“Crap,” Lucy said and flicked the ignition on her bike. The engine whined and spat then died.
Mike collided with the first zombie, driving him backward into the second. The three of them hit the ground in a tangle of limbs. Mike rolled sideways, slashing the knife upward as he moved. It flashed through the air, slicing through one of the business-zombie’s arms. He ignored the wound and caught hold of Mike’s leg.
Lucy’s engine stuttered again, quieter this time, and she let out a groan of frustration.
Mike kicked, slamming the heel of his boot into the zombie’s face. His head snapped back, but he kept hold of Mike’s ankle. The second zombie had recovered enough to stagger back to his feet, and he took a handful of steps toward Mike.
I didn’t react immediately. Part of me, the part the shadow had the most influence over, wanted to wait and watch.
I heard a faint voice. It took me a few seconds to realize it was Lucy shouting at me. “Marcus! Help him!”
Her words broke the shadow’s grip. I slid forward on the quad bike and turned the ignition. The engine roared to life. Without thinking, I pressed the accelerator with my thumb. The engine growled, and the bike leaped forward, threatening to leave me behind. It veered dangerously toward the side of the road, kicking dirt and dust into the air.
I yanked on the handlebars. The bike skewed sideways and almost pitched me onto the asphalt before I realized I should ease up on the accelerator. The bike slowed quickly, even without me applying the brake. It was enough for me to get it straightened up and pointing roughly down the road. This time, I pressed the accelerator lever more slowly, and the quad bike steadily increased its speed.
Mike was still wrestling with the zombie businessmen. He kicked one again. His boot jarred the zombie’s head sideways, snapping his neck. It hung at an unnatural angle, but the zombie still had his hand firmly clasped around Mike.
The second zombie was a couple of feet away. Mike changed his approach. He slammed the heel of his boot down onto the wrist of the creature holding him then twisted his foot sideways. The zombie loosened his grip.
Mike scrambled away from the first zombie as the second pitched forward, his hands grasping for Mike’s throat. He missed but caught the back of his jacket. Mike twisted, yanking himself free of the zombie’s grip.
Lucy’s bike finally burst into life and accelerated down the road. Mine skipped over a bump and slid sideways. Instinctively, I eased off the accelerator until it straightened up.
Mike was on his feet, and the zombies were advancing toward him. Behind him, the third zombie was closing in. My quad bike bounced off the road and onto the concrete apron around the gas station.
I shouted at Mike, but the zombies were keeping him busy. Lucy had left Alex at the top of the hill and was racing toward the store, but she was still at least twenty seconds away.
I considered my options. I could still let Mike die and claim I was just too late. Lucy would blame me anyway. She’d see through me no matter what I said, and she’d be angry. Probably angry enough to try to kill me. And if Mike somehow managed to fight off the zombies, I’d be making my situation worse by holding back. I needed to stick to the plan and help them so that they could leave. I accelerated toward the third zombie, scattering gravel as I went.
Both of the businessmen were back on their feet and advancing toward Mike. He swung his knife, slashing at the nearest one. The blade caught the zombie’s neck. It opened up a deep gash but did little to slow him down. With his head lolling to one side on his broken neck, the other zombie lunged. Mike sidestepped the attack then charged.
The third zombie loomed up in front of me. I ducked, jerking left just as I reached him. The front right corner of the quad bike hit him. The impact tore his leg apart. He was spun around, scattering flecks of blood and bone across the ground as he fell.
I pulled on the brakes, and the bike slid to a halt in a cloud of gray dust and gravel. The engine coughed and died. I half climbed, half fell off the bike. As I scrambled back to my feet, I grabbed the knife from my belt. I took four long paces and slammed the blade into the zombie’s skull before he could recover from the collision.
Mike had killed the businessman with the broken neck. He lay on the ground, Mike’s knife sticking out of his skull. A pool of thick black blood lay congealing around his head. But the other zombie was still upright. He had fresh slashes across his face and neck and a puncture wound in his shoulder, but he was still advancing toward Mike.
I called to Mike and, as he turned, lobbed my knife toward him. It fell short, bouncing across the gravel and stopping a couple of feet away from him. He waited until the zombie lunged then, in one fluid movement, ducked and scooped up the knife.
He turned on the zombie, leaping toward him and driving the knife into the back of his skull. The zombie pitched forward, landing face-first on the gravel.
Mike staggered backward. He was breathing heavily, and his face was spattered with black blood, but otherwise, he seemed unharmed.
Lucy leaped off her quad bike as it slid to a stop and ran to Mike. She grabbed his shoulders, her eyes sweeping over him, searching for bites.
“I’m fine,” Mike said. He’d tried to force some lightness into his voice, but the words came out uneven, afraid.
Lucy turned Mike around and inspected the rest of him then wrapped her arms around him in a bone-crushing hug. She buried her face into his neck and made a strangled sobbing sound.
Alex was almost down the hill. I waved at him to show we were okay then realized I wasn’t sure we were. I moved away from the store, circling around until I could see the far side of the building, where the third zombie had come from.
The car I’d seen on my first visit was still there, and I could see shapes moving around inside, but the doors were closed. There was no sign of any other zombies.
