Crucifixion - 02 (10 page)

I fought with the stuck round for what seemed forever,
finally prying it free and tossing it away.  Pulling the charging handle I was
happy to hear the bolt cycle completely, brought the rifle back up, sighted on
the approaching infected and pulled the trigger.  Nothing.  Damn it!  Grabbing
the charging handle I pulled it, heard the ejected round hit the ground, let it
go and it slammed home.  Sighted again on the infected that was getting a
little too close, pulled the trigger and… nothing.  The infected was now less
than 20 yards away and the rest of the small herd was right on his heels.  I
thought about going to my pistol, but I was hesitant to fire a weapon that
wasn’t suppressed.  I didn’t know how many more infected might be in the area
that would zero in on the noise, let alone whether or not there were females
roaming the woods.  I also had to think about the ambushers as well as the
people in the camp we were trying to protect.  I didn’t have time to reflect on
the irony of trying to protect people that might want to try and capture or
kill me. 

Placing the malfunctioning rifle on the ground I stood, drew
the Kukri and stepped around the rock to meet the approaching infected.  Dog
moved up beside me, head down and hackles raised as he growled and showed his
teeth.  Advancing I swung the Kukri and nearly decapitated the infected closest
to me, stepping to the side as the body hit the forest floor.  Dog bounded past
me and slammed into the chest of a large male, carrying him to the ground where
he started ripping into its throat.  I was in a frenzy, slashing and stabbing
infected as I moved further down the slope.  Dog took another male to the
ground, rolling in its embrace before locking his jaws on its throat.  Hands
brushed me and once a hand got a grip on my left sleeve and started pulling but
I slashed with the blade and severed the arm of the attacking infected at the
elbow, reversed the Kukri and buried the point in the his head.  Then there
were no more infected. 

Looking around I counted nine bodies on the ground.  Dog had
killed three and I had hacked and slashed my way through the other six.  During
the battle I had wound up moving almost 50 yards down the slope and slowly
climbed back up to where Rachel was waiting.  Dog bounded past me, his four long
legs eating up the ground.   I had just made it back to the rocks where I had
initiated the battle when a blinding spotlight lit up the area.

Sometimes you get caught so unprepared that there’s not a
damn thing you can do about it.  The spotlight was from up the slope and
slightly to the side, in the area Rachel was supposed to be watching but far
enough off to the side that if she wasn’t scanning through 180 degrees
continuously she would have missed them.  I should have been clearer in my instructions
when I put her on rear guard.  I had a bloody Kukri in my right hand, my
incapacitated rifle was laying on the ground where I’d left it, and the
spotlight was far enough away and bright enough that I couldn’t tell if there
was one man or one hundred in the darkness behind it.  Dog growled and started
to move towards the light but I stopped him with a firm hand on his back. 
Rachel looked over her shoulder at me, the terror on her face plain to see.  I
didn’t have a move at the moment and decided to play it cool and bide my time. 
Bending slowly I wiped the Kukri blade clean on the carpet of leaves, sheathed
it and stood back up with my hands held out at my sides and faced the light.

“That was an impressive display,” a voice called out from
behind the light and I couldn’t have been more surprised to hear a woman’s
voice.  I stood mute and noticed Rachel stand up in my peripheral vision.

“Honey, you don’t need that rifle.  If we wanted to hurt you
we’d have already done that.”

Rachel looked over at me and I nodded for her to keep the
rifle pointed at the ground.  Apparently satisfied with the situation the
speaker stepped into the light and came down the slope to stand in front of
us.  She was not what I expected.  The woman was at least in her mid-fifties
and despite being dressed for the forest she didn’t look like she had spent a
lot of time outdoors.  Middle aged spread had definitely set in, her ass was as
wide as my shoulders, and grey hair framed a face set off by gold rimmed
glasses.  Bright blue eyes studied me in the light.  For all the world she
looked like what I remembered my 3
^rd
grade teacher looking like.

“If there’s more infected around that light is going to draw
them in,” I said, keeping my hands in plain sight.  I didn’t know if she had
rifles behind the light pointed at us and wasn’t ready to find out the hard
way.

“That’s what you call them?  Hmmm.   Fits, I suppose.  Are
you really Army?”  She asked, a few moments later as she studied my clothing
and the Oak Leaf on my chest.

