by Mark Clodi
“I can do what I want!” the girl screamed into Willy's face, “I can do what I want! No one can tell me what to do! I make you do what I want, you don't make me do what you want! You’re all mine. I get to make rules not you!” then slowly she leaned in and took a bite out of Willy's neck, his head lolled sideways and his eyes stared directly into Dora's as the girl bit down, he was no longer screaming and mouthed the word 'Go' at her, tears streaming down his face. This broke Dora's infatuation with the scene and she slowly pushed herself up near the back window of the ranger. The blond was looking at Andi feed on the boy and the one footed zombie had not been paying attention to Dora in the first place, with a shotgun Dora was certain she could have put an end to all three of them in a matter of seconds. The fourth zombie, the tall muscular one, was still shaking in the tall grass by the shoulder of the road, no threat to anyone yet.
The high pitched pining of a motorcycle broke the silence, it arced up out of the ditch and straight into the blond zombie. Dora saw Jake and Becka riding double on the bike, which slowly crashed after smashing into the zombie woman. Becka bailed off from behind Jake and rolled into the median while the tall lanky man tried to regain control of the motorcycle and steer it towards Andi. He fell short of that goal and flipped over the handlebars as the wheel dug into the grass, Jake ended up on his back with his head at Andi's feet. Even from where Dora sat in the back of the truck bed she heard him say “Fuck.”
Dora jumped out of the pickup bed onto the blond woman, she could have taken her time though because the blond was just lying on the pavement twitching. The humans had seen such behavior a few times in the past, usually when a zombie had taken major spinal or neck damage. The zeds would heal up and be moving again, given some time, but Dora had no intention of letting the woman recover. Looking around she searched for a tire iron or other means of bashing in the zombie's head, her eyes then fell upon the tail gate.
Reaching down Dora grasped the blonde's ankles, her own wrist was hurting but seemed to function alright and her ribs were now just a dull ache. Spinning the blond was no problem at all and when she had enough force she smashed the zombie into the back of the truck, aiming for the bumper. Dora's aim was a little off and the zombie's head ended up impacting on the torn metal of the tail gate, removing everything above the nose. Dora spun once more and released the body in the general direction of Andi who was on top of Jake beating him into the ground. The top of the blond's head landed bloody side down in the back of the truck bed, the thing's eyes seemed to be looking right at Dora, who laughed and turned towards the muscle man.
Becka was not up yet, she seemed to be moving as if she were hurt really bad, so Dora moved to put herself between the girl and the still active zombies. As Dora stepped towards the big zombie she smiled; there, on the road, was another shotgun. It had some twine wrapped around the barrel in front of the trigger guard, which told Dora the gun had been strapped to Becka's motorcycle at some point.
With a short whistle springing to her lips she picked up the gun and approached the still recovering zombie. He lifted his head and started to speak, “Plea-” The blast hit him square in the head, killing him. Another two steps and Dora had a front row seat to the wrestling match between Jake and Andi. The zombie with one foot was nowhere to be seen, but Dora did see a crushed path through the knee high grass leading out to the other side of the highway, looking close she saw puddles of zombie blood on the road. Turning her gaze back on Jake and Andi, Dora stopped, shocked. It was Andi, the zombie didn't resemble a little girl so much anymore as a fury of nature, and she had two hands. The one that had been blown off was smaller and a deep red color, but it was there and growing more vibrant each time she swung her little arm down to pummel Jake.
“A little, aagh, help here?” asked Jake.
“I can't shoot her without hitting you!” Dora said, which was true, they were both moving very fast. It was evident that Jake could not get the upper hand on the girl, and just as clear that killing him was going to take her some time. One of Andi's hands punched through Jake's stomach and she started to focus her efforts there, moving all the while to keep Dora from getting a shot of at her.
“Shoot anyway! Shoot anyway!” yelled Jake, as the girl grabbed his innards and started tossing them by the handful into the grass, “Fucking shoot!”
