Whiskey Tango Foxtrot (Book 4): Walking In The Shadow Of Death (9 page)

11.

The four-man team gathered around
the table. Thomas smoothed out an old topographical map, and roughly drew a
route from the cabin and the approaches in and out of the town. The rest of the
men were outside preparing the snowmobiles for their trip.

“It’s easy to get there, just follow
the road about ten kilometers, it will take you up the main drive. The clinic
is at the first and only stoplight,” Thomas said while tracing his finger down
the route.

“Well we won’t exactly be rolling
down Main Street, Thomas,” Brad said.

Sean smiled “Why not?”

“What?” Joey said, stepping closer.

“I was thinking, what if I send you
and your brother racing down Main, make some noise, lots of noise, draw the
primals off after you?” Sean said.

Joey looked down at the sketch and
watched where Sean was pointing. “Okay, Chief, I’m listening.”

“We will ride together until about
two miles out of town. Brad and I can conceal our sled here,” Sean said,
pointing to a place where the road curved away from the town. “You two will
hold up while we will begin to slip in on foot to a spot on the outskirts of
town … hopefully unseen.”

“And us?” Joey asked.

“Yeah … give us some time to move
into a nice hide where we can see the streets, two miles through closed terrain
… hmm, let’s say two hours max, then you two roll through town hot. Speed in
like you own the place, hit the town by surprise. Maybe stop and make sure they
pursue you. Once we see them following you and clear out, we will sneak in, do
us some quick shoplifting, and then sneak back out,” Sean said.

“Sounds good for you, but what we
supposed to do with a town load of crazies after us?” Daniel argued.

Sean looked across at Daniel while
pointing at the map. “I’m sure you all will figure it out. But if it was me I’d
lead them out of the town. Once you get a good group following, haul ass, break
contact, then hide up somewhere till it’s clear to circle back to the cabin. If
you move out and north this road should take you away from the town and back
here.”

“Not much of a plan, but I like
it,” Daniel grinned.

“The sleds are topped off with
fuel. Thomas says that will give us about a hundred miles. You should be
prepped to hide out for a day, maybe two. Just make sure you don’t lead them
back here,” Sean said. “Brad, same with us, make sure you have gear for at least
two days, seems simple enough, but the simple ops are typically the most fucked
up.”

Sean looked down at the map again
before folding up the note and placing it in his pocket. “Once again, this is
all volunteer, but once we hit the trail consider yourselves fully committed to
this. We will all be counting on each other to succeed.”

***

They were outside the cabin. Thomas
had both sleds up and running; the men were sitting double on each. The
Villegases had taken the newer sport model, while Sean and Brad had the older
snowmobile. Thomas had gone over the controls and given them a quick rundown on
how to keep them running.

Brad had more experience with
snowmobiles, living in the north, so he got the driver’s seat. After brief
goodbyes, Brad squeezed the throttle and the snowmobile jetted forward and away
from the shed. He checked his rear view mirror and saw that the Villegases were
close behind them. He rode alongside the rutted driveway sticking to the field
of snow-covered grass until they hit the gate.

Brad slowed the sled and pulled up
just short of the downed pole. Quickly Danny and Sean jumped from the back of
the sleds and removed the barricade, allowing the snowmobiles to pass through.
Quickly they replaced the barrier and jumped back on. Brad again hit the
throttle and they were off at high speed down the gravel road.

They wanted to move fast and avoid
staying in one spot for too long, to avoid drawing attention to the location of
the cabin. Brad took lead and kept the sled at near full throttle, which was
only half that of the newer model behind him. He plowed through high snow
drifts and around downed trees and other obstacles that tended to occur when
road maintenance stops. Brad could feel the chill on his face and the cold air
biting against his neck and forehead. 

They had taken the thermals and
flannels that Thomas had brought with him, but it still was not the correct
gear for a winter snowmobile trip. Brad continued to race down the road until
he spotted a landmark that Thomas had mentioned to them: a large wooden sign
notating the direction to a national forest. Thomas had said the sign would be
close to the entrance into the town.

