As The World Dies Untold Tales Volume 3 (11 page)

The Wickedest Woman in Texas

Chapter 1

I-35

“That’s a helluva lot of zombies,” Raleigh Dukelow said in an oddly terrified yet awed voice.

Beside him, Senator Paige Brightman frowned as she set her hands on her hips. “Idiots. They should have known evacuation routes would make them meals on wheels.”

The former campaign manager shuffled his feet and scratched at his scruffy chin nervously. “What else were they supposed to do? The authorities told them to evacuate.”

The senator snorted with contempt. “You mean Gordon told them to evacuate.”

Raleigh was unnerved by her cold dismissal of General Gordon Knox, her fiancé. He’d been in charge of the FEMA camps and evacuation plans implemented in the state. Gordon wasn’t with them, which meant she had left him behind at the mall they had abandoned. Raleigh doubted it had been Gordon’s choice. He loved the senator too much to not be at her side.

Several of the soldiers who had left the mall with the senator now stood clustered together, examining the massive obstacle blocking their journey. Raleigh wondered for the hundredth time that day why he hadn’t slipped down to the main floor of the mall to join the representatives of the fort who were evacuating the Madison Mall Rescue Center. If only he’d had the guts to follow his instincts. The people from the fort in Ashley Oaks had extended an open invitation to all the survivors that had been living in the dire conditions of the Madison Mall to join them at their walled fortress. Raleigh had even seen the aerial photos that revealed what looked like a slice of heaven. Instead, he had chickened out and spent the night sleeplessly tossing and turning while the Senator stalked around his living quarters making her escape plans. Once the fort leaders had rejected her ploy to take over the walled in downtown of Ashley Oaks that was dubbed ‘the fort,’ the senator had decided to abandon the mall and the survivors.

Stomach rumbling with hunger, Raleigh wondered if the people at the mall were okay. He didn’t like the fact that the senator’s supporters had blown the front gates of the parking lot in order to leave. Several of the soldiers had assured him that the mall doors would hold, but he wondered. There had been some very nice people at the mall.

“They’re just standing there,” Raleigh said, mystified. “Why are they just standing there?”

“They haven’t seen fresh meat yet,” Ruben, one of the soldiers, answered. “If they see us, they’ll be moving like ants toward a picnic.”

Beyond the thicket of trees that they were hiding within was a dry and scrubby swathe of field that led to the strangled interstate below. Vehicles of every size and description formed a tangled necklace of battered metal and glass. Standing among the ruins were thousands of softly moaning zombies. The fleeing traffic of nearly every city and town along I-35 had become a buffet of fresh meat for the newly risen dead in the first days.

The large silent National Guard truck beside them was a small consolation facing such danger.

“We can’t get across. We need to go back,” a young black soldier decided. His name was Lewis and he looked as terrified as the rest of them were trying hard to pretend they were not.

Ben, the soldier in charge and a native of East Texas, looked grimly determined. “I think we can barrel across and get onto the farm road.”

I-35 cut across Texas dividing east from west. It connected major and minor Texas cities in a chain starting in Laredo and threading through San Antonio, Austin, and Waco, before branching off to Fort Worth and Dallas and continuing to Oklahoma. Senator Brightman was determined to make it to East Texas. The plan was to travel to the coast in an effort to reach Galveston Island where the remains of the government was located. To continue their journey, they were going to have to find a way over the massive thoroughfare that was clogged mile after mile.

“I don’t see much of a weak spot.” Ruben cocked his head, regarding his commanding officer skeptically. “They’re packed like sardines down there.”

“The trucks can make it through, right?” Raleigh glanced at the two big military trucks. The vehicles were imposing, but nothing had gone right since they had abandoned the Madison Mall. One of their smaller vehicles had been overturned outside of Fort Worth by a huge horde of zombies. They’d lost provisions and lives in one crazy moment of mayhem.

“We’re going across,” Ben said firmly.

Folding her arms across her breasts, the senator swiveled to face Ben. Clad in crisp blue jeans, a white blouse and green blazer, she still looked all business. “How? Because I don’t see a way. So enlighten me.”

