Chapter Three
Jeb wiped the sweat from his brow, his eyes flowing over the
men who were crouched down behind the trailer with their guns ready, glancing
around to be sure everyone was in position. When they’d built the blockage on
the road, they’d also cut holes into the welded panels that were under the
trailers for situations just like this one. He and Grit had wanted to be able
to defend the compound from anyone they’d led down this highway.
Jeb looked up, Tim was perched on top of one of the trailers
with the missile launcher resting on the lip of the metal shield, waiting. Jeb
knew that he was chomping at the bit to shoot the heavy military trucks
barreling towards them. Jeb had stationed men along both sides of the road
waiting on these sons-of-bitches to get close enough to bring the fires of hell
raining down on them. Satisfied everyone was ready, Jeb headed over to the
ladder and climbed up to grab the other launcher, feeling a bit of glee himself.
He was ready for these cult bastard’s to be taken care of. The last time they’d
come across them, they’d lost four good men and he was damned tired of losing
people. He moved across the top of the trailer, halting next to Tim. Jeb didn’t
waste any time and took his place before lifting the second launcher to rest it
on the ledge in front of him.
His gaze scanned the horizon, noting that Scratches’ group
was closer. They were almost to the white line that they’d sprayed across the
road so they had an idea when to launch the missiles. Once their people were
over that line he knew it wouldn’t be long before the cult crossed it too and that
was when they launched. The club obtained the missiles from several military bases
that first year when shit hit the fan. Tim glanced at him grinning. Jeb’s eyes
crinkled and despite the situation he smiled a little, because he knew using
these missiles made the man giddy. Tim loved his heavy artillery and the club
rarely used them because they knew that once the forty they had were gone, they
weren’t going to be finding more. They knew the chances of them discovering a
military mother-load that hadn’t already been raided was about as likely as finding
the cure—zero percent.
Jeb focused on the task at hand, his eyes trained on the
road where their people were just starting to pass over the line. The bikes
crossed the white line first, closely followed by two Dodge Rams and the semi,
with a couple more men on bikes pulling up the rear of the little caravan. He
waited with Tim beside him ready to shoot the missiles at the assholes who were
insane enough to join that stupid cult. He wasn’t concerned about killing
anyone who joined the Grinder’s, because if they were in that cult they were
already dead inside. He’d met men like those bastards before the fall of the
world and he knew that the only good fanatic, was a dead fanatic. Jeb felt
sweat trickle down the back of his neck as his finger hovered over the trigger.
“Get ready.” Jeb called out to the men who had their weapons
trained on the cars, ready to take out anyone who survived the two missiles
they were about to launch. He watched as the bikes zoomed around the back of
the semi trying to get ahead of the group, they knew they didn’t need to protect
the rear of the caravan anymore.
“Now,” Tim hissed, and shot his missile at the two heavy
trucks in the front.
The hissing cry of the missile was piercing as it slid out
of the cannon and zoomed toward the cars. The missile exploded in a shower of
red fire, as one of the trucks went airborne flying forward, almost clipping
the back of the semi they were trying to protect. Fuck that had been close,
good thing the riders in the back had moved to the sides of the truck,
otherwise they would have been hit. The second truck flipped on its side and
was skidding to a halt in the middle of the road, forcing the other trucks to
slow down. One of them tried to plow through the truck, apparently not caring
about their comrades possibly being alive inside the vehicle. Not that this
surprised Jeb, he knew the idiots had no respect for life, but it was always
fucked up when they proved time and again, how stupid they were. Jeb hit the
trigger on the launcher he held, aiming for the truck on its side, hoping to explode
the oncoming trucks with the gas propellant from the one on its side.
His eyes tracked the
missile as it barreled into the truck on its side, watching it explode with
fire erupting again, engulfing the truck and the two it slung backwards. One
slammed into the barrier so hard that the trailer they were on shook a little.
Damn, that was going to be a bitch to fix once they were done killing these
assholes. Jeb watched as one of the last three trucks came bursting past the
military trucks despite the fire that lit the front of their vehicle. He
realized that it wasn’t a military truck, but instead was some kind of moving
truck. He felt a pit in his stomach because he had a really bad feeling about
that truck.
Jeb glanced up demanding, “We got anymore missiles, because
that truck is trouble.”
“No, we didn’t bring any more than the two. Fuck you’re
right, because they’re slowing down. What the hell are they doing? Those other
two have stopped completely.” Harry roared his face stern.
“Yeah, this isn’t going to go well. You think it’s a bomb of
some sort?” Tim asked, his face grim.
“Don’t know.” He muttered, grabbing his radio from his belt as
he barked out an order. “Bow, you guys need to pull back from the barrier.” Jeb
watched as the truck stopped completely and the driver jumped out, the man head
to toe in body armor.
