“If I get too close to Chicago the chief zombie there will be able to control me. We come from a limited family of abominations and there is a strict rank based on when we were created. I won't risk my freedom by getting too close to the super zombie in Chicago.”
“Nice, so we have to go do your dirty work for you?”
“For me? No, not for me. I would do it if I could. You need to do it for the living people, to give them a chance. I think if you guys get rid of this zombie in Chicago that will solve the immediate problem of all the zombies heading east. After that I can't say what other problems you will have, I just don't know. Sentry maybe, probably someday I'd guess. You know I saw him before I left. When he was giving me and Neil our marching orders. He was different, there was so much raw power around him. Yeah I would guess you are going to have to deal with Sentry someday.”
“Why?” asked Max.
“The good doctor thinks if he consumes enough of you he can become a god. And after thinking about it the last couple of weeks I am afraid he might be right.”
Chapter 17
The army engineers showed up at Bill's position at five in the morning. He and his men had been running on adrenaline and caffeine as they held the railroad bridge through the night against the zombies. Now the eastern sky was just getting lighter and they had to provide cover fire for the engineers as they set demolition charges on the bridge.
“It is going to be effective?” Ruben asked Bill as the two of them stood on the bridge, shooting slow zombies that were still attempting to cross.
Bill shook his head, “I would guess not. But my opinion matters as much as yours. I don't think zombies breath, all this means is we will have to watch the entire river bank instead of focusing on the bridges.”
The zombies tended to gather at the roads and railway lines and then surge across any bridges that they encountered. They did not, as far as Bill and his men could see, willingly go into the river to try and cross. Bill's fear was that once the bridges were down the zombies would start to cross everywhere.
“Maybe.” said Ruben, the two had been debating the pros and cons of blowing the bridge for the last hour after the engineers had told them what they planned to do. Four of the squad were up on the bridge, the other five were taking a two hour break to try and get a little sleep. Bill didn't think anyone would be able to sleep with the constant rifle fire interspersed with the occasional explosion, but he was wrong, the five laying on the railway bed behind him were out cold.
The zombies had stopped coming over in mass now, they seemed to be accumulating on the far end of the bridge, then coming over as a group. Bill didn't like this, it was as if they were getting organized. The rifle fire from the athletics fields continued and Bill was waiting for reinforcements to push across the bridge and go to the other squad's aid. So far word had come down for him to hold his position.
“Are you going to go after your boy?”
Bill nodded, “I will.”
“Even if we are told to fall back?”
“Yes. Not just for him. That is our squad out there. Eleven guys wanting someone to save them. We will go get them and bring them back.”
“I know I would appreciate that. Besides what kind of father would you be if you didn't go?”
“I'll need some people to stay and hold the bridge.”
“You think I am too slow.”
With some reluctance Bill nodded, he found himself reluctant to lie to the old man, “You are too slow.”
“I got the radio back.”
“I didn't say you couldn't go fast in short bursts when you needed to. I would rather have you with me, the fact remains that I can't leave the guys here without some sort of authority figure, and like it or not Corporal, you are second in command. Who do you want with you?”
“Dan, Kirk and Larry.” Ruben had just named the other old guys in the squad, which Bill had expected.
“That figures; you saddled me with all the young guys.”
“Us old, slow guys gotta stick together. When do you want to go?”
“As soon as the sun is up. The darkness only helps the zombies, if we can see them, we can get around them.”
“You better bring a lot of ammo, extra grenades and maybe the medical kit. Those guys down there have got to be almost out of bullets by now.”
Bill's squad had been resupplied with an old army truck when he called in for help, the army provided bullets, a light machine gun and a quarter ton of ammunition. The driver had tossed the keys to Bill and gotten in the next truck in the convoy, so the squad didn't even benefit from one extra rifleman. The machine gun worked brilliantly right up until it jammed, even Ruben couldn't get the thing to work, he admitted it was a newer gun than the kind he was familiar with and he thought maybe the firing pin was broken. The six extra rifles were appreciated too, they already were using three of them to replace the ones that had been broken or lost yesterday.
Looking at the glow to the east Ruben said, “You better go take twenty sarge. You've been up as long as us and a twenty minute nap is better than nothing. I won't let you oversleep, as soon as it is light enough I will boot your ass and get you moving.”
“Don't let them blow the bridge.”
“I won't. We got guys on the other side.”
Bill trudged down the track and lay down at one end of his squad, certain he would not fall asleep on the rough stone and cross ties of the railroad. When Ruben shook him awake it was light out with the sun just above the horizon chasing off the darkness. Bill checked his watch and noted that close to thirty minutes had passed, he did not want to get up.
“You good to go?”
“Yeah, I am up. What's happened?”
Ruben handed him a hot mug of coffee, “Locals brought us some grub. Careful it is hot!”
Bill sat up and gingerly sipped at the closed travel mug, “Good, very sweet.” he said, making a face.
Ruben stood and then lowered a hand to pull Bill to his feet. “You need the calories so I dumped a half a cup of sugar in. All we have is power bars for breakfast. Eat two or three. More if you can.” he said, pushing half a dozen bars into Bill's other hand.
Looking around Bill noticed something different, “Where are the engineering guys?”
“They left about fifteen minutes ago. Left us the detonator for when the orders came down. I've been on the horn with the Lieutenant, there is going to be an air strike on the other side in about five minutes. That will be something to see.”
“We'll go over right after that. Unless you've heard back from the Lieutenant?”
Ruben shook his head, “He is busy, told me to hold here and that if we could press across to recover the other squad we should do so.”
“I knew we should have left them the radio.” The other squad's radio had never worked reliably, even during training it had been shorting on and off, but they didn't have a replacement. The squad's suggestion that the radio be replaced with a cell phone was shot down without comment, although everyone believed it was to control information about the fighting.
“Well then we wouldn't… Fuck!” Ruben yelled as he seemed to lower himself to the ground in slow motion, reaching out and pulling Bill with him. A split second later a massive explosion tore through Bill's eardrums. Climbing to his feet he watched as his men on the edge of the bridge were engulfed in dust and debris.
Ears ringing Bill tried to say something to Ruben, who shook his head and mouthed something back at him. A moment later after he climbed back to his feet and helped Ruben up his ears started to ring, working his jaw
