Disclaimer: All characters, locations, concepts, dialogue, and story leading to this work of fiction belong to their respective copyright holders, no profit-making is intended.
Spoilers: Buffy the Vampire Slayer thru Season 7, Angel the Series thru Season 5
Author's Note: Please review, like it or hate it, I'll be happy with anything. Also, if you see any mistakes I made, let me know so I can fix them.
Author's Note 2: Moving sucks, I lost my routine, life keeps getting in the way. I am very sorry to all of my readers waiting for updates to any of my stories.
To Hell with the World
Chapter 9: The Bigger Picture, Wesley's First Mission, and Morning Resolutions.
The night is always darkest before the dawn. This saying is used in a variety of circumstances. The meaning is clear enough. But on the first night of humanity's war against Illyria, the dawn seemed to be non-existent. As it happened, the upswing was much closer than anyone suspected.
As the night gave way to day in southern Los Angeles, a thrown together force of police, National Guardsman, and civilians was holding a perilously thin line.
It was anchored in the east by Los Angeles International Airport. The line was stretched out along the I-105 highway. It was in the West where the situation was fluid. Originally, the two units commanders wanted to use a static line along I-710. This would allow for security to the west of the port of Long Beach. Additionally, It would give the defenses facing north a narrowed front, and more manpower and firepower to place on a much smaller number of possible points of attack. However, the force tasked with the job couldn't cover the entire distance south to the sea.
After sending his force of armed civilians and cops to guard the eastward flank of the Army battalion, Commander Pearson wanted to touch base with the battalion commanding officer. Both of them were far too old to shoulder such a responsibility. They had both come up together during the early 1970s. While Pearson had his baptism by fire in Vietnam, Colonel Emerson had been sent off to Europe, to serve as a second lieutenant in a company of soldiers facing off against the Warsaw Pact.
Pearson pulled up in his mobile command post (a modified S.W.A.T. van) to the analogous battalion operation (based around a specially design armored personnel carrier). The police commander exited the van, his agility and energy masking his advanced years and underlying grief. A long night of hearing and seeing the destruction of his city, the likely demise of his family, and the sure deaths of so many fellow officers hadn't broken him yet.
He met the Colonel between the two vehicles. The police commander brought to mind a generic, but stern balding old man, what hair that was left was pale like the snow. By contrast, Colonel Emerson had more hair that was graying and he had seemed to age far less than his years suggested. The two men met and saluted in greeting, neither having forgotten the formalities. Pearson was the first to speak "Colonel, my people have tied their left flank in with your right, but my own right flank is in the air."
Emerson's voice was a bit raspy, he'd been issuing orders all night to the various units under his command "I know commander, I'll spare what I can to help, but we can't secure the whole distance south. Just keep your forces swinging back, my line will contract as you fall back."
Pearson was wondering at the lack of forces, he knew that the Army had more than a battalion within a night's march of Los Angeles, not to mention the other services, he voiced his concerns "Where is everybody else? Far as I can tell, you've got one battalion here. Sure it's Mechanized Infantry, but where are the rest, Field Artillery, Rangers, Marines, hell I'll even take the Air Force."
"Here's what I know, the Governor called out the National Guard, gave an order statewide to deploy. After communications with Sacramento went down, the Mayor of this city came on and ordered us to clear the city of these things. Then he went dark. As far as the active duty forces go, they're still in their bases." Emerson was internally railing at this, here were his troops, fighting a pitched battle in the middle of one of the largest cities in the country, and much larger forces were sitting around in secure facilities.
Pearson pondered the implications of this statement. A breakdown of command and control could have paralyzed the active duty forces, leaving the National Guard to fight alone. This opened up the possibility of these forces being engaged and defeated in detail. He voiced his concern "How could you possibly know that? What do you have planned when you have to retreat?"
"I've been pleading for reinforcements all night, there were a few responses, they all said the same thing 'we're still evaluating the situation.' I want to eventually pull back to Terminal Island, I've got a team working to secure it against these things." Emerson had many a confrontation with other commanders, as did his subordinates, the only bright spot to the night was the discovery of the wonders of standard shipping containers. Double stacked they could form a wall 15 feet high that weighed tons.