“Shoot him. Fuck, get him down.” Jeb cried, his guts in
knots because whatever that little fucker was doing wasn’t going to be good. He
watched as the man ran towards the back of the truck despite the hail of
bullets that were pelting his armor with little pings. Jeb jerked up a sniper,
aiming at the guy’s head just as he grabbed the rope attached to the back of
the truck jerking. Jeb’s bullet penetrated the visor of his helmet hitting the
man in his left eye, but it was too late. The door opened as the guys body
fell. For a moment nothing happened, making Jeb think that maybe the guy had
needed to get inside the truck to set off whatever trap they’d had inside, but
that was when the first deadhead rushed out of the truck.
“Damn, kill the deadheads and don’t worry about the other
trucks until they’re dead.” Jeb barked out the order as more deadheads began to
pour out of the truck. Deadheads weren’t like zombies in the movies who ran at
barriers and tried to get past them. Nope, some part of the deadheads stayed
awake and allowed them to open doors and climb over things, thus making them much
more dangerous. After all, they weren’t the living dead. Deadheads were just
animalistic and ravenous for flesh of any kind.
His men started shooting the deadheads trying to kill them
all before they could scramble over the cars to attack them. Gunfire rang out
as the deadheads rushed them on both sides. Jeb couldn’t believe how many of
the damned things had poured out of the truck. There had to be at least two
hundred of them running at them. This was a damned cluster fuck because he’d
only brought about fifteen men with him. Thankfully, the riders had kept going
towards the compound. He knew that some of the riders would circle back while
the trucks headed home, but it wouldn’t be quick enough for them to help. Jeb
started shooting with his automatic rifle, taking out large groups of them
watching them fall.
“Get on the trucks.” Jeb ordered, trying to save as many of
his men as he could, because this wasn’t going to be pretty. They’d taken out
about thirty of them when they hit the cars scrambling over them with the men,
trying desperately to control the flow and kill them before they could get
close enough to bite. Jeb moved to the other end of the trailer and began
shooting the ones he could see from where he was at. Harry and Tim were doing
the same as his men tried to scramble up the ladders to safety. There was only
one way up for the deadheads and that meant that they’d be able to control the
flow if they could get all their men up here. Jeb watched as Bean ran toward
the truck, climbing up the ladder. Len was on the other side of the road on the
trailer, trying to help some of the guys on that side get up onto the trailers.
Jeb watched as Garry, a relatively new member of their group, went down with
two deadheads attacking him. He did the only humane thing he could and shot the
screaming man between his eyes before he took out the deadheads feeding on him.
More men clambered onto the trailer, helping to shoot the deadheads below them
in an attempt to allow their friends to survive the deadheads chasing them. Two
more of his men jumped up on an SUV on the other side trying to get away from
the deadheads. They were shooting down at the ones beneath them, trying like
hell to survive.
Jeb saw another man go down and several deadheads were on
him, ripping into his flesh with teeth, red spraying the ground around him. He
didn’t have a shot on the screaming man who abruptly stopped screaming when
another deadhead dropped on his head, likely smothering the dying man’s
screams. Fuck this was turning out to be a disaster, he thought as he continued
to shoot the deadheads closest to his guys on the ground. Only about half of
them had made it to the trailers because he’d had them spread out to give them
better coverage. Even though he couldn’t have predicted the insane actions of
the cult, he felt responsible for the cluster fuck they were currently in.
He knew how fucking nuts these dillholes were. Why hadn’t he
thought of them doing something stupid like this? That trick with the truck was
basically a version of their pits, albeit a mobile one. Jeb continued to shoot
the deadheads, trying like hell to save as many of his men as he could. Several
more of them had managed to scramble up the ladders to get on top of the
trailers, while others hadn’t made it. By his count they’d lost four men and
the two on the SUV were desperately trying to climb from one SUV to the next so
that they could get to a trailer and climb on. Jeb and the other men were
trying to help by shooting as many as they could to help them while still
watching the ladders.
The two men finally made it to the trailer and
Colt boosted Trippy up so that he could climb onto the trailer from the roof of
the SUV, which was butted up against the trailer. Trippy caught the top of the
trailer as he hoisted himself up onto it before gripping the barrier and reaching
back down for Colt who grabbed his hand. Jeb and the boys tried like hell to
shoot any deadheads near the man, but somehow one of them got a hold of Colt’s
leg and almost drug both men off the trailer. Len shot the bastard and the thing
let go, falling to the ground while Trippy yanked Colt up far enough to get a
grip on the trailer, scrambling afterwards to get up beside him. The two men
were panting and Jeb realized that everyone alive was as safe as they could be
until they killed all the deadheads.
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