Raleigh noted that all traces of her usual false bravado were erased. Raleigh knew exactly how she thought after working for her for so long. Her plans had seemed so easy when she’d been discussing them with Raleigh and Ben the night before. It was a simple plan: show up at Central, present all the information on the fort, get the support of Central’s firepower and take over the fort. It was fairly obvious she was facing the reality of the situation and didn’t like it.

Raleigh wondered if they would ever make it to Central.

“Maybe we should go back to the mall,” he suggested.

The look the senator gave him was withering in its coldness.

Ben took his time studying the sprawl of dead traffic, then gestured toward Senator Brightman. “Ma’am, this is what we’re going to do. My truck will hit that point right there at a fast clip. Those are just small cars. The truck can shove through. The second truck will then follow.”

“The zombies will come after us,” Raleigh pointed out. “They’ll start walking after us. Which is exactly what Central doesn’t want.”

“Fuck Central,” Ben snapped. “I lost my wife and son in San Antonio. I’m not going to lose the rest of my family. We’re heading across the interstate.”

“We all lost people,” Raleigh said sharply. He didn’t want to think about the fates of his parents and younger sister. It hurt too much.

“Central and safety are that way.” Ben pointed with an insistent finger. “All we need to do is break through.”

Senator Brightman continued to stare at the long line of vehicles.

Raleigh rubbed his brow, the tension giving him a severe headache. Turning toward the Senator, he gazed at her hopefully, but was rewarded with a dour look.

His rumbling stomach sinking, he knew that she wasn’t going to let a zombie infested interstate stop her.

***

Senator Brightman was silent, her thin lips pursed together. The collagen that once plumped her lips was long gone and they were once more a tight little line on her face. Raleigh was looking at her like some damn puppy dog and she felt like slapping him. He’d been doing nothing all day but whimpering.

She was furious at Central for placing her in this situation. After she had informed Central that the terrorists from the fort had sabotaged the mall, she’d received only vague responses to her request for assistance. This had surprised her. She’d been convinced that President Castellanos would send air transport for her and her men once Central understood her position. Instead, she had been told to find safe lodgings and hold tight.

There was no damn way she was just going to hold tight.

Of course, none of this would have happened if Kevin Reynolds hadn’t betrayed her. He had turned the fort leaders in Ashley Oaks against her. It hadn’t helped that her own fiancé, Gordon Knox, had sided with the uppity soldier. Something had gone seriously wrong with the military in the last few years. Everyone in positions of power had seen it coming. Maybe it was the endless ‘nation building’ in other countries with high casualty rates among the enlisted that had slowly eroded the blind allegiance soldiers once had in their superiors. The strong resistance from the soldiers in the mall whenever she spoke of military action against the fort had made it clear that they would defy her wishes and refuse to move against the civilians. It had infuriated her to no end. The world had been a place of chaos before the zombies had risen and now it was worse. When soldiers refused orders, it only proved that the government should have done more to control them before the world had gone to hell.

“Let’s do it,” she finally said. Ignoring her unease, she strode to the truck that would ferry her across I-35.

“We can reach Nacogdoches by nightfall,” Ben assured her.

“Make it happen. I’m sick of being on the road.”

Raleigh stumbled along the uneven ground close behind her. She could feel his fear. She could smell it. He disgusted her. He was definitely ill-suited for this world.

Though they had avoided Fort Worth, they had run into trouble in one of the small towns on its outskirts. It was sheer luck they had made it through the rabid town at all. A few men had perished, but the senator couldn’t remember their names.

Ben and his men climbed into their truck as she, Raleigh, and Ruben rejoined the four men that were in theirs. Ruben helped her into the cab and she settled onto the uncomfortable seat.

Raleigh was a tall, thin rail of a man, but his elbow bit into her side and she shoved him with her arm. “Could you not sit on me?”

Hanging his head, Raleigh flattened himself against the door. “Sorry.”

Ben’s truck moved out of the line of trees onto the narrow dirt road that cut through the field that bordered the highway. Squeezed between Ruben, who was driving
, and Raleigh, the senator gripped the dash tightly and concentrated on the vehicle ahead.

