Life Among The Dead (Book 3): A Bittersweet Victory (35 page)

“I got this. Just get on!” Carla returns to
the school bus.

Brock Rottom is bleeding from his shoulder.
Oz helps him on and hands him off as the convoy proceeds around the
disabled bus. He turns his back for a second, but it’s long enough
for everything to change.

The Gunship starts to roll again, slow enough
for the last two to get on, but fast enough to make all onboard
feel better. The ground shakes from another rocket attack, and the
love of Oz’s life is gone in a flash. As the Gunship picks up
speed, he stares disbelieving at the wrecked yellow transport. The
force of the attack threw it aside like a toy.

Abby is on the bottom deck trying to get a
head count while checking with the drivers over the radio. The
incursion appears to be through, and the raiders have their semi to
pick over as the Rubies limp away.

“Abby, that Oz guy jumped ship,” Lady Luck
says, after glancing in her side mirror. “Should we hold?”

Making the call pains him, but Brass said not
to stop. “No.”

The caravan of refugees rolls on, leaving the
stranger behind. That stranger had stepped up and became one of
them when the time of need arose. He was a Ruby now. “The second we
get everyone safe within the walls,” Abby says, “I want our bird
unpacked. We’re coming back for him.”

The bandits that struck the convoy converge
on the downed semi, but all Oz cares about is the yellow bus on the
side of the road. His heart is in his throat as he races towards
it. He hasn’t been noticed just yet. The savages are too busy
inspecting the contents of the trailer.

She’s
alive
! He can hear her
crying onboard the overturned bus. “Carla, are you all right?”

“She’s dead.” The words are choked with
grief, but it is Carla’s voice. Whoever she had gone in for is
lost.

“We gotta go, baby,” he tells her, walking
along the windows that have become the floor now that the bus is on
its side. His girlfriend cries over a still child, not much older
than his oldest. No matter how sad the loss is, it won’t be long
before the raiders arrive. He tenderly hauls Carla to her feet,
using just enough force to let her know they have to move.

“We can’t leave her like this,” Carla cries.
The girl hasn’t received the shot and will soon reanimate into a
monster.

Though he feels the people that have attacked
them deserve to be surprised by the walking corpse of the child
they’ve killed, he doesn’t feel right using her like that. He tells
Carla he’ll take care of it, but urges her to head to the front of
the bus. Oz doesn’t want her to see what he has to do. Since they
can’t risk the raiders hearing a shot, Oz draws his knife from its
sheath.

At the door, Carla keeps her back to Oz as he
allows the slaughtered girl the dignity of staying dead. She tries
to block out the sound of steel plunging through thick bone, and
the grunt of exertion that comes with the act, plugging her ears
and breathing heavier to cover the sound.

Together they climb out and slip away without
detection. The convoy is long gone, and they were told that anyone
who fell behind would be left behind. It’s up to them to find their
way back home.

The bulls part ways so the transports can
pass once they hit the parking lot of Story Book Land. They have
many wounded. Bullets punctured the flimsy steel sides of the
buses. The gates are opened to allow them inside, and then closed
behind them.

Most of the vehicles go exactly where they
are directed by the military, except the Gunship and a semi pulling
a flatbed trailer containing the chopper. Abby is off the bus
before it stops completely.

“How long till we’re ready?” he asks Lady
Luck.

“Ten minutes.”

“I want to be up in five,” he tells her,
ignoring the soldiers that accompany an older gentleman in a khaki
uniform who tries to welcome him to Story Book Land.

Vida volunteers to join Abby. Player 1 steps
up as well, wanting to go back for the two who caught him when he
jumped from his semi.

Lady Luck climbs onto the back of the trailer
to prep her bird for the air, but her task is impeded.

“Belay that order, Miss,” one solider
says.

“What?” Abby approaches him. “There’s people
back there. Your people. We’re going back for Carla and Oz.”

“These gates will not be opening again for
quite some time.”

“So what? We’re going over the gates.”