What neither commander knew was that their situation was a microcosm of what was happening throughout the country. Local forces were thrown immediately into the fight while command and control centers were destroyed almost without exception. For example Washington D.C. was overrun rather quickly. For the active duty forces, they were operating under plans set forth by the newly created Northern Command. These plans were supposed to be in response to large scale civil disturbances or an actual insurrection.
With that in mind, and commander Pearson only seeing his own small corner of the fight, he reacted with disgust, but he also had to get back to directing his own scattered forces "Damn them, alright, my people will conduct a fighting withdrawal, we'll make a stand just to the east of I-110, I'm guessing you'll want to move your heavy equipment south along that freeway. Given how fast the enemy moves, we won't hit that stop line for a couple of hours yet."
"I wish we could hold this highway, we're stretched thin, but these things are so easy to defend against. Walk with me, I want to show you something." Colonel Emerson turned and started moving towards a nearby exit ramp.
Commander Pearson followed out of curiosity, what he saw was something absurd. Guarding the ramp was a single fire-team, four soldiers, all laying in prone positions. Their weapons were all trained down the ramp. At the end was a triple-stranded barrier of concertina wire. Stuck to the wire were a mass of dead creatures. They formed a wall that the creatures behind had to climb over. Once they showed their heads above the wall, they were picked off by well placed shots, increasing the height and breadth of the wall.
"I've got positions like this one on every exit. They're the most direct way onto the highway, I have fire-teams patrolling the rest, but it's got concrete barriers to halt the progress of these things. It's just my right flank that's vulnerable." Emerson was justifiably proud of the work his soldiers had done. Here he had a battalion of roughly 900 men and women, and they were holding a frontage of 20 miles. All of this while being vastly outnumbered.
Pearson was suitably impressed "If you can spare some of your Bradley's and humvees, and give me access to your scout element I know you're staging out of LAX, I should be able to lengthen my own line and buy some more time for the evacuation."
"Well, I can detach most of my transport and armor, but my scout helicopters are out of ammunition and re-supply isn't happening right now. However; I need all of my infantry here, so I can't give you any troops who can dismount when the time comes." Emerson was speaking of his battalion's light four wheeled trucks with heavy machine guns, and his tracked armored fighting vehicles, these were supposed to move his troops around the battlefield during a conventional fight. They had done just that during his attack northwards.
Pearson wasn't expecting that level of support, even the essentially disarmed helicopters could be a valuable asset. "Thanks, but I don't need direct air support, your fly-boys can give me what I don't have, a way to see what's coming. That way I can concentrate my forces appropriately. How long do you need to secure Terminal Island, and get the civilians there?"
"If you can keep the enemy away from I-110 for 6 hours, I should be able to move most of what we need south. If the Navy can get off its ass and help us, we should be able to hold Terminal Island indefinitely, Six hours commander, that's what I need. Can you do it?" Colonel Emerson wasn't just thinking of his troops, he was hoping to move thousands of civilians and a bunch of supplies as well.
Pearson needed one more thing to accomplish his mission "My guys are tired, but we'll fight for the time. We'll need some fire support. I want some of your mortars ready to move. Before we make our stand, I'll contact you, have those mortars re-positioned and ready to fire. I'll act as a Forward Observer, my call for fire will be on the largest concentration of the enemy I can lure with my forces. High explosives raining down should stop their attack cold."
Emerson could only agree. Indirect fire had a devastating effect on people in the open, which the creatures almost always were. His scouts had already given his artillery some very good targeting information. It had helped his attack north, and even now he could hear steady 'thump' of the mortars as they sent shells to new targets. "Done, I'll keep some ammo in reserve for just that purpose."
Both commanders left at that point. One conducting a static defense facing north, while the other got in his van and raced east to attempt the nearly impossible, that is to conduct a fluid defense against a relentless enemy that held no regard for casualties and would thus press their attack no matter the cost.
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What neither commander knew, or could know, was that the active duty forces were moving. Strategic Command had already partnered with the FAA to clear the skies of civilian traffic. At Offut Air Force Base in Nebraska, the headquarters of Strategic Command had already received orders from the President before his communications were cut-off mid-sentence. Hearing the President being consumed by a group of creatures would haunt the base commander for the rest of his life. Before his death, the President had set the military to defense condition (DEFCON) 1.
