Amanda Carter in the L.A.Z., life after zombies

by Jo Lee Auburne

  Sam heard the horn of Amanda’s truck, and her eyes quickly snapped away from the mirror. It was like the horn had acted like a shot of adrenaline in the vein. Without thinking about it, her right foot shot all the way down on the accelerator, and the back wheels of the truck screeched, spinning too quickly at first to gain traction. The smell of burnt rubber added to the smell of smoke and death, and then the truck lurched backward, so impossibly fast that Sam was thrown forward into the steering wheel. Red slid from the seat and hit the dash that was blasting cold air out at them, helping to make Sam feel like she had ice water for blood.

  Red, uninjured, hunkered down on the floorboard with the expectation of a bumpy ride.

  The truck, as if it were a wild horse with a mind of its own, bolted into and over the closest of the creepers that were directly behind it, bumping and thumping over them. Because Sam had as yet to let up on the accelerator, the truck continued pummeling backward, slamming into the thick of the horde in the parking lot, slowing its pace but not stopping it.

  Red hugged the floorboard, legs splayed wide as the truck rocked and swayed. He was salivating and looked like he was soon to be sick. Sam could feel her butt being jolted up off of the seat, high enough for her head to bump the padded roof overhead before she would spring back into it. She kept a firm grip on the wheel, fearing that if she didn’t, it would be jerked away from her hands, resulting in the truck overturning on them. She had not had much backing practice, and it probably wouldn’t have mattered if she had because nothing could have prepared her this type of a wild ride at high speed.

  Amanda was shocked to see the rental truck shoot out of the loading bay amidst a squealing of tires and burnt rubber. She had been right about the big truck being perfectly capable of clearing a path for her to be able to drive out as long as she stayed close to Sam’s truck and could make it out before the throng of creepers closed ranks again. Unbelievably, the pavement no longer seemed to exist beneath her tires; there was nothing but creeper carcasses to pave the way, and she kept pace with Sam, hoping that the girl didn’t decide to suddenly brake unexpectedly, sending her truck headlong into the rental.

  She had to speed up to get her much-smaller truck over a particularly rough patch, and she wished that she had thought to put her seat belt on as she was lurched up and down and side to side in her seat, with her foot twice slipping from the gas pedal because of her short legs. The massive pile of supplies that they had stashed in the extra cab bounced, and some of the items flew forward onto her and into the passenger seat.

  Amidst the chaos of the ride, Amanda could see that Sam was fixing to clear the parking lot and still going fast. She felt her heart skip a beat as she thought of the girl making it past the difficult part, only to crash into one of the storefronts on the other side of the street and have the horde catch up to them as Amanda tried to get her out of that truck and into hers.

  Over the course of the LAZ, she had always considered safety, but all that had changed today. Maybe it was the threat of the fire and all that it was consuming and what that would mean to them in the long run, or perhaps it was the bite that she had received, or a combination of both. But she was looking forward to getting out of this day alive and getting back home to try to reclaim her sense of balance because she had begun to feel unhinged.

  Chapter 47

  Amanda’s eyes were glued to the side mirror and the rental truck, willing Sam to slow and make the turn out into the street that would allow her to put the big truck in drive and take them down the main road far enough away from here that the horde would lose interest in trying to follow them.

  Sam knew that she was going too fast to make the turn, not because of experience but out of instinct. She applied the brake some before yanking the wheel to the left, knowing that while she was driving in reverse, she needed to turn the wheel in the opposite direction of the way she intended to go; Roy had taught her that. The truck slowed a little and then bumped down off of the curb and heaved into a turn that caused the wheels on the left side of the truck to lift for a second while the tires on the right side screamed and burned into the asphalt.

  For a second, Amanda thought the truck would flip. She slowed her truck, not wanting to become entangled with the big truck wreck that looked to be about to happen. But then the tires were all back on the ground. The big rental truck had halted suddenly, and then it was lurching forward and speeding away down the street.

  “I didn’t know that Roy had taught you stunt driving, kid,” Amanda said aloud to nobody but herself, and then she punched the gas on her truck in an effort to catch Sam.

  Amanda glanced in the rearview mirror to see that only a few creepers had meandered out into the street after them. The rest were being pulled by their interest in the fire, toward the home improvement store that was now being taken by the flames. Looking back, she needed no one to tell her how close that they had cut it to the point of no return. She was angry with herself for allowing Sam to have become caught up in such a foolish stunt as the one that they had just pulled off. If she really wanted to teach the kid how to stay alive, then she would have to do a better job than that.

  Up ahead, Amanda could see the rental truck roll to a stop along the side of the road. The brake lights on the previously pristine truck were broken from the impact they had taken with the creepers. The truck itself was covered in blood and creeper body matter, making it look ghoulish, but the tires appeared to be functional, and there was nothing else to make Amanda feel as if it wouldn’t make the drive back out into the desert.

  Amanda pulled up behind the truck and stopped, before quickly getting out. She wanted to check on Sam.

