Priest looks to see the bridge blocked by some jersey barriers and military vehicles. There were a couple police cars parked closer, between them and the barrier. “Shit. These wackos didn’t build those barriers, those are regulation. By the looks of the surrounding condition, I would assume this was a checkpoint to stem the flow of infected and keep them from crossing the river.”
He lowered the binos. “Damn, trying to plow through there would be stupid. We don’t have a map and with GPS down, we are blind. Shaw hand me that radio.” Shaw reached in and pulled out the pack they had brought from Campbell with the radio.
“Spider, this is Father. Do you copy?” Priest waited and nothing. He repeated it and waited.
“Father, this is Spider, go ahead.”
“What is your ETA to our location? We are just north of the Susquehanna River on Rt. 95. We are near the town of Perryville. Over.”
“Wait one… ah, give us 15 mics on that.”
“15 mic’s, good copy.”
Priest stows the radio and then Shaw pipes up, “Sarge, it looks like the police cars are pulling out and coming this way.”
“Ok, set up a defensive line and take those two assholes out.” Shaw stopped the SUV, and the Team exited to set up a defensive firing line. As soon as the two police cars pulled out an enormous horde of infected rushed through the barrier and followed the cop cars toward the Team.
“Shit, everyone back in the SUV, we don’t have enough ammo to fight that entire crowd.” They all jumped in and took off north, heading away from the bridge. Up ahead at the next exit they could see movement coming towards them from the east, “Fuck me sideways. There is a large horde coming from the road on the right. He looked over and saw them cross the railroad bridge and then swarming the road and the intersection. “Fuck, fuck, fuck,” Priest yelled. “Ok Doc, you come up here and drive. I want Shaw hanging that M48 out the window and trying to buy us some time. They are coming over that railroad bridge. How did they know we were even here, much less key on us that quick? Did they hear us, smell us, see us? What?” They drove north a little way until they saw a country road to the left.
Doc drifted sideways on the road and straightened as Priest was looking at him. “What? I did a little street racing back in the day.” Priest returned his eyes forward and shook his head.
“Shaw, throw that ruck up here.” Shaw dropped the radio ruck up front.
“Spider, this is Father. Do you copy?”
He received an instant reply, “Go ahead, Father.”
“We are on the move with a shitload of infected climbing up our ass. They had the bridge barricaded, and another mass came at us from a parallel railroad bridge. We are heading west on a country road parallel to the river. We are spitting up a cloud of dust, so it should be easy to track our location.”
“Copy that. We are flying over the river now.”
Shaw yelled from the back seat, “Sarge, the police cars are almost on us. Time to introduce them to Jimi Hendrix.” Lia looked over quizzically. Shaw patted his M48. “Jimi Hendrix, cause he rocks like a motherfucker!” She just grinned.
Shaw leaned out the back window and began sending rounds toward the lead police car. Even with the dust and dirt flying around, he could see the wild eyes and erratic movements of the infected inside the car. Their faces were visible until his rounds entered the windshield and tore the two occupants to shreds. The police car careened off the road and went nose first into the ditch, while the second police swerved to avoid the first car and continued the chase.
The ISIS prisoner freaked out and thrash around. “Why are these police trying to kill us? This is not right.”
Lia gave him a hammer fist to the nose, breaking it. He screamed a high pitch scream and tears streamed from his eyes. “They aren’t cops, there’re infected. This is what you fuck heads unleashed on the world.” She was visibly disgusted by having to speak to the prisoner. “How does your precious Allah feel about you killing other Muslims, huh? The caliphate is to eradicate the infidels, but you assholes eradicated the entire world population.” The man’s eyes were wide as he started praying in Arabic.
Shaw looked over at him, “Ain’t gonna help you now, jackass.” The man had his eyes closed and was continuing to pray. Shaw was about to aim his M48 out the window when rounds rained down from the sky, shredding the police car in seconds. The rounds stopped as the helicopter flew overhead. Shaw looked back to see the police car stopped in the middle of the road with two bodies slumped in the front seat.
“Father, this is Spider. Do you copy?”
“Affirmative.”
“Half a mile up the road from your position, there is a field off to your right. Regroup there for exfil.”
“Copy that.”
Minutes later they all met up in the field. Allison, still in the co-polit’s seat, saw Shaw and waved at him excitedly. He returned her wave with a look of admiration. They threw the ISIS prisoner in the chopper and Priest noticed his broken nose. He looked at Lia and she gave him her innocent look and shrugged her shoulders. Priest chuckled and got on the chopper as they lifted off for Maryland.
As they ascended, they got a good look at the coming horde. Thousands had massed around the area; some were crossing the bridge, and some were standing there like they didn’t know what to do.
“Damn, look at all of them,” Doc uttered. “It’s out of control and no way to turn the tide.”
“There’s a way. There’s got to be or we should just give up right now. Just nose dive this son of a bitch right into a bank along the river.” Priest looked over at Lia and she was staring out the open door.