Fighting to Survive (59 page)

“
We
’
re
getting close,
”
Bill said. He looked tired and a little anxious. She knew he had been
up many nights talking and planning with Nerit and Travis.
“
We
’
ll
deal with this and keep to the initial plan unless things change.
”

Jenni
began to pull her long dark hair up into a knot on top of her head.
She liked to wear it long and flowing, but that could be far too
dangerous with zombies around.
“
I
’
m
really sick and tired of these fuckers scaring us shitless.
”

“
Truer
words were never spoken.
”
Bill chortled.
“
And
I feel exactly the same way.
”

Jenni
finished with her hair and looked at him curiously.
“
You
got a bad feeling, huh?
”

“
Woke
up with it in my gut,
”
Bill admitted.
“
You
too, huh?
”

“
Yeah.
Things feel off,
”
Jenni answered. She thought of the long, sweet kisses she had shared
with Juan before she had left. It was as if they were sharing their
last kisses. The thought of him made her stomach twist a little more.
She missed him and just wanted to crawl into bed with him and feel
his warm, strong arms around her.

“
We
’
re
coming up on it,
”
Ed announced.

Jenni steadied
herself by holding onto the back of her seat. Her rifle held tightly
in one hand, she looked ahead with intense scrutiny.

They
were rescuing what remained of a family; three teenagers; one boy,
two girls, and their mother. Their father had died after the first
day of a bite. The kids had put his zombified remains down. Their
grandparents had passed away recently from natural causes. The
grandfather stopped eating so the rest of the family could have more
rations and had died of a heart attack. His wife had followed soon
after. The surviving family was holed up in a trailer house. Jenni
was told they had been living off the grandmother
’
s
preserves the entire time. According to the briefing, the family
’
s
truck was broke down. They had no way to escape their small town.
They had tried to walk to the neighbors for supplies, but had been
chased back by zombies. The rescue team expected at least half a
dozen zombies to be in the area.

“
This
isn
’
t
good,
”
Bill decided.

The
narrow dirt road unwound to reveal the trailer tucked in a clearing a
ways back from the road. It had at least two additions built onto
it. All the windows appeared to be boarded up, but the front door was
hanging from its hinges. The muddied driveway revealed tire tracks. A
group of zombies was gathered beneath a tree, growling and clawing at
the trunk.

“
Damn,
”
Jenni said.

Behind
her, the rest of the team were standing and releasing the safety on
their weapons.

“
Jenni,
go up top,
”
Bill said.

Half
the zombies, around six, turned and rushed the bus.

Climbing up onto the
back of the seat, Jenni shoved the hatch on top of the bus open. Bill
helped raise her all the way up. Hot, grainy wind greeted her as the
bus slowed down. She sat on the scorching metal roof as Bill handed
up her rifle.

The
zombies were closing fast, screeching, growling, clawed hands
outstretched. They were more inhuman looking than ever before. The
elements definitely were having an impact on them. Their skin was
dark gray, their hair matted and wild, their faces shrunken. But the
fresher ones that were nearly whole were startling fast, while their
more mutilated counterparts staggered along behind them.

Jenni
took down the front runner of the pack. The momentum of its run
carried it forward and it skidded into the side of the bus with a wet
sound. She fired at another zombie. It tumbled to the ground in a
jumble of skirts.

Ah, damn. It was
a bride.

Jenni
wiped that thought away. She took aim at another zombie, a male. It
reached the bus and began to bang on the driver
’
s
window. It startled Ed and he jerked the wheel. The bus swerved
sharply. Jenni found herself pitched to one side and her hair
unfurled as she clung to the roof. Peering down over the edge, she
saw a zombie look up at her. She knew before it happened what it
would do.

It grabbed her hair
and began to yank.

She
managed to hook her feet on the edge of the hatch and held onto the
edge of the roof.

“
Gawddammit,
Ed,
”
Bill shouted from inside the bus.

Jenni
pushed back from the edge of the bus with her hands, the pain from
her hair being pulled making her gasp. She tried hard to wrestle
free, but the zombie was holding tight.

She heard a window
slide open beneath her, then a shout, followed by two gunshots. Her
hair came free and she fell back onto the roof of the bus. Grabbing
up her rifle, she steadied herself as the bus came to a stop. She
immediately aimed at the other zombies heading toward them.

