“What are all you people doing up there?” Priest could feel things would go south, eventually.
“Well, that would be our business, but is there something we can do for you?”
“You can start by not givin’ me no sass and answer my fucking questions.” Yep, this was escalating, Priest thought. Although the thought didn’t really bother him in the slightest.
“Neville, what do you got?” Priest said softly.
“Same as before, and I have seen no one reaching for a weapon. They are just sitting there right now.”
“If shit jumps off, you take out the passenger. He’s young and looks like he may have an itchy trigger finger.”
“Got it Sarge.”
Priest turned his attention back to the driver. “We’ll answer questions, as long as it has nothing to do with what we are doing at the facility.”
“All righty then. Who are you fellas?”
“I’m Master Sargent Alex Priest from the US Army and with me is SSG Jeremiah Shaw and Sargent Renaldo Neville.”
“Well now, you boys sound mighty important. Where is your military vehicles and all that? That Jeep there don’t look like no military vehicle.”
“We were flying on a Black Hawk, but when we stopped for fuel, a bunch of infected in a fire truck destroyed it. Then we were on foot until we repurposed two Jeeps.”
“Hmm, that sounds like the truth, but there is only one problem. You boys “repurposed” trucks out of my town. That’s what we call stealing.”
“Ok, let’s cut to the chase here because we have things to do. What exactly is it you want?”
“I am fixin’ to hurt you 20 ways to Sunday if I don’t get my trucks back.”
“Sorry Sir, but that will not happen.” The driver and passenger raised their rifles.
Priest said quietly, “Neville, passenger.” No more did Priest say it. Then you heard the report of the rifle, see the passenger’s head snap back and fall to the ground. The driver looked over at his buddy and was in total shock. He ran over to him, knelt down and cradled what was left of the young man’s head.
“You shot my boy, mother fuckers. You shot my boy!” Sorrow and anger racked the driver as he held his boy in his lap. By now, the two in the back of the crew cab and the four in the truck behind it got out to see what was going on. The guys from the second truck looked down at the father and son on the ground and showed confusion about what had just happened.
“Get your people together and go on home.” Priest said in a calm tone.
The father looked up with rage in his eyes, “You fuckers will pay for this. Pay in blood!” The driver looked at his guys and nodded. They brought their weapons up.
“Shaw!” Priest yelled and then dove behind the Jeep. Shaw let loose and sent round after round of .50 cal into the group standing out in the open. Just then three trucks came from the opposite direction with the beds full of men with rifles.
“Damn, and there they are. They are attempting a Pincher Movement.” Shaw and Neville pivoted to engage the 3 trucks coming from the east. Priest rushed around to the front of the Jeep while Shaw and Neville took on the additional threat.
Neville sniped the first driver as he was coming over the median. With the driver out of commission, the truck couldn’t navigate the ditch in the middle of the median and the passenger side front tire dug deep into the ditch. With the forward momentum suddenly stopped, the truck dug in and tipped over.
The men in the bed were yelling as the truck tilted over. They tried to jump out far enough to avoid being rolled over on and most didn’t make it. As the men jumped, the side of the bed rolled over pinning them to the ground. One guy who was slower than the rest was pinned down by his neck.
The passenger in the front didn’t have his seatbelt on and the upper half of his body was ejected out the window as his body became trapped under the truck. The other trucks swerved around the lead truck to continue the assault.
As Priest had made it around the front of the Jeep, he thought to himself, “if I were planning this then I would expect someone else to… he trailed off. “And there they are.” Priest saw another two trucks coming from the direction they had originally come. “Hmm, these guys are smarter than I gave them credit for,” Priest thought to himself.
Shaw was firing on the second truck that had swerved out to the left of the lead truck to prevent from crashing into it. He raked the front windshield and could see at that the driver and passenger were now dead. Their brains and blood covered the back window and the men’s faces sitting behind them.
There was so much blood that Shaw couldn’t tell if the blood on their faces was from the heads in the front seat or their own. It didn’t much matter, because Shaw kept firing on those in the back seat and through to the men in the truck bed.
This truck was coming in much faster than the lead truck had, and when it hit the ditch, it rolled over multiple times. The men in the bed were thrown out, and the truck rolled over them. Their bodies were more like meat bags than recognizable humans.
The truck came to stop with what looked like rag dolls flopping around inside. Those who were flung out of the bed and lived were shocked and confused, trying to sit up and gain their bearings.