Fighting to Survive (42 page)

Bill
set his booted feet down on the street and heaved his belly upwards
as he tried to get his belt hoisted up on its girth. His keen eyes
looked around the street from beneath his cowboy hat.

Felix
easily climbed down the ladder. Nerit followed more slowly. Jenni and
Felix took up positions to the left and the right, watching the road
while Nerit and Bill moved over to the pieces of Phillip's body.

“
That
smell is enough to make me puke my tacos up,
”
Felix grumbled, and kicked a dead body in irritation.

Jenni
looked down at the gray, decaying carcass at her feet. It could have
been a woman at one point, but it was so badly eaten, it was hard to
tell gender. There were no clothes on it and most of its hair had
been pulled out. It wasn't the smell that got to her. It was seeing
their empty eyes, like Mikey's as he snarled and clawed at the window
of the white truck on the first day. She blinked hard and shoved
that thought away.

“
Mighty
chewed up,
”
Bill said to Nerit.
“
Can't
tell much about what happened before he got ate.
”

Jenni
rubbed her nose and narrowed her eyes as a few shambling figures
appeared in the far distance.

“
Look
at his leg,
”
Nerit said from nearby.

Jenni
glanced over to see the older woman squatting down by one of the torn
off limbs. The skin was shredded and muscle and tendons were ripped
from the bone.

“
Shattered,
”
Bill said after a moment.

“
Human
teeth couldn't do that,
”
Nerit agreed.

“
What
does that mean?
”
Felix's voice was tight with his fear.

“
I'm
thinking bullet,
”
Bill answered.
“
I
think someone shot him in the leg.
”

“
I
betcha Shane did it,
”
Jenni offered, and watched as one of the far away shambling creatures
tumbled to the ground. It struggled to get back up resulting in an
almost comical series of pratfalls.

“
Maybe,
”
was all Bill said.
“
We
better go see if we can find Shane.
”

Nerit continued to
stare at the shattered bone thoughtfully. She prodded the limb with
the edge of her gun, then began to look around on the ground around
her.

Bill called in to
the fort for a vehicle to be brought around while Felix began yanking
the bolts out of the zombie heads to be cleaned up and recycled for
use later. Jenni kept her eyes on the figures in the distance.

“
What's
going on?
”
Katie's voice sounded worried.

“
Heading
out to see if we can find out what happened to Shane!
”
Bill gave her a thumbs up.

Jenni could see the
worry in Katie's expression and knew that her friend was probably
feeling some sort of misplaced guilt. Jenni didn't mind Phillip
being in pieces. She kind of wished Shane was out here, too. She
returned her gaze to the figures wading through the shimmering heat.
The one that had fallen was still not able to get back up on its
feet. They were still some distance away. Jenni wasn't too worried.

Nerit continued to
look around, shoving the decaying bodies out of her way, obviously
intent on finding something. Bill pulled up on his belt again and
stared down the road where the zombies were moving relentlessly
toward them.

“
Helluva
day,
”
he said at last.

The
school bus roared around the corner, Ed behind the wheel.

Felix
said,
“
Thank
God.
”

Jenni
understood his relief far too well. She was keeping a cautious eye
on the walking dead slowly approaching their position. She liked
them slow like this. It was easier to kill them and it was more like
the old zombies movies. She hated it when they were fresh and fast.

She
was the last one on the bus and gave Katie a little wave. The worry
in Katie's expression was touching. It was a good feeling to know
that people actually gave a damn about what happened to her.

“
Another
day. Another dollar,
”
Felix muttered as he slung his long body onto a seat.

“
We
don't get paid,
”
Jenni reminded him.

“
Oh,
yeah. This job sucks.
”
Felix grinned, and winked.

Jenni winked back
and grabbed hold of the bar over her head. Ed shifted gears and the
mini-bus roared forward. She watched the approaching zombies with
irritation. She didn't feel like dealing with them today. The dead
would only complicate things as they tried to figure out what
happened.

Nerit sat across
from Jenni, her rifle on her knees. Her hand was gripping the back
of Felix's seat as the mini-bus bounced down the road. She looked
eerily calm, as usual. Jenni envied her.

“
Nothing
is ever simple,
”
Bill decided. He let out a weary sigh.

“
Never
is,
”
Felix agreed.

