“We’ve got company outside. I need you awake and ready to fight in about ten minutes. Take a piss, grab some coffee, then lock and load and meet up by the back door. You good?” Harley asked.
Drew nodded and stood up while stretching. He’d ended up sleeping on a yoga pad on the floor with his duffle bag of supplies for a pillow. Harley had already walked away to enlist a few other expendables in the early morning surger hunt. Drew stood in a short queue before getting the opportunity to pee in the stinking hole. With the threat of the surgers trying to get in he’d have hated to be a girl first thing that morning. It must be pretty scary planting yourself on that seat knowing a surger could shove his hand right up the hole at any time.
In less than ten minutes he was squatting by the back-door sipping steaming hot coffee out of a tiny Styrofoam cup. A few other guys were gathered around getting their weapons ready while they chatted. Drew was still feeling antisocial towards everyone here. He kept his head down and waited for Harley to tell him what he was supposed to do. Harley walked over a few minutes later holding a laptop in his ridiculously large hands. Drew sat up attentively as Harley flipped the laptop around. He carefully set it on top of a cart so they could all see it.
“There’s a handful of infected bouncing around between the trucks. We’re going to clear them out then escort the drivers to their cabs. The laptop is showing the view from the back of vardo one. I’ve been watching and I’ve counted eight surgers total so not horrible. Keep your cool and you’ll be safely bored in here again in no time.” Harley made sure everyone had seen the laptop screen then popped open the back door.
They went out the door in the order they’d been lined up in the truck. Drew waited nervously for his turn. His mind scrambling through all the different situations he could find himself in. He hoped none of them were as bad as the previous day when he’d been forced to kill a woman that he’d thought he might end up being friends with. The hairless couple had been interesting if nothing else. Drew was thinking of shaving his off just to keep the infected from being able to grab him by it. Shoving all that noise to the back of his mind he climbed quickly out of the truck and took his place with the others.
A nice breeze was blowing off the lake ruffling their hair as they all stood there. The infected were pounding away on vardo number one based on the noise coming from that direction. Harley jumped to the ground last. He had a shotgun in each hand and two more hanging off his right shoulder. He took the lead position and walked quietly around the edge of the truck. The infected were lined up neatly along the lead truck. Their backs facing the armed gunmen who quickly spread out and waited for Harley to kick off the shooting gallery.
Harley fired a salvo into the back of the infected across from him. Taking their cue from their leader everyone else opened up as well. The surgers spun around but weren’t fast enough to attack the gypsy firing line behind them. Two surgers no one had noticed were on the top of the trailer. They’d been up there scraping at the roof trying to find a way in. They could sense there were uninfected humans in the trailer. They just couldn’t figure out a way to get at them. Both of the surgers kicked off the top of the trailers to rocket headfirst towards the firing line.
One of the surgers aimed too high and smashed headfirst into the side of the trailer breaking its neck. The other one smashed into the man next to Drew hard enough to make him hit the trailer with the back of his head and go instantly unconscious. The unconscious man and the surger disappeared in a tangle of arms and legs under the trailer. Drew dropped to his knee and spun around to help. Seeing that the surger was already gnawing on the guys arm and that two more surgers were crawling under the trailer towards them Drew yelled for help and started shooting.
Then it was quiet. They formed up in a circle in between the trucks with guns pointing outwards and slowly revolved looking for any more of the infected. When none showed up after about five minutes Harley called it clear. They hustled back to their trailer where Charani was standing in the open gap with her pistol dangling from her hand again. The drivers were standing there ready to get going. Anybody who could drive one of the trucks good was considered too valuable to go out on surger clearing duty. Harley pulled Drew to the side.
“The guy who got wasted next to you was the escort for the vardo two driver. Now you’re the escort for the vardo two driver. His name’s Emilio. If he dies, it’s on you.” Harley turned and climbed in the back of the truck as the drivers were crawling out. Drew didn’t have to ask which one was Emilio. A man covered in tattoos with a gigantic bushy beard hanging down to an impressive beer gut was already running to the front of the truck they were riding in. The small framed Hispanic man staring at Drew must be Emilio.
“We going to stand here until one of this things eats us or we going to get the hell out of here.” Emilio asked. He wasn’t
