Doomsday America

Chapter 87 Crossing the River, Massacre
At this point, Gavin slightly changed direction and drove straight across the highway toward the distant river.

At the same time, he picked up the binoculars with one hand and looked at the greyhounds that had closed to within 2.2 kilometers behind him.

Although the German Shepherd behind the Greyhound was nearly 300 meters behind, at this moment, the Border Collies, Golden Retrievers, Labradors, and more than 20 Huskies following closely behind the German Shepherd were all exposed to Gavin's view!

As he sprinted, Gavin kept measuring the total number of dogs.

Meanwhile, after briefly considering Gavin's question, Steve quickly turned on the intercom to answer.

"I know a suitable place where the river is widest, but the shallowest in the area, and there's no silt on the riverbed!"

At this point, Steve quickly changed direction, managing to run at an angle of nearly 130 degrees to the pursuing pack of dogs.

Noticing Steve's direction, Gavin quickly confirmed the angle of the pack of dogs and then shouted into the walkie-talkie.

How far are we from where you mentioned?

"First, rush to the vicinity of the river, then run about three kilometers towards the farmland!"

"Fuck, I hope you've really picked a good spot to cross the river!"

Gavin cursed, then slowed down slightly and followed behind Steve.

It would take them about three minutes to run a distance of about three kilometers, while Gavin estimated that a greyhound and a German Shepherd could run at least 3.5 kilometers in the same three minutes!
Furthermore, the angle formed by their change of direction and the dogs further shortened the distance between them and the pack.

Gavin estimated that when they were about to cross the river, the pack of dogs was probably less than 500 meters away from them!

However, at this point, Gavin had no choice but to trust Steve.

Having not returned to the farm for over two years, he had absolutely no knowledge of the farm's river conditions!

Riding horses across a river is not unusual in the summer, as most horse racing training includes swimming, and it's not surprising for horses to carry people across the river.

But it's winter now, and the river water is probably close to zero degrees Celsius. Considering the racehorses are running at high intensity, who knows what might happen when they suddenly plunge into the icy cold water after they've worked up a lot of heat.

Therefore, their only option for crossing the river at this moment is to avoid submerging the horses' bellies to prevent affecting their performance, while also submerging the dogs' backs as much as possible, in a section of the river that is deep enough to slow down the pack of dogs to the greatest extent possible.

On this point, Steve is the only authority in the team right now!
At this point, Gavin held the reins in both hands, his eyes fixed on the pack of dogs that was steadily approaching them from afar.

At this moment, the three riders fell silent. All they could do was follow Steve closely, grit their teeth, and push themselves as hard as possible!
Of course, Madison doesn't need to accelerate too much, since a racehorse carrying people, guns, and bullets will only reach a speed of about 55 kilometers per hour.

So Madison slowly hung behind the three of them while turning on the intercom and asking Gavin a question.

"Boss, those dogs are getting closer and closer. Should I rush over and delay them?"

"No need, just stay close to me!"

Gavin didn't want to answer too much, so he gave a direct order over the intercom.

In his view, it was not yet time for Madison to be deployed, and the team and the pack of dogs were still within a safe distance.

The river is not a straight line, but meanders across the plain.

Although Steve initially formed an angle with the pack of dogs and quickly approached them, after crossing the sharp bend in the river, the horse caravan changed direction along the river and kept almost parallel to the pursuing dogs.

After rounding the sharp bend, Steve looked up at the widest section of the river in the distance, which was almost 86 meters wide, and shouted into the walkie-talkie.

"See that? It's right there. The river around there is really nice. Cowboys wash their cars there in the fall!"

"Roger that. Madison, you can speed up now. Drive across the river and provide cover for us on the other side!"

Gavin roared at Madison, and the Raptor's engine roared to life.

Old Mike was seen driving his Raptor at breakneck speed toward the widest section of the river, leaving the cavalry nearly 700 meters behind.

Once Gavin gave the order, Madison was no coward. Without hesitation, he roared into the river.

Gavin squinted at the raptor crossing the river, and after confirming that the river was deep enough not to submerge the raptor's tires, he let out a heavy sigh.

The tire height of a raptor is about 110 centimeters, the belly height of a racehorse is about 90 centimeters off the ground, and the shoulder and back height of a dog is about 60 to 70 centimeters!

Don't underestimate this mere few tens of centimeters difference. It is these few tens of centimeters that can prevent a racehorse, whose body is already warm, from having its chest, abdomen, and internal organs stimulated by cold water!
Seeing that Madison had already crossed the river, he parked the car on the other side and took out an HK416 from the passenger seat, propped it against the window, and aimed it at the direction of the pack of dogs.

Gavin spurred his horse forward, and Octavian quickly overtook Eugene and Steve, heading towards the route for crossing the Madison River.