Paige knew Ben was half-crazed at the idea of reaching his parents and sister in East Texas. She’d seen it in his eyes since they started planning their departure from the mall. That was why he was so perfect to lead them. He would do anything to achieve their goals.

The truck in front of them picked up speed and rumbled in the direction of the interstate, a plume of dirt spraying behind it. The zombies gradually stirred to life. Paige was unnerved when the dead turned as one to watch the speeding vehicle rushing toward them. Shambling around cars, their hands outstretched, the moving corpses moaned in one loud symphony.

“Shit,” Raleigh whispered.

Paige swallowed the hard lump in her throat. “Catch up! We’re too far back!” She hated the strained sound in her voice.

Ruben swore under his breath, but obeyed her.

The truck accelerated, bouncing over the deep ruts in the dirt road.

Terrified, Raleigh said, “We’re going to get stuck in the breach!”

“We are going to make it,” Paige said in a tight, furious voice. “We have to.”

Ben’s truck reached the edge of the field and roared up the short embankment. It sailed onto the shoulder of the interstate so swiftly, the truck appeared to be briefly airborne. The military truck crashed into the small cars like a torpedo. The screech of twisting metal assaulted Paige’s ears.

For several brief seconds, the vehicle was forced forward by momentum, cars piling up around it as they were shoved out of its path. Paige wasn’t certain what the huge truck hit, but one side of it abruptly pivoted upward and sluggishly rolled onto one side. Zombies swarmed the capsized truck. Gunshots barked over the moans.

“Sweet Jesus,” Paige gasped.

“Turn! Turn! Turn! Turn! Turn!” Raleigh screamed.

Ruben fought with the steering wheel, dragging it about in an attempt to avoid a collision. The second truck slid around on the dry grass and dirt of the field.

Some of the undead broke off from the massive crowd overwhelming the crashed truck and marched toward the second.

Paige slid into Raleigh as the truck made the sharp turn. His eyes were squeezed shut. Bracing herself against the passenger window, she shouted at the driver. “Don’t you dare let us flip!”

“I’m trying!”

The vehicle shimmied and slid as it plowed into the field, but Ruben managed to keep control. Bringing it completely about, Ruben aimed the truck toward the tree line.

No one spoke for at least ten minutes as I-35 vanished from the view of the side mirrors along with the determined crowd of undead stalking after the truck.

Finally, Raleigh said, “Now what?”

There was silence.

Paige didn’t have an answer.

Chapter 2

Regrets

Four Weeks
Later

“Go! Go! Go!”

Raleigh stumbled as he fled down the access corridor. His teeth snapped hard together, catching his inner cheek, and he immediately tasted blood. His hands caught onto a pallet leaning against the wall. He steadied himself briefly before he kept running. Dragging behind the rest of the small group, the fear that they would leave him behind was just as horrifying as the walking dead flooding the corridor behind him.

Charlie was ahead with the senator. The soldier had a tight grip on her upper arm and despite her cries of protest that he was hurting her, Charlie continued to shove, pull and yank her along.

The only other remaining soldier from their original group glanced back to see Raleigh struggling to catch up.

“Hurry!” Ruben ordered in a harsh voice.

Raleigh tripped again, this time over a small box hidden by the darkness. He tumbled to the concrete floor, his hands juddering over hard plastic objects that had spilled out from the depths of the carton. The hungry moans of the undead rose with excitement.

“Shit!” Ruben doubled back, skirting around Charlie and the senator, and jerked Raleigh upright. “Run!”

In a panic, knowing that his fall had cost him precious moments, Raleigh obeyed.

“Where’s the door? Where’s the door?” Charlie’s frantic voice ricocheted through the back area of the movie theater they had been hiding within.

“Keep going straight!”

Raleigh dared to look behind him. Ruben glared at him as he snarled to keep moving. Beyond Ruben, in the dim, sickly illumination of the emergency lights, the zombies followed, their slow stride frightening in its relentlessness.

Ahead, Charlie reached the outside door and hesitated.

“Open the damn door!” the senator shouted.

“We have to make sure that it’s clear!” Charlie exclaimed, his boyish face sweaty and shiny in the dim light.