Shrugging Dora spared a glance at Willy, he lay crumpled and sobbing on the grass where Andi had dropped him. He had one hand holding his lifeblood in at his neck and his other arm was still bent in an angle that it was not supposed to be at. Looking at the fury of fighting Dora thought of the cartoon Tasmanian Devil from her child hood, it was just a series of fast blows raining down, with pieces flying off as the two circled each other. Jake rolled beneath the girls again and Dora fired her gun at the same time, catching Andi in the back, punching through the girl's body and striking Jake over the heart. Jake rolled with the blast onto his back and didn't move, his stomach was an empty skin sack, torn open so deep Dora could clearly see the bottoms of his ribs and his spinal column.
“Jesus fuck, Jake, you look bad.” said Dora, then Andi, still standing, spun around and leaped for her throat. Andi's little fists were out before her in a classic superman dive, fingers reaching for the living woman's throat. For Dora it was like the girl was diving through a wall of syrup, she found it easy to shift the gun's barrel and wait until that perfect moment when Andi's head was six inches away and in a perfect line with the business end. She pulled the trigger and nothing happened, so she pulled it again, then smoke and pellets issued forth from the end of the barrel.
It was going so slow Dora thought she could have counted the individual pellets had she chose to. Right after the first puff of smoke came another one. Andi brushed her arm in front of her face before the shot hit her, taking the brunt of it in her regrown arm, and losing it again in the process. The girl's mouth twisted into a scream as the second shot slammed her directly in the face. Dora watched as Andi's head was worn away by the pellets, they ate away her eyes, nose and the top of her head like waves dissolving a sand castle on the beach as the tide came in. The girl slammed into Dora, knocking her backwards onto her backside next to Willy.
“Eww.” said Dora, rolling Andi's corpse off of her, but leaving behind a large amount of blood and gore, “I got Andi all over me!”
She looked at Willy, he had taken his hand off of his neck, which was not bleeding anymore and straightened his arm out, twisting it around until he appeared to be satisfied it was back the way it should be.
“Shit Willy, doesn't that hurt?”
He shrugged, “Yeah.” then he looked down at his missing foot and moaned, “Oh God! I...where is my foot Dora?” then he collapsed back onto his back on the grass.
Dora got back to her feet, Becka was up and moving too, walking slowly towards them, “You alright Becka?”
“What happened?”
“We killed Andi, one of the wonder twins!”
“I know we were coming to help you, but everything happened so fast. Where’s Jake?”
“Here.” the man called weakly from in the grass.
Stepping over to him Dora reassessed her evaluation of him; he looked worse than shit. “Jake how long is it going to take before you heal up and can go?”
Jake moved both his hands into his stomach area and waved them around, then stared at Dora.
“It might be awhile, but minutes, hours or days? Are you still an asset or do Becka and I leave you and move on?'
“You go, I can't make it, I might be out for a while. I might never make it back. I have never been this torn up. I need to feed, that would speed up the process.”
Dora stepped back from him automatically bringing up her shotgun.
“Yeah darling, you could just end the contract right here, but I like to think I’ve held up my end of the bargain.”
Dora nodded once, curtly, then said to Becka, “We gotta take one of their vehicles, the truck. Let’s get Willy loaded up.�
�
“No.” Willy's voice was strong.
“We need to catch up with the others, c'mon Becka.”
“No Dora. She bit me, you know what that means. I’m dead, just go...you know what you have to do first.”
Realization hit Dora then and she looked at the shotgun then to Willy, “Oh Willy, I don't think...”
“I don’t want to come back as one of them. Do it and go. I’m dead. Jeff told us this might happen, where we have to choose between what’s hard and easy. Just do it and go.”
Dora raised the gun and sighted down the barrel at the boy's head, her finger tightened on the trigger, sweat broke out on her forehead, then she lowered the barrel and sighed, “I can't. Becka?”
