Ty Cooper led the troops back to where his unit had been ambushed.  When they arrived to see the tell tale signs of an attack, Ty had a story prepared.  He’d told Reed and the troops that the infidels must have fled; knowing death was on its way.  Ty said he could track them with help of their messiah.  Little did they know Ty had help from his own dark lord.

            That had been hours ago.  They’d traveled through the night and had been able to move fast.  With a force guiding him, Ty had been able to pick the least cluttered highways and side streets.  With their large numbers, they’d been able to bowl through the undead like they were made of leaves.

            However superior they might have been to the quarry they chased, numbers worried Cooper. When they’d left, the fighting force was around four hundred.  By morning it was down to three hundred and fifty and continuing to drop although at a slower pace.  He knew these men weren’t dieing.  They’d just gone along with orders until they’d had a chance to disappear.  The flock was unraveling and Reed knew it.

            They’d caught a few rear guards trying to slip away.  Apparently no everyone in their transport wanted to abandon the mission and the attempt at an escape had made too much noise.  Reed had all of the men inside of the truck executed.  Other than those men, Cooper hadn’t seen anyone else caught.  He could understand the soldiers who’d fled early on with their families, but he didn’t see a point in running now.  Luckily, Cooper’s unit had been chosen well.  Ortiz had an eye on the rest of the troops, looking for any signs of betrayal, but found none.  Of all the units, Cooper was sure his was the only one not to loose any of its numbers.

            Following Reed’s command, the party passed the compound without searching for information.  Under normal circumstances, they’d have torn the place apart but they would have been wasting time.  Lenux knew where they were and Cooper was sure he was in Reed’s mind at that moment.  He’d directed Cooper for miles.  Surely he wouldn’t have taken such pains if he hadn’t been able to track his prey.

            By tomorrow afternoon, his men would be fighting possibly the greatest battle of their lives.

*

            Sal’s first instinct had been to leave the stretch of freeway.  If someone else came along they’d have been trapped.  However, the possibility of another passer by was slim and anywhere else in the area would have been swarming with the undead or directly in the potential path of traffic.  The section of freeway seemed open, but they’d hardly be visible from the surrounding area because they were on an elevated overpass with safety walls.  Around them, the other cars served to camouflage their own vehicles.  Besides, this was the first friendly contact they’d had with other people in years and Sal couldn’t have waited to hear their stories.

            Judging by Jack’s story, their new friends had just as bad of luck with meeting people as Sal’s.  It sounded like their people could be dead in the next few days.  Sal’s people needed a new home, so the death of this new colony would snuff out his last hope.  Besides, Jack’s party had done Sal a great service by killing the cult leader.  If the sect hadn’t imploded, they’d have stuck around and possibly returned to the scene of their latest massacre.  They’d have at least had to pass by again in order to go to the next town.

            After the detailed account from Jack, Sal had decided to tell a quicker version of his story.  Aside from the children they’d left in the junk yard, there weren’t many helpful details.  He’d mentioned their run in with some raiders when he’d returned home.  Though Sal hadn’t seen a convoy leave, Sal knew the cultists were on the move.  If Jack hadn’t experienced visions and unexplainable compulsions which led him to the overpass where they stood, Sal would have been very hesitant to talk about premonitions.  He’d just known they were on the war path.  They were likely out to avenge their leader.

            “So your daughter and some thirty other people were hidden in a secret room,” said Ted.

            Sal nodded.

            “How’d you and Jasper survive?”

            “We were part of an expedition team of our own.  The city around us was running dry and we were scouting for places to expand.  Maybe see if the farmland was secure enough to use,” Jasper said.  “Some people thought maybe there were other survivors out there.  You know what they say about being careful what you wish for?”

            As he spoke his last sentence, anger grew in Jasper’s voice.  He was a good man, and Sal hated to see him consumed by hatred.  At the same time, he knew that nobody would be the same after a loss like Jasper’s.  The image of Connie and the other women’s defiled and reanimated corpses made Sal’s own fists tighten into white knuckled balls.  The spectacle sounded like it pulled almost the same reaction from Jack’s people.  Ted hadn’t been there, but the account of the bodies made his face lose all color.  Perhaps he pictured a loved receiving the same treatment.

