“No,” I said. “Nothing like that. He seemed harmless when we met him.”
“They didn’t organize themselves. It sounds to me like this guy has some tricks he didn’t show you. Mind controlling the dead. Surviving a head shot. Tearing a carbon steel gate off its hinges with no tools. Now he has my people but apparently he’s not going to just eat them or he would have done that here. He’s creating facts on the ground and we’ve got no intel at all.”
In no time we had reached the old National Guard barricade near Port Authority. Jack reached under the hood of the abandoned Armored Personnel Carrier there and popped a latch. He peered down into the big truck’s engine and grunted. “They’ve got at least a half hour lead on us and it’s getting longer while I talk to you. We’re going to fix this, Dekalb. We’re going to go after them and find them and I’m going to get Marisol back. You can help me with that or you can leave. Your choice.” He reached deep into the engine and twisted something. His arm went stiff with effort for a second and then he let go in a hurry as the engine turned over and coughed. It sputtered to silence again.
“Jack-you’re talking about suicide,” I tried, knowing that if anyone knew better than to play cowboy against these kinds of odds it had to be the ex-Ranger.
“I’m not stupid, Dekalb. I’m talking about recon. We don’t aggress on them until we know what the facts are-that’s SOP. For now I’m just going up there to take a look.” He popped open a repair kit mounted on the APC’s nose and took out a long white fan belt. He had to climb up on top of the engine to install it, his arms deep in the mechanism. He tried the starter again and the vehicle roared and whined and finally settled down into a bone-rattling chug of life. He jumped down to the street again and then clambered up into the driver’s position. I started to climb after him but he shook his head. “No. Just me. This thing’ll get me close but it’s hard to keep inconspicuous. Eventually I’ll have to abandon it and then I’ll be tracking them on foot. You’ll be no help to me then.”
That was fair enough. When it came to moving stealthily in an urban environment he’d had the best training in the world and I’d had none at all. He gunned the engine, flooding the street with black smoke, and put the APC in gear. He had to shout over the noise.
“Take Ayaan and get back to your boat. Go to Governors Island. If I’m not there in twenty-four hours you’re on your own.”
I nodded but he didn’t wait for my reply. He engaged the vehicle’s treads and headed north-toward the survivors.
David Wellington - Monster Island
Monster Island
Chapter Two
Two mummies awaited Gary when he returned to thebroch. They gestured for him to follow them-alone.
There would be trouble, of course. Mael already knew what had happened. As they entered the compound the workers on the walls of the big tower had turned to see the procession, their hands dropping to their sides, the bricks they carried put aside to watch as hundreds of living humans marched fearfully into the very midst of undead central. The dead on their own had no curiosity-for all the eyes turned on Gary and his raiding party there was only one intelligence looking through them.
Gary could understand Mael’s surprise. The dead army was under strict orders not to let a single living thing enter Central Park, much less a crowd of them. Gary was breaking a serious taboo.
He commanded his army to guard the prisoners and then stepped inside the shadowed spaces of the construction site. The walls were rising steadily: the dead never rested and Mael had a multitude of them to draw on. At the center of the building the Druid waited for him on his cairn-like throne. He did not look pleased.