The zombies had stopped coming over in mass now, they seemed to be accumulating on the far end of the bridge, then coming over as a group. Bill didn't like this, it was as if they were getting organized. The rifle fire from the athletics fields continued and Bill was waiting for reinforcements to push across the bridge and go to the other squad's aid. So far word had come down for him to hold his position.
“Are you going to go after your boy?”
Bill nodded, “I will.”
“Even if we are told to fall back?”
“Yes. Not just for him. That is our squad out there. Eleven guys wanting someone to save them. We will go get them and bring them back.”
“I know I would appreciate that. Besides what kind of father would you be if you didn't go?”
“I'll need some people to stay and hold the bridge.”
“You think I am too slow.”
With some reluctance Bill nodded, he found himself reluctant to lie to the old man, “You are too slow.”
“I got the radio back.”
“I didn't say you couldn't go fast in short bursts when you needed to. I would rather have you with me, the fact remains that I can't leave the guys here without some sort of authority figure, and like it or not Corporal, you are second in command. Who do you want with you?”
“Dan, Kirk and Larry.” Ruben had just named the other old guys in the squad, which Bill had expected.
“That figures; you saddled me with all the young guys.”
“Us old, slow guys gotta stick together. When do you want to go?”
“As soon as the sun is up. The darkness only helps the zombies, if we can see them, we can get around them.”
“You better bring a lot of ammo, extra grenades and maybe the medical kit. Those guys down there have got to be almost out of bullets by now.”
Bill's squad had been resupplied with an old army truck when he called in for help, the army provided bullets, a light machine gun and a quarter ton of ammunition. The driver had tossed the keys to Bill and gotten in the next truck in the convoy, so the squad didn't even benefit from one extra rifleman. The machine gun worked brilliantly right up until it jammed, even Ruben couldn't get the thing to work, he admitted it was a newer gun than the kind he was familiar with and he thought maybe the firing pin was broken. The six extra rifles were appreciated too, they already were using three of them to replace the ones that had been broken or lost yesterday.
Looking at the glow to the east Ruben said, “You better go take twenty sarge. You've been up as long as us and a twenty minute nap is better than nothing. I won't let you oversleep, as soon as it is light enough I will boot your ass and get you moving.”
“Don't let them blow the bridge.”
“I won't. We got guys on the other side.”
Bill trudged down the track and lay down at one end of his squad, certain he would not fall asleep on the rough stone and cross ties of the railroad. When Ruben shook him awake it was light out with the sun just above the horizon chasing off the darkness. Bill checked his watch and noted that close to thirty minutes had passed, he did not want to get up.
“You good to go?”
“Yeah, I am up. What's happened?”
Ruben handed him a hot mug of coffee, “Locals brought us some grub. Careful it is hot!”
Bill sat up and gingerly sipped at the closed travel mug, “Good, very sweet.” he said, making a face.
Ruben stood and then lowered a hand to pull Bill to his feet. “You need the calories so I dumped a half a cup of sugar in. All we have is power bars for breakfast. Eat two or three. More if you can.” he said, pushing half a dozen bars into Bill's other hand.
Looking around Bill noticed something different, “Where are the engineering guys?”
“They left about fifteen minutes ago. Left us the detonator for when the orders came down. I've been on the horn with the Lieutenant, there is going to be an air strike on the other side in about five minutes. That will be something to see.”
“We'll go over right after that. Unless you've heard back from the Lieutenant?”
Ruben shook his head, “He is busy, told me to hold here and that if we could press across to recover the other squad we should do so.”
“I knew we should have left them the radio.” The other squad's radio had never worked reliably, even during training it had been shorting on and off, but they didn't have a replacement. The squad's suggestion that the radio be replaced with a cell phone was shot down without comment, although everyone believed it was to control information about the fighting.
“Well then we wouldn't… Fuck!” Ruben yelled as he seemed to lower himself to the ground in slow motion, reaching out and pulling Bill with him. A split second later a massive explosion tore through Bill's eardrums. Climbing to his feet he watched as his men on the edge of the bridge were engulfed in dust and debris.
Ears ringing Bill tried to say something to Ruben, who shook his head and mouthed something back at him. A moment later after he climbed back to his feet and helped Ruben up his ears started to ring, working his jaw open and closed as he saw Ruben doing slowly brought the ringing sound to a dull roar, through which he could hear the quiet whispers of his men cursing. They weren't actually swearing quietly Bill discovered as he tried out a few profanities of his own, his ears just were not working yet. Ruben leaned in close and yelled, “That is about like I remember air strikes; Never on time or where you wanted them.”
“I didn't even see the planes!” Bill yelled back.
“You're not supposed to. They go fast, remember? Plus with all these trees around us, we only would have spotted them if they came up or down the river. We better check on the boys, that was awful close.”
Bill and Ruben stumbled into the dust to round up their men. They started first with Jerome and Dan, who had been sleeping next to their feet. Both men were awake and Jerome was sporting a fresh wet spot in the crotch of his trousers. They left him in the care of Dan and headed to the bridge, the other squadmates were all there and unwounded with the exception of Javier who had been hit by a piece of debris from the explosion, it had nicked the side of his head, cutting long, shallow gash just above his ear that was bleeding profusely. His squad buddy, Matt was already getting ready to put a bandage on the wound, Ruben stopped to assist him while Bill made sure the rest of the men were okay. By the time Jerome and Dan came up to the bridge Javier was bandaged and the dust had settled enough to allow them to see the far bank across the river.
“Where are the trees man?” Javier asked.
“No, where are the zombies?” Matt said, with a laugh, “I guess we need a few more runs like that to clear them all out for good.
“Listen.” Ruben said, straining to hear the pop-pop-pop of gunfire. “Sounds like they still have problems across the way.”
“Yeah, the fields over there didn't get hit. But the bridge did, look at it!” said Javier pointing. The squad had been walking forward along the bridge to assess the situation and damage better. Ahead of them the entire right side of the bridge was just gone. The twisted rail on that side had not fallen in, it spanned the hole alone and forlorn.
“Can we still get over it?” Matt asked, looking at the hole where gravel and dirt were still falling into the river far below.
“I think so, if we keep to the left hand side and hug the railing.” Bill answered. “We better go try and help those guys now. Vic, Jerome, Matt and Javier you come with me. Kirk, Larry, Dan and Ruben, you stay here and keep any zombies that lived from coming over the bridge. Lets go grab ammo and one of the spare rifles to take with us. I want to get out of here before the zombies come back.”