Strategic Command (STRATCOM) had responded by getting most of its assets airborne. It had also put it's ICBM forces on full alert. The command and control aircraft (the E-4) was sent aloft with orders to find the person who was next in the line of succession. Most of the Cabinet were already dead, as were a majority of the Congress. In an appropriate twist, members in both groups had turned when Illyria's power washed over the world. If C-SPAN were still broadcasting at that point they would have shown quite the spectacle. It was that members of both parties, Democrats and Republicans, were literally attacking each other on the floor of the House and Senate.
When it had more information about the enemy, STRATCOM sortied it's bomber force as well. So the meaning of all of this was that the country's most powerful weapons were poised to be used on order from whomever became the next President.
The other major organization dealing with the apocalypse was Northern Command, it didn't have access to nuclear weapons. What it did have were conventional forces that weren't deployed overseas. These were massive in size. All that was needed was co-ordination and leadership so that forces scattered across the country could act in concert. For now those units inside their bases were to secure those areas first before making any movements to link up with any other forces.
Of course, there were brash commanders who refused to sit by and watch the world crumble around them. At the time San Diego was the home-port for a number of aircraft carriers and their attending support vessels. These included destroyer squadrons. One of these, five destroyers in total, had heard from the forces in Los Angeles. The overall commander of the squadron had decided to race north. He was determined to provide support as quickly as he could.
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The city was a battleground, and the country was preparing to become one. Wolfram & Hart was quiet for the moment. Knox's screams had reverberated through the building. For everyone except Fred and Wesley, this was cause for worry. It could be that Knox was being attacked by an infected person that security had missed in their sweep along with Angel and Spike.
Fred, Wesley, and Angel met up where Knox was being held. They entered the room and saw Knox in the midst of terrible pain. He was trembling and sweating, his skin was flushed, and the whites of his eyes were tinged red.
Knox was about to make a plea for the pain to end, but Angel wanted to know something first "Why is he tied up?"
Wesley fielded the question "Among others, Knox here was responsible for what happened to Fred."
"Skipping over the part of how you know that, why does he look like he's about to keel over?" Angel was seething at the revelation. Knox had worked with them for month's. They trusted him to handle the analysis of the thing that was killing Fred. In all likelihood, he lied to them about his results, leading to Angel and Spike going to the Deeper Well and the subsequent apocalypse. His vampiric senses told him that Knox very sick, and worse for Angel, Knox was looking like a blood filled eclair.
Wesley was going to take the blame for this as well. His reasoning was the same as when he lied to Angel about Fred's involvement in unleashing Illyria on the world. But Fred had other plans "Um, that was my fault, I wanted Knox to go through what I did."
"Huh, didn't see that coming, why did you do it Fred? There had to be a better way!" Angel had a certain perception of Fred, she wasn't supposed to do stuff like that, her actions during the fight with Jasmine when she was alone and desperate seemed to have slipped his mind at the moment.
Fred didn't like the implication one bit, everyone wanted to put her in a box where she was some nice girl who wouldn't hurt a fly "Angel, remember Dr. Seidel? Same thing applies here. Do you have any idea how much pain I suffered before Wesley saved me?"
Knox interrupted Angel's response with a stuttered and hoarse voice "P-please, end it, please." he was cutoff by another scream that turned into a painful moan.
Angel looked at Fred and gestured to Knox "I think you've made your point, time to reverse whatever you did Fred." Angel was angry at Fred for this. She was, in essence, torturing Knox. No matter the reason, there were lines that shouldn't be crossed, by Fred in particular. Some things couldn't be undone. Angel knew he and Spike had tortured people in the past, and he suspected that Wesley had done something similar, though there was his time under Faith's not-so-tender mercies.
"Yeah, I'll deal with it." Fred plucked a syringe from her tray. She knelt in front of Knox so he could look her in the eye and asked "Is this the worst thing you've felt?" Knox nodded vigorously, hoping against hope that he would soon be free of this unbearable pain. Fred slid the needle into his arm, before she pressed the plunger she said harshly "Now you know what I felt." Then she injected a milky substance into Knox.
For an instant, Knox felt the pain disappear. He sighed in relief, and then he slumped in the chair, everything else had went away. His eyes closed, never to open again.
