Ashes (Of the Earth Series)

Chapter 16.1 - Paradigm Lost

"Alright, let's go low and slow," I whispered into the coms. "We aren't here to pick a fight, just to do some recon."

I glanced at Kendall as I spoke. I was a bit nervous bringing him out on this mission. In his hands he held the nozzle of his home-made flamethrower. The tip was quiet, cold and dark, for now.

He'd shown me the basics a few nights before, burning an entire swath of the meadow in his excitement, which had taken us almost twenty minutes to get under control.

He'd cannibalized a battery-powered pressure washer, a paintball gun, and an old compressor tank to make the monstrosity he was carrying around and added a little piezo-electric magic to it. I didn't fully understand, but from how he had explained it to me - the tank held flammable liquids - gas, alcohol, or kerosene. The pressure of the fluid activated the piezo at the tip, which lit the fuel on fire. Releasing the trigger tripped another trigger, attached to a CO2 canister from the paintball gun, which blew the line clear and made sure the resulting drizzle didn't set the wielder on fire.

My kid brother was smart, but with five years between us, it was hard not to view him as the same grinning idiot I'd fallen in love with the first time I ever held him. He hadn't even had the chance to finish high school. I had been there when he took his first breath, and now, I was entrusting him with a tool that breathed fire. I nodded at the tank strapped to his back. "Don't blow up, huh? Once was enough."

Kendall rolled his eyes at the mention of one of his early attempts, but nodded, his expression growing serious. "I'll be careful, don't worry."

I turned my focus back to the task at hand. We were crouched at the edge of the forest, the old suburban neighborhood sprawling before us. The houses were still, with no movement in the overgrown yards or streets. But somewhere out there lurked the horde Nate had described.

I scanned the area through my binoculars, looking for any signs of the Turned. The others fanned out, watching the flanks and our six. So far everything seemed clear. We crept forward, house by house, scanning windows and doorways, peeking over fences into backyards.

After fifteen tense minutes, I spotted what I was dreading. On the far side of the cul-de-sac, a cluster of sinewy figures emerged from between two houses. I quickly counted at least ten, maybe more still hidden from view.

I lowered my binocs and gestured for the team to pull back. Once we were a safe distance away, I checked in.

"Looks like at least a dozen, maybe more. We're outgunned for a direct assault." My coms crackled. At this distance we were a close to the range that Stali could hear us back at HQ, and I held my breath. "Roger that, team leader. I'll get Bravo and Charlie teams prepped. They'll be there within in an hour."

Kendall nodded, looking relieved he wouldn't have to use his contraption just yet.

"We'll head back, brief the others on what we found," I went on. "Then we can start fortifying, set traps around the perimeter. If they start to wander this way, we'll pick them off little by little. Stick to silent weapons." Rustling sounded around me as guns were holstered and strapped, crossbows and zipguns coming to the front.

Mathis sniffed and popped the clip out of his rifle and rummaged through his fanny pack for a moment and then inserted one filled with tranquilizer darts. Not that the darts were filled with tranquilizers; rather, these were filled with various concoctions and straight solutions of drain cleaner, anti-freeze, battery acid, formaldehyde, pepper spray, hydrogen peroxide, and other nasty inventions he spent his nights cooking up. He held one of his clips up and showed it to me. "You know that expanding foam, 'Great Stuff?'"

I nodded.

He grinned. "That's what's in this one."

"How the fuck did you get it into the tube without it expanding?"