Raleigh was almost to them. It was hard to run with his bruised shins and aching knees. He was so winded he could barely catch his breath. The ammo was low, so he knew Ruben wouldn’t start firing unless he absolutely had to. The moans and stench of the dead made his skin crawl. He turned to see Ruben shove some cartons over, trying to block the dead.

“Just go,” Ruben barked at Charlie.

With the sharp nod of his head, Charlie shoved the outside door open.

Almost immediately gray hands shoved through the gap.

Senator Brightman screamed in fright. The blonde woman yanked a fire extinguisher off the wall and battered the zombie hands and heads.

“Back up!” Charlie shoved the senator back—something Raleigh was sure he would pay for later—to kick the door open again and open fire. Valuable ammunition splattered the brains of the creatures straining to push their way into the building.

“We need to get out!” Ruben shouted as the zombies poured over the makeshift barricade of cartons, eating up the few feet between them and the humans.

“Clear!”

Charlie and the senator hurried out the door and Raleigh, in spite of his terror, followed.

In the harsh sunlight, Raleigh blinked rapidly in an attempt to rid his eyes of the temporary blindness that instantly fell on him. Stumbling over the dead bodies, he struggled to see Charlie and the senator as they sprinted through the narrow alleyway.

Raleigh’s vision finally cleared, but he felt dizzy. The survivors had been holed up in the theater for days living off the concession stand food. The movie theater candy he had consumed was giving him a blood sugar crash at the worst possible time. Reaching into his pocket, he yanked out a bag of M & M’s and poured most of them into his mouth.

Ruben grabbed his shoulder from behind and shoved Raleigh up the alley. The moans of the undead echoed all around them.

Ahead, the senator cussed at Charlie, telling him not to be so rough as he rushed her toward the next street. Charlie, to Raleigh’s great satisfaction, didn’t obey, but gruffly jerked her around as he tried to avoid any possible zombie hiding places such as doorways and dumpsters.

The four of them, the last survivors of the second truck from the mall, stumbled into the street, and stood on unsteady legs, uncertain of what to do next. Their previous truck had broken down in this small town. They’d to run for it when they were besieged by a mob of the undead. The theater had been their shelter until the front doors had given away.

A few vehicles stood in the street, empty of life. Some had flat tires. The sun would soon bleach them of color while the elements slowly corroded them. Nearby, a gas station stood silent. In the shade next to it was a brand new truck. The paper license plate was long faded, but it had been brand new when the dead had taken over the world.

“Go,” Ruben ordered, gesturing to the truck.

The four people hurried along the street, the soldiers holding onto the arms of the civilians. The undead were at least a block away, but continuing their relentless pursuit. If they could get some distance between them and the zombies, it would by them a little time. The zombies were so rotted, they were incredibly slow. But Raleigh knew that if the humans didn’t move swiftly and intelligently, the lumbering mob would find them and then…

Raleigh felt sick, the urge to vomit assailing him, but he kept chewing the chocolate in his mouth. For the billionth time he cursed himself for staying with the senator. He should have gone to the fort. If only he had taken a knock to his fucking pride and joined the rednecks in making a new life. Instead, he was on the run with the senator, barely keeping alive.

“Keep moving,” Ruben ordered, eyeing the following zombies. “Just keep moving.”

Raleigh had been stupid and he knew it. He’d been so flattered by the senator’s pursuit of his skills as a campaign manager he had disregarded so much about her. Of course, her brother-in-law’s money had been an incentive. He’d been convinced that with that much financial power he could shape her into a real political threat. It hadn’t been easy. She was a bigot, an elitist
, and tended to not think before she spoke. Also, she was a person of grandiose ideas with very little concept of how to execute them. People not in her own social circle tended to be disregarded. He’d worked so damn hard on her people skills, even though he’d often felt it was a losing fight. His whole team had managed to get her elected despite her stupid comment that she liked ‘brown people’ when she was trying to impress the Hispanic vote.

What annoyed him the most was that he’d known the Central idea was bullshit after sitting in on her conversations via the ham radio. It wasn’t difficult to understand that Central was strained for resources and that they couldn’t assist her, but she’d colored every conversation with her own point of view. She’d been so intent on getting to Central, she hadn’t been able to comprehend that Central was barely existing. That’s why they had been so desperate to establish supply lines to other survivor enclaves.

