by Damon Hunter
“Last chance, put your shit down and walk away, or don’t, and die.”
Katelin stepped out from behind everyone with her guns raised. With the taller men in front of her she was able to draw her weapons without being seen. Both of the men were aiming at the others, so if they started firing she would get to fire back with a couple of automatics before they could turn on her.
Katelin kept her guns raised as she moved to the side, making any attempt to swing a gun her way without catching a bullet nearly impossible.
“How about you put your shit down and walk away?”
“Look, kid,” the man with the rifle said, “shooting a man isn’t as easy as they make it look in the movies.”
“How many people did you kill yesterday? Or the day before?” Katelin asked. “I bet I’ve killed more.”
“She’s serious,” Gavin said. “She killed my dad and he wasn’t even infected.”
“Do I need to count or something? Should I give you, like, three seconds and then I open fire?” Katelin asked.
“You won’t get us before we shoot some of them,” Gil said. “You and the lady covered with blood look related. You good with your aunt getting shot?”
“It’s my mom, and you’ll be too dead to know if I gave a fuck or not.”
“Language,” Donna said as she put away her axe and drew her own pistol. She then asked Katelin, “Was the store owner you killed really Gavin’s dad?”
“I don’t think he would lie about it, so yeah. Can I kill these assholes now?”
“Damn kid, you’re hardcore,” Gil said. “What are you, like, twelve?”
“Fourteen.”
“If I was twenty years younger, I think I would be in love right now,” Givens said as he smiled, showing a few gold teeth.
“You don’t do as I say, you won’t be getting any older.”
Givens put down his rifle and Gil put the pistol on the ground.
“Did you really shoot us down?” Donna asked again as she and Jennifer scooped up the weapons Gil and Givens had just dropped.
“If I say yes, is your kid going to shoot me?” Givens asked.
“That sure didn’t sound like a no,” Cletus said.
“Why?” Donna asked them.
“We thought you were TMRT. A friend told us you have a transponder thing which would allow us to go through the dead zone over there.”
“So you were going to rob us?” Bo asked.
“Sounds bad when you put it that way,” Givens said.
“You got a man killed. He saved our lives,” Donna said as she raised her pistol so it was pointed at Givens’ head.
“I guess the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree,” Givens said.
“Donna,” Bo said. “Team Human.”
“I’m not sure these assholes qualify.”
The sound of a vehicle driving through the sand got everyone’s attention. They turned to see Dennis driving Givens’ old Jeep Wagoneer towards them.
“Friends of yours?” Donna asked.
“They were. Though if they fuck up my Wagoneer I may re-think our friendship,” Givens said.
“Get on the ground, face down,” Donna told them. While the two men lowered themselves to ground, she said to Cletus, “They move, kill them. Not head shots though, make sure they die slower than that.”
“Remember when I said if I was twenty years younger I’d love your daughter?”
“How could I forget?”
“I think we are about the same age, just saying.”
“Shut up.”
While Cletus kept his rifle trained on Gil and Givens, Donna, Katelin, and even Bo, using Gil’s pistols, trained weapons on the approaching Jeep.
“If they don’t stop soon, we are going to open up,” Donna said.
“My girl is in that Jeep,” Givens told her.
“Then you’d better hope they stop,” Donna replied.
The driver saw the guns pointed his way and did stop. He got out with his hands up. A young woman nearly completely covered in tattoos got out of the passenger side and did the same.
“Seriously, Dennis?” Gil said from the ground. “You just going to surrender that easy?”
“Mrs. Vance?” Cletus asked. “Does moving his mouth count?”
“Yes, but he didn’t know it, so we’ll give him a pass.”
“Look,” the driver said, “I don’t know what exactly happened here…”
“Your asshole friends shot down our helicopter,” Donna interrupted.
“Shit, Gil, why did you do that?”
Gil didn’t answer.“We’ve got more pressing problems than that right now, all of us,” the girl said.
Given decided to risk talking. “I’m lying face first in the dirt with a gun to my head. What could I possibly find more pressing?”
“There are infected coming this way.”
“So?” Givens said.
“There are a lot of them.”
“Define a lot,” Donna said.
“I don’t know, like all of them.”
“All of them?” Bo asked.
“Well, all of them that were in Palm Springs, anyway.”
“From which way?” Bo asked.
“From Palm Springs. So, west.” Ella told them.
Bo lowered the gun and picked up Givens’ binoculars. Standing on the hill, they had a decent view. He did not have to look long.
“I think he’s right,” Bo said.
“We have the transponder,” Donna told them. “We can take their Jeep.”
“What about them?”
“I’ll wish them good luck,” Donna said.
“Come on,” Bo said. “They won’t make it.”
“He’s right,” Jennifer added.
“Does seem like cold-blooded murder,” Cletus said.
“Can we get nine people in the Jeep?” Donna asked.
“There’s a trailer,” Ella said. “It’s back by the abandoned road. The Jeep has a hitch. We can ride in it.”
Givens gave her a funny look from the ground.
“It will work,” she told him. “While you and Gil were out here shooting down helicopters, Dennis and I checked it out. The tires and the hitch are still good.”