The girl held her hands out in front of her, “No, no! Not Willy! I couldn't”
“Well shit. Willy what can we do?”
“Leave me the gun. Make sure it is loaded. Then get out of here.”
Dora was about to complain that it was their only gun, then nodded, removing a couple shells from her pockets and reloading the weapon before sitting it down by the boy. She leaned over him and whispered, “Sorry Willy, sorry I couldn't do it. I just...”
“It is okay Dora, I understand, I can do this. Now go save the rest of them. You gotta go.”
Dora leaned over and hugged the boy, his body seemed so light, so frail and his skin was so pale from blood loss that she couldn't believe he was even still conscious. “Go.” He said one more time.
Rising and gathering up Becka, Dora headed to the ranger and got in. In moments the two were gone, racing down the road where the buses had disappeared a mere five minutes before. In the grass in the median the boy and the zombie lay, one dying the other slowly healing. The boy raised his head, “Jake?”
“Yeah Willy?” Jake replied tilting himself over to look at the young man.
“I am still alive Jake. But I am going to die. You could help them, if you could heal up again.”
“ I know Willy.”
“I don't want to come back Jake, when you are done.”
“Okay Willy.” said Jake, as he slowly dragged himself towards the boy through the grass.
Chapter 42
When the last bus in the line was slammed into from behind Paige was sitting in the seat directly behind Ken, the driver. Their bus, because it was last in line had two other adults on it, and mostly older kids, although there were still a couple nine year olds that simply wouldn't fit on the other vehicles. They were all armed and prepared when the trip began, but as the vehicle smashed in them the discipline vanished and was replaced by worry.
There were sounds of fighting in the space that had been left at the very rear of the bus, that fighting compartment was invisible to those at the front of the bus, it was divided by a huge pile of boxes, crates and backpacks, not to mention other supplies, which formed a wall between the two areas. After the sounds of fighting the pile of supplies wiggled around a bit as if it were being moved, then one of the wonder twins burrowed through the bags and boxes to appear on the human side behind the last seat.
One minute there was nothing there, the next there was a raging tornado of death swirling about the rear seats. Paige pulled her shotgun in from the window where she had it aimed a moment before. She was the first to get her gun turned around, but not the first to fire. There were too many people fleeing death in her way. The oldest man in Doraville, Sinclair James didn't run from the girl. Sinclair was an old African American with gray hair cut close to his scalp, he was a tall, full man who said he would die fighting if he had to die and Paige watched him prove it. To his credit Sinclair did get off one shot, it flew into the ceiling, tearing a patch of sky there for all to view, then the little zombie girl was on him, smashing with her fists, beating him about the head and neck. The man brought his rifle butt up in a dirty trick move that he had probably learned in the army sixty years ago, this one caught he girl by surprise and deformed her small jaw when it rocked her head back, but it was only a moment's respite. When she came around again she struck Sinclair's legs, one after the other, the man toppled forward and the girl let him fall, while she licked the blood off of one fist.
The zombie girl was too short and there were too many people in the way for Paige to get a good shot at her, even with Sinclair was out of the way. The only other adult was leading the charge for the front door screaming for Ken to open it and let her out, but one of the teenage girls had enough sense to brace her shotgun on a seat and take a shot at the pint sized zombie; that girl was the next to die. Paige didn't see it so much as hear it, she refocused on the pile of baggage at the rear of the bus and waited.
The other zombies in the back appeared to be tossing their supplies and bags out of the emergency door to make a path into the main area of the bus. Idly Paige wondered what had happened to Gus and Cliff, the two boys who had volunteered to sit in the small cleared out space to act as tail gunners, 'Nothing good', she thought to herself as she aimed at the shifting bags. Her patience was rewarded when she saw a head appear behind a moved bag, she fired calmly and despite the movement of the bus she knew she had killed the zombie.
