Ragnarok Rising: The Awakening (Book One of The Ragnarok Rising Saga) (53 page)

I opened the door and stood on the door frame.
Bringing the binoculars to my eyes, I started scanning the bridge area. Unsurprisingly, it was gone. From the amount of damage to the structure, it had to have been hit by an airstrike. There weren't even any of the support pillars left standing.

“Well, we’re not getting through that way,” I muttered, climbing back inside.

“Where do we go now?” asked Spec-4.

“We try another river crossing,” I replied.
“Eventually, we’ll find a way across.”

I put the Humvee back into gear and turned around in the front yard of an old farmhouse.
Southard followed suit and headed back onto the road, right behind me.

“What’s going on?” asked Southard from the radio.

“The bridge is out. We’re backtracking and looking for another way across the river.”

“Copy that,” he answered. “Lead on.
I hope you know where you’re going.”

“More or less,” I replied.
“I’ve driven most of these roads out here, but I’m running out of river crossings. Pretty soon, we’re going to have to either find a way around or pick a low spot to cross.”

“Is there a way around?”

“I’m sure there is, but it’s pretty far out of our way. It would take us clear out past Crane and over into Barry County.”

“Isn’t that where
Deliverance
was filmed?” chuckled Southard.

“No, but they do consider it a love story with a tragic ending,” I replied, laughing.

“Great,” said Southard. “Let’s find another way across. We’re already close enough to hear the banjo music.”

“If the next bridge is out,” I replied, “we’re gonna get a lot closer.”

“Copy that,” said Southard. “Let’s hope the next one’s still intact.”

We
turned back out onto the highway and took the next left. We followed that for a couple of miles, passing only the occasional farmhouse. Although we weren’t seeing any zombies, we weren’t seeing any signs of life either. As we approached the stop sign where the road ended at a three way stop, I could see movement in the field to our right. There was a zombie in bib overalls, shambling along chasing a horse.

The horse wasn’t having any trouble staying away from it, but with the fence still standing it would only be a matter of time before the horse got too tired to run.
The zombie wouldn’t get tired. Eventually, it would catch the horse and kill it. I couldn’t let that happen.

I stopped in the middle of the road and looked around.
Seeing no immediate threats, I climbed out and leveled my M-16. It was about fifty meters to the stumbling zombie from where I stood. I took careful aim and squeezed the trigger. Even from that distance, I could see the head explode and the zombie fall.

Then I calmly walked over to the gate and opened it.
We didn’t have a way to take a horse with us, but at least I could leave it an escape route. Under the circumstances, it was the best I could do for the poor animal.

“Good luck,” I muttered to the horse, as I got back in the vehicle.

“You just can’t help yourself, sometimes,” said Spec-4, grinning. "Can you?"

“That’s no way for anything to die.
I couldn’t leave it trapped in that field, constantly running for its life with nowhere to go.”

“Hey, Doctor Doolittle,” said Southard over the radio.
“Are we saving animals now, too?”

“I’ll save anything I can, at this point,” I replied.

Putting the Humvee back in gear, I turned left onto the farm road and headed past the old Manley Cemetery. I could see a man in a black coat wandering among the headstones. As we got closer, he turned to look at us. Most of his face had been chewed away and his remaining skin had the pallor of limestone. Looking right at us, it leaned back and started shrieking.

“Stop here,” said Spec-4, bringing up her rifle.

I slowed to a stop and she slung open her door. Without getting out, she leveled her rifle and squeezed of a shot. Immediately the shrieking stopped as the top of the zombie’s head disappeared in a spray of red and gray. It collapsed in a heap next to a large headstone that I couldn’t quite read. It didn’t stand back up.

Spec-4 pulled her door shut and gave me a satisfied nod.
I put the Humvee back into gear and continued on our way. The road turned right just past the cemetery, but I didn’t notice the new name. I was too busy scanning ahead for the bridge. I slowed to a stop, again and brought up the binoculars. This time, I just looked out through the windshield. The bridge looked to be still standing.

“I think we’re in luck, this time,” I said, still scanning with the binoculars.

“Good,” replied Spec-4. “These things don’t get the best mileage.”

I lowered the binoculars and continued on down the road.
The bridge was still standing, but not through lack of effort. There was a huge crater just to the left of the bridge. The bomb had missed its target but had done one heck of a job on the river bank. I just hoped that they hadn’t done any major structural damage to the bridge.

We approached the bridge slowly, keeping our eyes open for the next bombing run.
At the end of the bridge, I stopped and took a quick look around. I could see about half a dozen zombies on the far side of the bridge. They seemed to be moving our direction, but hadn’t really noticed us yet. That would change, it was just a matter of time.

I climbed out and brought my M-16 with me.
I moved over to the edge of the road on my side and peeked under the bridge. The concrete supports were still there, but the one on the far side looked like it was cracked. Then I moved out onto the edge of the bridge. About three quarters of the way across, the asphalt looked like it was buckled.

“Cover me,” I said to Spec-4, over my shoulder.
“I want to check out the bridge a little better before we go out on it.”

“Watch out for those zombies on the far side,” she replied.

Without looking behind me, I knew that she was already climbing into the turret to cover me. I brought the M-16 up to my shoulder and started walking slowly out onto the bridge. I was advancing in slow deliberate steps, carefully scanning the road and the rail on either side. I didn’t want to find myself suddenly surrounded by zombies that scrambled up over the rail.

At about the halfway point, the zombies on the other side noticed me.
Thankfully there weren’t any
Shriekers
among them. They started coming directly at me at a steady pace. No
Sprinters
among them, either. That was good news for me and I started backing up, slowly. I wanted to let them keep coming at me and see how the bridge held up when they got to the buckled section.

