“What, I can do either. I have driven the Rubicon and Telluride courses in my Jeep Wrangler so driving wouldn’t be a problem. Bring it on.” The team’s eyes went wide, and they looked at each other.
“Oookay, Dr. Costa, you are with me. Neville and Shin, you are in the other,” Webb directed.
Dr. Costa looked at the rest of the guys, “We really need to get rid of this Dr. Costa, shit. My name is Isabelle, but my friends call me Izzy.”
“Check the vehicles and make sure you have ammo and are ready to go.” The team accessed the armory to gain ammunition and ready the M24’s mounted on the Humvees. They then assembled around Webb’s Humvee with a map spread out on the hood.
“Here’s the OP. Izzy, you and I will take the lead. We will roll right up to the larger mass in front of the gate, fire on the infected, and attempt to draw them away. Neville and Shin, you come in from the west side and flank the horde. Hopefully, we will catch them in a crossfire and thin out a significant amount of that damn herd. Do not let yourself get trapped or bogged down by the mass of numbers. Stay on the fringes of the crowd, keep your distance and pick off as many as you can. We will assess later on into the OP. Questions?”
Dr. Costa had traded in her skirt and blouse for ACV’s. She was fit, which Webb had no problem noticing. She had knuckle reinforced gloves and looked like she was ready to kick some serious ass. Webb gave her a thumbs up and she smiled at him as they all loaded up and moved out toward the HQ building.
CHAPTER 21
The infected were constantly jumping against the barrier, trying to grab at the soldiers. Their ammo was running low, so the order had gone out to only fire on any immediate threat. Other than that, the soldiers were to just observe and report any issues. Their morale was lower than the remaining ammo, and desperation was setting in.
In the early morning darkness, the soldiers on top of the barrier heard automatic fire in the distance. The recognizable sound of an M24 was heard coming out of the morning gloom, followed by a Humvee unloading .50 caliber rounds into the mass of horror raging at the gate.
The red tracers looked like flaming arrows as they slammed into the agitated crowd. Appendages were torn off; bodies were shredded and blood spewed everywhere like water out of a garden hose.
Izzy drove straight at the large accumulation of infected while Webb rained .50 cal projectile death on the horde. A barrage of rounds didn’t stop and ripped through multiple bodies, removing larger and larger chunks of flesh and tissue as it traveled unmercifully through the throng of infected.
The infected switched their attention and turned and advance toward the approaching Humvee. The horde moved closer, so Izzy turned and drove parallel with the crowd, while Webb sent burst after burst of lead into them. Toward the end of the HQ compound, Izzy turned left and drove at a 90-degree angle from the line of infected. They followed her and Webb just as the Team had planned.
Neville and Shin’s Humvee appeared out of the dimness to the west and came toward the barrier wall. Trying to peel off the back of the group, Neville opened up with his M24 and began decimating the crowd of infected.
Shin had to keep moving as not to lose momentum due to the amount of bodies, viscera and blood that had accumulated in front of HQ and mixed with the mud. The ground was so slick the four-wheel drive spun the Humvee’s tires and the vehicle was fish tailing. Rooster tails of blood and mud shot out from the tires, which reminded Neville of times back in Louisiana when he and his friends went mud bogging down in the bayou.
The crossfire between the two vehicles was eliminating scores of the infected as Webb and Neville continued firing. As the chaos was mounting to an incredible level, a truck horn blasted in the distance and headlights illuminating came from the east at a top rate of speed.
“Maybe this is another team coming to help eliminate these fucks?” Webb shouted in his squad comms. “Izzy, take us toward that truck so see can see who we are dealing with.”
“Copy that,” she replied.
As part of her uniform, the team made sure they gave her a squad comm rig so Webb could communicate with her. Izzy steered in the truck’s direction, which was still a couple hundred yards away. The truck seemed to notice the Humvee and changed its direction to meet up with them. “Shin, continue with what you’re doing and take out as many as you can. We’ll meet up with this truck and report back.”
“Copy, Captain.”
Izzy and Webb continued on their course toward the truck as it continued to blast its horn. As the two vehicles came closer to one another, Webb saw people hanging off the side of the truck. The erratic way the truck was being driven reminded him of the police car they encounte
red earlier driven by the infected. “Izzy, pull off and head back toward HQ. Something tells me this truck isn’t friendly.”
“Copy.” Izzy pulled a hard “U” and took off back the way they came. The truck still heading toward them was an US Army-5 ton, which was a good size hunk of steel and horsepower bearing down on them.
Webb could see clearly now that the truck filled with infected. A dozen were hanging off the side, screaming and brandishing homemade weapons from table legs to car parts. They had patterns draw on their bodies with blood and displayed multiple wounds. It was a sight of nightmares with the truck screaming towards them and the frenzied infected hanging off of it.
Webb turned the .50 cal toward the truck and squeezed the paddles to fire, but clicked after firing several rounds. “Fuck,” he yelled. “Reloading… Izzy, get them off our ass.”
“Hold on to your pelotas.” Izzy steered the Humvee toward a line of trees off to their left. The pine trees were space apart and used for accenting a property line. She blasted through two of the trees that was such a tight squeeze, she clipped the outside mirrors.
“Jesus Christ, Izzy.”
“I got this, I got this.” The truck, being too large to fit, swerved to the left so it could go around the line of trees.
Webb was having a hard time get the .50 cal reloaded, but Izzy was doing a fine job creating distance between them and the 5-ton. This came at a price of jerking Webb from left to right, back to front and almost launching Webb right out of the turret. A close explosion to his right jolted thoughts from his mind.
“What the fuck?” Webb could feel the heat and heard shrapnel wiz past his head. He looked up and witnessed one of the infected who was hanging off the side, throw a small ball-type thing at them. Another explosion rocked them, this time to their rear. “Mother fucker! Where did they get fucking grenades?”
Webb was hot and now he was fully loaded. “Get ready for the pain, shitheads!” Webb wrenched back the charging handle and grinned as he depressed the handles. Chunk, chunk, chunk, chunk. The tracers lit a streaking red path across the darkness as the rounds slammed into bodies and machine.