  The girl had practically fallen out of the truck on weak and shaken legs, before dropping to all fours on the hot asphalt and heaving up the bile that had been regurgitating between her stomach and her mouth the entire drive away from the store.

  Amanda ran to her and helped to get her to her feet once the vomiting had passed.

  “Sorry, I threw up,” the girl said, sounding disoriented.

  Sam brought her hand up to her forehead and then lifted her eyes to Amanda. She had begun to shake.

  “It’s okay, you did good, Sam,” Amanda said. “You’re in shock, and that’s normal. You need some water.”

  The girl nodded with what appeared to be some recognition of what Amanda had said, but she didn’t say anything, almost falling to her knees when Amanda tried to move her out of the street.

  Amanda put Sam’s arm over her shoulders and wrapped her arm around the girl, slowly negotiating her toward the sidewalk, careful to look for signs of trouble in the area that they had so suddenly stopped in. She laid Sam down and propped the girl’s knees up, hoping to get some blood and oxygen to return to the girl’s brain before she could get any sicker.

  Red came to Sam’s side and sat protectively, not holding any of that wild ride in the truck against the girl. He was an amazing animal, Amanda thought. He seemed as wise as a person that had lived through a great amount of experiences.

  “Watch her, Red, I have to get us some water and some food,” Amanda said, and she could have sworn that he answered her with his eyes.

  Knowing that Red would be sure to notify her of a problem, she felt free to jog to the truck and grab several bottles of water, a bag of beef jerky, and a can of peas that she could open with the can opener on her key chain. And then just before she slammed her door, she remembered to reach back in for Red’s water bowl.

  “That was the coolest yet,” Sam whispered to her when she returned.

  “What?” Amanda said, not knowing to what exactly the girl was referring or if maybe she was delirious.

  “I know now why Mom and Dad didn’t want me going to town. But I don’t think I will ever do anything cooler than that again,” Sam said, and her lips looked to be gaining some color again.

  Sam wanted Amanda to help her sit, and Amanda didn’t see any harm in it, considering that the girl looked to be resp
onsive and had stopped shaking.

  “Here, drink something,” Amanda said, shoving a water bottle toward her, hoping that the girl would not notice the little bit of shake that was in her own hand right now.

  If Sam noticed the shake, she didn’t acknowledge it, and she took the bottle from Amanda and struggled a little with weak fingers to open it. Amanda was busy using the can opener to open the can of peas to get the girl started on something soft to eat before trying to hand her beef jerky. But Red, on the other hand, was looking expectantly at the jerky bag, as if willing it to open and spill out its contents all over the sidewalk.

  “Hold out your hands,” Amanda said, setting the opened can of peas to the side.

  They were both filthy, covered in soot and creeper grime. Even after sliding out of their gloves, their hands were filthy. Amanda used one of the water bottles to try to get their hands somewhat clean before eating, but it was a modest attempt that only took off the first layer of grime.

  “Sorry, I don’t have a spoon,” Amanda said, handing the peas to the girl.

  “Don’t worry, I’m an LAZ survivor. Trust me, I can deal,” she said, poking her fingers into the can to pinch at a couple of peas, while Amanda poured water for Red.

  “Well, this is quite the place for a picnic,” Amanda said, watching trash blow down the gutter. Some of it was sticking to the muck on the truck, like it was a paper-mache project.

  “I just feel lucky to be able to sit here and eat something. For a while back there, things were looking real bad,” Sam said, glancing back the direction that they had come from.

  “You can say that again, only don’t actually say it again please,” Amanda said while tearing open the jerky bag and tossing a couple of pieces to Red, before popping one in her mouth.

  “I know that you’re worried about me, you know, because I like to jump in there, and all,” Sam said. “But I don’t want you to worry. After what I saw back at the store, I understand better what you guys are talking about and why you’re always so careful.”

  “You do realize that what we did back there was stupid, and I never should have asked that of you,” Amanda said, feeling honestly riddled with guilt.

  “We did what we had to, that’s what you always say. And don’t worry about it. It worked out okay. We were a good team, and I wouldn’t ever try anything like that unless it was absolutely necessary. I don’t have a death wish,” Sam said, sounding older than her fifteen years.

  “But that’s just it,” Amanda said. “I’m not sure that we had to so much as I just really wanted to. It’s like I was blinded by that goal that I have for us.”

  “Don’t go beating yourself up. I really don’t think we had a choice,” said Sam. “With the only town within a hundred miles burning down, what are we going to do without the ability to take care of ourselves in the future?”

  “True,” Amanda said, knowing that the girl was right in some respects, but bothered by the way she had jeopardized the girl’s life.

  “I don’t think I want to tell my parents about that,” Sam said, rolling her eyes.

  “You tell your parents everything always, Sam, it’s important, especially in the LAZ.”

  “They are going to lose it and say I can’t come anymore,” Sam said with a mouthful of jerky.

  “Your parents are reasonable people, and they aren’t going to be mad at you. It’s me that will take the brunt of it, and I accept that,” Amanda said before finishing off the peas, except for a few that she hand-fed to Red.