As they drew closer they began to
spot homes on both sides of the road. Some were burnt down or had broken windows.
Others were shuttered with no signs of life, as if the owners had left them and
would one day return. There were cars in driveways covered with large drifts of
snow. Brad knew he was close to the town now, close to the planned stop. He
passed a large brown ranch house with boarded-up and shuttered windows. 
As he cleared the empty driveway, he eased off the throttle and pulled the sled
off the side of the road and into some heavy brush.

The Villegases slowed and continued
to idle the engine until Sean directed them into cover farther ahead. They
killed the engines and sat quietly listening. All that could be heard was the
wind and the sounds of branches clicking together. Sean slowly stepped onto the
trail with Brad following close behind. The Villegases stepped out of the trees
to meet them.

“Okay, you two get cozy, give us a
couple hours to move into position before you move out,” Sean said.

Joseph nodded back to Sean. “We got
it Chief, see you back at the cabin,” he whispered as he followed his brother
back into the thick underbrush.

Sean looked to Brad and patted him
on the back. “The road loops around here then down into the town. We should be
able to follow the compass east.”

Brad acknowledged the comment with
a nod as he checked the straps on his pack and stepped off into the woods in
the direction Sean had pointed. They moved quietly through the heavy snow
without speaking. The last few days had been warm and the snow had gotten damp
and sticky. In some places the drifts were nearly knee deep, which made
movement more difficult. They were finding it hard to keep a quick pace.

They climbed a slowly rising hill
for over an hour, staying away from trails and sticking to the thicker trees of
the forest. The deeper in the trees they got the more the drifts and snow pack
began to lighten. Brad found it easier to move and he quickened his pace.
Several times Sean would stop him to take their bearings with his compass, then
give Brad a new heading. As they summited the top of the hill they could just
begin to make out the town below them.

It was still some distance off, but
they could see where the main street ran through the center of town. The town
rested below them with an X-shaped set of streets intersecting in the center of
it. Most of the buildings sat along the main street running north and south.
From their high vantage point and with binoculars, they could barely make out
the road that traveled east from the intersection and into the trailer park
Thomas had mentioned.

Sean pointed to a small outcropping
of hills farther down. “We should try and make it to that point before the boys
roll out.”

“On it,” Brad whispered back as he
stepped off in the direction of the point.

Moving downhill they found travel
easier, yet still they had to move slowly to keep themselves concealed.
Especially now that they were on the slope facing the town. The two men were
careful to keep themselves in the shadows of the tree lines. When they had to
cross into the open they would crouch lower and sometimes even bear crawl to
avoid silhouetting themselves.

As Brad approached the small point,
he could see that a home rested within two hundred meters of the hill’s crest.
Brad dropped to his belly and broke the tree line, crawling towards the observation
point. Odds were the home was empty of any living thing, but there was no point
in taking chances. He crawled across the damp ground until he reached a
comfortable position on the top of the hill overlooking the town.

They were lower now and could no longer
see the entire town, but they had a good over watch on the length of the main
road. Sean crawled up alongside Brad. He removed the scoped rifle from his back
and set it up on its bi-pod, then handed Brad a compact spotting scope. Brad
unscrewed the lens caps and began to glass the buildings below.  

He started near, looking down at
the house below them. It was well kept and looked to be of newer construction.
The grass in the lawn was high and snow covered, the bushes overgrown. It made
sense as the fall had happened months ago and at the end of the growing season.
Landscaping was probably not a priority with the end of the world approaching.
He moved his focal point along the windows and doors. The home appeared to be
secure with no obvious points of forced entry. Scanning farther out, he spotted
a detached three-car garage. Again all of the doors and windows appeared to be
secure.

“Dang, seems quiet enough. Maybe we
should have just crept in, place looks empty,” Brad said as he continued to
scan.