Why the hell had he gone with her?

Raleigh ignored the pain in his feet as his loafers slipped on the hot road. He knew the answer. Just like the senator had ignored the truth about Central, so had he. It had been his desire to somehow make it to a better place than that damn mall. He should have realized that better place was the fort, not Central
, which was so far away on Galveston Island.

Looking over his shoulder, he knew how terrible a mistake he had made.

The dead were coming.

Charlie moved swiftly to the truck and checked the doors. One was unlocked and he opened it swiftly. There wasn’t a key inside. Shoving the senator in, he said, “If we’re lucky, the guy is inside the store.”

Ruben motioned to Raleigh to get into the truck and he willingly obeyed. Ruben heaved the door shut, then the two soldiers disappeared around the corner.

“How did we get stuck with complete morons?” the senator huffed. Her usual bouffant hair was flat and her face was devoid of makeup. She started to search the truck, feeling under the seats, looking for a key. “Maybe it fell out in the truck.”

Staring into the store, Raleigh saw the two soldiers systematically killing the zombies inside so they could search their pockets for the keys.

“Raleigh, help me look!”

Raleigh joined her, uncertain of where to search, but scrounging around anyway. The zombie moans grew louder.

“They’re coming,” he whispered.

“I know, you moron,” she snapped.

Raleigh opened the armrest and was startled to see the car keys. He pulled them out and looked at the senator in shock.

“At least you can do something right.” She grabbed them, shoved the car key into the ignition, and attempted to turn on the truck. It gave out a small whimper. “Dammit!”

“Try again!”

“Shut up, Raleigh!”

Again, she turned the key and pumped the gas. Finally, the big truck’s engine caught and roared beneath the hood. With the ease of any rich soccer mom, she pulled the truck around to the front of the gas station and honked.

The two startled soldiers rushed out.

“Get in,” the senator ordered, and slid into the center of the seat.

Charlie slid in behind the wheel while Ruben rushed around to the other side of the cab. Already the fit was tight so Raleigh tried to make himself as small as possible.

“Get out and let him in first,” the senator ordered. “I’m sick of your elbow in my side.”

Raleigh hesitated, then obeyed. His eyes flicked to the horde coming ever closer. He could clearly see their mottled, ruined faces and hungry empty eyes.

Ruben slid in and tried to make room. Raleigh was just climbing in when he saw the senator’s tight little smile seconds before she slammed her foot down onto Charlie’s as she shifted gears. The truck lurched forward, knocking Raleigh to the side.

Crying out in terror, Raleigh tumbled to the hard, sun baked earth. He hadn’t realized how close the undead were until he rolled onto his side and saw one leaning over him, reaching down.

Raleigh whimpered, scudding back on his palms and butt, but he was seized by gray, ragged hands. The scent of death filled the hot air around him. The clustering zombies blotted out the sunlight, plunging him into shadows.

He really should have gone with the others from the fort. He really should have…

Inside the truck, Ruben shouted, “What the fuck?”

“We needed a distraction,” Paige answered, and leaned across Ruben’s lap to shut the door.

Shakily, Charlie continued driving, avoiding looking at her. He swallowed hard several times, his skinny neck rolling with the motion. For being military men, Paige thought they were both a bit soft.

“You call shoving a man out of a truck to his death a distraction?” Ruben gaped at her in shock.

“See!” Paige pointed at the side mirror that revealed the zombies clustered around Raleigh. “A distraction. Besides, it’s not like he was any use to us anyway. He was the world’s worst shot and always blundering about.”

“You are one cold-hearted bitch,” Ruben grunted angrily.

“I could have driven off with him and left you,” Paige answered coldly. “Remember that.”

Behind them, the zombies feasted. Ruben averted his eyes from the side mirrors, his jaw clenching and unclenching. Paige glanced at the M & M wrapper on the floor. She’d seen Raleigh woofing down the contents and his mouth had been smeared with the brown candy.

With a slight smirk, she wondered if Raleigh tasted like chocolate.