            “We lost one man during the expedition and another later on,” Sal said.

            At the mention of Wade’s plight, Sarah’s eyes rolled towards the ground.  Her mouth didn’t form a frown, but instead blankness.  She allowed herself to drift off somewhere and the thought disturbed him.  Sal hoped his daughter’s mind would be with her body when they had to fight.

            “Were you in a barn?”

            Jack’s question was odd, but Sal remembered.  It seemed like so long ago, but how could he forget after the fire…

            “Yes, we slept there one night.”

            “That explains how we found a perfectly good shotgun there!”  Jack said.  “It bugged the hell out of me, but I just assumed some of the cult members went out there to scout or shoot some deer or something.”

            “We were out doing just that when we were cut off by a fire.  We’d left a few supplies back there.  I preferred the rifles for hunting.”

            At the mention of the fire, Jack blushed.

            “Sorry about that.  It was one of my men.  You’re lucky the undead didn’t catch you in your sleep.  The place was crawling with them.”

            Sal couldn’t believe it.  They’d almost met back in the early stages.  He’d wished he could turn back the clock and save his people and his men a lot of trouble.  Then he wondered if their meeting would have prevented the cult leader’s death.  It certainly wouldn’t have prevented Jack’s colony from being attacked.

            “What did you do with the serum?” Sarah asked.

            Sal was glad to see her back with them.

            “Nothing yet,” Jack said.  “We stashed it in a random neighborhood.”

            “Thank God.  You might not see it this way, but everything that’s happened to you might have been a blessing.”

            Jack and Ted turned their heads towards each other.

            “It’s still under development and isn’t ready to use.  We tested it on volunteers, all terminal patients.  Some times it had no effect.  Sometimes it killed the test subject.  Their brain was in tact, but they didn’t reanimate.”

            “Well shit!” shouted Ted.  “All this death for nothing.”

            “No,” said Jack.  “Even before this, we were slowly dieing out.  We were losing more people to disease and the undead than we had new births.  Just like them,” Jack waved towards Sal, “our city was running out of supplies.  I don’t think all of the people with Genesis are bad.  Lou helped us escape.”

            “Then what?  He just left us out here to die.”

            “What else was he going to do?”

            Ted was silent.

            “Look, if we get out of this situation our people might be better off than they were before.  Knowing there are at least tens of thousands of people out there is worth a hell of a lot more than some serum to me.  What would we have done with it anyway?  We don’t even have a real lab to work with.  Besides, if we hadn’t gone out there, Helen wouldn’t have been able to kill Calhoun.”

            Sal assumed Helen was a member of Jack’s team until Ted shot a worried look.  According to Jack’s story, eight men had left his compound and only three returned.

            “Who’s Helen?” Sal asked.

            Ted glanced between Jasper, Sal, and Sarah.  He seemed to be assessing their armament.

            “We were going to have to tell them eventually,” Jack said.

            “Does it have to be now?”

            “The official story we told was that she’s one of you.  I assume you’d see right through that if you’d met her.”

            Sal didn’t like where this was going.

            “After we saw what was left of your compound, we’d retreated.  That part went just like we told you.  Only we didn’t lose our pursuers.  A plow and a sports car were about to box us in, but they’d suddenly veered off of the road.  They’d taken fire from a nearby window.  We had to stop shortly after the chase because our jeep had been nearly destroyed.  That’s when we met her.”

            “She was one of them wasn’t she?” Sal said, keeping an eye on Jasper.

            Jack nodded.  “She’d been pushed too far.  She couldn’t see any more death, at least not the way they dealt it.”

            “She murdered my wife,” Jasper shouted.

            “She wasn’t there.”

            “She would have been.  She was there to do the same to other men’s wives.”

            Jack’s jaw dropped and his fists clenched.  Sal was glad both men weren’t holding on to their rifles.

            “She saved our lives.  Helen’s not a murderer.”

            “Helen’s the one who killed their messiah,” Ted offered.

            Jasper still fumed.  Sal was glad they hadn’t run into Helen first.  She seemed to be a good person to have around in a fire fight.  As Ted stepped in front of Jack, making himself a barrier between the two men, Sal guessed more information was being held back.