When I rejoined Lucy and Mike, they’d untangled themselves from each other and were moving among the corpses, driving their knives into their skulls to make sure they were dead.
“Any more?” Lucy said.
“No. It looks clear.”
Alex trotted the last few feet across the forecourt. He was supporting his injured hand. “Everyone okay?”
“We’re all fine,” Lucy said, but her eyes were full of anger. She’d seen me hesitate when Mike was attacked.
Mike put a hand on my shoulder. “Thanks.”
“Just doing my part.”
He nodded, but his eyes lingered on me for a moment as though he was trying to get a handle on my behavior. Then he brushed some dust off his jeans. “Okay, let’s be as quick as we can. Alex, see if you can find some more gas for the bikes. The three of us will go inside the store.”
Lucy gave us each a pack. “Be careful. We don’t know how many more of those things there are.”
“Marcus,” Mike said. “Where are the supplies?”
“In the left-hand side of the building. The right is just a restaurant. All the food in the kitchen is rotten.”
“Any other rooms?”
“Yes, there’s a living room, bathroom, and bedroom at the back.”
“Anyone in there?” Lucy said.
“An old couple. Suicides. I didn’t see anything worth taking.”
“Okay, we’ll hit the left side and leave the rest. There’s no point spending more time here than we have to. Alex, meet us back here in ten minutes. Any problems, you run. Okay?”
Alex nodded and set off toward the remains of the gas station.
Mike led Lucy and me to the building, motioning for us to wait outside while he checked the entrance. As soon as he was through the door, Lucy followed him inside. I hovered outside for a few seconds, unsure of what to do, then went after them.
Inside, Mike was glaring at Lucy. When he saw me, he raised his eyebrows. I shrugged. Shaking his head, he pointed toward the left-hand side of the building. “Slowly.”
We moved into the store, spreading out along the window so that, between us,
we were covering the whole room. Everything seemed as I’d left it. Mike checked behind the counter. “All clear. Okay, stick to packets wherever possible then move on to cans. Try to get food with lots of protein. It’ll keep us feeling satisfied for longer. If it tastes okay cold, even better.”
We opened our backpacks and began moving through the store. My aisle had a lot of laundry detergent, magazines and tourist knickknacks, but there were half a dozen boxes of soup, some dried pasta, and a small stack of canned potatoes. I threw them into my backpack, forgetting to check the protein levels first. Even with the cans, my pack was only about a third full, so I moved on to the next aisle, the one Lucy was looting.
This one was more lucrative, and Lucy was only halfway down it. I grabbed anything that looked reasonably nutritious and put it into my pack. Lucy was being more methodical, checking ingredients as she went.
I met her at the halfway point. My pack was almost full, so I added a couple of cans of chili and went to put my haul by the bike.
I’d barely stepped outside when I heard Alex shouting. I couldn’t understand what he was saying, and it took me a couple of seconds to spot him. He was running across the apron of the gas station, arms waving. He pointed down the road, farther past the store. I turned and immediately wished he’d stop screaming.
A swarm of zombies was making their way up the hill toward us.
Chapter 31
The Swarm
The zombies had seen us. They’d veered in the direction of the store—dozens of them lumbering up the slope. Three of them were out front. They were moving quickly, almost running up the hill and leaving the bulk of the swarm behind.
I leaned back inside the store and called out. “Mike, Lucy, you’d better get out here! Quick!”
A few seconds later, Lucy appeared at my shoulder. “Crap. Mike, there’s dozens of them.”
Mike took in the swarm then waved at Alex, directing him toward the quad bikes.
“Come on,” he said, “we need to get out of here.”
Mike reached the bikes first. He dropped his backpack onto the rack and leaped onto the seat. I added my pack to his and wrapped the rope around them. He twisted the ignition key, and the engine kicked into life. Shouting at me to get on, he revved the engine twice.
There were at least fifty zombies in the swarm, and it was still growing as even more shambled into view. The air was filled with a persistent drone—the voices of the dead. The cluster of fast-moving zombies had grown to six now. They were less than forty feet away from Lucy’s bike, and she was still strapping her backpack into place.
Alex grabbed her arm and pointed at the swarm. “Lucy, we have to go.”
Lucy looked up, saw how close the zombies were, and swore. She wound the rope around the metal rack one more time then climbed onto the bike and twisted the ignition.
Nothing happened.
She tried again, turning the key so hard I thought it might snap. The engine gave a halfhearted whine then fell silent.
Alex climbed on the back of the bike, running his hands through his hair. “Come on, Lucy, they’re getting close.”
“I know!”
She tried the key again.
When the engine didn’t respond, she looked up at Mike. “You go. Come back for us when they’ve gone.”
Mike looked past me to the oncoming crowd of zombies. He shook his head. “No, we all go, or we all stay.” He killed the engine and climbed off the bike. “Come on! Get inside.”
He ushered us into the building as the first zombies reached the bikes. I could smell them—a wave of rancid air that swept before them and caught in my throat.
Mike swung the door shut. “Find something to block it.”
