“I thought it was bad with Johnson.” Ash’s bitterness tugs my eyelids back open. “He used to grab me and fondle me whenever Caleb wasn’t around.” Her throat clogs with anger. “I think life here for these people is ten times worse.”
I search for words, but they fail me completely
“If I don’t make it, and one of you do, tell Caleb ...” Ash’s voice trails off, another sob breaking free. “Tell Caleb I love him.”
“Finally,” Lila says. “Caleb has been, like, waiting forever for Ash to let him in.” She stabs a finger at me. “You tell her Lila says that.”
What the hell? “Lila says to tell you that Caleb has been waiting forever to hear you say that.”
Ash half laughs, half cries. “Lila,” she says, “I don’t know if Eric’s fucking loco or if you’re really out there. If you’re out there, I miss your cooking.”
Ben wheezes. The sound is part laugh, part gasp of pain. “You’re full of shit. You never said a damn nice thing about anything she made.”
“I know. But I still miss it. Lila, I miss you. Even if you did make hard pasta.”
“It’s called al dente, Ash,” Lila replies.
Oh, my God. It almost feels like we’re all back in Creekside, our core group still intact and alive. I can almost imagine away the long miles that have stolen friends and landed me beaten and tied to a stake awaiting execution by zombie.
“What did she say?” Ash asks. “She had to have a comeback. Lila always had a comeback.”
“She says hard pasta is called al dente.”
“Al dente, my ass,” Ash says. “I’ve had al dente pasta, and let me tell you, those noodles she made were not al dente. They were hard and crunchy like crackers.”
“Like I said, al dente,” Lila replies.
“Looks like you found yourself some good friends,” Tom says. “I’m glad. I worried about you a lot.”
“I never worried about you,” I reply. “You’ve always been at the top of every game. Straight As. Varsity sports in your freshman year. I was always glad mom and dad had you.”
“They loved us both.”
“I know, but I was glad they had one perfect son. Took the pressure off me, you know?”
Tom shakes his head, a wistful smile on his face. “I saw what you did today, little brother. Believe me, Mom and Dad are proud of you. If there’s anyone living in a shadow, it’s me.”
“Which hallucination are you talking to now?” Ben asks.
“My brother. He was the perfect big brother.”
“I had a perfect brother. Guy was an ass hat.”
Tom straightens indignantly. “Tell your friend I’m not an ass hat.”
“Tom says he’s not an ass hat. It’s true. He’s a good person.” I miss him. I miss my brother.
“Even if I die, I’m not going to let those fuckers take my pride,” Ash whispers. “It doesn’t matter what they do to me. I’m going to die with my head held high.”
“No one is dying,” Ben growls. “Kate’s coming.”
There’s nothing else to say about that. Lila and Tom try to prod me into talking, but I’m too beaten down to carry on anymore conversation.
There’s nothing to do but wait for Kate while the sound of tearing flesh fills the air.
35
Serve
JESSICA
I endure.
For Bella. For Steph. For Alvarez. I endure for them.
Hell, I even endure for Shaun.
I bite my lip so hard it bleeds.
I watch Joe Dirt’s face, waiting for the moment. I wait for the orgasm to build in him, for his nasty eyes to roll back into his head.
My hand closes around the tennis racket I slid between the wall and the mattress.
One strike. I have to do this in one strike.
I grip the handle of the racket like it’s my last lifeline.
Joe Dirt groans with pleasure. His eyes flutter shut.
I seize the instant.
The racket leaps free of its confines. I bring it down with such force, the nails meet no resistance. They puncture his forehead and the top of his skull.
All those years of playing tennis with those bitchy moms tumbles to bloody fruition. Blood sprays everywhere. Big goopy clumps spill down the front of Joe Dirt’s skull.
Satisfaction floods me. I always had a killer serve.
I pull up my feet and shove the body away from me. The tennis racket goes with Joe Dirt, lodged in his skull. I yank on my pants and drop to my knees, crawling toward the front of the RV.