The zombie girl finished up with the teenager and started killing the kids near the back of the pack, grabbing one of the younger ones she tossed him back towards the luggage like so much meat. The screaming youth slammed into the top of the pile of bags, burst through, taking a half dozen bags with him and then screamed as he tumbled through the open emergency exit and out the back door. Paige didn't flinch, even when she saw Steve run over the kid with his truck.
“Fuck, you are a nasty little bitch.” she said, still trying to get a bead on the girl.
It was no use the girl had ducked under the seats and pulled another teenager to her doom, with everyone on the bus screaming Paige would have thought she couldn't hear the girl's last frantic yells, unfortunately she could. At the rear of the bus she caught sight of two zombies hiding behind the baggage as it slowly settled around them. Paige pulled herself up fully into the seat, sitting on her legs so she wouldn't have the unpleasant surprise of being pulled under like a seal by a hunting shark. One of the zombies back there was Jim Tiller, the other was some super that Paige hadn't seen before. She sighted down the barrel of her shotgun and took four shots at the other zombie, the first missed him by a good margin, the second hit him in the upper thigh, spraying dark zombie blood all over the inside of the back of the bus. The third shot was intercepted by a teenage boy's head as he jumped up into her line of sight trying to escape the little super zombie underneath him. His blood sprayed over the two rows of passengers behind him and onto the ceiling of the bus. Paige didn't let the friendly fire distract her, the kids had all been warned to stay down and there would be time enough for mourning her mistakes later, if she lived.
Her fourth shot hit the zombie in the left shoulder, flinging him back around to stand silhouetted in the open doorway of the bus. Paige didn't fire again, she knew she was out of ammo, while her hands reloaded the gun almost automatically a hail of bullets from the pickup trailing the bus slammed into the thing, a few even hit Tiller, although they did not put the zombie down. The zombie in the doorway was winged in the head, probably not a killing blow, but it was enough to stun him and make him lose his grip. The stunned zombie slowly toppled out of the bus onto the hard pavement below where Steve swerved to run it over. The last Paige saw of the thing was one of his pale white hands reaching skyward as the truck drove over him.
Tiller, meanwhile, had disappeared. Paige guessed that he opted to burrow into the pile of bags like the little girl had done to avoid more gunfire. The kids were still screaming and being slaughtered in front of her as the zombie girl kept pulling them down under the seats.
“Fuck this!” Paige thrust herself up onto the top of the back of the seat, the swaying bus made moving difficult as she crouched down and stepped from seat back to seat back. Beneath her all of the children seemed to calm down now that she was taking action, the
ir cries were muted to a dull roar in her ears.
Paige stepped over to where the boy had disappeared, aiming the shotgun down. Nothing, just blood. She glanced back at the luggage to make sure Tiller had stayed in place and that was when the girl struck. Suddenly, forcefully the boy’s body was thrust up at her from the seat behind where she was crouched, Paige was not caught completely off guard and had started to react as soon as her eyes noticed the movement. As a result the boy glanced off of her right arm, it was enough to twist the shotgun around and point it towards the front of the bus, the gun discharged in the process.
Paige struggled to remember how many times she had fired it; the gun held five shots and she was down to four. The flung body was followed up by the wonder twin herself, the girl leaped up to the seat and seeing Paige's gun twisted around behind her, the zombie wasted no time jumping onto her opponent.
Paige still had one hand braced against the roof of the bus, the wondertwin was in mid leap at her and she knew she could not bring the shotgun around fast enough to fire, so she let go of the gun and reached for the revolver tucked into her belt. Even that was too slow, she managed to fire off one shot that looked like it missed the zombie completely, and then she suffered repeated blows from the little girl. Taking one of the girls fists to her stomach just about made Paige throw up and as the girl slowly pulled her hand back for another blow Paige realized she could not afford to be a punching bag. She also knew that the odds of anyone coming to her aid from the terrorized group of teens was unlikely, it was as if she and the zombie girl were fighting alone.
