The Gauntlet_Book Two in the Zombie Uprising Series

by M. A. Robbins

  Jen looked at Mark. "Looks like the decision is made for us. You and I have a couple of zombies to kill across the road."

  "And hope we're far enough away from the two hordes," Doc added.

  Jen sighed. "Why did the zombie killer cross the road?"

  "I give up," Zeke said. "Why?"

  "I guess we'll find out." Adrenaline flooded Jen's veins, giving her a rush. I think I'm getting used to this. She hunched over and crept onto the road, her axe ready for more zombie blood.

  20

  Jen and Mark had made it to the solid lines dividing the road lanes when Mark grabbed her wrist. She stopped and followed his gaze. A zombie in the horde at the intersection had stopped milling around and faced them, its head tilted back. Shit. Can they smell us, too?

  Jen's breathing slowed. She glanced at Doc and the others waiting at the roadside. Doc watched the zombie's actions, then shrugged at her.

  Her attention went back to the sniffing zombie. She didn't dare turn around to check out the other horde in front of the RV dealership. All it would take was for one zombie to howl and she and Mark would be stuck in the middle of two converging hordes. Not to mention the two zombies they were on their way to kill.

  The sniffing zombie lowered its nose and turned away. Jen let out an audible sigh, then clamped her hand over her mouth. Her eyes snapped to the two zombies on the other side. One of them was a middle-aged man dressed in bloodied mechanics overalls, and the other was a twenty-something woman with long blonde hair dressed in a torn pair of medical scrubs. They stumbled around aimlessly, their heads down and backs to Jen and Mark.

  Mark tapped her shoulder. He pointed to her and then the mechanic, then to himself and the blonde. Jen nodded. She moved forward on the pads of her feet, the axe heavy in her hand.

  Reaching the grass, she raised the axe over her head. The remaining ten feet to the zombie were covered in gravel. She took her first step on it and the stones ground together. It sounded as loud as a gunshot. The zombies turned and Jen sprinted to the mechanic. Before he faced her, she buried the axe into his temple. Mark slammed the mace onto the forehead of the blonde a second later. She fell, blood trickling onto the gravel.

  Jen blew out a breath and waved the others over. Zeke jumped onto the road, and Jen waved at him to slow down. They weren't out of danger yet. Zeke nodded and tip toed across in an almost exaggerated way. Doc kept his eyes on the two hordes as he crossed, and Grant kept glancing back over his shoulder. I almost forgot Trip and his gang.

  When they caught up, Jen led everyone down to the trail and north into the greenbelt. She walked with a quickened pace. Five minutes later, Doc said, "That was uncomfortable. What do y'all think?"

  "I was about to piss my pants," Zeke said.

  Grant glanced over his shoulder. "I think we got out of sight just in time. Trip and his people had to be close to the curve in the trail."

  "That's good," Mark said. "That way they can't be sure we went this way."

  Jen frowned. "I don't know. I think they do."

  "How do you figure that?" Mark asked.

  "They know we're heading for the base," Jen said, "and unless they all came off some tourist bus, they know the area. So they'd know we'd either go through downtown or up Boniface to get to the base."

  Doc shoved his hands in his pockets and hung his head. "I shouldn't have told them we were heading to the base."

  "Not your fault," Jen said. "It was a good bluff to tell them the military would come looking for us."

  Grant pulled out the cell phone. "Speaking of the military, we should check in."

  "Not here," Mark said. "We need a place to hole up."

  Jen rounded a curve in the trail, then stopped and pointed ahead. "What about there?"

  A couple hundred yards down the trail, on the outside of another curve, a three-story office building loomed over the trees.

  "Nice," Mark said. "From the top floor, you can see all the way down here. If we spot Trip, it gives us plenty of time to move on without him being the wiser."

  Mark broke into a jog, and Jen and the others followed suit. They broke through the trees in front of the building and came out the other side in a parking lot that surrounded the building on three sides. A large sign in front advertised a dentist, orthodontist, and physical therapist.

  Jen pulled on the front door and it opened. She turned to Mark. "What do you suggest? Do we clear the whole building?"

