other squad, instead he'd been chased by undead most of the morning, until finally he tossed away his rifle and swam across the river to safety. The zombies seemed to lose interest in him, or so he said, when he dived into the river to swim across. Now he had just seen his father fall into the hole in the bridge and tons of rock and concrete fall down after him.
“C'mon, get up. We gotta move back off the bridge. I almost had him…” Ruben said, wiping a filthy sleeve across his eyes.
John didn't say anything he just continued to stare at the missing span of bridge, tears streaming down his face. Ruben did his best to manhandle him to his feet and get him turned around towards the other men. “Did he die?”
“He's gone John. He's gone. We gotta get off this bridge now. I don't know how steady it is going to be with part of it missing.” the older man continued pushing the younger one by the shoulders to the far shore.
“He could be okay. He might be in the river.” Said John breaking free and looking downstream from the wreckage.
Ruben joined him there and scanned the water, the two stood for a few seconds, seeing only muddy water that the collapse had churned up from the riverbed.
John seemed drained, even more lifeless than he had been when he came in this morning. Ruben was not doing much better, a third of his squad was missing and probably dead. And for what? Two survivors from fourth squad, both of whom needed rest and probably medical treatment. Thinking about that Ruben came up with a plan of action.
“Let's go John.” the boy didn't resist and Ruben towed him to the edge of the bridge where the rest of his men were waiting. “Kirk, when we are done here get the lieutenant on the radio and tell him the bridge collapsed, see what he wants us to do. Tell him we recovered two soldiers from fourth squad, but lost three of our men doing it. Also tell him one is injured and needs medi-vacced and all of us need some rest. We are buddy-ing up again the new pairs are me and John, Joe and Dan, Kirk and Javier and finally Larry and Matt. Barry is wounded, we'll put a gun in his hands if we have to, but he is out of the rotation. John, Joe, Javier and Larry you guys bed down next to your new buddy, well put Barry down next to the supplies. The rest of us will be on zombie watch for two hours then we switch off, we will keep doing this all day if we are given the chance. This clear?”
John spoke up softly, “Just like that? You replace my dad just like that?”
“This is why we have a chain of command John. Organization wins wars, not weapons, not men, not bravery. All of those things just make winning easier. Speaking of which Javier, you are in second spot now, until we get replacements or hear otherwise, the rest of you need to treat me as Sergeant and Javier as corporal. All of you break into the power bars, eat two each even if you have to force them down. And drink at least a liter of water too. Got that? Okay, now take up spots around the supplies, I want one pair east of them, one pair more northwest, one southwest and John and I will take up position here by the bridge, watch for zombies swimming or wading across the river and if you see any yell out to everyone else. Everybody clear?' Ruben saw only wearily nodding heads, 'Good, now go do what I said. Two bars, a liter of water!”
The men got themselves situated as Ruben had told them to and soon everything grew quiet.
“John.” Ruben said.
“Yes, uh, Corporal?”
“I didn't replace him as 'just like that'. Your father was a good man. He would want me to do my best to make sure his kid lived through this.”
John, from where he was laying on the ground nodded once, curtly.
“He was pretty smart, your dad. You should know he was going to go after you, even if the Lieutenant told him not to?”
“I would have done the same to find him.”
“I know. He wasn't easy to kill, your old man, the zombies couldn't do it; it took a bridge collapsing on him.”
Kirk came over and got Ruben's attention, “Yeah Kirk?”
“The lieutenant says to stay put for now, get some rest and keep an eye on things.”
“Did he say how things were at the other bridges?”
Kirk nodded, “Yes, they are holding, the zombies all stopped attacking after this last surge. He said to watch out, because of how they stopped.”
“How they stopped attacking?”
“Yes, it was, well he said it seemed, well…coordinated. As if it were planned.”
Ruben stared out across the river, looking at the few zombies he could still see that were milling about on the far shore.
Chapter 20
The van was jammed with undead, the sliding door remained open and Nita directed one more woman to push into the squirming mass.
“Nita?” Hugh asked.
“What?”
“I don't think that one should count, she only has one arm.”
“Shit.” she said, pulling the zombie woman back. Pushing the woman to move west with her mind Nita looked around for another zombie that might fit into the van. Not seeing one she shrugged her shoulders and tried to slide the van door shut. It took some effort and required Hugh's help. Once closed they stepped back and the van rocked slowly as the undead moved around inside of it. The two of them were at an old farmhouse out in the middle of a bunch of cornfields, zombies were streaming by slowly through the corn, making it ripple like water in a pond.
“It is still a pretty good count, for a van anyway.” Hugh said.
“I dunno, I think I could do better.” from the tone of her voice Nita thought she could do much better.
“Do you think they will eat each other?”
This brought another shrug, “I dunno. It could happen, if they get hungry enough. There might be enough energy in there to make one of them almost normal again.”
They took a few more steps back from the gently swaying light blue van. “Nita?”
“What Hugh?”
He gestured towards the van, “Why do you do that?”
“I don't know. It just makes me happy. I don't know why.”
Red bounded out of a corn field and up to them. He looked over the van and smiled, “Good one Nita! I don't think you could have gotten more in.”
The zombie woman shrugged her shoulders and looked out across the fields.
“What?” Red asked, looking at Hugh, “Did I say something wrong?”
“She thinks she could have done better.”
Red put his arm around Nita's shoulders, “Well practice makes progress, so chalk this one up to experience and do better next time.”
Nita turned her head to look at Red, “Red, why do I do this?”
“You are asking me? I don't know, doesn't it make you feel good?”
“Well yeah, but why does it make me feel good?”
Red thought about it for a minute, the smiled and said, “HellifIknow. I do know one thing though.”
“What?”
“I am jealous because of it.”
“Really?”
“Yeah love, I don't have anything like it. Hugh here doesn't either. Of the three of us you are the only one