“We lost our chopper out there, and this one
is already earmarked for another mission.” The major doesn’t
explain any further, but Abby ascertains from this information that
the army lost contact with the team they sent out to shut down the
reactors.

“This is our bird,” Abby tells him.

“It belongs to the United States Army now,
son.” More uniformed soldiers have come to back up the major.
“Stand down.”

Lady Luck hops off of the flatbed. Too many
guns are pointed at her for her liking. She joins Abby and the
others. Assault rifles aimed in their direction warn against
lashing out.

“How can you leave your people out there?”
Abby asks the major. “They’re less than an hour away!”

“They knew the risks,” the major says, then
turns away.

Medical personnel take folks off the buses.
The major scans the amassing throng that has come to witness the
excitement, who had hoped to welcome their friends home. He knows
there is one he will need to talk to personally about this,
apologize to. But oddly the man isn’t with the crowd anymore. His
bewilderment at this turns to alarm. “Someone find Dan
Williamson!”

###

Locket
.
Lighter
. Though Dan
hasn’t always had the best of luck out there, he’d hate to leave
without his lucky items.
I
haven’t
died
yet
.

“You’re going out there, aren’t you?” Heather
asks from behind him. She stands before her husband, just about to
begin the second trimester of pregnancy with their third child.

“It’s Oz and Carla…” He tries to convince her
and himself that it’s a good idea. Someone has to go, and if anyone
can pull it off it’s him.

“I know.” She walks closer with their two
sons then tenderly caresses his cheek. “Our family needs you… Go
bring them back.”

He’s shocked at first, too shocked to speak.
Her dazzling green eyes are glossed with tears, making them look
like polished jade. She tells him that the soldiers are looking for
him and that he’ll need to find a way out.

A quick kiss and he’s off. His first mission
is to escape the safety of the park.

Carla and Oz slipped away from the bandits
that picked over the remains of their kill. Carla moves as fast as
her battered body will allow. She doesn’t have any broken bones
from the roll over, but feels as if she should.

They have to hurry. Though out of sight of
the raiders, the shouts of delight from these thieves turn to
screams of terror, indicating the new breed of zombies have
arrived. The following silence now scares Carla and Oz. The super
zombies are feasting, and as soon as they’re done they’ll be
heading their way, following the smell of blood.

Oz and Carla know they won’t be able to beat
these things in a marathon all the way to Story Book Land. They
need shelter but there is nothing around that will offer much in
the way of protection. All they can do is keep moving.

Rapid plodding behind them forces them to
take an off-ramp to try and get out of the corpses’s view. The dead
are a ways back, but will be even faster once they hit the ramp and
have gravity pulling them. Oz points for Carla to take a right at a
blue sign that promises gas and food. His hope is this building
will prove to be secure enough to protect them.

He turns to release a few short bursts from
his machine gun at the corpses. He doubts he’ll put any of the
jogging dead down, but he just wants to knock the leaders to the
ground and buy them some distance.

As promised, there is a service station. An
awning covers the pump area. “High ground!” Oz yells. “Climb!”

Carla veers away from her boyfriend to a soda
machine. She vaults up with her bruised arms and sticks her foot in
the beverage dispenser, pulling herself on top of the unit.
Reaching the next plateau will be the real challenge. The distance
is a few inches farther to the top of the roof. Carla stops on the
machine to see where Oz has gone to.

At one of the pumps is a car Oz wants to
check. Better than shelter would be a means to travel home. Behind
the wheel is a woman. She’s been dead awhile by the looks of her
leathery skin and the condensation on the windows. Hot days have
been baking her, boiling her fluids out through her skin. She’s
still active, but barely. Oz rips open the door and throws her as
far as he can propel her emaciated form. The engine won’t turn
over.

The dead are close now, racing each other
down the ramp at a manic pace. Oz has to climb one of the poles of
the awning as Carla struggles to get herself onto the station’s
roof.