  Grant frowned. "We don't have time."

  Jen raised an eyebrow at Mark.

  "He's right," Mark said. "We should go straight upstairs to the back corner room, take out anything in our way, and then block the door."

  "Couldn't we get boxed in?" Jen asked.

  Mark's eyes pierced hers. "Absolutely."

  Well, I asked. Jen entered, her axe cocked and ready to swing. Mark went up the stairs first, followed by Zeke and then Doc. Grant gestured for Jen to follow. She thought to drop a smart-ass remark, but Grant had done his part and she saw no reason to mess with him.

  A zombie howl echoed from upstairs, and an answering howl came from the downstairs hallway just before a thirty-something woman with a missing ear and yellow eyes darted from the hallway and sprang at Jen. In an awkward reaction, Jen swung the axe early and the zombie slammed into her chest, driving her to the floor and knocking the wind out of her. She pushed on the zombie's chest, staving it off for a moment, but her arms collapsed. A flash of steel and the zombie's head cracked. The damn thing fell limp on Jen, bleeding onto her clothes.

  Grant pulled the zombie off her and threw it to the side. He reached out a hand. "You OK?"

  Jen grabbed his hand, coughing, and he pulled her into a sitting position. She stayed bent over, pulling in lungfuls of air until the dizziness went away.

  Grant stood over her. "That piece of shit hit you pretty hard."

  Jen pushed herself to her feet and wiped her sticky red hands on her pants. "Thanks. It would've had me if you hadn't been there."

  Mark appeared at the top of the stairs. "Everything OK down here? We took out a couple on this floor."

  "Thanks to Grant, I'm fine," Jen said. "He saved my ass."

  Grant grinned at Jen. "I've been told I'm good at rear guard."

  Another smart-ass. Great.

  She plodded up the stairs and followed Mark to the last room on the right. An exam room, it had a desk and chair in one corner and an exam table in the middle of the room. Zeke stood at the window, peeking through the blinds.

  "How's the view?" she asked.

  "Perfect." Zeke glanced at her, then did a double take. "What happened to you?"

  "Just a normal day in zombie world."

  Zeke laughed.

  Grant entered the room and closed the door behind him. He handed the cell phone to Doc.

  "Zeke, can you keep watch on that trail while we check in?" Doc asked.

  "Sure enough. I can stand like a statue for hours. I even once had a dog pee on my—"

  "Just watch the damn trail," Grant snapped.

  Zeke frowned and turned back to the window.

  Doc pressed the buttons on the phone and it picked up immediately. "Where are you?" the colonel's haggard voice came over the phone speaker.

  Everyone looked at Jen. "Midtown," she said.

  "Not fast enough," the colonel snapped.

  "How much time do we have left?" Jen asked.

  "Nine hours and seventeen minutes," Doc said.

  The cell phone cut out, then back in. "...is all you have."

  Mark leaned toward the phone. "You'll have to repeat that, Colonel. You cut out."

  "Can you hear me now?" the colonel asked.

  "Yes," Jen said.

  "The situation's getting worse on base. We've lost a few men already, and the only reason we haven't lost more is we've erected higher barriers around the flight line. But even that is just stalling the inevitable."

  Doc rubbed his eyes. "How much time do we have?"

  "Three hou
rs. Four at the outside."

  The air went out of Jen. They'd been busting their asses to get across the god-forsaken city and they were still behind the curve.

  "If we're in danger of being overrun," the colonel said, "we'll have to leave."

  Grant's face darkened and he crossed his arms. "We'll get there in time, Colonel."

  "Yes," Doc said. "We'll tend to it."

  "Roger," the colonel said. "Out."

  Jen kicked the wall. "Are you shitting me? Three hours? How do we make that kind of time?"

  "We'll have to drive," Grant said.

  "Right." Jen pointed at him. "You remember what happened the last time we did that, don't you?"

  Grant gritted his teeth, his jaw muscles flexing.

  There I go again. He lost his friends and I just dug into that wound. "Look, I didn't mean that."

  "You're both right," Doc said. "We'll need a vehicle, but we don't want a repeat of the convoy. A big extended cab pickup would be better. It's solid enough to run through a small horde and nimble enough to avoid the big ones."

