Free The North: A Zombie Novel by Sean Cummings Page A

position and pressed the talk button. “You’re not done yet, Sid. Have an eye for obstacles on the top of the river bank because you’ll be the first one to see them.”
    “Roger that!” said Sid.
    In seconds the nose of the carrier pitched up sharply and I held on to the front of Doug’s driving seat. The engine protested loudly as we crawled up the embankment, but only for a short moment before leveling off. We pushed on for about fifty more feet until I heard the radio hissing in my ear.
    “Ark Two is clear,” said Sid. “Give me a minute while I do a three-sixty so I can get my bearings.”
    “Take your time.”  I poked my head into my periscope. Waves of heat from the engine rose over the hull, giving everything a blurry appearance. The ground was carpeted with acres and acres of fallen poplar leaves, only they weren’t yellow and gold, they were black and brown, probably poisoned by the poor air quality or low level radiation. .
    Sid gave the crew commander seat a small kick, so I turned around to see his head poking down below the turret. “There’s a pretty big gaggle of creeps bearing down on us,” he said grimly.
    “How many?” I asked.
    “Hard to say,” he replied. “There’s a ridge up ahead and I’d peg it at maybe fifty or so. Want me to open up on them?”
    We had a good supply of ammunition, but I remembered Sgt. Green’s first rule of combat: don’t waste a single bullet. At the same time, I didn’t want the carrier to get bogged down with the monsters as we climbed to higher ground. Then an idea came to me. We knew that the creeps were attracted to sound, light and movement. We had five crates of smoke grenades and six grenade dischargers on the sides of each carrier. Rather than waste bullets, I decided to create a diversion. I pressed the PTT button. “Ark Two, fire three smoke grenades onto the riverbank. I have a hunch the creeps will be attracted to the smoke and it should clear them off the crest of the hill.”
    “Will do,” Pam Cruze replied.
    Sid spun the turret to his left. “Smoke’s on its way!” he said. “Good call, Dave. The creeps are following it.”
    “Thanks,” I said. “Give me a boot as soon as the area is clear and we’ll move on.”
    “Yup.”
    I glanced back at Kate who was keeping close watch on our surroundings from the safety of her viewing port. Jo was hidden underneath her poncho liner but reappeared after a short moment with a canteen cup full of pee. She gave me a helpless look, so I crawled between the turret cage and the engine panel into the back of the carrier.
    “I’ll take that,” I said as she happily handed me the canteen cup. I opened a firing port and carefully dumped the contents out of the carrier, then wiped out the cup with a rag.
    “Thanks, David,” she said, her face beet red. “I didn’t want it to splash on me cuz it’s like a rollercoaster back here when we’re moving.”
    “I know,” I said, as I tightened a bungee cord around the cases of small arms ammunition just above her head. “I want you to wear your helmet back here at all times, okay? It’s going to get even bumpier and stuff always falls onto people when you’re going cross-country in these things.”
    She nodded as she placed the SPECTRA helmet on her head and I allowed myself a small chuckle when I saw that it came down past her nose.
    “I can’t really see anything,” she said.
    “Good,” I replied. “The less you see of what’s out there, the better, kiddo. Trust me.”
    Jo put a dirt-smeared hand on my knee and exhaled heavily. “I’ve already seen lots of bad stuff. How come we’re stopped?”
    “We’re just checking out our route and then we’re going to get moving,” I lied, not wanting to tell her about the wall of creeps on the ridge ahead.
    She pushed the helmet up to her forehead and her eyes narrowed. “I know what’s outside, David,” she said fixing me with her gaze. “Sid was doing a lot of shooting and I know