Alex and I dragged a couple of chairs from the restaurant and wedged them under the door handle. The zombies lurched toward the building, ignoring the bikes and our supplies.
“I hope you’ve got a plan,” I said, “because this door won’t hold them for long.”
“Alex, secure the restaurant. There’s probably other entrances; make sure they’re closed. Lucy, check the store. Marcus, stay here in case they start breaking through. I’ll take the back room.”
Before I could object, they’d gone.
A solid thump came from the door. Even though I’d known the zombies were there, it still made me jump. One had thrown herself against the door. Her face was pressed against the glass, mouth twisted into a distorted grin.
Another zombie arrived, crushing the first as it fought to get at me. They jostled and bumped each other as they clawed at the door. A cut opened up in the face of the second zombie, and it left thick black smears across the glass as he fought to get at me.
“Marcus!” Mike said from behind me. He was backing out of the living room, his knife held out in front of him.
“Why didn’t you kill those two while you were here? They could break free.”
“It just… didn’t seem right, somehow.”
He shook his head, clearly not seeing my side of things. “Are there any more?”
“No, not that I know of.”
He slammed the door closed behind him and rejoined me.
There were at least a dozen zombies outside now, and the bulk of the swarm would arrive within a couple of minutes. Most of them were clustered around the door, but three had spotted Lucy and were tracking her through the store window. One of the zombies at the door stumbled and fell. Two more took his place, crushing him beneath their feet.
Lucy appeared. “There’s a fire exit, but it’s locked tight. The window will give way before they get through it.”
A few seconds later, Alex joined us in the cramped hallway. “There’s a way out through the back of the restaurant. The door’s a bit warped, but I think it’ll hold if they try to get in that way.”
A fist slammed against the door, rattling it in its frame.
Alex took a step back, eyeing the zombies warily. “What about the other rooms?”
“The store is secure,” Mike said. “There’s a couple of zombies in the living room that Marcus forgot to mention.”
“What!” Lucy said.
I raised my hands. “They’re not a threat, they’re… tied up.”
“It’s okay, Luce,” Mike said. “I’ll take care of them.”
Lucy handed him the pistol, and he went back into the living room. A few seconds later there were two hollow pops. They were quickly followed by dull thumps, presumably as Mike cut down the bodies.
“Any ideas how we’re going to get out of here?” Alex said.
The swarm had well and truly arrived. Some of the tail-enders were passing by, not aware of the potential meal cornered by their compatriots, but the space in front of the store was packed three deep with living dead. And nearly all of them were trying to get at us.
One of the zombies smashed its head against the glass door, creating a blood-covered spiderweb of cracks. It started biting at the glass, trying to chew its way inside.
Mike reappeared. “The back rooms are clear.” He looked out at the mass of zombies. His jaw clenched.
The swarm ignored the bikes, but that was the only thing going our way. I could see thirty or forty of them, and there could easily be more out of view. Some in the crowd were milling aimlessly around, but most were clamoring to get at us. The front row of zombies was already crushed hard against the glass door, and another group had formed by the store window. It wouldn’t be long before one or the other broke through.
“We should go into the living room,” I said. “Where they can’t see us.”
“They already know we’re here,” Lucy said.
“Yes, but at least we won’t look like meat hanging in a butcher’s window.”
“He’s right,” Mike said. “Come on.”
The old couple was lying on the floor in the middle of the living room. There was a neat bullet hole in each of their foreheads and a much less neat knife wound in the bases of their skulls. The electrical cords they�
��d used to hang themselves were still wrapped around their necks.
I left the living room door ajar and stood next to it, watching the zombies at the entrance.
Alex let out a breath and circled around the bodies to the window at the back of the room. “Looks like it’s clear, for now.”
“We need to get out of here while we still can,” Lucy said.
“What if we go out the back?” I said.
“And then what?”
“We could get to the forest, head back up the road, and cross over when we’re out of sight of the swarm.”
“He’s right,” Alex said.
“What about the supplies?” Lucy said.
I shrugged. “We come back for them once they’ve gone.”
Mike shook his head. “We have no idea when that will be, or how many of them we’ll meet in the forest. For all we know, there could be more of them in the trees than out there.”
I thought of my encounter with the giant swarm. He had a point, but either we ran, or we stayed in the store and waited for the zombies to break in and tear us apart. Neither option felt like a smart choice. Short of discovering a hidden cache of heavy weaponry behind the couch, we were out of options. We stood in silence, the decision hanging in the air between us.
There was a thump from outside and the sound of breaking glass. I checked the front door. Part of the upper panel had broken, and a pair of zombies were trying to drag themselves through. The shards of glass still sticking out of the door dug into their flesh, shredding it as they attempted to clamber into the building. A narrow stream of black blood trickled down the door.
“We’re running out of time,” I said. “We can’t stay in here, and you’re right about the forest. Which means our best option is the bikes.”
“Which are surrounded by monsters that want to chew off our faces,” Alex said.
I conceded the point then said, “So we draw them off. A couple of us go out the back and attract their attention to pull them away from the store. When it’s clear, the other two grab the bikes. They can pick up the decoys on the way up the road.”
Serial Killer Z [Book 1] Page 15