  "And what happens when we get to the base gate?" Jen said. "Don't you think there'll be a big horde there? And we can't just go around it."

  Mark smiled. "We don't drive to the base gate."

  "And where do we go?" Doc asked.

  "I recall there's a small airport somewhere in north Anchorage," Mark said.

  Jen nodded. "Merrill Field. So what?"

  Mark shrugged. "We drive to Merrill Field and fly a plane to the base."

  "Who's going to fly it?" Grant asked.

  Jen snapped her fingers. "Mark can! He's rated for small planes."

  Mark smiled at her. "That's a fact."

  Zeke turned from the window. "They're coming."

  "What?" Jen said.

  "Trip and his gang. They're headed this way."

  21

  Jen peeked between the blinds. "There are only nine of them. Maybe the zombies took one out."

  "Still too many," Mark said. "Let's put some distance between them and us."

  "These guys are a pain in the ass." Jen followed Mark out of the building and joined everyone in front.

  "We'll continue on the trail, but we're not far from the highway," she said. "We should have a good view of what's around us when we get there."

  Zeke walked toward the trail. "I'll sneak back and slow them up."

  "Hold your horses," Doc said. "There's no need for that."

  "I'll hide in the brush and take out one or two in the rear," Zeke said. "If I can't do that, at least I'll get their attention and duck on out. It'll slow them down and give you a better head start."

  Jen put her hands on her hips. "You'll just get yourself killed."

  Zeke smiled. "I'm a ninja. We don't get killed." He ran into the trees and disappeared.

  Stupid kid. Jen went to go after him but Mark grabbed her arm. "Our mission is to get Doc to the base."

  "And since you're the one who's supposed to lead us," Grant said, "You can't chase after a crazy kid in a ninja costume."

  Jen shot Grant a nasty look, but dropped her gaze when he looked back at her with concern in his eyes and not the scorn she expected. She sighed and led them onto the path, heading north.

  It took only a few minutes to arrive at International Airport Road. After scanning the area and seeing no immediate danger, they jogged toward the highway. Multiple muffled gunshots came from behind them, stopping Jen in her tracks. Zeke.

  Mark put a hand on her shoulder. "I'm sure he's all right, but we can't waste the extra time he's giving us."

  She nodded and continued on. Nothing she could do for him.

  When they reached the Seward Highway frontage road, she stopped at the edge of the slope up to the highway and crawled up to the guardrail. Keeping low, she peered over it and watched for movement. At least thirty cars were stranded on both sides of the highway, but there looked to be plenty of room to maneuver around them. Jen grinned. "Kind of like rush hour in the winter, but without the ice and snow."

  Mark sidled up next to her. "Doesn't look too bad." He pointed to the right. "Two zombies by that tourist bus, but that's it."

  Jen's gaze swept to the bus and the two zombies stumbling alongside it. One, a middle-aged man, tilted to one side and shuffled along. The other, a young teen girl with blue and red hair, shambled back and forth in front of the bus.

  "That's south," Jen said. "We're heading the other way."

  Grant joined them. "Problem is, you don't know if there are others hidden behind any of the vehicles."

  Doc stood and shaded his eyes as he watched the two zombies. "Man's got a good point."

  Mark grabbed Doc's arm and pulled him down. "How about we don't let them see us just yet."

  Jen pointed at a Hummer. "There. That'll be the most heavy-duty vehicle we'll find here."

  "Not a damn chance," Grant said. "Too close to the Humvees. There's no way I'll step foot in anything like that again."

  Jen swallowed. For all Grant's bluster, he had still witnessed his friends' deaths and deserved a lot of credit for keeping himself focused on the mission. She looked past the Hummer, and her gaze landed on a Tundra truck. "That." She pointed. "Sturdy, and a lot faster than a Hummer. We need its speed to avoid and outrun the zombies, but it's solid enough for us to run through a decent-sized crowd of them."

  Grant smiled. "Looks like a winner. How do we get to it without setting off zombie alarms?"

  Mark unslung his rifle. "Follow me."