It’s the only part of the vehicle that doesn’t have curtains. I crouch low so no one will see me. My hands shake as I once again fumble with the matches.
A fist pounding on the door makes me jump.
“You done yet?” Bad Teeth calls.
“Wait your fucking turn,” I screech.
“Damn,” he replies. “You better save some of that for me, honey.”
Honey. I grind the word to dust between my teeth. The only thing this honey is going to do is bash in his fucking head.
A single match flares to life. I toss it onto the sheepskin cover and immediately light another.
I light match after match. A small fire licks upward, curling the ends of the sheepskin. I grab another two matchbooks and throw them on.
In less than thirty seconds, the inside of the RV is filled with smoke. I back away from the flames, turning my attention to the tennis racket. Joe Dirt does not get to keep the last gift my ex-husband gave me.
I plant one foot on his chest and grasp the racket with both hands.
“God dammit,” I hiss. The damn thing is wedged tight.
“Hey, what’s going on in there?” Bad Teeth pounds on the door. “Mitch, you okay? I see fire in the front seat.” The door rattles.
In a crackling rush, the entire passenger seat goes up in flames. Another finger of flame races across the ceiling.
The door vibrates as Bad Teeth begins to kick it. “Mitch!” he yells. “Mitch! Guys, something’s—”
A huge boom rips through the fort. The floor beneath my feet shakes from the force.
Alvarez. He’s come back for his people. I know without a doubt.
The heat of the fire crackles over my head as it continues to spider across the ceiling. I let loose an animalistic scream, my knuckles white around the handle of the tennis racket. It comes free with a sucking sound. Bits of bone and brain matter fly loose. I stumble back a few steps.
The nails in the tennis racket scrape loudly against the ceiling. I maintain my iron grip on the handle. Flames leap onto the dry strings. I don’t let go.
The door bursts open, kicked off its cheap alloy hinges. Bad Teeth leaps in.
A half second passes as his eyes meet mine. Confusion clouds his expression as he struggles to absorb in his dead friend and the crazy bitch standing over him with a burning tennis racket.
A half second is all he gets before my racket delivers a raging serve to his face. The nails rake across his skin and tear off half of his nose. He grunts at the impact, stunned. His hands come up out of sheer instinct.
Screaming, I bring the racket down on his head over and over again. I don’t stop until it’s a pulpy mess.
I stand over both bodies, heart pounding. I raise my tennis racket and scream. And scream, and scream, and scream.
I scream for May. I scream for Claire. I scream for Steph and Bella. I scream for Shaun. I scream for the marriage we lost. I scream for the end of the world and all the people who have died. I scream. The suffering of the world pours out of my lungs while the tiny motorhome burns all around me.
“Jess ... Jessie!” A weak voice cuts through my incoherence.
Shaun. Reality crashes in around me. I realize my hand is burning. I don’t even feel the pain.
I should put out the flame on the racket. But then I see Limp Dick’s hulking body rush past the RV.
Another fucking monster who has to die.
A shock o
f adrenaline courses through me. I leap out of the motorhome and zero in on Limp Dick.
Part of the south fort wall is in pieces. Someone blew a hole in it. Fire crackles along the edges, illuminating Limp Dick’s silhouette.
I close the twenty yards between us in a full-throttle sprint. My burning tennis racket connects with the back of his skull. He drops.
I pounce. The racket comes down with a vengeance, spraying flames in every direction. Nearby patches of dried grass and weeds ignite.
Pain registers as the bulky body of Limp Dick stills on the ground. I drop the racket and smother my burning fingers in the dirt.
The pain is excruciating, but it’s only physical pain. It’s not even a pinch compared to the hell I’ve endured in the last twenty-four hours, let alone the last two years. I snatch it back up and sprint toward the RV where Bella is held captive.
The fire is spreading. I see it on the ground eating at small patches of grass. I see it on two other motorhomes. I see it rushing along the two-hundred-year-old redwood timber.