Oz has his SAW slung so he can cling with
both hands to the peeling surface of the neglected business. He is
able to walk up the pole using the traction his boots provide while
his hands work as a sling he leans against. It gets harder the
higher he ascends, as gravity tries to claim him.

The dead crash into the pumps, unable to stop
soon enough. They wail and reach for him, trying to climb the gas
pumps to get at the meat that taunts them.

His ankle is seized and he is almost pulled
from the pole. Carla holds her breath as she watches, unable to get
a clear shot at the dead with her pistol. Her beloved AK-47 was
left on the double decker bus.

“Hey!” she shouts to get the attention of the
deceased that crowd around her boyfriend. “Over here!”

More than a few glances shoot her way, but
the dead know the one on the column is the easier meal. Carla will
have to make herself more appealing to them. She lowers herself
back down onto the soda machine for another try. “I said, over
here!”

Sweaty palms threaten to betray Oz, and he
feels weaker with every passing second. A glance back breaks his
heart as he sees what his lover is doing for him, risking herself
to get the dead away. He wants to yell to her to get on the roof,
but he hasn’t the breath to spare at the moment. Oz locks his
forearm around the pole, letting the paint chips bite into his duct
tape armor. He works his legs on either side of the column,
squeezing it as he climbs.

Her plan may have worked a little too well,
for half of the horde gathers around the machine as Carla scrambles
to return to her perch. The dead are taller than she is and have no
need to hop up and grab the top of the machine. One steps into the
drink dispenser, teaching the others.

It was hard enough to climb the first time,
but the second trip is far more difficult for Carla.
Self-preservation gives her the boost she needs to get out of
reach. The efforts of the dead cause the machine to lean forward
and fall away from the wall, but it doesn’t stop them from getting
on the back of it, reaching for the woman that frantically
scrambles up the stucco.

Her fingers are sliding, losing their grip.
She is about to fall when her wrist is seized by a powerful,
familiar hand. Oz hefts her up with a grunt. Her modest weight
usually doesn’t provoke such a sign of exertion, but he’s
exhausted.

The new breed below surrounds them in a
writhing sea, with more waves coming down the ramp to join the
swell.

Rumors spread through the magical kingdom
like wildfire about Dan Williamson being on the run. He assumed the
first place the soldiers would likely go was his suite, so he had
to slip out of the hotel through the service stairs.

The streets and walking paths throughout the
park are filled with patrolling jeeps and soldiers in fatigues.
Others who wish to help Dan escape are also on the lookout for
him.

A young blonde haired girl wails in the
middle of the promenade, tears flowing down her cheeks. She screams
for her mother, though she looks old enough to fend for herself.
It’s enough to melt the hearts of the soldiers she has derailed
from their appointed mission. Just like she planned.

“It’s all right.” One of the soldiers tries
to soothe the distraught girl. “What’s your name?”

“Barbara.” She wipes away a crocodile tear.
Her mother has been gone for nearly a year now, but dredging up her
memory is enough to evoke the waterworks. “I can’t find my mommy.”
She fakes another blubbering fit so Dan can slip past over the
rooftops.

Thank
you
,
Barbie
doll
. Dan heads away from the front gates on his quest to go
over the wall. The stone enclosure is far too high to attempt
scaling, so he’ll be leaving by way of the private beach. The
problem is the high wall actually extends past the shore, and it’s
lined with rock formations that are far too steep and slick to
tread on. Dan will have to swim it or find a boat.

The one-time king of New Castle stays low
under the hedges, feeling foolish doing so in broad daylight. He’s
become stuck within the boardwalk, in sight of the beach he just
can’t get to. A couple of men looking for him have parked their
jeeps along this strip that was made to give visitors the feel of a
seaport beach community.

Dan creeps as close as he dares. They’re just
a few storefronts down from him. He barely risks breathing, as if
they’ll hear him.

His name spoken aloud almost sends him
running. “Mister Williamson, what are you doing?” The snarky
bird-like voice belongs to an old crone from New Castle.