Steve and Eugene mounted their horses, but the speed was reduced to less than 55 kilometers per hour due to the weight of their weapons and ammunition.

However, the Akhal-Teke horse can maintain a speed of over 70 kilometers per hour under normal conditions, and even when it is carrying the same load, it is about 7 or 8 kilometers per hour faster than a regular racehorse.

As Gavin plunged into the river, he felt the water splashing onto his trousers, determining the depth of the current.

The deepest part barely reached Octavian's belly, far from reaching the height of the stirrups.

After determining the water depth, Gavin turned on the intercom and spoke.

"Follow the route Madison and I took. Once we reach the other side, start firing immediately. Don't rush the shots; try to aim accurately!"

As soon as he finished speaking, Gavin glanced around and then fixed his gaze on a spot about thirty meters downstream.

He then continued speaking into the intercom.

"Later, once the pack of dogs has crossed the river and is within ten meters of us, we'll run downstream for a short distance and cross the river again, trying to use this beautiful river to keep the whole pack of dogs here!"

"Of course, we also need to consider the slowest dog behind us, so as to avoid being attacked by the pack from both sides after we cross the river a second time!"

"So I will make specific decisions based on the situation at that time. Everyone listen carefully to my every instruction, and don't do anything as stupid as Captain America did again!"

As soon as he finished speaking, Octavian swung his long, golden legs, panting as he rushed out of the river and stopped beside the bird of prey.

Gavin turned his horse towards the pack of dogs, then drew his HK and aimed it from under his shoulder.

At this moment, the three greyhounds were howling and were less than 500 meters away from Gavin on the opposite bank!
This distance is close to the effective range of the HK416, and the effective range means the distance at which you can shoot most accurately and deal the most damage!

Gavin glanced at the scope and casually switched the gun to single-fire mode.

Laser, triple, holographic.

Gavin steadied his arm and pulled the trigger, aiming at the greyhound charging straight at him from the left front.

sudden……

After a muffled thud, the Greyhound was unharmed, while Gavin quickly adjusted the muzzle of his gun.

sudden!
This time, a spray of blood splattered from the Greyhound's chest.

Gavin wasn't discouraged, after all, he had only occasionally played with rifles before and had never had any serious training in this area.

Compared to rifles, Gavin's pistol was much more accurate at range, hitting exactly where he aimed within fifty meters.

Because revolvers are cool, he practiced using them for a long time when he was a kid just to show off...

But a revolver is no match for an enemy hundreds of meters away, and Gavin won't improve his marksmanship out of frustration.

So even though he kept missing, Gavin calmly continued firing at a steady pace, looking for an opportunity to hit the dog's head with each shot!
After firing six bullets in succession.

at last!

puff!
The foremost greyhound, only 280 meters from Gavin, was shot through the head!

The greyhound tumbled to the ground, spinning several times from the impact, its body mercilessly overtaken by its two companions. At the same time, Eugene and Steve, one after the other, were only about ten meters from the riverbank!

But the closer it got to this point, the more impatient Eugene became. He shook his leg and flicked the reins, and his feet in the stirrups unconsciously pounded against the Arabian horse's belly.

Arabian horses are relatively small, and having half of their bellies submerged in water makes the racehorse very uncomfortable.

In addition, the rider's stomach kept sending subconscious commands to Eugene to kick in the abdomen, which is the most intense acceleration command!
So the Arabian horse obediently neighed and began to leap and accelerate again!
Ahead of Eugene, Steve heard the neighing of the Arabian horse, quickly turned around to look at Eugene, and called out.

“Don’t rush him, Eugene, he’s already fast enough, he…”

"Hiss!!!"

Before Steve could finish speaking, the Arabian horse, which had been leaping violently, slammed its hooves into the water again, and sure enough, it slipped and flipped over to the left side of the river!
On the shore, Gavin seized the opportunity when the Greyhound closed to within 220 meters, found the right position, and luckily shot it in the head!
Immediately afterwards, Gavin saw Eugene, about seven meters in front of him, crash into the water along with his horse.

Eugene was not a professional cowboy after all. Although he could ride a horse, he was by no means skilled, and he did not understand the various commands for driving a racehorse.

Most importantly... he loves to shake his leg!!!
"Law... gurgle gurgle gurgle!"

Before Eugene could even utter a curse, his head was completely submerged in water.

Watch out for your legs!

Beside him, Steve shouted as he suddenly stood up on his horse and leaped towards where Eugene had fallen into the water.

thump!
After slamming his butt into the water, Steve endured the chill, gritted his teeth, twisted his waist, and rushed forward as fast as he could.

Bypassing the struggling Arabian horse, Steve grabbed Eugene's upper body from the water and shouted at him.

"How are your feet! How are your feet! Did the horse run you over? Can you still stand up!"

