Wasteland Survivor– In one piece - ch9
#10 of Wasteland Survivor
Ok, I hope you were not too disapointed by the shortness of Fox's description of the battle. This may salve that a little :)
In regards to Fox and Drathnial, I really didn't have that planned, the bastards became battle brothers without asking my opinion of it or what it would do to the rest of the story. $#^@* actors, can't trust em a second.
Anyway, on with the show.
When I saw Fox leap from the trucks gun turret of the lead truck I knew she had gone berserk again, "Fucking hell, ok its on, by the numbers, we have to cover the others while they move up and deploy the mortars, that crazy little psycho bitch needs some backup, whether she thinks she does or not. Ok stop here and Henrickson, cover us with the seven sixty two on the roof, the rest of you, lets move." I punched the door release and it dropped down.
We filed out and met up with Jennings' group and started moving in on foot, every now and again the guns on the bushmasters would herald another beast that had spotted us and we would lay down a barrage of fire till the things stopped moving.
At last we reached the edge of the battlefield, there were still guns inside the encampment firing, that was a good sign, we stopped and set up, getting the mortars out, set up and primed. We lay every case of ammo we had around the things and set up a perimeter with the trucks on our flanks.
The voice of the Second Lieutenant called out both to our ears and in our heads.
~"Ok, lets start this."~
She then turned to Crystal, "You ready for this?"
Give the girl credit, she had her 'war face' on, "Yeah, lets start this."
The first mortar let out its base 'fwump', then a second later the next and the glow started in Crystals eyes. The mortars didn't stop, every second a new high yield fragmentation round was sent skyward only to have it streak off on a different course to its original. Each landed in a clump of the beasts, every one.
The shrapnel was taking its toll on the creatures and the hybrids among them started to notice that not all their problems were the flying beast tearing through their number or the blood soaked fox that would not relent. Screaming they sent a swarm of the dingos at us.
"Ok, this is about to get interesting, slow down with the mortars and get some of those claymores ready. Watch your targets and count your shots. Fire when they are within range."
Of course the trucks big 762 guns opened up first, the big heavy rounds taking a toll on the first lines of the beasts, but not enough. The hammer crack of steyrs being fired broke through the noise of battle and more of the things fell, but not enough, "Take it up a notch, Ashfield, Larson, swap to full auto, the rest of you, fix bayonets."
A few claymore blasts thinned them a little further, but they were going to hit our line, "Fuck it you little maniac, I hope you kill every last one of them..." I fixed my own bayonet and could almost smell the things when a white glow began behind us. I spun around to see Crystal, or what was Crystal, not just eyes burning, but her whole body alight like a white sun.
"Everyone hit the deck!"
A loud whine whipped through the air just above us and when I looked, the only thing taller than two feet was the bushmasters the dingos were nothing more than a field of meat in front of us.
"Fuck me..." I heard one soldier say, Crystal was just floating there, about four feet above the ground.
She turned her head to me and said, "Lets move closer, I think I have the hang of this now!"
Her grin was infectious and we all gave a yell of enthusiasm and abandoned the mortars and moved forward.
-
"Their almost here Sir, they will break through and reinforce us, we just have to hold out for that." I told the Major, saying a soft prayer to whatever god would listen that it would happen just like I had said.
"That's nice Jessup, but get your arse out there keep this place from falling apart till then."
"Sir!" I snapped a salute and left the medical building.
Soldiers were mounting the gun positions, we had a few marksmen who were doing their best to pick off any hybrids out there but there was just too many. We had run out of mortar shells an hour ago and there was no point using the big anti-tank guns, the rounds would cut through one or two if we were lucky, but we were so limited on ammo for those it would be a laughable practice at best.
Then a shadow passed over the camp and from the opposite direction we heard a blood curdling scream, but not one of fear, one that promised violence and we all had knew the throat it came from, we had all seen her go berserk on one occasion or another. "Fox..." myself and a few others around us said incredibly.
I ran to the wall and climbed up to a gun tower, the bright pin points of light flickered from the midst of the swarm of beasts every now and again and there was a trail of bodies in her wake but our attention was stolen from the gory sight as the shadow passed over us again and we saw what could only be a Dragon swoop down into the dingos and tear a huge swathe of them to nothing more than bone and gristle then take off.
