by Mark Clodi
“Fuck!” Dora yelled, and started the suburban forward, the passenger door slammed shut and Dora glanced back to find Cliff holding onto a short arrow, looking in the side view mirror she saw Becka picking up the motorcycle and hopping on. “Now what the fuck is she doing? Cliff, Willy, Beth, get your guns out the windows and start firing, aim for the ones with guns!”
“Fuc...” the radio started, “Overwhelming us, lost all the kids in the bed, just like that Dora. Go faster!”
Dora was already way ahead of the buses, following close on Jake's trail, the military truck ran through and over the zombie mob like a hot knife cutting through warm butter. Willy started firing at targets in the mass of zombies and Dora saw one super go down, shot in the head.
Just before Dora drove onto the bodies left by Jake the motorcycle passed her, Becka pulled the bike up in a hop to clear the first body and somehow made it into the wake created by Jake's truck, Dora was not so lucky the suburban started slamming into the walking bodies that closed in after Jake passed, her first instinct was to slow down. Instead she pressed her foot down on the gas pedal and followed Becka into the maelstrom.
The thumping sounds as she hit the bodies was accompanied by the sounds of breaking glass and twisting metal as her headlight and grill were shattered and both side view mirrors were torn off. A quick look into the rear view mirror showed her that Bob was following her but was a little to the left behind her. Some of his shotgun toting teens were standing up and firing over the cab, as Bob went over a body the bump was enough to toss one of the hapless teens out of the truck and into the mob where he disappeared screaming.
Becka was still up, somehow, she was standing on the motorcycle pegs, blood running down her right leg, zombies grabbing at her much too late, she was a speed demon whose way was cleared by the heavy truck ahead of her. Unfortunately she was too close, as the truck slammed into the cars pulled in front of them it slowed down fast and Becka had to swerve to avoid it. There were less zombies on the road at this point and she was able to thread her way through the mob until she came to the rails on the side of the road. The girl spun sideways and up onto the rail at an angle, then she accelerated and ramped the motorcycle up and over it. For a second she was framed by air, an instant snapshot in time that Dora would always remember, the girl was perfectly upright and looked like a professional stadium rider going over a jump on a Saturday night and then she too was gone over the side.
The cars blocking the road ahead of them had been hidden there unseen from the side Dora’s group had started on. Jake's truck didn’t slow and he hit them where they were pulled together, right where the front bumpers touched. The cars, for all of their weight, did not have anything on the heavy military truck. When he hit Jake turned right, hoping to clear one of the vehicles out of the way for the buses, the car on the left spun sideways and almost entirely off of the road. The one on the right was the one Jake was trying to force completely off of the road, the truck's bumper crumpled and was torn off, it rolled underneath, pulling the radiator down as it went. The hood flew up into the windshield, shattering the glass, but not falling away, it remained there blocking Jake’s vision.
About the same time Jake lost all ability to steer the truck, something gave inside and the steering wheel just turned uselessly from side to side. He felt both vehicles hit the shoulder of the road, then the truck started to flip slowly, ass end over front and he was in a strange free fall, instinctively he grabbed for the blood in the cooler, snagging it as the truck slowly spun around him. He twisted around in mid-air and planted his feet against the steering wheel, just before the truck landed on the cab, he pushed himself out into the daylight. He hit hard and rolled to the bottom of the embankment, through a chain link fence and onto a small paved road beyond. Finally he came to a stop against, of all things, a stop sign.
Looking up he could still hear the zombies roaring in his mind and he saw the tops of the buses going by through the hole he had made in the mob. The convoy didn't stop for him. He pulled open the cooler as he watched it recede into the distance, wondering how he would catch up. Jake had half of the pouch of blood gone when he was aware of another noise, a puttering of a small engine, looking over he saw the girl on her motorcycle under the bridge, she turned from scanning the river then pulled around to him.
“Need a ride?” Becka asked him.