More
gunfire from those within the bus chorused with her shots. One by
one, the zombies fell to the ground. A few persistent ones kept
jumping up and down, reaching up toward the branches of the tree. Now
that they were close enough, Jenni saw an emaciated young woman and a
boy hardly older than Jason clinging to the high branches.

Jenni
efficiently took out the zombies at the base of the tree and then
looked down into the bus.
“
We
need to move fast.
”
She blinked as she saw blood splatter all over one side of the
interior of the bus, then saw the body of a woman whose name she kept
forgetting. She had been shot in the head. It took Jenni another
moment to realize the woman
’
s
hand was bitten. It was more like a graze, but it looked like a
zombie bite.

“
She
was trying to shoot the one that had your hair through the window.
She fell against the grill and it bit her,
”
Bill answered her unspoken question.

In
this world, a bite was an instant death sentence. They all knew it,
but it didn't make it any easier to deal with. Besides Ashley in the
hotel, the fort had witnessed two other people turn into zombies
before actual death. No one was sure why this sometimes happened,
but they could take no chances.

Jenni
blinked back tears, then nodded.
“
We
need to get the kids out of the tree.
”

Ed
pulled the bus up close to the tree, trying not to get cornered up
against the trailer or the trees. The boy scrambled out onto a limb,
clutching precariously to it.

“
Jump
down!
”
Jenni motioned to him.

“
They
got my sister and mom,
”
he yelled down to her.

“
The
zombies?
”

“
No,
some guys! They came and kicked in our door and grabbed my Mom and
sister. I was in the back room with Annie and we went through the
window.
”

“
Jump
down!
”

The boy motioned to
his sister, who shook her head, still clinging to the trunk of the
tree.

“
Annie,
c
’
mon,
”
the boy said.

She
shook her head again.

“
Jump
down,
”
Jenni ordered.

“
Annie,
please come with me,
”
the boy insisted.

The girl once more
shook her head, terror in her eyes.

Jenni
fastened her gaze on the girl and felt sick to her stomach. Was this
the way she looked when Katie had first seen her, shell-shocked and
dazed? If so, too damn bad.
“
Annie,
get your fuckin' ass down here now! Otherwise, you
’
re
gonna have to sit in that damn tree until the zombies figure out how
to climb or you get so weak and fall. Now, if you want to die that
way, be my guest, but I am taking your brother and we
’
re
getting the hell outta here.
”

Annie
blinked, then began to cry. Trembling, she slowly crawled out onto
the thick limb to her brother. With infinite care, her younger
sibling helped lower her down to the top of the bus, then dropped
down beside her.

Jenni
blinked at the utter reek of them, but shoved that out of her mind.
“
The
men who came here…why did they leave you in the tree?
”

The
girl disappeared through the hatch into the bus, Bill carefully
lifting her down.

The
boy rubbed his nose and shook his head.
“
I
don
’
t
know. They kept trying to get us down, saying all sorts of sick shit.
But we kept climbing higher. I knew we couldn
’
t
make a run for it with the zombies around. Anyway, they were even
telling me stuff...about…you know…doing me in the…”
The boy took a breath.
“
Anyway,
one of the guys in a truck started yelling about a gun store and they
all just went crazy. They told me and Annie that they would come back
for us later if the zombies didn
’
t
get us first.
”

“
Shit,
”
Jenni whispered.
“
Bill,
did you hear?
”

“
I
heard,
”
Bill answered, gazing up at them through the hatch.

Jenni and the boy
scooted down into the bus as the back door slammed shut. The woman
who had tried to save her now lay with the zombies on the cold,
muddied ground.

“
How
many trucks?
”
Bill asked.

“
Four,
”
the boy answered.
“
And
those guys were really fucking sick and scary.
”

His
sister sat in a seat nearby, wrapped in a light blanket, shaking
uncontrollably.
“
You
need to get our Mom and sister.
”

“
Ed,
call it in,
”
Bill ordered.
“
Nerit
was right. It
’
s
going down today.
”

Jenni
sighed. They had come up back roads to this place deliberately. In
all likelihood, they had just missed the bandits on the main roads.

“
How
long ago did they leave?
”
Bill asked.

“
Thirty
minutes ago maybe,
”
the boy answered.