            “Did she hold them down, or did she hold the knife?” Jasper asked.  “How long until Helen stopped enjoying it?”

            “Get in the fucking car right now,” Sal said.

            Jasper turned towards Sal.  His mouth flew opened, but before the first word could spill out Sal raised his shot gun to Jasper’s head.

            “You’re a good soldier and the only man I’ve trusted for the last couple of days, but I can’t afford attrition.  We can’t afford to walk the other way.  You’d either a hundred percent with me or your brains are splattered all over the highway.”

            Jasper turned towards Sarah, maybe hoping for support.  When he saw her horrified expression, his shoulders slumped.  Without another word, Jasper climbed into the passenger side seat.

            “I’ll talk to him,” Sarah said.

            Sal nodded.

            To Jack and Ted: “Sorry about that.  I can’t say I trust Helen like you do, but his wife, mother, and sister were killed like that…  He’d been lucky to have a family.  Many of our people had been separated from theirs or else they were the only ones left.  After we found them, there’s been a hardness that wasn’t there before.  I’ll keep an eye on him.”

            “It’s alright,” Ted offered.  “Since she’s arrived Helen’s done a pretty good job at saving our asses.  Just yesterday she scared off those thugs we’d mentioned in the movie theater.  She even broke one of their noses.  I’d hate to think what would have happened to my girlfriend if Helen wasn’t around.  She’s earned her place as one of us.  Me, Jack, anyone who’s met Helen would die to defend her.  And she’d do the same for any of us.  When you get back in that station wagon, you tell that to Jasper.”

            “We’ll do what we can to help your people,” Sal said.

            Without another word, the three stragglers returned to their vehicles and followed moved together off of the highway.

*

            Ted almost asked if he could drive, but he knew Jack would say no.  After their rendezvous, Ted now knew there was something to the compulsions which led Jack’s driving.  If he gave up the wheel, they might not end up where they were supposed to.

            “That was a nice speech you gave,” Jack said.  “Thank you.”

            “Hey, I have to do what I can.  How am I going to be the best man at your wedding if the bride gets shot down?”

            “You really think Jasper could take down Helen?”

            “She might hesitate in a moment of pity.”

             “You know she never enjoyed the murder,” Jack said. 

            “I know.”

            “They forced her to watch as they killed her parents.  She saw her mother get raped.  Later they locked her in a cage with her father.  They’d shot him and waited for him to reanimate.  They said they’d let her live if she pledged her loyalty.  When her father reanimated, she panicked and did as they asked.  They gave her the gun and she’d chosen life.  Christ she was only seven.”

            Ted didn’t know what to say.

            “I don’t think she wants me talking to people about that,” Jack said.

            “It’s okay.”

            “I just couldn’t stand Jasper talking bad about her; threatening her like that after all she’s been through.”

            “He lost his family.  If he’d have blown up in front of Helen she’d have understood.  Let’s worry about it later,” Ted watched the station wagon in front of them plow through a small crowd of zombies.  “What next?”

            “I don’t know.  I guess we find the others.”

*

            A team stood atop a twelve story apartment complex, surveying the roads.  The unfortunate thing about moving an army was mobility.  Though they had divine guidance, Reed’s flock had run into several blocked roads.  The jeeps would have been able to squeeze through in some cases, but not the trucks, which made up most of their convoy.  Backtracking and finding alternate routes added hours to the trip.  Though he knew when he was getting closer, God did not see fit to give exact directions.

            To make matters worse, the soldiers who had not fled were itching for action.  Some of them fought amongst themselves.  Reed had not seen casualties of the skirmishes, but he wondered how long until his men started to kill each other.  If they were isolated incidents, he would have issued a handful of swift executions to solve the problem, but it was too late.  The violence already seemed to be an epidemic.  Besides, he couldn’t blame his flock for wanting to spill the blood of sinners.

            He needed to find the heathens fast.  To buy time, Reed assigned trusted generals and other elite guards to supervise each of the transports.  While Reed watched over the front, he’d assigned Griffin to the rear.  The last thing he needed was more deserters.  They hadn’t seen combat yet and his army had already lost a third of its numbers.

            Reed hoped his minions still lusted for blood when the battle was at hand.

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