Angel could tell immediately what had happened. He grabbed Fred and hauled her up, she had just crossed a line, and he yelled his displeasure "You just killed him! I don't care what he did, we could've put him into containment like Pavayne!"
Wesley had enough, Angel could yell all he wanted, what he couldn't do was put his hands on Fred. Her desire for revenge was probably morally wrong, but Wesley understood it, and she was fair in her punishment. He grabbed Angel and pulled him away from Fred. He yelled in turn "Enough! You didn't see or feel what happened to her! Actually, she showed Knox mercy, he was rid of his pain before he died."
Wesley wanted to continue berating Angel, but he was cut-off by a litany of scenes and a steady and soothing voice which was speaking only to him. "Wesley, I am the one who sent Cordelia to you. The memories I am showing you are part of the price for saving your dear one. The one called Angel must be reunited with his own love."
The scenes or memories featured Angel and Buffy, and quite prominently, a day that never was. On viewing this Wesley was fearful that Angelus would arise from the actions they took, but then he realized that Angel was somehow a human for that day.
Wesley released Angel and stumbled back under the assault of the memories. He sank to the ground, more scenes hitting him, even those moments where Angelus had confronted Buffy. Even the soulless vampire was obsessed with her.
Fred brushed by Angel and knelt beside Wesley. He was hazy and unfocused. Fred was concerned, with everything going on, she feared it was just one more thing they would have to confront "Wes, what is it?"
Wesley shook himself out of the stream of memories and answered "Nothing to worry over sweetheart, and Angel, we'll need to talk later."
Angel was surprised by Wesley's shift in attention, Fred had just talked to him. Angel had seen that Wesley would focus on her if given the choice "Alright, now Fred, back to Knox. You killed him, we need to deal with that."
"It's already been dealt with, Fred died, Angel." Wesley stood up and faced the vampire down.
Angel was rocked back on his heels like he'd been hit "Is this true Fred?" It was plain to him that Fred was alive and not any kind of undead, so Wesley's statement confused him.
"Yeah, that's right, Wesley had to wait until I had started to pass on, then he was able to save me." Fred said this quietly, she wasn't that far removed from her death, had it really been yesterday?
Angel turned and looked at Knox, the pain he had endured was evident. Fred had died "This is done then, you're not planning on doing this to anyone else?"
Fred thought briefly of Dr. Sparrow from the TV-like tragedy that Cordelia let her see. She dismissed getting revenge on him. For one thing he was out in a city crawling with zombies, and beyond her reach "I swear I won't, in fact I'll return the test tray to Medical." With that Fred grabbed her supplies and left the room.
Wesley followed her and Angel took one last look at Knox before leaving, he would need to have the body disposed of, especially since it seemed as if they were going to be in this building for awhile.
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Wesley wanted to stay near to Fred, even with the building on lock-down, she could get into a great deal of trouble with her innate curiosity and Wolfram & Hart's penchant for housing dangerous beasts and substances. But Angel had other plans, so he stopped Wesley. Fred continued to Medical with her cargo while Wesley looked on after her. Angel pried his attention away with a quick "Wes, you said we needed to talk, now's as good a time as any."
"Indeed, Angel, when I was given the chance to save Winifred, the cost involved finding people such as myself, and helping them find the kind of joy I now have." Wesley would have to slowly give Angel the pertinent information. Some of it was quite strange, even with Angel and everything he had done and seen.
Angel was wondering what exactly Wesley had agreed to, it had rescued Fred, but it had also unleashed horror the world over "What do you mean by those like you?"
"Angel, once I met Fred in Pylea, my soul fractured, and a fragment latched onto her of it's own accord. Most of my actions since then have had her safety and my affection as their core motivation. I was informed that there were others who had the same kind of problem. They could no longer be whole and effective without the part of their soul that was attached to another person." That was the short version to Wesley's way of thinking. There were more details to be sure, but now wasn't the time to cover them.
Not that Angel needed to have the details spelled out for him, he had seen most of the interactions between Wesley and Fred over the years. The was no denying that the man had changed "What does this have to do with me?"
"The vision I received when I touched you was of you and Buffy, I never knew you became human, and more than that, you were able to consummate your relationship with her without turning evil." Wesley was curious about that. Why had Angel returned such a gift?