“Yes, ma’am.  I am.  Major John Chase,” I introduced myself,
figuring a little good old fashioned courtesy couldn’t hurt.

“And who’s she?”  She asked, looking over at Rachel.

“She is his travelling companion, and her name is Rachel,”
Rachel answered, apparently not appreciating being talked about like she wasn’t
there.

The woman turned and looked at Rachel, for all the world appearing
like she could assess her character just by looking at her.  After almost a
minute she made a ‘humphing’ sound in her throat, turned her head and called
over her shoulder.

“Turn off the light.”  A long moment later it shut off and I
was as blind as a bat, night vision completely destroyed by several minutes of
the light shining in my eyes.

“Thank you,” I said.  “Who are you, and what are you doing
out here?”

“I think the more pressing question is what are you doing
out here?”  I couldn’t see her face, but I knew she was still intently watching
me.  Trusting my gut instincts about this woman I told her an abbreviated
version of the truth, starting with the night of the attacks when I was in
Atlanta.  I debated holding back the part about the ambushers that had forced
us into the forest, but if she was mixed up with that group we would likely
have already been shot.

“OK, now you know who we are.  What about you?”

She started to answer but was cut off before she could speak
a word by the scream of a female infected that sounded way too close.  My night
vision was coming back and I saw the flash of fear wash across her face before
she turned and motioned towards where the light had been.  Grabbing my rifle
off the ground I watched as half a dozen teenagers, two boys and four girls,
dashed forward and huddled around her.  They were armed with sticks, rocks, a
couple of pocket knives and a big ass battery powered spotlight. 

Rachel had already raised her rifle and I grabbed mine off
the ground.  Dropping the magazine I cycled the bolt and ejected the round that
had failed to fire.  Skills from a day gone by guided my fingers as I quickly
separated the lower and upper sections of the rifle, extracted the bolt and
checked it by feel.  Everything felt as it should.  Next I stuck a finger into
the chamber and could feel part of a shell casing jammed in there.  Apparently
the last successfully fired round had come from a shell that was weak and had
separated, leaving part of the brass casing stuck in the chamber.  It took some
force but I got it out, reassembled the rifle and loaded up with a fresh
magazine.  All of this had taken less than a minute.  Again I was thankful for
the instructors that had beaten lessons into us, sometimes literally.  I had
been taught to field strip and assemble rifles while wearing a blindfold.  Once
I could do that the instructors had added blows to the head, neck and back from
a baton during the process.  If it took longer than a minute to complete they
would start hitting below the waist.  It didn’t take long to learn to do it in
less than a minute.

Rifle ready I raised it and sighted through the scope,
scanning the surrounding terrain.  Sprinting along the valley floor and quickly
closing on us were three females.  They were moving fast, even for the females,
and as I watched they hurtled and dodged obstacles like an NFL running back. 
As I was tracking them another scream sounded from behind us, much too close,
and I heard Dog growl and scramble up the slope to meet the infected.

“Rachel?”  I asked.

“Got it,” she said, and I kept my attention on the three
fast approaching threats.

Behind me there was another scream immediately drowned out
by Dog’s snarling and the sound of bodies hitting the ground in a struggle. 
Dog’s snarling rose in pitch then it was quiet, a moment later his furry head
back by my side.

“Good boy,” I muttered, then pulled the trigger and dropped
one of the females.

The other two kept coming, not slowing or showing any
indication that they cared their sister had just gone down.  Tracking, I shot
the second one as she leapt over a fallen tree, her body going limp in the air
and crashing to the forest floor in a tangle of limbs and coming to rest
against the trunk of a massive oak tree.  The last female was the fastest and
was weaving her way through the trees, now no more than 50 yards away.  I
waited a moment until she started up the slope to where I was standing then
pulled the trigger twice.  One round to the heart, one to the head.  The body
slammed to the ground and lay still.

Raising the rifle back up I scanned left, right, left
quickly, didn’t see any threats, and then did a slower scan to make sure I
wasn’t missing something.  Satisfied for the moment I spun and checked behind
me, glad to see Rachel scanning through a full 180 degrees with her scoped
rifle, but double checked her.  Again, all clear.  Letting out a big breath I
let the rifle hang on its sling and turned back to the old woman and kids.  The
kids looked terrified, the boys trying to look tough through their fear.  The
woman looked like this was something she saw every day.  Perhaps she did.

