The whole building blew into pieces, exposing the wooden barrier beyond. Moist green moss-coated areas, and a piece of the second floor yet clung to the palisade, loose boards dropping like autumn leaves. But a ten-yard section reaching to the ground was lighter in color than the rest, and Krysty oriented the recoilless rifles there. They volleyed again, and the patch in the palisades simply disintegrated under the assault.
Crunching over rubble, the tank bucked through the jagged hole. Breaking timbers loudly scraped across their hull. The sideview mirror snapped off.
Splinters sprayed in through the blasterports, somebody howled in agony underneath the floor, then they were through and moving fast.
A two-lane asphalt road stretched out before them, the cracked surface disappearing into the trees. Krysty lowered the rifles and fired a third time. Spewing gouts of rock and dirt, the trees were uprooted, but stayed standing, their limbs intertwined through decades of growth.
Pumping the clutch, Ryan hit the gas and Leviathan rammed into the forest, branches and bird nests smashing on the protective ironwork grid over the front windshield. The tank plowed out of the trees and instantly dropped down a steep incline, going straight into a river, the force slamming everybody into the seats. Water sprayed skyward from their arrival, sending a tidal wave across the river that sloshed onto the asphalt road on the far bank.
The advance of Leviathan noticeably slowed, and Ryan downshifted to account for the loss of traction from the mud.
“Seal the ports!” he ordered, hitting the wiper blades and clearing the windshield. “Don’t know how deep this goes. We got a snorkel, but I don’t know if this thing is really waterproof.”
“Now is no time to find out,” Mildred warned, watching the surface of the stream climb higher and higher toward the windows.
Something on the console beeped suddenly, and Krysty stared at the circular screen, puzzled for a moment. “Sonar?” she said aloud.
Rising from the dark waters, a horrible segmented creature appeared, the many mouths of its three misshapen heads snarling and hissing.
Ryan hit the brakes, as Krysty triggered the left 75 mm rifle. The the round caught the mutie in the chest, blowing open its chest in a grisly rain. Reeling from the strike, writhing in pain, the aquatic mutie thrashed about as it slithered beneath the turbulent waters.
“River snake,” Shard said, watching a gobbet of flesh slither off the window leaving a slimy trail. “Didn’t think they existed anymore. Haven’t heard of them for years.”
“Hope there’s not too many more,” Ryan said, grinding gears and putting the tank into motion. “Wasted two shells on something we can’t even eat.”
The water level continued to rise to a dangerous level, then blessedly receded and the vehicle lurched as the front wheels encountered asphalt again lumbering onto the road.
“Made it.” Mildred sighed.
The radar beeped.
Muttering a fast prayer, Krysty checked the glowing green screen. There was a big blip directly behind them, heading their way, slow but steady.
“The Ranger is back,” she called out. “Range… mile and a half, mebbe less.”
“Any chance we can lock a missile onto the radar signal, and fire them at the thing?” Dean asked hopefully, holding a stanchion with grim determination.
“Mebbe this war wag can,” his father replied, flicking the wipers again, “but we’ve never had enough time to study the controls well enough. Running is our best bet.”
The companions held on tight as the output of the engines rose to a mechanical roar, and the speedometer needle hit the red line. Trees and brush flashed past in the darkness, the bouncing headlights making the road surface barely discernible. Occasionally they collided with something, weeds and grass having grown out of the ancient cracks in a natural carpet of greenery. But Leviathan plowed through everything in its blind haste to escape, bulldozing aside hedges to unexpectedly reach salvation.
“It’s a bridge!” J.B. cried. “Dark night, now we’re cooking!”
“Mebbe,” Ryan said, grinding gears and hitting the brakes to slow their speed.
Fully illuminated in the headlights, the box girder assembly was covered with vines, moss and general corrosion. Its age was indeterminate, as was its structural integrity.