Angel was shocked. The Powers had promised to fold back the day, so that nobody would remember it happened "Me and Buffy huh, well there's a small problem of her and her friends cutting us off for working here. Oh and now there's this thing with Illyria. Let's not forget my curse, how do you plan to get us together in the face of all of that?
"I am aware of everything you mentioned, regardless, I have to reunite you two. I agreed and I am now bound to this mission. Your other half is fairly obvious, I find myself wondering and dreading who else might be part of this." Wesley was hoping that the others would be as simple. Buffy was alive, and while there were obstacles, if he could get her to L.A., then he was fairly sure he could find solutions for the rest.
Angel was wondering that as well, Spike had a relationship with Buffy as well, how would it work if she was his other half as well? And of course there were those who had passed on. What if Wesley was unable to complete his mission? It would leave his part of the bargain unfulfilled, would Fred then be taken as collateral? "You know just once, couldn't we have something simple to deal with? Anyway, we'll take this thing with Buffy one step at a time. You let me know if you come across anymore people you need to help."
"Certainly, I'll need all of the resources we have here and more besides to do this task. I mean I have to somehow find a way for you to be happy without losing your soul. Never mind meddling in affairs of the heart between the two of you." Wesley well knew how stubborn Buffy could be, by all accounts, her and Angel were in the past, he couldn't be certain she still had any feelings for Angel.
Now that the small side drama was done with, Angel had other things to worry about. The first of these was about Connor. With the world in the midst of an apocalypse, and his son having no memory of who he truly was, he would need to be found and brought in as soon as possible "I need you to find a way out of this building. I want to keep the lock-down in place until we can figure what to do. But we need to be able to go out into the city without letting any of those creatures in here."
Wesley nodded, turned, and was about to go grab Fred so she could help when Gunn came up to them in the company of a familiar brunette. Gunn headed off any questions "Guys, we need to talk. Meet our new liaison to the Senior Partners."
Wesley sighed, first zombies and now this "Hello Lilah."
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Fred was out of the loop with Wesley and Angel, she had stumbled on something very exciting, terrifying, but exciting. She had returned her tray of syringes, and she wanted to tell Dr. Moran about her results. She didn't get the chance. The doctor was watching over a creature who used to be a young woman, this same woman had almost run right into Fred when she first got her tray.
Dr. Moran took note of Fred "Ms. Burkle, I didn't expect you back so soon. Was your test successful? And, by the way, I don't know what's going on out there, but we have a new infection here that is just fascinating."
Fred looked at the 'patient' who was strapped to the bed. The creature was thrashing and snarling against her restraints "The test went very well, I got my results sooner than I expected. So what's fascinating about this?"
"This woman here came in with a small bite. I tried everything I could think of to treat her, but this infection tore through her system, here's the fun part, this thing killed her first. Then it brought her back." The doctor well remembered when the woman attacked her, of course being a demon had some advantages. Her supernatural strength and abilities let her see and react to the danger before anything bad could happen.
Fred could see how she could get some important information regarding the ongoing apocalypse "How fast did the change happen?"
"Based on blood analysis, the infection works at a steady rate. The nature of the wound dictates how fast someone gets turned. In the case of this poor woman, she turned faster than she should've because she had an elevated heart rate and a classic stress reaction from all the terrified running she did." Dr. Moran had asked the patient about the bite and her subsequent actions.
Fred sighed, the doctor had given her an answer, just not the one she was looking for, she wanted a baseline time for a particular type of wound "So, everything else being normal, based on the speed of the infection, how fast would she turn?"
"Oh, a few hours at most. In her case, she changed in approximately 30 minutes." The doctor was engrossed in her lab work consisting of sample's from the patient, she neglected protocol and forgot to log her admission time on the chart.
Fred had gotten something, this infection worked fast. She was about to ask after symptoms other than the obvious when Angel, Wesley, Gunn, and Lilah showed up. Fred wanted to know what was up "What's she doing here?" Fred skipped over the fact that Lilah was dead, she had shown up before in such a state.
Lilah ignore the hostility and answered Fred "I'm your new liaison to the Senior Partners. If I'm up to speed around here, looks like you and Wesley finally hooked up. Way to move fast there, he's only been hung up on you for years." She turned her attention to Wesley "Guess no more role-playing for us, huh?"