“I’m going to guess the camp down the valley with all the
camp fires is yours,” I said.

“Yes, that’s us,” she answered, some of the certainty in her
bearing that had been there earlier was now gone.

“Those fires are attracting the infected and they’re also
going to bring in the guys that ambushed us earlier.”  I didn’t like what I was
thinking, but didn’t have much choice.

“Rachel, you and Dog get them to their camp and get those
damn fires put out.  I’m going for our packs and will meet you there.”  I
waited for Rachel to nod and took off at a run, back in the direction we had
come from.  I didn’t like the idea of sending them off alone, but I really
didn’t like the idea of losing the extra ammo, food, medical supplies and all
the other equipment that was in our packs.

Settling into a fast trot I moved through the forest and for
a moment flashed back to running through a dark Central American jungle with
Soviet military advisors – read Spetznaz – in hot pursuit.  Forcing my
attention back to the present I touch checked the readiness of my rifle as I ran. 
I was making a little noise, but less than most people would have and was able
to hear the shambling feet dragging along through dead leaves before I could
see the infected.  Raising the rifle I spotted the target and shot it without
breaking stride, dodging around the body and quickly leaving it behind.

Earlier we had been moving slowly as we tracked the herd and
even though we’d spent a lot of time walking we hadn’t gone very far.  In less
than fifteen minutes I was at the shallow cave and hoisting my pack onto my
back.  With it in place I lifted Rachel’s and put it on backwards so that it
was resting on my chest.  Between the two packs I now had almost 180 pounds
hanging on my upper body and I had also blocked my access to spare magazines. 
Oh well, I’d just better be careful.  Taking a moment to scan the surrounding
forest I didn’t see any threats, but thought I could hear voices in the
distance.  Standing perfectly still and calming my breathing I listened
intently and was sure I could hear something back in the direction of the
ambush, but couldn’t tell what I was hearing.  Whatever I was hearing almost
sounded like chanting, but it was still a long way off and I didn’t have time
to worry about it until it became a threat.  Turning back towards the direction
of the camp I started a slow jog which was all I could manage with this much
weight.

Half an hour later I was approaching where I knew the camp
had to be.  I had killed three more infected males with the Kukri as I jogged
down the valley and I was thankful that I hadn’t run into any more females. 
Coming to a stop I raised the rifle and scanned, finding no threats.  Keeping
the rifle up across my chest I proceeded, now at a walking pace.  After another
hundred yards I stopped and scanned again, spotting two more infected males off
to my right.  They hadn’t detected me and I didn’t want to leave them lose
behind me.  I moved their way, used a tree to lean on to steady my aim and
dropped them both with two quick shots.  Another scan and back to a fast walk. 
Five minutes later I started smelling a recently extinguished fire and knew I
was close to the camp.  Slowing further I moved into some deeper brush and
scanned the forest again.  Ahead, probably about 50 yards, a small group of
figures huddled in the dark.  A dog sat to the side of the group looking off to
his side into the forest.  Dog smelled me about the same time I spotted him and
he came running, tail wagging.

Rachel had the old woman and the kids huddled with their
backs against a sheer rock face that soared up into the night.  There were two
more boys and a girl that hadn’t been with the group when we’d encountered them
earlier.  Not comfortable staying in the area where the camp had been so
visible I told the woman we were moving farther down the valley.  Two of the
girls started to complain but she shushed them and got everyone on their feet. 
Putting Rachel and Dog at the back of the group I took point and we moved a
slow mile.  I had started us off at a good pace but the kids made so much noise
in the forest that I had to slow our pace.  Towards the front of the group two
of the boys were talking to each other and after the first time I gestured for
them to be quiet I had to call a halt and get in their faces to get the message
across.  Finally reaching a smaller valley that branched off to the north and
had a small stream trickling through it we followed the water until finding a
wide, flat spot on the valley floor that was heavily forested.  Moving the
group into the thick brush I settled them down with warnings to stay quiet and
went to find out their story from the woman.