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

for something.” She looked at the odd assortment of food before her. “I wonder what we can expect for the rehearsal dinner?”
    “I promise no MREs, but that’s the best I can do,” Gracie replied as she slipped on her backpack and headed for the door.
    As soon as Gracie had left again, Vickie asked, “So now what? Gracie will be radioing Father O’Brien to send him on a wild goose chase.”
    “Not really. It is a good idea to have some designated safe areas where we can hide civilians or rendezvous and regroup. In fact, I am surprised we didn’t think of it earlier.” Christy nibbled at some peanut butter crackers. “The Great Lakes are huge, with plenty of islands to get lost in. Besides, Barnes thinks he’s president of the United States. As far as I know, he didn’t say anything about Canada.”
     
     
    Marcus and Bobby were tasked with wiring the bridge with explosives, while Carter and David were sent zipping downstream for an hour before sending the radio transmission to Fort Wayne. Jack hoped that any hostile forces would have a difficult time triangulating a radio signal moving along the Ohio, and at the very least, somebody tracking the transmission would think the people responsible for it were at least twenty miles east of the critical bridge. In the meantime, Jack and Luke were going to round up the prisoners and get them into their coats and sleeping bags; all of them appeared to be in the early stages of hypothermia.
    Just before sunrise Jack left Luke to guard the captives while he slipped into town with the SUV and a set of booster cables. By the time dawn’s first rays spilled over the Ohio River Valley, the son of an auto-dealership owner was back with a hot-wired bus with which they were able to better block the bridge. As the huge vehicle was being maneuvered into position , Marcus and Bobby reported that the explosives were all in place, and they’d just seen Carter and David’s boat come into view.
    Twenty minutes later they all were eating a breakfast of MREs inside the bus, discussing what had been learned over the radio, and considering their next move.
    “Ted don’t t hink he can get any rail headin’ this direction in a hurry,” Carter reported. “He said most Indiana lines run east to west, and them that don’t usually pass through Indy. He’s purty sure he could get somethin’ goin’ in a week or two, but he’d need the kinda set-up we had when we busted through Chicago. I just told him to keep workin’ on the problem with the resources he already has. Chad said he don’t need a train anyway; he’s gonna use the vehicles that carried his troops in from Toledo before the Battle of Fort Wayne.
    “He’s plannin’ on bringin’ fifty veterans down; they are bringin’ the 50 cals, but other than that they don’t have our firepower. Every one of ‘em is armored up and ready to fight. They’re bringin’ a bunch of spears and pikes, and the equipment they need to build a better barricade on this bridge. With any luck, they’ll be here before nightfall. The best news I got for ya, though, is what happened in Louisville while I was on the radio with our folks back home.
    “John and Tina found a set-up like the one Barnes had here when they arrived . They flew over the bridge and got shot at after the soldiers guardin’ the place realized the Blackhawk wasn’t one of theirs. Nobody on the chopper got hit, but it made John purty mad. They landed on the Indiana shore and moved in with NVGs. Shot every one of the poor bastards on the other side. Then they blew up a hundred-meter stretch of the bridge and headed east to the next one.”
    Everybody except Luke was sm iling and nodding when they heard about what John’s team had accomplished the previous night; Luke was glad the bridge was gone and his friends were unharmed, but thoughts of the man he’d arrowed a few hours earlier still bothered him. Jack knew what was going on, and after making sure that Lori Alberts