  He crept up the frontage road, the others following him. Stopping parallel to the Tundra, he waited for the others to catch up, then snuck onto the road and hid behind a red minivan lying on its side against the guardrail. Jen stayed with him and signaled the others to wait.

  Mark scoped out the zombies, then gestured for her to follow him. He darted across ten feet of open asphalt and knelt behind a police car. Jen followed his lead and peeked inside the squad car, looking for a shotgun. The rack was empty.

  She waved Doc and Grant over, and they ducked and ran to the cop car. The two zombies still wandered aimlessly. They turned their backs to the group, and Mark dashed the twenty feet to the Tundra. Jen ran after him and made it to the truck just as the girl zombie turned back their way.

  Doc and Grant froze halfway to the truck, looking like big kids playing red light, green light. Were the zombies far enough away to ignore them?

  The zombie girl tilted her head and shuffled a few steps closer. She turned back as the zombie man lumbered toward the Tundra. He, too, stopped and sniffed the air. There goes that sniffing shit again.

  Doc took that moment to swat at something on his face. The zombies shrieked and took off for him.

  "Run," Jen yelled. She yanked the driver's door open and checked the ignition. No keys. Dammit.

  Grant and Doc sprinted for the truck. More zombie howls rose up around them.

  Mark jumped into the passenger side. "Start it up."

  "No keys." Jen checked the sun visor, and Mark rummaged through the glove box.

  Grant pushed Doc into the back and jumped in behind him. "Let's get the hell out of here. What are you waiting for?"

  "No keys." Jen held her empty hands up.

  A series of shrieks rang out from the east side of the highway. "Here they come," Doc said. "We'd best be getting a move on."

  Mark pulled Jen's leg to the side. What the hell?

  "There." He pointed to the floorboard. A set of keys lay there. Her damn foot had been covering them.

  She ducked to grab the keys. A gunshot went off and a hole appeared in her window. She glanced to her side, and several of the gang stood at the edge of the highway, their guns aimed at her.

  Jen stuck a key in the ignition, but it didn't turn. "Fuck!"

  22

  Two keys left.

  A shot blew out the back windshield. Grant and Doc scrambled to the floor. "Get us out of here," Grant roared.

  Jen tried the square key, but the damn
thing wouldn't go into the slot. She pulled it back. Upside down. Flipping it over, she jammed it into the ignition and turned it. The engine jumped to life.

  The two zombies climbed into the truck bed. A wave of twenty or more streaked to them from their right. Bullets peppered the outside of the truck.

  "They're trying to shoot out the tires," Mark yelled.

  Jen threw the truck into gear and slammed her foot on the gas. The truck screeched and jumped forward, its back end fishtailing. One of the zombies did a backward flip off the back. The other grasped the back window frame just behind Doc.

  Jen swerved around an overturned bus, then crossed the road and passed a pile of burnt bodies before spinning the wheel to turn north.

  The zombie hanging on to the window frame made a grab for Doc. Grant stabbed at it with his sword, knocking it to the truck bed.

  "Keep this truck steady." Grant climbed through the broken window as the zombie scrambled to get to its feet.

  Jen slowed and took wider turns to thread her way through the abandoned vehicles.

  The zombie pulled itself to its feet just as Grant swung his sword. The dulled blade slammed into the zombie's temple. It stumbled, still alive, but disoriented. Grant kicked it in the stomach, knocking it out of the bed. He let out a whoop.

  "Get back in," Mark said.

  The wave of zombies in pursuit were closing in. Jen had to get their speed back up.

  Grant jumped headfirst back into the cab, and Jen slammed the gas pedal to the floor. She passed several vehicles and zoomed onto the Tudor Road off-ramp.

  Jen continued speeding down Tudor Road, but slowed as she approached the intersection with Lake Otis Boulevard. A semi lay on its side, partially blocking the intersection.

  "Looks like you can get around it on the right," Mark said.

  Jen frowned. "I don't like this. Can't see what's on the other side of the damn thing."

  Grant whistled. "That must've been one hell of a crash."

  Jen steered the truck to the right and slowed down, creeping forward. The other side of the truck came into view slowly.