“If we hurry, we can make it before the horde gets there,” Ella said.
Bo looked through the binoculars again. “I think I see it.”
“How close is the horde?”
“We have time. If we hurry.”
“We could just leave,” Donna said.
“Team Human,” Bo replied.
“The keys still in it?” Donna said as she motioned to the Jeep.
“Yeah,” Ella told her.
“Get on the ground like your friends,” Donna said. “We’ll go get the trailer and come back for you.”
“How do we know you’ll come back?”
“You don’t. Waste another second of our time, though, and we just shoot you and take the Jeep.”
Ella looked at Givens, who said, “I don’t think she’s kidding.”
Ella and Dennis got on the ground. Donna and Katelin held guns on the four thieves while the others piled into the Jeep. Bo took the wheel, Cletus got in the back seat and Gavin climbed into the trunk so all the others could have a place to sit. With them inside and the Jeep running, Donna and Katelin joined them.
Bo swung the Jeep around and headed for the trailer.
Chapter 10
Palomar Medical Center Rooftop - Escondido, CA
“Actually, instead of giving me the fuel, why don’t you carry it to the chopper for me?” Carter said.
When neither Ben nor Vance moved, Carter told them, “You might want to hurry. I think you weren’t shitting me about the gunshot thing, they’re going to be coming. Leave your guns and that fancy stick behind.”
“We may need these…”
“They won’t do you any good dead.”
He stepped aside so Vance and Ben could walk ahead of him. They put down their weapons, went ahead and started
walking in front of him toward the exit to the roof.
“You know there is still no reason for us not to work together,” Vance said.
“Other than the chopper only is supposed to hold eight and I’ve got nine people waiting for me to pick them up across town.”
“Where are you going to go when you get them?”
“East,” Carter said.
“If they declared quarantine, and I’m sure they have, they will blow you out of the sky,” Vance told him.
“Bullshit, they know the infected can’t fly a chopper.”
“Sure, but they can ride in one,” Ben said.
“I guess that will have to be my problem,” Carter said. “Just shut up and walk. There’s nothing you can say to me to get me to make me abandon my family. All you’re doing is pissing me off.”
Vance turned his head, hoping a little eye contact might convince Carter they were willing to work something out. Instead of telling him about the transponder and how they could make a deal, Vance said, “Look out.”
Carter almost did not turn, thinking the dude in uniform was bluffing. He was glad he decided to believe him.
Vampire rotters moved using all fours, except this one, which only had three limbs to work with. Carter spun just as his former co-worker leaped. It hit him as he fired. Instead of cutting the rotter in half with magnum buckshot, Carter blew a big hole in the wall. He found himself on his back getting a close-up look at the inside of the vampire rotter’s mouth.
Vance grabbed the rotter by the hair and kept it from tearing into Carter’s flesh. Ben drew a switchblade from his pants pocket and freed the blade.
While Vance was holding the rotter’s head, Ben put his blade into its eye. While it was still thrashing about, Ben freed the knife and drove it through the top of its skull.
Vance stepped on Carter’s arm so he couldn’t raise his shotgun before he tossed the dead vampire rotter aside. Ben held the knife to Carter’s neck while Vance took the shotgun.
“I ought to kill you,” Ben said as Vance went back and retrieved the weapons Carter had made them leave behind. “You were going to leave us here.”
Carter had no answer.
“Maybe you shouldn’t,” he heard Ana say as Vance returned.
They both turned to see her standing in the hallway.
“Why?” Ben asked.
“First of all, Team Human. Second, if that is a pilot’s uniform, we may need him. I can’t get the others on the two-way, I’m afraid something happened to them.”
“Until a minute ago, we couldn’t answer either,” Ben said.
“Up until a minute ago, I was worried about you, too.”
“We can look for them,” Vance said. “There can’t be too many more infected on this floor. With all the gunshots they would already be on us.”
“You guys have a good time,” Carter said. “I’m going to get my family.”
Ana pointed her gun at him.
“What are you going to do? You can’t kill me if I’m the only pilot.”
Ana changed her aim. “I think you can fly without your right foot. In fact, I bet there a lot of places I could shoot you where you could still fly a chopper.”
Ben pointed at the gas cans and said to Vance, “Have Carter carry them to the chopper and fuel up. Ana and I can move faster, we’ll give the floor a sweep.”
Vance wanted to argue but it made sense. “Hurry, the floor may be clear, but chances are there are more on the way.”
Carter picked up the fuel cans and started walking while Vance limped behind with his pistol pointed at Carter’s back.
While they headed to the roof, Ana and Ben began jogging down the hall, calling out for Fan or Novak every few feet.
They turned a corner and Ben saw the door marked stairs. As they got closer, they could hear the infected pounding against the door.Looking at the way the door was beginning to bow in the middle, Ben said, “I don’t think it’s going to last.”
“Then we need to hurry,” Ana told him.
They were in front of the door when the weight of the infected pounding on it popped the hinges. The door fell to the floor and the infected leaning against it piled into the hallway, leaving a stack of amblers on the ground between Ana and Ben.