  “If you say so,” the girl said, pushing herself onto her feet. “I have to say that I have never been so scared in my life as I was back there, but I feel ready to go again. What’s next?”

  You have to hand it to the resilience of youth, Amanda thought, chucking the empty tin can and leaving the empty bottles to blow away.

  “Ewww, look at the truck,” Sam said, apparently just noticing how covered in gore it was.

  “Mine too, but you sure plowed the way for us to get out,” Amanda said. “I’m proud to call you my run partner.”

  “Me too, or same, or whatever,” Sam said, digging the keys to her truck out of the pocket where she had hastily stuffed them before collapsing to her knees.

  “Just so you know, I was scared too,” Amanda said. “Hopefully, we don’t ever have to get quite so close to the action again.”

  “So you’ve pulled into the lead with twenty, and I have seventeen,” Sam said, eliciting a befuddled look from Amanda.

  “What?”

  “Creeper kills, you’re in the lead for today,” Sam said, apparently ready to be back to her old, new self.

  “And what about the two dozen or so that you ran over with the truck back there?” Amanda said. “I think at this point, you’re standing out as the clear winner.”

  “Oh,” Sam said, cocking her head, “I guess you’re right. That was pretty awesome when you think about it.”

  “Yea, well, try not to think about it too much, okay?” Amanda said, going to look in the back of her truck to see if she had lost anything monumental out of the back when the truck had been bouncing over the bodies in the parking lot.

  She had very tightly packed everything back here, and she could not, off-hand, identify anything that had fallen out. She was sure that the stuff in the back of the moving truck had taken quite the jostling, and there was the distinct possibility that some of what they had recovered had been damaged in the commotion.

  “I’m going to open the back of this truck up and take a look,” Amanda said. “Things got pretty beat around. I’ll hand you a clean air filter if you feel comfortable enough changing out the old one. I’m sure that it’s pretty gunked up, and I’d like to make the trip without this truck breaking down on us.”

  “Sure,” Sam said, with a shrug. “I watched you take the filters out at the rental lot. It’s easy, I can do it.”

  “Keep your eyes and ears perked,” Amanda said, sliding the rolling door up and backing up because of the creeper parts that were raining down as it rolled up.

  “Ewww,” Sam said, “the LAZ can be so not glamorous sometimes.”

  “You can say that again,” Amanda said, pulling herself up and into the back of the truck.

  She had not been wrong. The contents in the back had been tossed around. She could already see with her flashlight, that some of the solar panels had been damaged, but not as many as she would have thought. She was mostly concerned about the gas cans at this point, and she located them, still tied up tight together and upright with their lids tightly on. It was amazing that they had not lost several gallons of gas to a spill, but she was thankful. The rest of the tumbled mess seemed to be of no import, and she dug out an air filter and tossed it to Sam.

  While the girl was changing the filter, she decided to reorganize the back as best she could in a hurry, because if all went according to plan, there was much more that she wanted to put in this truck before the day was done. She felt a little crazy for still clinging to her goals for the day, but like Sam had said, “You do what needs to be done.”

  Chapter 48

  “Done,” Sam said, walking up just as Amanda was rolling down the door. “Wish we could drive this thing through the car wash.”

  “Keep dreaming,” Amanda said, finding herself able to laugh.

  “What’s next?” the girl asked, as if she were full of energy already.

  “Well, we weren’t able to grab any wood from the store for obvious reasons,” Amanda said, glancing up and down the street at the storefronts.

  “And?”

  “There’s a lot of wood here,” she said, indicating the boarded-up windows on some of the stores.

  In fact, during the looting, people had torn down some of the plywood panels and two-by-fours, and they were lying along the sidewalk up and down the street.

  “I see,” Sam said. “Let’s do it.”

  Ash had begun to fall on them here at this location, and it would only be a matter of time befor
e the fire would catch them here too, along with all the creepers that it attracted. The ash served as a reminder to them that they needed to hurry.

  They gathered up all the useable pieces of wood that had littered the scene and then used the crowbar to pull off some more pieces that were still attached to some of the buildings, until they had a decent pile to put into the truck.

  Red watched them from his shaded position under the truck, looking at them as if they were crazy. Because in his mind, after all they had been through, it was definitely nap time. He yawned and then gave up watching them work and closed his eyes to sleep.

  “I think Red’s got the right idea, and we’re just crazy,” Sam said, regaining her sense of humor. “Is this going to be enough wood?”

  “No, but we’ll come across more along the way before the day is out, and whatever we find, we’ll just have to make do with.”

  Sam nodded.

  They didn’t bother to search any of the buildings along this route because they had all been extensively looted early on. A time-intensive, meticulous search would most likely have produced something of use to them, but time had stopped being their friend when the fire had started, and Amanda knew that there were more important uses for their time that would offer bigger and quicker rewards for them. And so she determined that they would be moving on.

  Amanda had to reorganize the front of her truck because of all the things that had spilled over from the extra cab during the bumpy ride. While she was doing that, Sam came to collect the guitar. She wanted it to ride with her.