bits.”
Eamon wandered over, his ears ringing like a church bell roundhouse kicked by Chuck Norris. “I guess this checkpoint's closed, huh?” he shouted, staring at the destruction before him. Amy snorted and walked over to the barricade. She hauled the soldier out of the Humvee and laid the man on the ground next to his companion.
The three of them gathered around, looking at the corpses. Amy thought she should say something but all the words seemed to catch up in the back of her throat and not want to come out. One of the corpses made a choking noise as its foot twitched. When the one on the right started reaching for her leg Frays made the sign of the cross, drew her M9 and put a single 9mm round in each of their temples.
“Right.” Frays muttered unhappily as she collected the dead soldiers' dog tags. “Eamon, could you be so kind as to collect up whatever gear these two have left?” she looked at Lacey “And could you back that Humvee away from the edge, say about twenty feet or so and pull some overwatch? Thanks, guys.” Amy stuffed the little pieces of metal into her pocket and moved towards the Five Ton. “I'm gonna report in then I'll be right back to give you a hand.”
Lacey shivered as he climbed into the driver’s seat of the Humvee and started the engine. He could make out dozens of figures across the river shambling towards the edge of the bridge, moaning like tortured souls as they walked mindlessly into the river.
Chapter Two
13 May 2011 12:11 hours, Checkpoint Eight, Memorial Drive Bridge Boston, Massachusetts
Amy pulled herself up into the cab of the Five Ton. As soon as she sat down and her ears stopped ringing a little, Frays became aware that the vehicle's radio was screaming at her in a hundred different panicked voices:
“-Six! Checkpoint Four is a free fire zone, re-fr-one.”
“We need reinforcements, over!”
“Where's that air support!? We need CAS time: NOW!”
“Did an-dy fire ison.”
Amy took a deep breath and keyed the radio's handset. “Break, break, break. This is Bravo Three Four at Checkpoint Eight.” she said quickly, sparing a glance all around “Combat Engineer has blown the bridge. Checkpoint Eight is closed. Repeat, Checkpoint Eight is closed. Moving to the supply point to resupply Checkpoint Ten time: now.”
“This is Liberty Six.” said a rough voice. “Good job, Bravo Three Four.”
Now that her hearing was starting to come back, she could hear all manner of gunfire and explosions a little to her west, including the mechanical WHIRRRRRRP of A10s working and the familiarly terrifying CRUMPCRUMPCRUMP of mortar rounds detonating. Frays took a moment to wipe the frightened look off her face before jumping back down to the street and taking off towards the others at a run. Eamon and Lacey looked both looked like they were scared out of their minds.
“Lacey, is there a spare barrel for that fifty?” Frays asked as she quickly donned her pro mask and rubber gloves. “Eamon, what weapons and ammo did you find?” Amy began patting down the first of the half dozen or so infected corpses scattered along the shattered edge where the bridge used to be attached.
“They don't got one, Frays.” Lacey said quickly. “There's only about forty or fifty rounds left.”
“I found six clips for your rifles.” Eamon volunteered as he snapped off a pair of rubber gloves and tossed them on the ground. “Three for the ir pistols, a pair of night vision goggles, a GPS thingy and these.” The EMT held up two M67 fragmentation grenades in each hand.
She found what she was looking for in the breast pocket of the third corpse's bathrobe: a cell phone similar to her own damaged one. “Thank you, stranger.” Frays whispered as she brushed the
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