Chapter 11
The Mojave Desert
Bo pulled the Jeep around so the hitch was facing the trailer. He was glad to see while checking out the trailer that the thieves had emptied its contents, looking for anything they could salvage. They had spreading out the stuff by their makeshift camp on the remains of the abandoned road.
Bo looked back at Katelin and Cletus and said, “Cover me.”
The three of them got out of the Jeep.
“You want to help hitch the trailer or drive?” Donna asked Jennifer.
“Trailer,” Jennifer said as she exited the Jeep.
Donna slid over so she was behind the wheel.
“What do you want me to do?” Gavin asked.
“Watch out the window, if you see something getting close, yell,” Donna told him.
Katelin got on the roof of the Jeep with the Gil’s rifle and Cletus joined her with his AR-15. They looked out and saw the horde was less than fifty yards away and closing in fast. They both raised their rifles and looked for targets.
“Save your ammunition until they are close,” Bo said as he and Jennifer pulled the trailer up to the hitch and put it down on the ball.
“Attach the safety chain,” Bo said as he tried to get the latch down to lock the trailer onto the Jeep’s hitch. He was having trouble getting it to move.
“It looks like it’s missing a piece,” Jennifer said as she picked up the chain. “I don’t think it’s going to work.”
Bo looked down at it and saw she was right. The hooks which let the chain be attached to the Jeep were no longer there.
“We’ll just have to do without,” Bo said as he struggled to push down the latch.
“It looks bent,” Jennifer said. “I don’t think it’s going to work either.”
“It’s going to have to. We won’t get thirty feet driving off road without this thing popping off,” Bo said.
“They’re getting close, guys,” Katelin told them.
“Give me the rifle,” Bo told her as he reached up.
Katelin handed him the rifle and drew her pistols.
Bo was going to bring the heavy stock down on the bent hitch when Gavin screamed, “Look out!”
Bo looked at Gavin first and saw him pointing. Bo turned to where the kid was pointing and saw the vampire rotter coming straight at him. He raised the rifle but Katelin cut it down with her pistols as it prepared to leap.
“That’s what I’m here for,” she told him. “Fix the fucking hitch already.”
Bo started pounding on it with the rifle stock. After five hard blows, all he seemed to be doing was ruining the butt of the rifle.
Katelin fired her guns and Bo looked. Stragglers from the horde were already nearly on top of them. Cletus opened up with his rifle, but even though his shots were true as he emptied the magazine, the horde did not seem to shrink at all.
“Get in the Jeep,” Bo said to Jennifer as he pounded on the hitch a few more times.
When Katelin paused to switch guns and Cletus was reloading, Bo said the the same thing to them.
“Who’s going to cover you?” Katelin asked.
“There’s too many, just get in. I’ll be right behind you.”
Katelin and Cletus climbed down and got inside the Jeep. Bo was not right behind her. He was still pounding on the hitch.
Donna lowered the back window and yelled back, “Get in, we need to go.”
“I got it to move, only a couple more strikes and I’ve got it.”
“We need to go,” Donna said as infected reached the back of the trailer.
“Almost have it,” Bo said.
“Behind you,” Gavin yelled.
Bo turned and swung the butt of the rifle, bashing i
n the head of the ambler which had gotten within arm’s reach.
Katelin climbed over the seat and joined Gavin. She went to the window with her machine guns drawn. She put three-round bursts into a group of amblers coming fast from the other side of the Jeep.
“We need to go now, Bo,” Donna yelled back. “Get in or I’m going to have to leave without you.”
“One more,” Bo yelled as he brought the butt of the rifle down with all the force he could muster. The latch locked into place.
“Go,” Bo said as he climbed up on the bumper and dove through the window.
Donna hit the gas as Bo tumbled into the crowded trunk. He and Katelin climbed over the seat, leaving the trunk all to Gavin once again.
They all looked back to see a vampire rotter climbing through the still open window. Donna slammed on the brakes and bounced it loose. It disappeared behind the tailgate as Donna hit the gas again.
Gavin leaned out the window and looked down. “He’s still there,” Gavin said as he saw the rotter hanging onto the trailer hitch as it was dragged across the rugged terrain.
Donna hit the button to raise the back window but Katelin told her to wait as she climbed back over the seat. Donna lowered the window again.
The vampire rotter came back up just in time to take a face full of nine-millimeter slugs from Katelin’s Mac-10 and fell back down. This time it wouldn’t be climbing back up again.
Donna raised the window and kept driving, putting some distance between them and the horde. She kept her eyes straight ahead as she said to Bo, “I hope the risk to help the assholes who shot down our helicopter and got Reg blown to shit is worth it.”
“Is it just me or have you become a lot more cold than you were when we first met?”
“I’ve seen a lot of people I was starting to like die lately, I am sick of it.”
“Me too, which is why I don’t want to add any more bodies to the ledger if I don’t have to.”
“The way things are going, I’m not sure it matters,” Donna said.
Bo wanted to argue, but was pretty sure Donna was right.
They found the four had not obeyed the order to stay lying on the ground. Instead they were standing, but did not look like they were going to try anything. Jennifer lowered her window and said, “Get in the trailer.”