He pointed at her leg, “Clean that up. I only got so much will power, girl.” then turned away from her to finish the other pouch of blood. When he looked back he saw she was off the motorcycle by the side of the road, using a plastic bag to wipe blood off of her leg, she grabbed a piece of paper off of the ground and shoved it into the hole in her pants, stemming the flow of blood.
“You know you could have stayed in the truck with Dora?”
“I saw Seth go over, I knew they wouldn't stop. I had to be sure.”
“Are you sure?”
Becka looked at the height of the bridge, then at the distance to the river, she shook her head, “No, I am pretty sure, but not a hundred percent. You ready?”
Back on the road Dora saw Jake slam a hole through the cars blocking the way, she practically ran into Jake's truck as he veered right in front of her, then both vehicles were off the road tumbling down the steep embankment to the flat land below.
“Fuck.” she was fairly sure Jake had survived, but couldn't stop to check. Steve was still screaming into the radio, something about supers on the last bus and that Leon's pickup was lost. The caravan burst through the main mob of shamblers and Dora was slowing down to stop when the walkie-talkie chattered to life again, “Don't slow down! They have other vehicles and are in pursuit!”
“What can I do to help?” Dora called out, she glanced to her side mirrors to get a better view of what was going on behind her then cursed as she realized both of them had been torn off.
“Drop back with the lead trucks, shoot the fast zombies off of the rear bus.” said Steve, “Did the motorcycles make it? Do we have anyone scouting ahead?”
“Did you really think we would at this point?” said Dora looking around, hoping that Becka or even Jake in his truck would miraculously come zooming forward.
“Shit.” said Steve, his transmission was accompanied by gunfire both through the walkie-talkie and outside the windows of the suburban.
“Bob?” Dora called out.
“Here, what do you want me to do?”
Good man, thought Dora, “You need to scout for the buses, do your best not to lead us into any pile ups and keep us moving. I am dropping back to help get the scum off the last bus. Clear?”
“Yes. I will do my best Dora.”
“I know you will.” privately she hoped it would be good enough. The section of highway they were on was still clear, Dora swung right and then left cutting across both lanes of traffic and forcing Bob and the first bus to slow momentarily as she wrestled the suburban into u-turn. She was just accelerating when the second bus passed her and she continued to speed up heading back the way she had come when the third bus with Steve's truck following closely behind it passed. Steve's pickup bed was empty, the only person still firing was leaning out the side window of the truck. Dora saw movement from the window of the extended cab as someone from inside the truck was trying to crawl into the pickup bed. Behind the truck came a motley assortment of vehicles, all filled with zombies trying to catch up to the trailing bus. On the bus itself Dora saw a wild melee going on as the people there fought the boarders, trying to knock the zeds off onto the highway. Dora could not be sure, but she thought she caught sight of a little white blur fighting in the back as she passed, it looked like one of the twins was on board and rampaging.
“Dora! What the fuck are you doing?” Steve yelled a moment after they passed.
Dora aimed her truck straight at the middle of the oncoming pack, Willy leaned out of the window, firing his shotgun and screaming curses incoherently in a manner that would have made a sailor cringe. Beth and Cliff wer
e cowering in the back seat, not firing at all and Dora smiled into the rear view mirror at them, saying, “Don't worry, I have a plan!”
She looked forward to see that the oncoming vehicle, an old black Toyota four by four was barreling right at her, screaming Dora pressed her foot to the gas pedal and the suburban lunged forward.
Willy screamed and fired his shotgun at the driver of the Toyota, the oncoming truck didn't have a windshield to deflect the shot and it took the zombie right below the jaw. From experience Dora knew it was probably not a killing shot, however it did disrupt the zombies ability to control the vehicle and he swerved sharply into the Ford Probe that was next to him, both vehicles turned into the median. Dora steered the suburban towards the hole they created and brushed sides with a Caliber as she broke through the zombie vehicles. The jolt from sliding alongside the other vehicle slowed her suburban down and she used this to jerk it around sideways.