A long driveway cut away from the
house and joined the main road. Brad followed it down and continued his left to
right scan of the buildings in front of him. He let his eye travel the road
deep and to the heavy cluster of buildings at the intersection. “That must be
the clinic,” he whispered.

“I see it,” Sean replied.

There was a single-story white
building sitting just where Thomas had said it would be. There were several
cars, some law enforcement vehicles, and an ambulance scattered around the
building’s parking lot, all covered with snow. A small sign in front of the
clinic read “Urgent Medical.” Looking up and down the street, they could see
that many of the store fronts had been broken into. A small mom and pop grocery
store had items scattered about and covering the ground in front of it. Then
Brad spotted something that alarmed him.

“Sean, what is that? See the line
by the row of cars. Is it what I think it is?” Brad whispered.

Both sides of the street were
congested with cars, but down the middle of the snow-covered street there was a
definite foot path that had been packed down and cut through the snow.

“Looks like a trail. Well, no
surprise, right? We expected them to be here,” Sean said as he looked up at
Brad.

“Yeah, guess you’re right, I just didn’t
expect a trail. Must be a lot of them to cut a path like that—”Brad stopped
speaking as he heard the sound of a distant engine.

“Here they come, perfect timing,”
Sean said, putting his eye back on the scope.

Brad turned on his elbows so he
could see more of the road as it approached the town. The sound of the engine
got louder and he saw the snowmobile pass through his view at high speed. Brad
took his eye from the scope and watched the sled race down the street. It cut
down the main drag and ran over top of the foot trail they had spotted moments
earlier. Still there was no movement from any of the buildings.

The snowmobile plowed into the
intersection in front of the clinic and stopped. Brad watched Daniel jump from
the back of the machine with a pistol in his hand. He yelled, “Come on out
bitches, it’s dinner time up in here.” Brad could just barely make out his
voice over the idle of the sled’s engine. Daniel continued yelling obscenities
and dares as he walked to a nearby car and pounded on the hood.

Brad put his eye back on the scope
and scanned the buildings; he saw no movement. He looked back in the direction
of the brothers and watched as Daniel leveled his handgun towards one of the
parked cars. He rapidly fired off several rounds, the gunshots echoing through
the town. “What are you waiting for?” Daniel screamed.

The moans started. They seemed to
be coming from all directions at once. Joseph revved the engine of the
snowmobile as Daniel ran back and jumped on the seat behind his brother. Joseph
continued to rev the engine, the sound of the sled joining the moans of the
primals. “What are they doing? They need to get the fuck out of there!” Brad
whispered to Sean.

Slowly figures began to come out of
the buildings. Joseph moved the sled forward at a slow pace; Daniel raised his
handgun and began taking shots at the slowly shuffling creatures moving towards
them. Soon the sidewalks were filled with them, moving slow, staggering, trying
to make it to the brothers’ location. Joseph increased his speed as Daniel
switched to the rifle, continuing to take shots, dropping several of the
primals.

“He’s a modern day Pied Piper,”
Sean said as they watched the buildings’ occupants drain into the streets,
following the slowly moving sled out of town.

“How many of them do you figure
there are? Did you see any fast ones?” Brad asked.

“I don’t know, has to be over a
thousand. They are still bleeding out of those structures.  I think we’re
gonna have to sit here for a bit.”

The snowmobile drove farther up the
road and gradually picked up speed. Eventually the numbers pouring from the
buildings lessened while the masses moved to the center of the road and joined
the march after the vehicle. The brothers had moved out of sight, but Brad
could still occasionally hear a shot from their rifle. Brad used the scope to
scan the streets. They were clearing out again now as the mass moved beyond the
city limits.

They waited nearly an hour after
the last one had moved out of sight after the snowmobile. “Looks clear, let’s
move out,” Sean said as he slid to his knees and slung his rifle across his
back.

Brad stepped up and screwed the
lens caps back onto the spotting scope before stowing it in his pack. He
checked his rifle, gripping the suppressor to ensure it was tightly secured. He
looked to Sean and nodded before slowly moving down the hill.