Joshua Gayou - Commune - The Complete Series - A Post-Apocalyptic Survival Box Set (Books 1-4)

“They’re going to be on us in no time at this speed,” Wang said nervously.

“I know, but I’m hoping we only have to hold them off until Arizona.”

“What happens in Arizona?”

“You remember that little mountain pass we drove through on the way down here?” I asked.

“Sure.”

“Okay. You ever hear of the battle of Thermopylae?”

“Of course. Everyone has,” Wang said. “After that stupid movie came out…”

I rolled my eyes. Right; war rhinoceroses and sword-wielding goblin orcs. Totally accurate film.

“Well, that was actually a real goddamned thing that happened, once upon a time,” I growled. “A small force of men were able to successfully detain the overwhelming might of the Persian army through the use of superior terrain. Just like we’re going to do.”

“Did the Spartans survive in real life? They all died in the movie.”

“Well… no.”

“No?” Wang yelped.

“Relax. The Spartans were constrained in that they weren’t able to displace. We are, but we’ll be able to slow to a crawl in there and light the fuckers up like it’s the Fourth of July. Plus, I’m pretty sure they’ll run out of bullets before we do. I think we can take away their will to fight in there. I think we can back them off.”

I looked into my side mirror and saw that the column was noticeably closer now. I tried to get a look at Greg and Davidson as well, but the angles were all wrong. I hit my radio and said, “Davidson, how copy?”

“Loud and clear,” he came back. “What’s up?”

“How’re you doing back there? You guys in position?”

“It’s about as comfortable as butt sex in a Volkswagen, but we’re all set.”

I grunted a laugh despite the situation and said, “Nice. It looks like we have a little time yet. See if you can re-stack some of that shit further up, so you don’t end up breaking things while shifting around.”

“Roger that,” he said.

We drove on a while in tense silence, eyes flicking back and forth between the road ahead and our side mirrors, noting that the column had come closer every time we looked back. I glanced down at the speedometer and noticed that it had crept back up to seventy-five. I cursed, pulled it back to sixty-five, and locked in the cruise control to take my twitchy foot out of the equation. I looked into the side mirror again; they were close enough that I could make out the silhouettes of heads inside vehicles. From what I could tell, they had slowed down to match our speed, maintaining a static distance.

“What the fuck are you up to now?” I muttered in a low voice.

“Maybe they just want to talk?” asked a hopeful Wang.

I scoffed. “Yeah, they want to talk us out of our shit. You saw that woman back there; she was bait. Carjackers used to do shit like that.”

I rubbed my chin and checked the road ahead of us again.

“My guess is they’re wondering why we’re not trying to get away. They may be wondering if this is some kind of a trap. Of course, there may be some sort of trap ahead of us, in which case we’re fu—”

A high-pitched clank rang out directly behind my head, causing me to duck low behind the wheel and shout, “Gee-zus Christ !”

A few seconds after that, two more clanks rattled off, and Davidson’s voice came through over the radio. “That’s it! Here they come!”

The cab of the truck erupted with the rapid-paced clanging of rung metal, rattling all up and down the bands of spring steel behind us. It came so fast and heavy that it sounded like we were caught in an epic hailstorm from Hell. I broke out into an instant sweat all over as I resigned myself to just take the punishment for moment, trying not to flinch at every impact; each bullet strike was a physical thing that I could feel in my back, making my muscles twitch and jump.

I hit the transmit button on the radio and shouted, “Davidson! How’re you guys holding up? Is that shield working?”

“So far so good,” he called back. His voice came through muted by a hail of gunfire. “I don’t know how long this will hold, though. It sounds like a drum solo out… oh, shit. Stand by!”

The sound of more rifle fire erupted behind us, this time incredibly close. I looked out my mirrors and saw that a few motorcycles had swung out on either side of us, scouting ahead. Greg and Davidson had begun spraying rifle fire in their direction; Davidson’s M4 was clearly set to auto as it spat 5.56 rounds in rapid succession. I saw bike riders begin to go down into the dirt and disappear behind us.

“So far so good,” I repeated through grinding teeth.

The rear window exploded into the back seat, showering both of us in little, blocky nubs of safety glass. At the same instant, a tiny hole bloomed in our windshield with cracks webbing out in all directions. Whatever had caused the hole, it had just missed Wang’s head by a few inches.

“Holy shit,” Wang’s voice quivered. He began to brush glass shards off with shaking hands.

“That one nearly had your name on it,” I said.

“I can’t believe they got one through,” he laughed in a thin, weak voice. “Those gaps are tiny!”

“I hadn’t planned on them standing up to such volume,” I said.

“It’s heating up back here, guys!” Davidson shouted over the radio. “Some holes are starting to show up in our barrier back here!”

I jerked my head over to look at my mirror again. A truck with a bunch of guys in the bed swung out to the side and began to pull up alongside of us; some of the men in the bed of the truck appeared to have hands that were on fire.

“Molotovs!” I yelled into the radio.

In a display of rapid threat assessment that made me proud (made me proud later, at least, when all this shit was over), Davidson rolled over onto his side and unloaded a magazine into the whole group, causing the men to drop their improvised explosives in the bed, which broke and engulfed them up to their wastes in flames. Without hesitating, he re-aimed and fired a grenade from his M203 into the passenger window of the truck, where it detonated and blew out all the windows. I had just enough time to see the truck lose speed and begin to roll off into the desert before my side mirror just simply disappeared, having been vaporized by a rifle round.

“ Fuck this !” I screamed. “Wang, get your ass over here and take this wheel!”

He jerked his head at me, face white with panic, and shouted, “Say what!”

“You heard me; get the fuck over here! Move!” I popped his seatbelt with a jab from my finger, grabbed him by the drag handle of his vest, and yanked him over into my lap. Once he was positioned, I threw my feet over to the right, rammed my palm into his hip, and shoved myself out from under him.

“What the hell?” he shouted as I slapped my radio into his hands.

“Put this on!” I yelled. “I’m getting back in that fight! Do not take your eyes off the road ahead. Be on the lookout for roadblocks and ambushes, do you copy?”

Wang rattled his head up and down like a dashboard bobblehead.

“And take it the fuck off cruise control! I don’t know what the hell I was thinking; slowing down was wronger than two boys fucking in the back of a church! Get this piece of shit moving! Now !”

I reached across the cab and yanked the earpiece and mic off of Wang’s head, hit the button, and yelled, “Davidson, how copy!”

The sound of rapid-fire erupted in the speaker as Davidson’s small sounding voice shouted, “Yeah, here!”

“I want you guys to count to five, then stand up from behind that wall and spray the ever-living fuck out of the whole horizon. Over!”

His voice came back immediately. “Copy all! Five seconds starting now!”