If he just could get this camouflage paint mixed with a drop of bug-juice, that would permit him to camo up and maybe make it across alive. It was worth a shot. Of course, a distraction would help, but nothing else came to mind.
For just a moment, the light was so bright he could see through his hands, except where the camouflage paint was resting in the palm of the left one. He shut his eyes, but it didn’t matter, the after-image was burned into his retina. He knew he was going to be effectively blind for at least five or ten minutes, but that didn’t matter either. All that mattered was that so were the Posleen.
He dropped the tube of paint and the dust in his hands and snatched up his rifle. Grabbing the corner of the concrete block he heaved himself to his feet and darted across the opening between the two bits of rubble.
He expected at any moment to hear the crackle of a railgun or the brief belch of a plasma gun before turning into a carbon statue. But they never came. Instead, a moment after his foot told him he had reached the concrete block, his nose told him that it had reached the piece of steel sticking out of it.
Stifling a scream, Buckley fell behind the concealing concrete, clutching his bleeding nose and waiting for his vision to return.
“I’m beginning to agree with you, Pruitt,” Colonel Mitchell snarled. “It’s times like these that I wish we had some decent armor and direct fire weapons.”
“Well, we have a direct fire weapon, sir…” the gunner said.
“One that wasn’t a national disaster every time we fired it, son,” the colonel replied. It had taken the militia scouts a few minutes to reset their radios, but it looked like the back of the Posleen advance was well and truly broken. It had been at a terrible cost, though.
Both Dillsboro and Sylva, even the bits that hadn’t been destroyed by the passing SheVa, were gone. God only knew what damage had been done to the bridge, the bridge that Eastern had specifically wanted to stay up. They’d targeted the closest nuke so that the full “ground zero” effect would not encompass the bridge, but that didn’t mean it was still tank-worthy. It would take someone like Major Ryan to certify it before they could push much over it.
On the other hand.
“Whenever the guys from the other side do get through, it will just be mopping up,” Pruitt said.
“Mopping up Posleen is manpower intensive, Pruitt,” Warrant Indy said. “Major Anderson was just going to ‘mop up’ a few Posleen after a nuke strike.”
“Time to find a better way,” Captain Chan chimed in. “I’ve got a great view up here, but I’m about ready to get back to fighting. We need to figure out how to get these turrets in action.”
“Maybe after the repair batt gets here,” Indy said. “If they ever get here.”
“Let’s just hope they get here before the remaining Posleen do,” Reeves pointed out.
“What Posleen?” Mitchell chuckled. “I doubt there are four hundred alive between here and Savannah. I, personally, am going to go take a nap. Wake me up if anything happens.”
Thomas held his hand up in front of him and squinted. Yep, he could sort of see it, time to get back to work.
The nuke had trashed his sight. He didn’t know if it was the EMP or the light overload, but the sight was flickering like a bad TV. Which meant he had to do the rest with iron sights. Okay, he’d grown up with iron sights. He could do it. If he could see at all.
The moon was coming up, but it wasn’t going to shine under the bridge. And the Posleen weren’t making any light. What he needed was a flare down there or something. If he could just see to shoot.
Finally he decided to just try putting one in the area to see what happened. The worst that could happen is they’d tag him on the return fire.
This time Buckley heard the crack from the ridge before the Posleen opened fire. Their fire was also much less directed; they seemed to be firing in every direction. He hunkered down for a moment then used the disturbance to move again.
His vision wasn’t really back; he still had much of his field of view blocked out by a negative image of his hands. He’d heard about “knowing something like the back of your hands,” but he seemed to have the inside of his hands superimposed over everything.
But he could sort of see and he sort of knew where he was going so it was sort of time to move. He squatted down and duck-walked to the end of the chunk of granite and then paused. When he stuck his head out he would probably be looking at Posleen from less than ten feet away.
The question as usual was fast or slow. Finally he decided on fast. Pulling a grenade out of its pouch he pulled the pin and took a breath.
“Once the pin is pulled, Mr. Grenade is no longer your friend,” he whispered and leaned out.
Thomas pushed himself back up the hill and wiped at his mouth. That time a plasma round had impacted just to the side and a big chunk of oak had hit him square in the lips. He would be spitting teeth for weeks.
As he leaned into the rifle, though, a grenade went off under the bridge. In the brief light from the explosion he could see three forms right in his target line. He squeezed off a round then ducked back awaiting the return fire, but the Posleen seemed to have a different aim. Pushing forward again and getting a good brace he started to hunt for more targets.
Joe waited for the expected flurry of fire to subside then leaned around the concrete pylon and hammered off all five grenades in his AIW as fast as he could pull the trigger. The Posleen were firing before he even pulled back, but over the racket of the railguns — all the plasma gunners seemed to be gone — he could hear a Barrett punching out round after round. Pulling another grenade from his harness he tossed it in the general direction of the trench as he reloaded. One more burst should do it.
He jacked the first grenade into place and leaned around the concrete obstacle just as the HVM round hit it.
Thomas closed his eyes at the explosion, but it was too late; his vision was gone again. Blinking through the tears, though, he could see that the Posleen were gone too. He wasn’t too sure what had just gone off under the bridge, but the north span had collapsed as well and was now lying canted to the west side so he didn’t have a shot at all. It looked like the whatever it was had blown down the west, center pylon. Just smashed it in half. There might be Posleen under there, but it didn’t really matter; the road was so blocked it would need a heavy engineering unit to clear it.
There was no sign of that last soldier and no fire from the Posleen. So he decided it was time to limp his ass down there. He got to his feet, but his knee buckled immediately. “That’s what comes of being old and fat and wore out,” he muttered.
He sat down on a tree and shook his head. Let somebody else take the pass. He’d just sit here till his leg felt like moving.
Epilogue
Cally fit the last package in the rucksack and prepared to exit the cave. Cache Four was designed to provide all the materials necessary for just such an escape and, after crying her eyes out and then sleeping, she had carefully prepared for a long journey. The route seemed to be up through the Coweeta area then cut across to Highway 64, assuming it was clear, then west to the defenses around Chattanooga.