I’m peripherally aware of shouting, running, and general chaos. I barely see any of it. My eyes are locked on the big man who drags Bella out of their motorhome by gunpoint.
He never sees me coming. With a shriek, I swing my nail-studded racket at the back of his head. Just like Limp Dick, he drops. I yank out the racket and deliver another blow to his temple, just to make sure he stays dead.
“Jessica?” Bella gapes at me.
And then a huge semi-truck crashes into the north wall of the fort. The force is like a bomb going off. Chunks of timber fly everywhere. One of the motorhomes is hit, the fiberglass frame crumpling under the impact.
People are screaming and shouting. Guns are firing. My people are being gunned down like cattle.
And then zombies flood the compound.
36
Assault
KATE
“Hold on!” Caleb bellows. “Five seconds to impact. Four.”
I brace my feet against the floor as we charge the wall of Fort Ross like a bat out of hell. The semi bounces across the grassland surrounding the fort.
“Three.
In the sideview mirror, I see zombies pitched out of the back. No problem. They’ll find their way to the fort.
Two.”
I’m coming, Ben.
“One!”
The semi explodes through the north wall of Fort Ross. Timber flies in every direction. Big beams of it smash across the front of the semi. The seatbelt locks, pinning me in place.
The front of the semi plows into a motorhome, smashing right through it. Caleb slams the breaks. Bullets hit the front windshield.
“Everybody out!” I fling open the door and leap to the ground, gun and zom bat in hand. Reed lands beside me.
The compound is consumed by chaos. Fire rages along the south wall, started by the grenades from Alvarez. The old timber is going up like a matchbook. Some of the zombies have already made it past the flames. They stagger through the confusion, swiping at the air as they track down prey.
“People of Fort Ross!” Alvarez bellows. “Fight! Take back your home!” He disappears into the melee, gun blazing, but I still hear his voice. “Fight for Fort Ross!”
Gunshots ring all around us. Smoke boils through the air, illuminated by the flames. I see people rally to Alvarez’s war cry. They snatch weapons from their hiding places, taking up everything from frying pans to screwdrivers.
A woman wielding a smoldering tennis racket streaks past us. She’s a lithe figure in dark clothing with long hair.
The scream she lets loose it otherworldly. It echoes with the pain of the world. She charges a large man who drags a teenage girl by the hair.
She delivers a wicked, sideways forehand to the back the man’s head. The side of her tennis racket connects with his skull. The man drops, releasing the teenager.
The tennis player pounces. Her racket comes down again, caving in his temple. She never stops screaming. Are those nails embedded around the edge of the racket?
“Damn,” Reed breathes. “That’s one badass woman.”
A shriek goes behind us.
“Zombies!” someone bellows. “They’ve brought zombies!”
“Come on.” I grab Reed’s arm. “Let’s find our people."
The two of us race deeper into the fort. My eyes flick left and right, searching. Where would Ben and the others be? Would Rosario lock them up somewhere? Or would she string them up in a cage like Medieval John?
Fear claws at me. If I lose Ben, it will ruin me. He has to be alive. He has to be.
We burst around the side of an RV—and there they are. Ben, Ash, and Eric, all three of them in the center of the fort. They’re tied to wooden stakes around an old-fashioned stone well, struggling to free themselves as the battle rages around us.
A zombie canters out of the smoke, white eyes rolling.
I act on instinct. My zom bat comes up, smashing through the forehead with one succinct blow.
Two more zombies appear, hissing as they lunge for me and Reed. I swing my club, smashing in the face of the first. Reed takes out the second one with a knife through the nose.
“Kate! Kate, behind you!” Ben’s voice breaks through the confusion. “Kate!”
I spin around just in time to see a familiar face appear out of the gloom. A sneering mouth, dirty blond dreadlocks, and a shirt that says There’s no cure for being a cunt.
Jeanie. Rage ignites in my bloodstream.
