"Terra Mortis II" - Chapter 29

Terra Mortis II: The Gathering

Chapter 29

By Dwayne MacInnes

Brady took in a deep breath and started to let it out slowly as he waited for the half-track to get closer. His finger was waiting for the signal from his brain to squeeze the trigger slowly to unleash bullet from his M-16 towards the unfortunate target. The army captain prayed that the window wasn't bulletproof; otherwise, they were all doomed.

"Well it's now or never," Brady thought. He started to squeeze the trigger when he heard Nori shout out:

"HOLD YOUR FIRE!"

Brady quickly looked over at Nori on the other side of the road. She was standing up and waving at the half-track. "Is she crazy? She knows we can't surrender," Brady angrily thought.

"Look in the truck!" Nori said excitedly.

Brady looked at the truck, inside was the driver he was aiming at. Brady didn't know what had Nori so excited. He looked at the passenger side and noticed a boy sitting in that seat.

"A boy?" Brady asked.

The captain looked harder as the half-track started to slow down. It couldn't be. It was impossible! Brady jumped out of the ditch and ran over to the half-track. There inside beside the driver was Coop.

A red dodge truck with an M-2 .50 caliber machine gun on a single mount in the bed pulled around the half-track and stopped beside it. In the driver's seat was Sarge. The whole army stood up as Brady and Nori ran towards the convoy. The large African-American army sergeant jumped out of the red truck and embraced Nori as she ran up to him. Brady just stood thunderstruck as he watched Coop run over to him.

"Brady, I thought you were already dead!" the excited eleven-year-old boy yelled as he hugged Brady.

Brady pushed Coop back, "I...I saw you get bitten and go down under a hoard of zombies. How?"

"I did get bitten, see," Coop rolled up his shirt sleeve to show two nasty horse-shoe shaped black and blue bruises that were starting to yellow. There weren't any puncture marks anywhere along the bruise.

"It still hurts, but I was lucky that the zombie was an old man and didn't have any teeth," Coop said. "I was able to squeeze between the door and the wall because Lisa wouldn't let any zombies past her to me. Then I climbed up the ladder and ran all the way back home."

Brady shook his head. He couldn't believe his eyes or ears. The captain silently prayed a ‘thank you' to Lisa. Coop was still alive, because of her sacrifice. Brady looked at Coop again, the boy was never big to begin with, but now he was down right skin and bones. When he meant he ran all the way home it must have been close to literal. The boy must have had very little to eat and ran as much as he could.

By now, Sarge walked over to Brady. "Looks like Coop here is quite the hero. He got to camp before the Horde and warned us about you. We were heading west on a rescue mission when he saw the half-track. I was able to snipe the driver and gunner from a large tree. The rest was pretty easy. Whatever this Khan is, he is no military man. His thugs weren't even second rate soldiers," Greene laughed.

Brady looked over at the half-track, the mechanic George MacLaren was climbing out of the driver's seat.

"Hi, kid," smiled Greg Smith from the gunner's carriage.

The two armies started mingling when it was clear that both were on the same side. They decided to set up camp in the field next to the barn. With the two groups combined, they had doubled their strength in personnel and astronomically increased it in firepower with the addition of the half-track.

The next morning with the addition of vehicles, the two armies were able to make it to Vice-City in only a matter of a couple of hours. The once proud capital of Khan's empire was now a burned out hull. The debauchery that took place there only two days before were now forever silent. Black smoke still billowed up from the sewer and several buildings were reduced to rubble.

The convoy stopped at the outskirts of the town. The wind blew hauntingly down the deserted streets. The caws from the ravens were the only sounds. Brady looked up from the bed of the Dodge truck to see the black birds pecking at the flesh of several dead people swaying in the wind hanging from the lampposts.

"Damn," he hissed. The remnants of the Horde exacted their own revenge on the people of the town.