August Burning (Book 3): Last Stand by Tyler Lahey Read Free Book Online Page B

back, and waited for the cavalry to arrive as more and more infected stumbled into the valley. The Lion would handle these, Todd knew. Jaxton had never failed them before, not for one night in four hundred.
     
     
    Near the Southern Ravine
     
     
    “Save your ammo,” Adira commanded. She felt the gear drop and the horses roar. 5,000 pounds of hot metal slammed into the wall of infected that were surging down the street, and scattered their broken bodies. Adira forced the wheel around, and the heavily plated Dodge Charger made a vicious turn on a carpet of wriggling infected. Kylie pulled her .357 magnum inside the window and held on for dear life.
    Adira could see the reservoir to her right. At the top of a massive, three hundred foot grassy incline, the Wolf troopers manned the lip of the lake. Sprinting up the hill, the infected were closing the distance fast.
    “Are they killing them fast enough?!” Adira screamed above the roar of the engine. “Hold on!” The pair of women slammed forward as the car broke apart another group of infected struggling to cross the street and mount the hill.
    “There are too many Adira! Look!” Kylie pointed out the window as the steam rose from the engine block.
    She could hear the screaming carry across the grass. Adira could just barely make out the arrows in flight, as they were launched from the Wolf’s bows atop the hill. They struck infected targets a hundred feet down the hill, sending them tumbling. She peered into the sunset as Kylie’s pistol went off beside her. An infected took a round through the chest but did not falter.
    “Adira, drive!”
    Adira dropped the steel to the floorboard and eyed the gas tank. Almost empty. Where were the others? They had to have seen the flare.
    “There!” Kylie screamed. Four ATVs burst through the tree-line behind them and made straight for her Charger. A dozen infected followed ten seconds later, limbs pumping furiously as they strained in the summer dusk.
    The ATV’s skidded to a stop around the heavily plated car. They only had a minute before the infected were on them. “Kylie! Buy us some time!” Adira ordered.
    Bright eyed and bursting with adrenaline, Kylie stepped out of the car and took careful aim at the nearest infected. The weapon cracked, and a head exploded.
    “What the fuck is going on!?” Her nearest driver screamed above the thrumming of the idling engines. His Destrier patch was soiled with mud.
    Adira wiped the sweat collecting at her brow. The car’s heat was slowing her brain. “It’s the Horde.”
    “It can’t be. It’s real?”
    “Look around you! The Wolf fell back from the ravine, they’re stuck on that hill, at the top of the reservoir.”
    The Destrier drivers shuddered, knowing what was about to be asked of them; there was room for two on the back of their ATVs.
    “Take the ATV’s up that hill! Evacuate them all! We’re falling back.”
    Three drivers snapped their goggles into place with shaking hands, mastering their fear. The fourth hesitated as Kylie’s magnum cracked twice more nearby.
    “Donald, get moving!” Adira raged.
    Donald’s 6 foot 3 inch frame would not move. The sniper rifle at his back was wobbling, and his lips trembled as his eyes feasted on the carnage around them.
    “Kylie!” Adira yanked her head over. Kylie set her jaw, furious at the fear she saw before her. Everyone felt it. Only the brave mastered it.
    Adira paused, seriously considering leaving Donald to run back to the Citadel on foot. “Get in the fucking back you coward! I need your rifle!” She screamed.
    Donald stuffed himself into the back of the Charger, the whites of his eyes popping out of his skull.
    She felt the shock absorbers struggling as the heavy vehicle crushed two more infected underfoot. As Adira let the engine roar, she could see the ATVs speeding up the reservoir hill, swerving between the groups of infected that delighted at the new prey. The road took Adira’s Charger up and around