take them out!” Webb yelled.
Lia saw the truck flip over and head right for the tree she was in. She scrambled to jump out of the stand, but it was too late. The truck hit the tree and propelled her a distance into the woods. She hit a few branches with the back of her head as she tumbled in the air before it knocked out her.
Moments later Lia stirred and heard sounds in her darkness. They weren’t cheerful sounds either and developed clarity. There were screams, shouts and gunfire. She thought she heard her name but wasn’t sure with all the noise and her cloudy state. As she opened her eyes, she was looking up at the sky and lying on her back. She sat up, then felt the wave of dizziness wash over her. She eased back down for a second and tried to make out the sounds she was hearing. She shook the cobwebs from her mind and starting to get up. A searing pain radiated from her leg and she let out a cry.
Lia looked down to see a seedling tree, about an inch in diameter, protruding out of her thigh. Blood was pooling all around it and it had her impaled to the forest floor. She grabbed the small seeding tree to snap it off, but the pain was excruciating and it was too thick. The pain made her see little starbursts. She then looked around to make sense of where she was. In front of her to the right, she could see the wrecked truck wedged against some trees, lying on its side. The top of the truck was facing her and she could see that the dump bed was empty except for two infected that had gotten caught between the side of the truck bed and a couple of trees. One was wedged hanging in the air and was almost cut completely in half. Its upper body was smashed into the trees and just hanging there. Its bottom half was hanging close to the ground with a trail of intestines connecting the two halves. Blood and other fluid, Lia couldn’t make out, was trickling down onto the ground. The sight was disgusting, but the accompanying smell was even worse. The second infected had its hips and legs wedged in a “V” from a splitting tree trunk. The top half must have fallen to the ground after the crash.
Lia knew things would not get better unless she called out for help. She called for anyone of the team and then was quiet to hear a reply. She thought she heard someone repeat her name. Was that Webb?
“I’m here. I’m hurt and cannot move,” she yelled. She heard voices telling her they were coming for her. She allowed herself a slight release of anxiety, but couldn’t let everything go because of the pain she was in. She heard rustling to her right and looked over to see no one coming. She called out for Webb, for Allison and for Izzy, with no response. She heard rustling again, but still saw no one coming. She cocked her head to locate where the sounds were coming from. She heard it once again, and this time saw some ground brush move to her front left. She called out to whoever it was once again. The rustling was still 10 yards away.
A figure slid out from the brush. It was one of the infected, well half of one of the infected. It was crawling on the ground, using its arms at the elbows. The entire lower half of its body was gone. Only scraps of flesh were dragging behind it like some kind of macabre cape. Its intestines and spine were also trailing behind the creature. It locked eyes on Lia and then hurried its effort to reach her.
Lia screamed and panicked. She heard voices calling for her, but they still seemed too far away. She reached down to her other thigh to pull her pistol, but felt that her holster was empty. She looked down and could not locate it.
Fear gripped her, and she thrashed around in panic, which brought waves of pain and threatened to cause her to pass out. As the thing continued to crawl closer, Lia thrashed around harder which brought more pain. As pain racked her body, it took over her headspace, pushing the fear away. She embraced the pain, which manifested into anger.
The anger consumed her, and she felt extreme hate for this thing. Her mind cleared the panic and the need to fight took over. With her mind somewhat clear, she reached down to her boot and withdrew her back up knife. She was now egging the thing on to come closer.
She was screaming at the top of her lungs, “Come on fucker, come on!” The infected crawler had now come close enough for Lia to strike. She shot out her blade, which raked across the side of its head, skipping off the skull and toward the thing’s face. She didn’t just wait there to see what damage she caused. She continued to strike out again and again, growling like an animal. She eventually caught it in the side of the head by the ear and felt her blade sink in. She heard more rustling, but kept plunging the blade into its skull. With her last stab, she looked up to see Webb coming through the shrubs toward her. He looked surprised when he saw her plunge the blade into the infected’s skull for the last time.
“Holy shit, girl. You got it. Are you okay, Lia?” Webb asked and then looked down to see the stick protruding through her thigh.
“Shit! Izzy, we need you over here! Bring the med bag!” He bent down to assess the damage.
She looked at him, “I can move my toes and bend at the knee, so I’m good to go there.”