Free Payload by RW Krpoun Page A

understand her.”
    “It’s tough to be sure,” JD agreed. “I thought I knew my wife.”
    Checking the terrain, Marv stopped. “Take ten, guys. We ought to be just out of sight of the Interstate.”
    “No way,” Dyson shook his head. “No traffic noise. We have to be at least a half mile short.”
    “Look, take ten and you and I will ease forward, no packs, and see who’s right,” Marv dumped his pack and sat on a handy log.
    “OK.”
     
    The Georgian was really as stealthy as he claimed; Marv had, in the course of hunting men in Afghanistan, become proficient in tactical movement, but Dyson was clearly better.
    “See?” Marv pointed to the south, where the bridge was visible. “We were right where I said we were.”
    “We should hear vehicles,” Dyson shrugged.
    The two eased forward another twenty feet to the edge of the trees; a hundred yards away I-75 stretched north and south under the hot fall sun.
    “Shit.” Both men spoke as one.
     
    Chapter Three
    “It’s a parking lot from Hell,” Marv explained. “North-bound is pretty empty, but the south-bound lanes are full of abandoned and wrecked vehicles from the south end of the bridge to out of sight. Worst of all, there are dozens of zeds wandering between the vehicles, or keeping to the shade. Looks like the sight of the horde from that Wal Mart truck caused wrecks, which slowed traffic, which let the zeds over-run cars. Apparently over the hours of darkness more cars rolled up on the blockage and were over-run or wrecked trying to get away.”
    “So now what?” Bear asked.
    “We need a vehicle and supplies of all sorts,” the Ranger shrugged. “We’ll have to supply ourselves from the blockage. Quite a few vehicles are still serviceable and a lot were loaded with stuff. It will mean a risk, but on foot in Florida heat we’re not going to get far, nor fast.”
    “We can’t fight a mob of zombies,” Doc objected.
    “We won’t,” Marv knelt to draw in the damp earth with a stick. “This is I-75. We stay in the tree line, keeping close enough to eyeball the road. We move up about a quarter mile past the blockage and stash our gear.” He drew an X.  “Then we separate. Group One doubles back down the tree line and comes out into the open some distance into the blockage and make lots of noise. They draw most of the zeds to them, keeping a safe distance. While the zeds are responding to Group One, Group Two slips into the ‘parking lot’, as it were, gets a vehicle and whatever gear comes to hand, and hauls ass. Group One breaks contact, circles back, and joins Group One back at the gear. We can do it more than once if we need to.”
    “They’re not clever,” Captain Jack nodded, leaning in to study the map. “It was Addison’s fire-bomb that allowed us the break contact initially. Can you build another, old chum?”
    Addison gave a single nod.
    “OK, Group One is Bear, Addison, Captain Jack,” Marv said. “Group Two is the rest. We’ll choose the vehicle beforehand, and grab what gear seems handy.”
    “An RV,” Addison mumbled.
    “What?” Marv asked, surprised.
    “An RV would be cool,” Doc agreed.
    “Too long of a wheelbase, too clumsy,” the Ranger objected. “Zero cross-country capability.”
    “Get a good one, they have more power than you think. And we’re not going to conduct combat operations, we’re driving to Texas,” Dyson pointed out. “If we grab a high-dollar model we could cook food while on the move, take showers, have clean clothes, live in air conditioning.”
    Marv hesitated. “Anybody know anything about RVs?”
    “I’ve owned a couple,” JD said. “I used to use them instead of staying in hotels, travelled all over on business. Dyson’s right, they’re a house on wheels.”
    “Not much else will hold seven men comfortably,” Bear pointed out. “We would have to get two vehicles otherwise.”
    “OK, we’ll take a look at the selection.”
     
    The Gnomes stayed in the tree line