Wesley grimaced and blushed about that incident. It wasn't his finest hour. "Never again, Lilah. Why don't you fill us in on what Wolfram & Hart has planned."
"See some things haven't changed, okay, so we're sending a group of V.I.P's your way. I already briefed Gunn about them, our little name for them is the Circle of the Black Thorn." Lilah was surprised and happy to see Angel, Wesley, and Fred stiffen at the name, for whatever reason, they knew about the Circle and so must know how powerful they are.
Angel chimed in, he could recall in detail Cordy's final vision "What do they plan to do?" He was apprehensive, he had brought about the end of the world after all. That might leave a black mark on his quarterly performance review.
"Oh, don't worry about it, they're going to give all the branches some upgrades to help deal with this situation. I mean at first, they were pissed at you, but after looking at the potential outcomes, they can see some major returns coming to them much sooner than if Illyria had taken the Twig here."
Angel ignored the jab at Fred, who was seething at the nickname "How about after?"
"They've got a one way ticket out of this dimension, and I forgot to mention, they'll send an old friend back to help me out. We worked so well together in the past." Lilah smirked as it dawned on Angel about who she was talking about.
"You don't mean..." Lilah nodded gleefully "No, no,no, he tried to kill all of us the last time he was here."
Wesley and Fred blurted out the name simultaneously "Lindsey!?"
"I know right, and as fun as it was to watch him screw with you before, it's gonna be great when he's around all the time." Lilah couldn't help it, she was going to enjoy watching everyone deal with Lindsey. Of course there was the opportunity to mess with Wesley and his little crush, that almost made this apocalypse worth it.
The group in the room slumped in defeat, a world turned upside down, enemies returning as well, and for Angel a more pressing concern reared its head "Wes, we need to find Connor and bring him in, I have to make sure he's safe."
Wesley responded "Indeed, Angel, we'll get right on that. Fred, care to join me, we need to find a way to get to the underground garage and use a vehicle to leave the building without compromising our security."
Fred smiled triumphantly at Lilah as she left with Wesley. Her thoughts were of the 'take that, bitch' variety.
Lilah rolled her eyes but Angel had some explaining to do "How does Wesley know about Connor? From what I know, our memory and reality modification is unbroken in everyone else."
"It was apparently part of saving Fred, some higher being helped with that. Guess they decided the memories were important." Angel wanted to keep Cordelia's involvement hidden, he didn't know what kind of reach the Senior Partners possessed.
Lilah wasn't surprised, Wesley had tried his best to save her numerous times, even after she was dead. This streak had carried over to Fred in a big way. "Well, if he knows, do you want it removed completely?"
"I want to wait until I can get him here, then I can be sure he'll be okay." Angel had some experience of being hit with memories, sharing a body with Angelus was rough when he was returned after the demon had control for a time.
Lilah chuckled at Angel clinging to the idea that he could still manage things like this "You really don't know what's going on out there. Look, your kid was known as the Destroyer, right now he needs those skills and instincts more than he needs to be well-adjusted. Oh and the longer you delay, the more likely that he will end up dead."
"I hate to admit it, but you're right. How soon can we reverse it?" Angel was getting angry, Lilah was irritating when she was smug, and right now that she was very self-satisfied.
Lilah mulled over the various options. The longer she waited, the more likely it was that the brat would end up dead and Angel would suffer. However; if she broke the spell quickly, she would ingratiate herself with Angel and his buddies. In the long run, that would make working with them easier, and it would also make it easier to screw with them "Give me an hour, I'll make some calls. We put a lot of money into that spell, had to contract out for some of the work. Of course, if you wait a little longer, the Circle will arrive here and they can break the spell."
"If things are really that bad out there, waiting for the Black Thorn is probably the only way." Angel knew the odds of the independent contractors still all being alive were slim. Cordy's vision had been a warning and a call to action, but now Angel had little choice but to trust them.
Fortunately for Angel, a well-guarded convoy had formed when Illyria came on the scene. At the moment, it contained all of the members of The Circle. They were slowly making their way to the Wolfram & Hart offices. There was some fighting, the two demon clans, Sebassis' troops, and Sen. Brucker's security detail all helped one way or another. In spite of constant attacks by zombies, the convoy made progress towards their destination.