She has a gun in her hand, but she doesn’t notice me through the shifting smoke. This is the bitch who took me and Frederico captive for no good reason. She attacked Alvarez and Fort Ross. Now the bitch has my boyfriend. She has to die.
I dive straight for her legs, swinging the zom bat. There is a satisfying crunch of bone as my weapon connects.
Jeanie cries out, her leg crumpling under the blow. Her gun goes off, but the shot goes high. I take a second swing with my zom bat and knock the weapon from her hand.
If life were a movie, we’d engage in some sort of verbal repartee. I’d remind her of who I was, she would insult my family, and I’d toss back another well-timed insult.
Frankly, I don’t have time for that shit. I don’t care if Jeanie remembers me or not. I don’t need to have the last word. I just need the bitch to die.
As soon as she hits the ground, I strike again.
I whack her ruthlessly across the face. The crack of bone registers in my senses. I hit her again. Blood sprays everywhere. I hit her a third time, just to make sure the job is finished once and for all.
“Jeanie!”
Another familiar voice hits me just as a bullet grazes my left arm. Pain shoots through me, sucking all the breath from my lungs. The shock loosens the fingers around my gun. It clunks to the ground.
“Kate!” Ben’s bellow cuts through the pain. A glance in his direction shows me his eyes wide with fear.
I swing back around in time to see Mr. Rosario hustling in my direction. Her large hips roll, her long cotton dress ruffling with her gait.
“You hurt my Jeanie!” Spittle flies from her mouth as she charges me.
I jump to my feet, tightening my grip on the zom bat. My left arm throbs, but I ignore it.
I glare at Rosario. She’s next to die, even if she doesn’t know it yet. I don’t care if I have to die to get the job done. I’m not leaving her on this planet one second longer than necessary.
She levels the gun in my direction as she runs. “You killed my Jeanie!”
My hand tightens around the zom bat that still drips with Jeanie’s blood. “Good riddance.” I lunge for my fallen gun, trying to get to it before Rosario fires again.
Several things happen at the same time.
Caleb barrels into me, sending me in a tumble across the ground just as Rosario fires her gun.
Caleb lands heavily on top of me. He springs to his feet and hauls me up.
A second shot goes off.
By t
he time I regain my feet, Rosario is dead. Alvarez stands over her, eyes blazing with retribution. As I watch, he fires his gun once more into her head. Then he turns to Jeanie’s body and does the same thing.
Our eyes meet across the carnage. He nods, then turns and disappears back into the melee.
A battle between the two factions has solidified. Alvarez’s people fight with the weapons they hid before the takeover—chunks of wood, wrenches, hammers, and rocks. I see one man jam a long metal pipe into the face of his attacker. Some of Alvarez’s people have even managed to get their hands on firearms.
Rosario’s people fight back, but they’re outnumbered. Zombies are everywhere, keeping everyone off balance. Even with superior fire powers, it’s impossible for Rosario’s people to get the upper hand.
“Get our people,” Reed shouts, running forward to head off two zombies who come in our direction.
Caleb and I don’t need to be told twice. We race to where our people are staked to poles like Salem witches.
I rush toward Ben. His face looks terrible. It’s swollen, bruised, and covered with dried blood.
“You’re the hottest fucking thing I’ve ever seen,” he says by way of greeting.
I pull out my knife to slice away his ropes. “You scared the shit out of me.”
He shrugs out of the ropes. When he steps in my direction, I notice him favoring his right leg.
“You scared the shit out of me,” I repeat, straightening my spine as he bears down on me.
“I’m sorry.” He grabs me in a fierce hug, strong arms lifting me off the ground as he kisses me.
Relief floods my body. I wrap my arms around his neck and kiss him back, barely noticing the pain left by the bullet. Ben is alive and in one piece. I cling to him. I don’t care if we’re both covered with dirt and blood. I’ll never let him go.
37
RV
Undead Ultra Box Set | Books 1-4 Page 113
