Fight at the Walmart Truck

Posted on Sat Aug 5th, 2023 @ 10:56pm by Hale Stratton [Major, United States Army] & Ethan Thompson & Alonzo Blazevic & René Rouen & Victoire Olaffson [Lieutenant, United States Navy]

1,582 words; about a 8 minute read

Mission: Bangor or Bust
Location: Road Closure Outside of Bangor, Maine
Timeline: 28 August 2010 - 06:00 a.m.

Ethan watched the exchange from the other side of the opening. Although he was quiet, his mind was active. He could understand using a knife on the dead but ... someone alive? Just what kind of a person did that? And what was she doing searching the Walmart truck ... like she owned it and all? His eyes narrowed slightly but he said nothing. Still, the job wasn't to engage, it was to report back first. Not afterwards. And it bothered him that Rene didn't follow orders.

Rene shot a look upwind and saw a few of the Soulless emerging from the forest with many more visible behind them. "Merde!" He gestured at the trailer again with one hand as the other pulled the radio from his pocket. "Everyone get in." He thumbed the push-to-talk button. "Capitan Stratton, René here. We have a situation at the big lorry about 200 meters down the road. Twenty plus of the Soulless just emerged from the treeline on the east side of the autoroute."

"On our way," Hale said. "Try to retreat back toward us."

René did the math in his head and figured they couldn't get back to the main group on the road. He pressed the push-to-talk button. "Hurry." He pulled his machete and glanced at Victoria. "Ready?"

Victoria nodded and hefted her bat, hands tightening around the grip.

"Twenty of the dead are a little over 200 yards down the road and our scouts are there," Hale said. "Those of you who can't fight or don't want to, hang back, the rest of you, get your weapons ready and let's go." He took off down the road at a full out run with his fully loaded Sig and his combat knife.

Vic shared a look with Hale just before he broke into a run and looked around at those around them before pulling her own weapons and looking to the tree line around them as she began to follow him.

"I hate the damn French" muttered Alonzo as he jolted in pursuit of the other two. Truth be told, as soon as Hale said there was trouble ahead, Alonzo wanted to punch Hale right in the gut. Putting Ethan's life in danger that was something Alonzo did not like at all. He was supposed to be protecting the teenager.

Jordan grasped the Louisville Slugger tighter as he took off after the adults leaving the priest, restaurateur, and teen aged girls behind. He easily kept pace with Hale as they ran.

Father Dominic remained behind with Courtney, Vienna and Bao. He gave a silent prayer for everyone to come out of things unharmed.

Long stretch of road with nothing much around, just the Walmart truck with its back doors hanging open which was an odd sight, no question. Ethan, who had survived thus far by following his own instincts, figured his best chance for survival was not taking on a mob of the dead. He was fifteen and he'd seen first hand what happened in the church. Learning how to take on one or two was one thing but this? Out of his league.

The question then became, where to hide? And following close after that was the secondary question, how to get out of working scout with Rene ever again. He elected for the top of the trailer, figuring that if he lay down flat he'd go unnoticed. And so, he climbed up onto the hood and from there, onto the top of the cab, and from there pulled himself up onto the top of the trailer. He laid down flat, with his knife in hand, and waited for what came next. He'd have reported back from Rene was the one with the ability to communicate.

Extreme running, something he'd taken up years ago, had given him both speed and endurance and Hale could move.

Vic kept pace with Hale; relying near solely on her training more than anything.

[Short While Later]

Rene took a step forward and made a slash attack at the nearest zombie. The blade dug into the zombie's collar bone and tore through enough bone and flesh to all but sever the thing's left arm.

Hale arrived, taking in the scene, who was alive and who wasn't, even as he grabbed the nearest walker and jammed his knife into pterion on a middle-aged woman's skull while side-kicking an elderly man out of the way. He removed his knife and slid it immediately into the old man's skull, looking for another target.

Vic was moments behind Hale and took in the scene in the breadth of a moment her attention locked onto the sight, and sounds, coming from the truck and the duo of scouts. She gripped her blade in a backhand grip but on instinct decided that the safer thing for the scouts was to make some noise on their end and she raised her Sig, firing a quad of shots that regardless of whether they found their marks or not drew the mobs attention and then she slid off the road into the trees and brush alongside it.

Alonzo came to Hale's side "I'm on your left!" he shouted to make sure that he did not get a knife stuck inside of him. "Where's Ethan?" he asked. "I need to find him" he stated.

"Nowhere in sight," Hale said as, turning so that he was back to back with Alonzo, he took out another walker, teenager from the looks of her, ear buds and all. "Yelling will draw their attention," Hale said, "but I'll help you look."

René wrenched the machete free and delivered a bone crunching kick to the knee dropping the Soulless creature. His second slash connected with the skull and finished it off. Two more closed in on him.

With a knife in hand Alonzo was ready for an approaching figure that clearly was long past their expiration date. He charged forward plugging the knife through the left eye socket and giving it a jerk to the right, a twist, and pulling it out. The once reanimated individual no longer made noise or movement. He was not fond of having to do that, but if it meant getting to Ethan, he'd do anything necessary.

From his position, flattened on top of the truck, Ethan could see that the crowd was thinning out. More importantly, he could see Alonzo and Hale, his best chances for coming out of this safely, fighting side by side and whoofed a sigh of relief. He made his way down the front of the truck and slid down on the quiet side, moving around to the back. A young child, as dead as the others, lurched toward him and he struck, using the techniques he'd been taught, and then stood there, staring down at her now lifeless body, the bloodied knife still in hand.

René quickly dispatched the two Soulless that had gotten close with strikes to the head with the machete. He looked about, Victoria was doing rather well, but a glance at Ethan saw the younger kid staring at the still corpse of a little girl. He came up along side. "Stay alert or you will end up like one of them."

There had only been the one and Ethan, after slanting a look at Rene, backed away, moving toward Alonzo and Hale. The memory of the young girl's dead eyes looking up stayed with him and he wondered how much she'd known of what was happening to her.

Hale continued to advance, working his way through the dead. He noticed how they tended to cluster together and continued to employ hard kicks to the chest to make them back off, give him room to work.

Ethan rounded the back end of the truck and came up behind Alonzo and Hale, probably, at least to his mind, the safely spot in the area. Still, he kept stealing glances behind him to make sure that nothing was coming up behind them.

René side stepped out of the way as another of the Soulless lurched towards him. He slashed wide and severed the neck of the thing. The body crumpled to the ground as the head toppled to the ground. It lay there, it's mouth opening and closing as if chewing on invisible prey. "Bon sang! The head is still...alive."

Victoire moved round to the rear of the truck, holstering her pistol and gripping her knife more firmly as she stepped back up onto the road, working her way through the small pack of dead from the opposite side, dancing through them with small precise movements not dissimilar to those of Capoeira until she was back alongside the truck itself.

Hale worked the other side of the truck, moving with lethal intent through a crowd intent on taking them down. He shot the ones who were closest and holstered his weapon, favoring the combat knife instead. This was something he understood, the mechanics of combat. Pull someone close enough to get an angle, stab in through the softest part of the skull, shove them away, move on. Kick back those who got too close, start again.

Time passed. A second? A minute? Two days? Hard to say but there came a moment, when there were no more of the dead trying to come at him. He checked those around him and everyone seemed to be in a similar situation.

"Pull back," he ordered. "Pull back to the rest of the group."

 

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