"Gurgle gurgle... My gun, fuck, gun!"

Eugene roared and quickly shook his head to regain his vision. He grabbed the HK416, braced his back against Steve's chest, and fired at the greyhound that had already jumped into the river.

Chu Chu Chu!
After just one short burst of shots, the Greyhound collapsed, and Eugene finally began to feel his feet.

Steve simply reached over and pulled Eugene's right leg out of the stirrup.

"Get up, get up! Can you even stand up?"

While Steve continued questioning Eugene, Eugene frantically twitched his left leg.

Fortunately, the buoyancy of the water helped him; although the Arabian horse overturned quite thoroughly, at least it didn't pin his left leg down.

After struggling for a while, with Steve pulling him along, Eugene suddenly broke free of the stirrups and sat down in the water with a thud.

"Holy crap, this is freezing!"

After letting out a wail, Eugene quickly stood up from the water with Steve's help.

Seeing that Eugene was able to stand on his own, Steve quickly released Eugene and moved closer to the Arabian horse, pulling on the reins to guide the horse in the direction it should stand up, and comforting it as he helped it to its feet.

Meanwhile, the three fastest greyhounds were all dead, while the following German Shepherd herd was still nearly 900 meters from the riverbank.

Gavin then dismounted, reached out and grabbed Anne's reins, leading her to a safe spot.

Then, Gavin reached out and grabbed Eugene, pulling him out of the river. He then reached out and took the reins of the Arabian horse to give Steve a boost.

At this point, the team had finally assembled on the riverbank. As soon as Yu Jingang stepped ashore, he knelt down and began to aim his gun at the rapidly approaching German Shepherd in the distance.

On the Raptor, Madison fired more than a dozen shots, but didn't even touch a dog's body.

He cursed in frustration, then jumped out of the car, picked up a shotgun and a drum magazine, and stood next to Gavin.

"I won't waste rifle bullets. Once those damn dogs are in the river, I promise I'll use their heads as frisbees to shoot them down!"

After speaking, Madison turned to Eugene, who was still aiming, and said...

"Red Hair, I'll save my magazine for you!"

sudden!
Eugene fired a single shot, accurately blowing the dog's head off from 800 meters away, and then responded softly.

"That would be perfect..."

At this moment, Eugene spoke far less, and his gun maintained a rate of one shot every three seconds, continuously reaping the lives of the German Shepherds.

Gavin and Steve didn't fire like Eugene; the distance of eight or nine hundred meters was simply too far for them.

After watching Eugene shoot down four German Shepherds, Gavin and Steve only opened fire when the German Shepherds were about 400 meters away from the group.

The HK416 is the dream gun of all special forces because its performance and stability surpass those of similar firearms in every aspect.

Even if it just gets a little wet, the HK416 will have no problem firing directly in the water.

At this point, the three rifles fired in succession, two softly and one loudly.

Steve's earlier act of removing the muffler immediately made his location a target for the dogs to chase.

However, it no longer matters who becomes the target, because from this moment on, the situation has already been reversed.

The distance is about 500 meters. Subtracting the width of the river channel of more than 80 meters, there are still about 420 meters left.

It took more than forty dogs a full half minute, and at the cost of thirteen lives, to finally rush into the river.

Madison's shotgun had already started firing as the dog approached the water's surface.

As a rugby player, his reaction time and strength are impressive, and with his extensive experience playing frisbee, his aim is surprisingly accurate.

Moreover, after the dog becomes a zombie dog, it loses its swimming instinct and only knows how to jump and run desperately towards its target.

Therefore, their speed in the river water, which is up to their backs, is actually slower than when they are dog paddling, almost reaching a speed of one meter per second or even slower.

The closer the distance, the more accurate the sniper. When the pack of dogs was forced to move at a snail's pace and barely crossed the middle of the river, Eugene alone took down a full seventeen German Shepherds!

With the help of Gavin and the others, only nine German Shepherds were able to successfully approach within fifty meters of the group!

At this point, Gavin simply slung the HK over his shoulder, reached out and pulled out the Colt Python, adjusting it to single-action mode.

Gavin then quickly cocked the revolver's hammer.

Bang bang bang bang!

In less than a second and a half, the python's ammunition chamber was completely emptied, and six of the nine dogs were killed cleanly, leaving only the last three struggling to continue their charge.

Upon seeing this, Eugene paused slightly in his firing motion, then abruptly turned to Gavin and asked incredulously.

"What the hell is that?"

"That's the real cowboy skill, a sniper!"

Steve laughed and responded on Gavin's behalf, then also drew his silver Colt Python from his waist.

next moment……

Bang bang bang!
In less than a second, three shots were fired, and the last three dogs fell to the ground, their bodies slowly drifting away as they were washed by the river.

(End of this chapter)