Eastern Front: Zombie Crusade IV by J.W. Vohs Read Free Book Online Page A

depopulated in less than a month proved the deadly effectiveness of the infected in acquiring the protein they craved. Still, Luke mused, as long as Jack’s fighters had flank protection, or faced only a few  hunters at a time, they were leather and iron death to the creatures.
    Jack and Carter had fin ished inflating the second raft and were quickly stowing the remaining supplies and equipment as David called for Luke and Bobby to join them at the river’s edge. With howls erupting from numerous points to the north, David didn’t have to call a second time; the veteran Ranger came running up just behind his teen comrade as fast as his aging legs would carry him. The team didn’t waste any time getting on the water, with Luke and David each piloting a raft as the rest of the team kept watch on the Kentucky shore.
    Every member of the team felt as if the night was nearly over by the time they were finally able to start the electric motors and head down the Ohio River, but real time didn’t match their mental fatigue , nor their instincts. The men’s watches didn’t lie, and with the hands pointing to midnight Jack and the others knew that they had more than enough hours of darkness remaining to reach the bridge near Brandenburg and recon the area. With fully charged batteries powering the quiet, electric motors propelling the military-grade inflatables they were using, and their progress reinforced by the river’s strong current, they reached the town in just under two hours.
    The bridge lay west of Brandenburg, with the Kentucky shoreline heavily wooded for about a half-mile between the town and the structure crossing the Ohio. In the lead boat, Jack ordered Luke to hug the bank as they neared the bridge, eventually deciding to go ashore about three hundred meters east of the massive span. As soon as the rafts were secured and everyone was ready for action, Jack told Marcus and David to guard the boats and their cargo while he led the others toward their objective.
    Autumn had arrived early in the Midwest, so earl y that frost had appeared in the first week of September in Fort Wayne. Daytime temperatures stayed in the high forties and fifties for the rest of the month, even after the initial cold spell broke. Utah still maintained a weather monitoring and forecasting facility, and the news they shared wasn’t good for survivors now learning to live without electricity and natural gas for heat. The western meteorologists were reporting that with so much ash and debris pushed into the atmosphere during the mass conflagrations in the world’s cities following the outbreak, global temperatures would be at least ten to fifteen degrees cooler than normal for more than a year.
    Several light snowfalls had already occurred in Fort Wayne, and daily highs in the thirties had become commonplace as September gave way to early October. Jack knew little about meteorology, but he had spent enough time outside over the years to know that early autumn in Indiana was usually full of sixty degree days that many people used to observe the beautiful Midwest foliage. This year the leaves were long gone, most of them on the ground well before the first official day of Fall arrived. The engineers pushing their precious cargoes along the Union Pacific rail line between Utah and Chicago had already encountered several blizzards on the high plains, with sub-zero temperatures being recorded west of Omaha.
    What these weather developments meant for Jack and his team in northern Kentucky was a ground already covered with crunchy leaves, and much of the foliage they ordinarily could have used as cover was now shriveled and bare. Nevertheless, the men felt they needed darkness for this mission. They moved as rapidly as possible through the noisy forest, trusting the wind blowing along the river channel to mask the sounds they were making as they approached the bridge. Finally they reached a place where they could view the structure with their