“
We
just do our best,
”
Nerit said.
“
Do
our best and hope.
”

“
Do
you think we're it? The only ones left other than those little
pockets out there that Peggy talks to?
”
Felix was staring out at the dead town and his voice sounded weary.

Jenni didn't want to
think or talk about other people trapped out there. She didn't want
to think about anything their own little world.

“
Does
it matter?
”
Nerit finally said.
“
Does
it really matter if we are the last ones or not?
”

“
Puts
a helluvalot of pressure on us if we are,
”
Felix answered.

Bill
nodded.
“
That
it does.
”

Ed plowed over the
slow moving zombies and the bus bounded on down the road. He was
taking the route Shane and Phillip had taken the day before.

“
It
don't matter if we are or are not the last. We just gotta not mess
it up. We gotta do what we have to and hope that anyone out there
still alive is doing okay, too. My boys are still somewhere out
there and I just gotta trust that they are alive and doing their best
to survive. I didn't raise no fools.
”

“
Where
are your boys, Ed?
”
Nerit asked.

Jenni didn't want to
talk about this, but she was stuck. She didn't want to think about
families destroyed in the first days. She didn't want to think about
her own dead children still out there seeking out the flesh of the
living. She just wanted to get this job done and get back to Juan
and the safety of the fort.

“
Got
two sons up in College Station going to A&M.;
”

“
Aggies,
”
Felix muttered with the disdain only a Longhorn from the University
of Texas could muster.

Ed
ignored him.
“
The
youngest is in military school up near Fort Worth.
”

Jenni gazed out at
the abandoned buildings of the town and frowned as several zombies
shambled into view to watch the bus pass.

“
If
they are anything like you, Ed, I'm sure they are fine,
”
Jenni said, and hoped that would finish the conversation.

“
I
raised them good. They're smart boys. I know they are fine.
”

“
They're
country boys. They got a better chance than most city folk,
”
Bill agreed.

Felix
and Jenni, the only city folk in the bus, both protested the same
time.
“
Hey!
”

Nerit just chuckled.

“
There
it is,
”
Ed called out.
“
There's
their car.
”

The
sedan the fort had provided the outcasts, far too generously in
Jenni's mind, was listing on the side of the road. Its front tire
was tucked down in a drainage ditch next to the road. There were a
few old buildings and houses in the area and nothing stirred except
the wind in the tall grasses.

“
Let's
get this done.
”
Nerit slid to her feet.

“
Same
drill as always,
”
Ed added.

Jenni picked up her
ax and double checked her pistol. The ax felt good in her hands.
Her anger against the zombies and the terror they had brought into
her life was a hot furnace inside her.

The bus doors
opened. She was the first one out. Her boot heels kicked up dust as
she jumped down. She quickly took up her position, covering the
others as they disembarked. Felix moved to cover the other side of
the road while the others moved to examine the car.

From
where Jenni stood, she could see one side of the car was smeared with
zombie gunk. Nerit picked up a discarded weapon and looked it over
thoughtfully. Bill squatted down to pick up a box of ammunition
tossed nearby.

“
All
shots fired,
”
Nerit said.

“
This
box is filled with gravel. I'm not liking how this is looking.
”
Bill stood and adjusted his belt. It was a common gesture for him.
He had a pretty big gut, but he was losing it now. It meant he was
always hiking up his belt. Jenni found it an endearing, but amusing
action.

“
Got
six zombies dead on this side of the car,
”
Ed called out.
“
And
another box of gravel.
”

“
Someone
sabotaged them,
”
Felix exclaimed.

“
Why
is the car abandoned? Why did Phillip head back to the fort?
”
Bill stood back a few feet from the car and peered in, while Ed
hunkered down to look under it.

Jenni
saw the zombie lunge for Ed out of the corner of her eye.
“
Ed!
”

The older man
scrambled backwards quickly as the zombie reached for him. It was
terribly mutilated and missing a good chunk of its torso. It's feet
scrabbled at the ground, trying to find purchase to push it toward
the grizzled old man. Ed got to his feet and kicked it in the
face, knocking its head back. Yanking his hatchet off his belt, he
motioned to the others he had it under control.

“
Hurry
up and kill it,
”
Jenni exclaimed, trying not to yell and draw more zombies to them.