Dora fought for control and started pumping the brakes as the truck started to tip over onto the pavement. She turned into the roll and managed to prevent it from rolling over, but the suburban tilted up at an angle on two wheels for a good thirty feet of pavement before Dora brought the vehicle to a halt. Dora's suburban ended up at a dead stop, sideways to the lanes of traffic and pointed with its nose at the median.
Dora laughed and looked into the back seat at the two teens there, Cliff's face was almost white and Beth was bent over trying to find something on the floor, she came up a moment later with her shotgun and started loading it out of reflex while she gave Dora a frightened stare. Beside Dora, Willy was whooping with delight, “Did you see how I shot that one? I shot him and he rolled over and took that blue car with him!”
“See?” Dora said to the people in the back seat, “I told you I had a plan?” To Willy she said, “Good job Willy, you did good. You are fucking lucky you didn't fly out the window when we went through that.”
Cliff pulled his shotgun up and asked, “What now?”
“Now,” said Dora turning the suburban, “we catch up and get rid of those other vehicles between us and the buses. Then we kill any zombies left on the back of the bus. Then we get to Iowa and take a long vacation.”
Willy cheered and pounded on the roof of the car as Dora started to accelerate back towards the buses once again.
Chapter 40
Becka had a problem, the motorcycle was leaking fuel. Apparently when the arrow had deflected off of the gas tank it had torn a gash in the heavy plastic and it was from this slit that the fuel was leaking.
“You got any duct tape?” asked Jake, as Becka examined the hole, she shook her head. Jake reached up to where the wiring harness was inside the bike's frame and gently tugged it. The wiring harness controlled all of the electronics on the motorcycle. This bike did not have a lot of options that required electricity, just the front light, tail light and turn indicators, which had been broken off when Becka put the bike down on the bridge. Following the harness to the front of the bike Jake found the start of the tape and began unwinding it, until he had about a foot of the black sticky tape in his hand, he tore it off and said, “Okay tip the bike over so the gas doesn't come out of the side anymore.”
Becka tilted the motorcycle over until it was almost on the ground again on the side opposite from the gash in the tank. Jake pulled a battered handkerchief from one of his pockets and wiped the outside of the gas tank thoroughly, then he got close and laboriously sucked air into his lungs and blew on the tank, causing the rest of the liquid to evaporate quickly. Finally he divided the tape into three pieces and stuck them over the hole. “That should do it. Pull it up and let’s see, huh?”
Becka struggled to lift the motorcycle upright and Jake gave her some help to pull it up the rest of the way. “See? Good as new? Take this.” he said handing her the handkerchief.
“What? Why?”
“Clean up your pants, the gas smell hides the blood smell a little, then take out that piece of paper and stuff the rag in the hole instead. You’re some kind of fool, you know?”
Becka nodded, doing as Jake instructed.
“You could have been safe with the others, instead you are here with me right now, no humans in sight anyway.”
“You’re one of the good guys.”
Jake laughed, “How little you know girl! I didn't come back with my morals, I only rediscovered them after killing a few people on my own. More than a few people.”
The girl shook her head, “You couldn't help that. You did the best you could and you repented.” A thought seemed to cross her mind, “We forgot about father Cruz.” she brought her hand to her mouth, covering it.
“Who is he?”
“A priest, he is in the church, the zombies won't go there. But he doesn't have much food or fuel or anything. He is in Saint Assissi's Church.”
Jake looked up at the mob of shambling zombies that was on the road way, his will was holding them there, “He didn't want to come?”
“I think, they forgot about him.”
“Shit.”
“Why?” she asked him.
“'Cause you got this look in your eye, like you want to be a hero.”
“Don't you?” Becka asked innocently.
Jake started laughing, “Why I suppose I do! I bet your other friends could use more of a hand right now, maybe we should handle one thing at a time?”
