Free Eastern Front: Zombie Crusade IV by J.W. Vohs

knew with Fort Wayne and the second team operating near Louisville. The decision wasn’t without danger, as Barnes’ human troops almost certainly monitored transmissions. The messages would be sent by code, but the most damning information would be the location of the transmission, easily determined using techniques developed more than a century earlier.
    Jack had already made several decisions that he wasn’t about to open to debate with the rest of the team, though he already knew that the only possible opposition would come from Carter. His best friend and second-in-command would eventually follow Jack’s lead, but there just wasn’t time for an argument right now. Jack h ad decided, after gathering the intelligence on Barnes’ movements he so desperately needed, to hold this bridge as long as possible. 
     

     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    CHAPTER 5
     
    As expected, Carter was incredulous when he first heard of the decision to fortify the bridge and remain in place until Barnes arrived, but after hearing Jack’s reasons for holding the span, he had to admit that the plan had merit. The bridge would still be wired with enough explosives to render it impassable. The hunter army would not be crossing the Ohio River here. What Jack hoped to do was simply gain time for the war effort to build momentum. He needed thousands of troops from Utah, whose leaders fully understood they were much better off fighting Barnes in the east than allowing the crazy bastard to destroy all resistance as he advanced across the continent. If the hunter army cleared the Mississippi River, there was no significant natural barrier to their advance until they reached the Rocky Mountains. All of the western troops would have to be assembled from what had become a very regimented society, then moved by rail to the Fort Wayne area. Jack knew that every extra day the Utah government had to mobilize would increase the alliance’s chances of defeating the enemy.
    Everyone on the team had been totally focused on keeping Barnes out of Indiana by blocking him at the Ohio River, but now that they knew his plans and general location, they realized that they were almost certainly going to be able to stop his northward advance. Jack was now beyond simply worrying about the need to save his people and their hard-won settlement; now he was thinking of the future by considering the best ways to keep this army of hunters penned up in the southeast. The Ohio River simply grew bigger and stronger until it poured into the Mississippi at Cairo, Illinois. From there the continent’s mightiest river flowed unimpeded to the Gulf of Mexico. If Barnes could be kept from crossing those two rivers, he would be forced to abandon his army of experienced flesh-eaters and start over somewhere else. The war wouldn’t be won if the alliance could prevent Barnes from moving north or west with his current force, but critical time would be gained to build and improve the human army that would ultimately have to defeat the mad general.
    Luke had immediately seen the plan unfold in his mind, where geography had been ingrained since the earliest days of his education. He also clearly saw the problems.
    “Blowing all the bridges over the Ohio and Mississippi would be a lot of work for a pre-outbreak military force,” he pointed out. “How are we gonna get it done with the resources we have available?”
    Jack nodded his understanding of Luke’s concerns as he explained, “We need more people in the air and on the water. Hopefully we can add the Blackhawk here to our little squadron. Before we left Fort Wayne , I asked Ted Simmons and his railroad guys to see if they could push a locomotive south; hopefully they’ve found an open route this way. Chad’s unit can defend as well as any force we have available, and I know they’ve been chomping at the bit to get a shot at Barnes. We’ll ask him to bring his fighters here to the bridge.
    “As soon as we know we have