Saturday, October 9, 2010

War Heroes

The continuous assault from the massive swarm of zombies on Jack's compound has broken. It didn't come without a cost.

The attacks are still going on, but much smaller in scale and totally lacking any coordination. Teams on the wall are able to repel them with relative ease and minimal ground support. That's really good news, because the strike teams took a very hard beating yesterday. I hope that this is an end to large attacks, because no one knows if the people at the Michigan compound can handle another like it. 

I am going to reconstruct the strike that broke the zombie assault from the reports I have gotten from Courtney and a few others up north. It's pretty amazing. 

Last night at dusk, a very cold wind began to blow across the battlefield at Jack's place and against the wall. The zombies surrounding the place seemed agitated from the sudden cold and with what I have to assume was a last rush of desperation, they charged as one. The swarm was so large that it spread out four hundred feet from the wall on the northern side. The defenders were pressed very hard, every weapon on the wall swinging and firing at breakneck speed. 

Will and Steve were out on the field, still directing the overall hit and run strikes and leading some of them. They were operating on a very strict rotation schedule in order to always have vehicles full of fuel and ready to go, stocked up on ammo and bombs. It was Steve's turn to go out, and with Will in command to direct support and coordinate, he wasn't too worried about it. 

Steve went out with his group and did his best. They skated along the edge of the swarm, firing into it and spraying explosives. Steve certainly achieved his goal of drawing attention...

When the truck slowed down to turn back away from the swarm, the swarm hit back. They managed to strike in a large group, and flipped it onto its side. Al Carmack, the gunner in the back of the truck, was torn to shreds in seconds. Luckily, Steve and a companion whose name I don't know were both in the cab. Well, luck is a relative term, I guess. Steve was in the passenger seat and landed hard on the armored window, then his partner landed on him, which broke several of his ribs and one of his collarbones. 

Will didn't even hesitate. Seeing a huge chunk of the swarm move against the truck, he tore out with two other units to rescue any survivors. Courtney described it in great detail (I hope she has time to relay her own version of these events on here, I can't be doing it justice) and from what she tells me, it was nearly perfect in its execution. 

Will's support vehicles laid down suppressing fire, blowing massive holes in the carpet of undead around Steve's truck. Will's truck mowed down everything in its path, his gunner clearing a space around the damaged vehicle. 

Will's two passengers were the ones to actually drag the survivors from the truck, while Will hung out his own window calmly firing at every zombie that approached the rescuers. Even with virtually no time to plan or think about it, Will still managed to create a defensible area by angling his own vehicle at about a forty five degree angle to Steve's, making a narrow wedge the he could defend alone. 

At that point, pretty much every other strike vehicle went out at once. It became clear to most of the strike teams that only a massive amount of damage would slow the assault...

About half of them survived. Most of the casualties were gunners in the backs of the trucks. Far too many of them were the volunteers we solicited from the small groups of survivors between here and Michigan. 

I'm sorry, this is just too much. I can't write about it any more. All those people dead, and nothing I can do to help directly. I need to get some air, try to calm down. 

Back tomorrow. 

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