Deadland's Harvest (Deadland Saga, #2)(75)

“Oh, shit.” I could no longer watch for zeds. I stood and helplessly stared as the burning debris floated directly toward the Aurora. My hand flew to my heart and I clutched my shirt. My stomach churned as people ran out on the deck, screaming and shouting. When the first debris slammed into the towboat, I gasped. Someone fell off the edge and screamed the ten short feet down to the water, where the sound was abruptly cut off. As debris piled up against the boat, both it and its barges rocked.

The two barges that had been barely hanging onto the rest of the group broke away with a drawn-out metallic screech. Embers on the grain in barge Number Eight erupted into dark clouds of smoke.

I jumped off the back of the HEMTT before remembering to take a cursory scan for zeds. I stopped, found none, and ran up to Clutch, whom everyone had been gathering around. “What do we do?”

“They need our pontoons to speed up evacuation. Bryce, Kurt, and Joe, you’re with me on the pontoon to help with rescue at the Aurora.”

“How about me?” Jase asked.

He pointed to where I’d spent the last couple hours. “You and Cash need to keep this area clear of zeds, so Camp Fox can safely land. Make sure none of these grounded zeds can endanger people as they get to the dock.”

“Okay,” I said.

Clutch and the three other men took off running toward the woods and back to the pontoon. “Be safe,” I called out, but I had no idea if he’d heard me.

Griz’s pontoon was already in the water and halfway back to the Aurora, but they were having trouble zigzagging through the debris and kept having to back up and go for a different route.

I swapped my rifle for my machete and made a winding path through zeds on the ground. I stopped at each one that still had life in it and swung. Jase and I carved a path to the boat ramp in ten minutes. We spread out to make a wider path.

“Hey,” Jase called out. “Three tangoes at my eleven o’clock.”

I jogged back up the eastern bank and followed his finger. I saw the shapes exit the trees across the road. “I’ll start on the right.”

I had my rifle out and had taken two shots by the time Jase took the last one. After making sure no more emerged, I turned around and headed back toward the ramp. I lifted my rifle and looked through my scope at the Aurora. Clutch and his team had made it onto the towboat. People were running at him like a flock of sparrows. Against the rail, Clutch was shoving people back who couldn’t take the ladder. Many were weighted down with bags, and I could see Clutch was yelling and motioning at them to drop their things. No one seemed to be listening.

When the smoke blocked my view of Clutch, my heart clenched. “Be safe,” I whispered, suddenly knowing in my heart that I didn’t care if anyone made it to shore as long as Clutch made it back safely.

“What?” Jase asked.

Anger at the stupid fire hardened my features. “Nothing.”

The flames had engulfed the outer four barges and were already spreading to the four closest to the towboat. All of our grain…gone. My heart pounded, and I found it hard to hold my rifle. At least the fire hadn’t overtaken the closest barges or towboat yet, but smoke was shooting out from everywhere. I could still make out barges Four and Three through the haze, where Kurt was taking a crate of ammo from another scout who’d just emerged from our armory. Smoke bled through where the bay doors met in the middle. “Hurry,” I whispered as they carried out our irreplaceable supplies.

A fire shot up, and Kurt disappeared. I squinted to see smoke and flames pour out from a hole where Kurt had been standing a second earlier. Oh, God.

“The fire—” Jase didn’t finish.

The sound of automatic gunfire drowned out the sound of everything else, and we both ducked. I quickly realized it wasn’t automatic gunfire but the sounds of ammo going off in the fire. My legs were suddenly wobbly and I leaned against our Humvee that still sat next to the boat ramp.

We were about to lose everything. Our food, ammo, everything. And there wasn’t a single f*cking thing we could do except watch Camp Fox quite literally go up in flames.





Chapter XXVII


Embers showered down like glitter around the Aurora while ammo continued to go off in barge Three by the box-load. Clutch’s team was already on board the towboat and helping with the evacuation. Joe brought over the first pontoon packed shoulder-to-shoulder with coughing, crying people. Joe’s face was covered with black ash as he pulled the pontoon up to the dock on the eastern bank by what was left of the bridge.

Jase and I looked at one another, and then we both ran toward the pontoon. Other than smoke inhalation and shock, no one looked seriously injured. Jase and I helped anyone who seemed to be struggling off the boat and onto the bank. Once it was clear, I jumped on the pontoon to where Joe was curled over the steering wheel. “What do you need help with?”

Joe’s reply was smothered by a cough, although he eventually looked up with tearing, bloodshot eyes and gave me a thumb up.

I held my rifle out to him. “I can take the next trip. Can you cover the people here?”

He nodded, still holding his chest.

“I’ll drive,” Jase said as a matter-of-fact and set his rifle down next to him.

I sat down just as he throttled full forward, and the pontoon cut through the water. Midway, we met Griz’s boat, also filled with people. All of the barges were covered in flames, and the towboat was covered in smoke. Someone plummeted into the water to our right as we headed around the boat to the boat dock. I couldn’t make out who he was because as soon as he surfaced, something yanked him right back under. I searched but could find no one under the murky water.