Jacob cringed, realizing his error as the first three came back into view. After having seen the fate of their comrades, they charged around the corner. Two shots from Murphy and a stream of three rounds from Stephens cleared the route. Tyree ran ahead and planted himself on the corner. He pointed across the street to a tall, nearly eight-foot high, concrete wall offset from a wide sidewalk. Murphy nodded and rounded the corner. Taking a knee, he fired rapidly, drawing more to his position. “Get them over,” he shouted without taking his eye off the sights and the distant targets.
“You heard him… go!” Stephens yelled moving Jacob and Tyree ahead of him.
Jacob took a deep breath and ran into the street. He looked straight ahead to avoid the sight of danger to his left. He crossed the street and, recalling the last incident, deliberately threw himself at the wall, then turned away as Tyree came up behind. In a flash, Stephens was beside him; he knelt over and cupped his hands and Tyree stepped into the pocket. Grunting, Stephens lifted and nearly tossed Tyree over the top. Rounds impacted with the ground around them, popping as they skipped off the sidewalk.
Ignoring the incoming fire, Stephens again cupped his hands and looked to Jacob, who nodded and put a hand on the soldier’s helmet. Another grunt and Jacob were elevated upwards. He grabbed the top of the wall and pulled as Stephens pushed at the soles of his boots. Jacob strained and pulled until he was able to throw his leg over the top of the wall. Now straddling the wall, he looked out and saw a group of three charging from behind. Recognizing the danger, his eyes went wide. He raised his rifle and fired wildly, hitting two of the Others running toward their position. The third continued and crashed into Stephens.
Jacob twisted on the wall, trying to get a new firing position and lost his balance. He flopped and tumbled off, landing on his head and shoulders into a thicket bush on the other side. In the dark, he couldn’t see but he felt hands grabbing at his clothing. Jacob lashed out with his fists swinging and feet kicking against the hands.
“Dammit! It’s me. Stop, you asshole!” he heard Tyree yell.
Jacob pulled back his hands and felt a wrist grip his ankle. He was yanked from the bush, the thorns catching and tearing at his clothing and scratching the skin underneath. He dropped from the bush to land on his face and his mouth grabbed a taste of grass and dirt. He crawled away from the bush, rolled to his back, and looked up at the top of the concrete wall.
The top edge seemed to glow and reverberate with the explosions on the other side. A gloved hand reached up and grabbed the edge just before Stephens’ helmet came into view. He climbed up and lay flat on the wall, gripping the top edge with his right arm as he dangled over the far side. Jacob watched the man strain as he pulled, and Murphy came into view before clawing and crawling directly over Stephens and tumbling into the same thorn bush. Stephens pushed up off the wall, dropped his legs, then fell the remaining distance to the ground and landed on his feet.
Stephens moved off from the wall and took up a spot a distance away to watch for trouble while Jacob and Tyree pulled Murphy from the bush. Once free of the entanglement, Murphy shook them off and motioned for them to watch the area. Unlike the violent activity on the city side of the wall, the cemetery side was still. They’d dropped in just short of a well-maintained walkway where heavy smoke blanketed the ground, just thin enough to reveal a number of crypts, tombstones, and monuments dotting the wooded terrain.
“We clear?” Murphy whispered as he exchanged magazines in his rifle.
“I can’t see shit in this smoke,” Stephens called back in a low voice.
“Tyree… which way?” Murphy asked.
Tyree pointed with the pistol. Murphy put down his goggles and scanned the terrain, then lifted them to look at his watch. “Couple hours till dawn; let’s get through here while we have cover.”
Jacob pulled his rifle in close to the vest and willed himself up to his feet. The gunfire and explosions still echoed off the wall to their backs, and the fires cast an eerie light that made the smoke seem luminescent. The tall tombstones and monuments cast optical illusions as their shadows moved in different directions with the strobes of the explosions. Jacob shivered but, knowing he had to stick with the team or he’d never find Laura and Katy, he urged his feet to move.
He cautiously stepped ahead until he was with the rest of the group. Again, Murphy directed Stephens out front and took the open side while keeping Jacob and Tyrell close to the wall on the opposite side.
They moved ahead slowly, creeping through the acrid smoke. Jacob pulled his T-shirt over his mouth and nose to block the stench. Gunfire raged close; the rounds cracked off the walls as aircraft flew over, attacking the city with their payloads.
Murphy called out just above a whisper, “Come on guys. Don’t bunch up.”
The team intended to stay spread out but continually grouped back together out of fear. Nearly shoulder to shoulder, they patrolled deeper into the graveyard; the dancing shadows and gunshots echoed off the tombstone, making it hard to focus.
They met a blacktop path and quickly crossed it, not wanting to stop in the open. The terrain sloped down
