After a few moments of solitude, there was a knock at the passenger window, and he jumped. He looked up and saw Baker waving at him, so he unlocked the door.
The Private opened it and slid inside, closing the door behind him. “We’re looking clear, so I thought I’d come over and check on you,” he said.
“I’m fine,” Bretz replied flatly.
Baker leaned over and looked at the book, raising an eyebrow. “You’re reading the Rose and the Rapier,” he said. “Even under normal circumstances, that would be a cry for help.”
The Corporal didn’t have the energy to laugh. He dog-eared the page and closed it, setting it aside with a deep sigh. “Now’s not the time.”
“I agree,” Baker said, “which is why I’m here to talk about the mission. We’re a truck short after all, and we need to figure out what to do about it. Thought you could use a sounding board without the newbies.” He reached over and turned down the CB radio before pulling out one of the maps.
Bretz took a deep breath and nodded, feeling good about being in work mode. “Well, we need two trucks to block off the five-twenty bridge, and I think we should definitely do that.”
“Once we get past this interchange, we’re less than a mile away from it,” Baker replied. “Are you thinking we drop two off as originally planned?”
The Corporal nodded. “I think we need to, don’t you?” he asked. “We know for a fact we can complete this part of the mission, and based on what we saw in Redmond, our boys on foot coming in from the east are going to need all the help they can get.”
“Every zombie we block is a zombie they don’t have to fight,” the Private agreed.
Bretz nodded. “Meaning it’ll be more likely they’ll get to us sooner rather than later.”
“I’m all about that,” Baker replied, and picked up the offending book, “especially if this is the level of entertainment quality we can expect.”
Bretz chuckled, finally giving in to the levity. “It’s not as bad as the cover makes it out to be.”
“Okay, now I’m really worried about you,” Baker said, shaking his head.
The Corporal shrugged. “I mean, a dude did get stabbed in the face in the first chapter,” he insisted.
“All right,” Baker replied, setting the book down. “Maybe it’s not all bad after all.”
They shared a laugh, both of them trying everything they could to avoid the elephant in the room. After a moment of awkward silence, the sound of helicopter blades came up from behind them.
“About damn time,” Baker muttered.
Bretz sat up straight. “You should get back to your truck,” he suggested. “Depending on what’s on the other side of the bridge, we might not have much time to bust through.”
They exchanged a fist bump and Baker jumped out of the cab. Bretz leaned forward, looking up to see how the chopper pilots were going to pull this off.
Two Apache gunships roared overhead, slowing down as they approached the bridge. The zombies underneath turned their attention to the flying fortresses, shambling out towards the road. The two war birds hovered about three hundred yards from the bridge before one of them descended, finally stopping about three feet off of the ground. It centered itself on the road and then opened fire.
The two mini-guns on either side of the chopper spun, sending thousands of rounds of hot lead down the road. The front edge of the zombie mass liquefied, vanishing in a spectacular spray of bone and blood.
It took a few moments, but the zombie mass started to melt away, like piping hot tap water on a block of ice in the sink. For a solid thirty seconds, the bullets flew, destroying everything in sight. Finally, the bullets ran dry, and Bretz could see through the mass to the other side.
The first chopper lifted up, moving away from the battle, while the second one dropped down and turned towards the trucks. It lowered down enough so that Bretz could see the pilot, who motioned for them to follow.
The Corporal grabbed his CB, barking, “We’re on the move!” He popped the truck into gear and raced forward, the rest following behind.
He picked up steam to make it past the carnage on the road. While the zombies weren’t a threat anymore, the puddles of gore on the ground could be an issue if their speed was too low. As he hit the front edge of the massacre, the truck fishtailed a bit, slipping on the liquified corpses.
“Watch it, the road’s slick,” he said into the radio.
Bretz pushed through, getting to the other side of the bridge just in time to see hundreds more ghouls on the road. They were spread out, but still a potential threat. As he pressed up the street, the gunship angled itself while moving forward, unleashing another torrent of mini-gun fire.
The pullets peppered the horde, ripping them to shreds and clearing a path for the trucks. The fire was sustained, shredding everything in their way.
The road took a long curve before leading to the bridge, forcing the pilot to maneuver some fancy flying. He continued firing as he made the adjustment around the bend, unleashing the last bit of ammo into the horde.
Unfortunately, there was a large pack of ghouls surrounding a small hatchback that couldn’t be seen, and the hard fire hit it in just the right way to start a fire.
“Watch it, we got a burner!” Bretz barked, and sped past the car.
As Baker passed it, the car exploded, and he lost control of the truck, slamming it into the median before skidding off of the road.
Bretz immediately slammed on the brakes as all of the other trucks behind his friend were forced to stop. Several of the zombies still standing made their way towards the fallen truck.
The Corporal didn’t hesitate, grabbing his rifle and hopping out of the truck, running as quickly as he could towards Baker. As he ran, he looked up