They followed me out onto the bridge and didn’t seem to notice or care about the damage.
I hoped the bridge would hold, but I had a bad feeling that it would collapse under the weight of the zombies. If it was going to collapse, I’d much prefer that it was under a group of zombies than under my Humvee.

“Wylie!” shouted Spec-4.
“They’re getting a little too close.”

I had been busy watching the bridge and had stopped backing up so I could watch.
They were less than twenty meters from me and closing. The bridge was holding. I shot a quick glance behind me and made sure it was clear, then I started falling back at a much faster pace. I made it back to the Humvee before the zombies had made it halfway across the bridge.

“Want me to take them out?” asked Spec-4.

“Save the ammo,” I replied. “There aren’t enough of them to slow us down.”

“Gotcha,” she said, and dropped back inside the turret.

Once it was sealed, I grabbed the mic and keyed up.

“Ok, Chuckles,” I said. “I’m gonna try it.
Let me get across before you try. If we fall through, don’t try it.”

“Ya think?” he replied.

“Keep your fingers crossed,” I said and put the Humvee into gear.

I headed directly across the bridge, keeping to the center of the road.
I only had to run over one zombie and it disappeared beneath the wheels with a satisfying crunch. The others just reached out at us as I drove past them. I held my breath as we approached the buckled section. I felt the bump as we crossed over it and I was cringing, waiting for us to fall into the river below. When we made it safely across, I slowly blew out the breath I’d been holding.

“Ok, Chuck,” I said into the mic.
“We made it. How did it look?”

“I didn’t see anything fall,” he replied.
“I’m gonna try it.”

“Keep to the center of the road and keep it steady.”

“Got it,” he said. “I’m gonna punch it and get my ass across as fast as possible.”

“Copy that,” I said.
“I’ll move forward to give you some room.”

I drove about fifty yards beyond the bridge and slowed to a stop on a small hill.
Behind me, I could see Southard beginning his run. I held my breath again as they shot across the bridge. As he passed the buckled section I could see something fall off of the bottom of the bridge and into the water, but the bridge held. They made it across. I let off the brake and started forward, again. Southard came right up behind me and slowed down to match my speed.

“We made it, but I think I felt something give when we crossed,” said Southard over the radio.

“Yeah, you did. I saw something fall into the water from beneath the bridge. Looked like a chunk of concrete.”

“It was probably me,” said Southard.
“When I felt the bridge shift, I think I shat myself.”

As we rounded the corner at the top of the hill, I could see two patrol vehicles in the road.
They were set up roadblock style, but I didn’t see anyone around. They were both Christian County patrol cars. We were well outside Nathanael County. I didn’t see anyone around, so I slowed down.

There were a couple saw horses set up and the cars were blocking the road.
It was just like the roadblock that I’d been on when all this started. I put the Humvee into park and got out. I didn’t see any movement in the area and thought I’d better check things out before we tried to push our way through.

“Wylie!” snapped Spec-4.
“Will you stop that? Let me cover you before you get out.”

She climbed back into the turret and got behind the SAW.
I left my M-16 in the car this time and brought the AA-12. I swept both vehicles and didn’t see anything inside them. On the hood of the car on the left was a range bag. It looked like it had quite a bit of stuff in it.

I started to move towards it when I heard something moving in the trees to my right.
I swung my weapon to cover that direction and saw about fifty zombies moving through the trees. They were unable to move quickly due to the underbrush, but that would change soon. If there were any
Sprinters
among them, they’d be on me in seconds.

I backed over to the car with the range bag and reached for it, keeping my eyes on the crowd in the trees.
I had just grabbed the handles when I felt a hand grab my arm. I turned quickly to see a zombie in the uniform of a Christian County Deputy standing up from the other side of the car. It had a death grip on my arm and was leaning in to bite me.

Without hesitating, I swung the AA-12 around and fired.
The Winchester Supreme Elite round did its job and blasted the zombie back, shredding its face and neck. It fell to the ground, still twitching. I grabbed the range back and turned to haul ass back to the Humvee. The first of the zombies were emerging from the trees and Spec-4 opened up with the SAW. Then I heard the second SAW come to life from Southard’s Humvee. I dove back inside and slammed the door.

“Get back inside!” I yelled.
“We’re getting the hell out of here!”

I fired up the engine and put it in gear.
I was just about to punch the accelerator when I heard Southard’s voice cut in.

“Wylie, don’t crash the roadblock!”

“Why not?” I yelled back.

“There are stop-sticks on the other side,” he replied.
“You’ll blow your tires.”

“Damn it,” I cursed, slamming my fist into the steering wheel. “I have to go back out there. “

“They’re too close,” shouted Spec-4.

“We don’t have a
choice,” I said, and jumped out.

I could hear the SAW kick back in as I sprinted for the roadblock.
I had to trust Spec-4 and John to keep the zombies off of me while I worked. I kept the AA-12 ready and slid between the two vehicles. Sure enough, lying on the ground just on the other side of the patrol cars was two sets of stop-sticks. I grabbed the first set and threw them into the ditch. I had to turn and shoot two zombies that were trying to follow me through the cars.

The Winchester
Supreme Elites did a great job of turning them to goo and I got quickly back to the business at hand. I snagged the second set of stop-sticks and threw them into the other ditch. In the trees, I could see more zombies coming. I reached quickly into the window of the nearest patrol car and turned on the ignition. Then I pulled it out of park and into neutral. I moved to go back between the two cars and stopped to shove the one I put into neutral. It moved easily and rolled off into the ditch, leaving us enough of a gap to drive through.