“Okay I think we can do that, get them to safety, then come back for the priest?”
Jake stuck out his hand, “Deal.”
Becka eyed his hand warily, “No blood promise? You'll do this for free?”
“We all wanna be heroes. Besides I am thinking of another angle to get what I need, one that would make everyone happy.”
Becka's eyes widened, “You....you never planned to collect from us?”
Jake shook his head, “A contract like that? I might get some pints out of it, but I doubt I would get them all, except maybe one at a time from Dora.”
“So why did you make the deal?”
“You think they would have taken my help without a deal? Just on my word? Darling, I’m not human anymore, they wouldn't have trusted me further than they could see me. Greed, well everyone understands that.”
“You would have given us the buses?”
“I did give you the buses. C'mon we gotta get going, not stand here jawing all day.”
“I needed a rest.”
“You got any food? You better have a bite of it if you do.”
“Sure,” said Becka, reaching for her backpack, it wasn't there, she had moved it into Dora's suburban. “Uh, fuck.” she cursed weakly.
“No food, huh? We'll make a quick trip by a gas station and grab some energy bars and a drink. Amazing how five minutes of heavy fighting makes you need energy and something to drink.”
“It’s not just that, all my ammunition is in it too.”
“Did it fall off when you were playing Evel Knievel up there on the road?” seeing that Becka didn't know who he was talking about he added, “When you jumped over the railing?”
“No, I tossed it into Dora's car. I’m lucky I grabbed my shotgun when I jumped back out for the bike. I only have five shots for it. I’m screwed.”
Jake stepped around to her and hugged her by the shoulders, his hug was a little stiff and very short, “Darling you don't need a gun, you have me. What’s your name anyway?”
Dora hit the gas the suburban responded sluggishly, somewhere along the way all of the windows on the driver's side had been broken out, probably when she side swiped the Caliber. They came up to and passed the wreckage of the Probe and Toyota, both looked like they had rolled over and over again in the median. The zombies looked up briefly as she roared passed them, Dora took one hand off of the steering wheel to flip them the bird as she passed, screaming out “Losers!”
A couple responded with inaccurate rifle fire which made Dora laugh. She had no trouble catching up to the other vehicles, they were heading straight back towards
her, with the Caliber in the lead, gaining speed as they came. An old Ford Ranger with an extended cab was on the other side of the Caliber and inside Dora finally saw one of the twins she had been keeping an eye out for. She barely had time to notice the girl in the oncoming car, “Hey do you think they are actually going to ram us?”
“Yeah, take the exit!” screamed Willy, firing at the vehicles while leaning out of the open passenger window. Through some sort of miracle the front window was still mostly intact and blocking the worst of the wind, the worst that had happened was that the antenna had been torn off of the hood. Dora cut right and zoomed down the exit at forty miles an hour, which turned out to be a problem as there was a solid line of abandoned vehicles in front of her and a variety of shamblers among them.
“Oh fuck me!” She screamed as she forced the suburban up onto the raised curb and through a chain link fence, the street in front of the cars was clear and after crashing through an electric box of some sort Dora bounced out onto it and across the intersection to the awaiting on ramp. There was a wreck there as well, but the shoulder was clear and she had no problem getting back on the highway from there. Willy scrambled over his seat and past the two sitting in the second row to take up a position in the back with his gun, somehow he was reloading as he went. “Beth! Cliff! You have to do more than sit there with your god-damned thumbs up your asses! The shotguns are more effective if you point them at the bad guys and pull the trigger!” yelled Dora. Both of them complied, pointing their guns backwards.
The walkie-talkie came alive from where it had fallen on the floor by Dora's feet, “...are you at? D-! Are you okay?”
Dora fumbled around with her hand on the ground, trying to get the radio, it eluded her, “Dora! Answer us please.” then nothing for a moment, before, “Alright Ken, slow it down, we have to wait.”