"Watch your targets, we have a new ally, lets show them how we kill!" one of the sergeants yelled and the gunfire from our line began again.
I pulled up my binoculars and could see of to the edge of the fight the rest of Jennings' unit had set up mortars and had started sending a deadly rain into the flanks of the forces, some of the hybrids were starting to take notice, "MARKSMEN!" I yelled, "Pick off any hybrids you see that look to the east!"
A chorus of 'Sirs!' sounded and I could see the few hybrids that were noticing the squad start to fall, but too many had picked up on them and they tore a chunk of their force apart and charged the hapless soldiers.
I was watching, sickened, as the things were getting closer and closer to them, then just before they met a blue-white flash stunned me and when my vision cleared revealed the squad running on foot with a white glowing wolf hovering just before them, and whenever a beast came near them a fine blue-white line of light trailed out from her and lanced the creature, where it would just seem to pop.
The fight dragged on, most of our soldiers were handing their ammo up to the marksmen, the light was starting to fade as Fox and the Dragon met and jointly put an end to the last of the hybrids that had been steering this fight.
I jumped down from the wall and ordered the gate open to see Crystal, now no longer glowing or floating embracing Fox with the rest of the squad giving them their moment.
"Sir!" Jennings came running up to me.
"Report Second Lieutenant!"
"Sir, all hostiles neutralised, no losses on our end. Oh and our new ally is off uh," and she stated looking mildly distressed and embarrassed, "'feeding', his name is Drathnial by the way. How is the Major?"
"He took a swipe from one of those things when a few breached the compound, the wound is going septic, if it was an arm or a leg we could amputate, but it got him in the ribs..." I replied mournfully. It was never a good thing to report that you failed to protect a commanding officer.
"Can we see him?" Crystal asked, apparently Fox had surrendered her monopoly on the wolf's attention.
"This way." I replied.
-
Drathnial was out gorging, I could sense somehow his delight at the fight, and I shared it to some extent.
I had shown my admiration and releife to Crystal that she had made it through unscathed, and would likely have to track her down later tonight to show her some more when we came up on the conversation Jennings was having with the Lieutenant.
"Can we see him?" Crystal asked, I could almost hear the agony tearing through her.
"This way." the Lieutenant replied.
We followed him to the small building that had been set up for medical and after he disappeared inside for a second, he came back and said, "He wants to talk to Crystal, Fox and you Jennings."
I followed Crystals lead into the building, and could smell the wrongness of a septic wound almost strait away.
"Ahh, they said all the pretty ones had survived." The Major said with a sly grin.
"Sir..." Crystal began but was cut short by the man.
"I am dying, we were short on antibiotics as it was, there were twelve doses of it left when we got attacked, the doc said it would take eight doses to get me right again, and that there were ten other soldiers who needed at least one dose." I gasped a little at the story, "I told him morphine would be fine."
"But Sir without.. " Jennings tried to start this time and was interrupted again.
"I am an old man of meagre talents, this world seems to require a much more robust type than me, but you are partly right, what the country needs is a leader who can take control and who above all can protect not only themselves but others."
He looked up at Crystal.
"I heard what you did out there, I heard also what you did for the farm folk down in Victoria and further I know that you would do anything in your power for the weakest of creatures, which is why I want you to take over, Crystal. You have the fire, the ambition, the frame of mind needed to secure this country. Talk to the radio crew, they had made contact with some of our ally nations, they are in if possible a worse state than we. Do you know quite how many large carnivores there are on the other continents?"
I reached out and took his hand, he squeezed it and looked at me, "Protect this one Fox, you protect her so she can protect everyone else."
I looked down into his fading eyes, "Yes Sir! I will Sir."
With that the old man simply closed his eyes, and all three of us could sense the last breath leave him.
"I, I, I am not ready for this, I can-" Crystal was crying and stammering.
I squeezed the man's hand one more time and turned to her, "Honey, there's nothing we are not ready for."
I knew I had to write that bit, it was a part of the plot I had decided to follow, and even though I steeled myself to it, I still felt bad for the old war horse that he had to die, particularly in his bed rather than gunning down enemies.