Escape The 1st Omnibus: WTF Books 1-3 Read Online Free Page A

tracks ended. It was hard to tell which way the trucks had gone. Brad exited his MRAP and took a knee on the pavement, searching for clues. He could see where the mob of crazies had entered the road, but it didn’t look like they knew which direction to go either. Some of the pack appeared to have just crossed the road and kept going. The rest traveled both left and right as if they couldn’t make a decision. Brad was surprised that they didn’t stick together; maybe they didn’t have the pack mentality he’d presumed.
    He stood and walked back toward the truck, stopping when he heard a distant, familiar buzzing. He looked up and saw a small predator drone circling high above. Brad waved at the drone and turned on his IR strobe, hoping to let the drone know that he saw it. The drone reversed the direction of its orbit and reversed it again. Brad took this as a sign they had been seen, but he still didn’t know what to do. Then the drone went to a lower altitude and followed the road to the north before going higher and back out of sight.
    Brad entered the vehicle and said, “Well I guess that settles that, follow the drone.”
    “But Sergeant, that’s away from the main base. Nothing is that way but Uzbekistan,” argued Méndez.
    “Corporal, it’s almost four hundred kilometers to the main air base; we aren’t going to make it there on our fuel and in these conditions. The border crossing at Hairatan is our best bet. There’s a railroad and a lot of truck traffic there so somebody should see us. The drone saw us, so they know where we’re at. Hopefully, we can join up with the other trucks and they will send someone for us.” The men reluctantly nodded in agreement, and Henry pulled the truck onto the road and headed north.
    The going was slow as the MRAP rolled along the blacktop at close to forty miles an hour. It wasn’t a well-maintained road and Henry had to stay wary of obstacles and potholes; this was no time for a broken axle. Brad had traveled the Hairatan road early in his tour and knew that it ended at a bridge and border crossing. Last time he was there, he’d visited the small Afghan Army post and had lunch with some of the U.S. soldiers who were stationed there as trainers and advisors. He hoped they were still there.
    Henry slowed the truck down to a stop again. Brad looked up and saw a silent MRAP sitting in the center of the road. Nothing moved around the lonely vehicle. The sun had just come up, and they could see that the doors were all closed.
    “Bring it in slow, Henry,” Brad said.
    Henry eased the truck forward and when they were about fifty feet away Brad told him to stop. Cole was already in the turret and said he saw no movement. Brad, Méndez, and Eric dismounted the MRAP and slowly approached the vehicle.
    “Cover me while I move up,” Brad ordered the two soldiers behind him.
    He slowly crept forward and hugged the back corner of the large vehicle. He looked for signs of people but found nothing. He put a foot on the back step and raised himself up to peek into the truck. It appeared empty but unlike the vehicles at the ambush site, this one had the gun removed from its turret. Brad walked around to the driver’s door and slowly opened it while trying to keep his M4 aimed with his free hand. The door squeaked open to reveal an empty cab. Brad stepped up into the vehicle to find a handwritten note.
     
    Anyone who finds this.
    We are the six survivors of Echo Company, 2 nd Brigade. We were attacked on route A62 by a large population that approached us yesterday in the late afternoon. They ignored warnings from our roadblock to stop, and kept running for our perimeter. We used the limited bean bag shotgun rounds to try and turn them, but they had no effect. We opened up with our rifles, but we were quickly overrun, and they were in so close it was hard to fire effectively without hitting each other.
    Most of our men were on the perimeter and were not able to flee to the safety