Jenni took a few steps toward the road.
“Jenni! We can’t leave,” Katie called out.
Jenni made a face and stomped her foot. “C’mon. Someone is probably alive over there.”
“We have to provide backup to Nerit and the others,” Katarina reminded her.
“Ugh!” Jenni felt frustrated by her inability to rescue whoever was stranded down the road. She kicked a zombie for good measure.
Gunshots sounded from inside. Everyone froze. There was a long silence; then Nerit and the others emerged, accompanied by a young woman who was carrying a small boy. Seeing the carnage in the parking lot, the woman pressed the boy’s face against her neck to block his view.
“They were in a bathroom with the door barricaded. They’re the only survivors,” Nerit said.
“Nerit, we got a vehicle up the road with zombies around it. I count six,” Katarina explained quickly. “Could be survivors in the truck. But we’re gonna have to shoot the zombies to clear them out.”
“That’ll get any zombies in the town moving our way,” Nerit said thoughtfully.
“We gotta save them,” Jenni protested.
“I’m with Jenni. We have to save anyone we can,” Katie agreed.
Bill walked toward them, his expression dark. “I agree. Let’s do it.”
“The road is narrow. Take one of the trucks. We’ll provide as much cover as we can, but make it quick,” Nerit said firmly. “The longer we are here, the more dangerous it is.”
Katie headed toward the red truck. “C’mon, Jenni. We’ll do this.”
Bill jogged after Jenni, saying, “I’m coming with you. There weren’t no vehicles left with the survivors. We don’t know who is in that truck.”
Jenni slid into the backseat and Bill took the passenger seat. Katie shifted gears and slowly drove up the road.
“Maybe they’ll rush the truck so we can run them over,” Katie mused.
“We’re never that lucky,” Bill answered.
As they drew closer to the stranded truck, they could see that it was lodged nose first in a deep ditch. The hood was smashed up against the cracked windshield on the right side and only the headlights were shining into the night. The zombies were pounding on the windows, trying to get into the cab. Inside, two young girls were screaming in terror.
“I’ll take the two on the left,” Bill said, gripping his rifle tightly.
“I can get the ones on the other side, but the two on the windshield are not going to be easy. We’ll have to get out of the truck for those,” Katie pointed out.
“We need to make this fast.” Jenni released the safety on her weapon.
Katie stopped the truck and Bill did a silent countdown with his fingers. At three, they both flung open their doors. Jenni scrambled past Bill’s seat and dropped into the road. She darted past Bill and aimed at a zombie as it reared back off the windshield to screech at the new flesh. She fired. The zombie jerked back and fell into the tall grass. Bill and Katie picked off two zombies each. The remaining zombie, trying to force its way through the shattered windshield, ignored the newcomers. The two girls inside took cover when they heard gunfire. Jenni aimed and fired again. The zombie tumbled over the hood and disappeared from view.
“Get them fast!” Katie gestured toward the town. “Company’s coming!”
Jenni saw zombies materializing out of the darkness of the trees. “Fuck!”
Bill waded into the tall grass, his form illuminated by the red truck’s headlights, both his gun and gaze aimed downward, wary of anything lurking there. Jenni kept him covered as Katie stood ready to jump into the truck and hit the gas.
One of the girls shoved the truck door open. Bill reached for her and she jumped into his arms. Another girl, younger than the first, also dived into his arms. He clutched them tightly.
Jenni watched the terrain around him. “Hurry, Bill! Hurry!”
Bill scrambled back onto the road, glancing over his shoulder at the moaning forms as they drew ever closer. Katie ran over to him and grabbed one of the girls. They hustled the youngsters into the truck while Jenni kept her gun trained on the approaching zombies.
Katie slammed the driver’s door shut as Jenni and Bill scrambled into the truck. Bill yanked the other door shut as Jenni crawled into the back with the two girls.
“Are either of you bit?” Jenni felt like a bitch for having to ask such a terrible question of the traumatized children.
“No! No!” they chorused. One girl was blond with huge blue eyes. The other, the one who looked younger, was Hispanic, with the darkest eyes Jenni had ever seen.
The zombies were closer.
“What drew them here so fast?” Bill wondered. “Couldn’t be the gunfire or our headlights.”
“Don’t know. Don’t care,” Katie answered, and shifted the truck into reverse. Looking over her shoulder, she drove backwards toward the church parking lot. The other two vehicles waited for them.
Suddenly, a man ran into the glare of the headlights. Waving his arms, he was covered in sweat and breathing hard.
“I have a feeling we now know what is drawing them here,” Jenni said. “I think they’re chasing him!”
As Katie hit the brakes, one of the girls peeked around Bill and shouted, “That’s the bad man! He took us away!”
“A bandit!” Katie slammed on the brakes.
“Leave him! Fuck him!” Jenni said.
“We can’t leave him,” Bill protested.
Katie glared at Bill. “He opened the door. He got those people killed!”
Bill looked torn for a second, then said, “We can’t risk it. Leave him.”
Katie looked like she wanted to run the man over, but instead hit the accelerator. The man screamed in anguish as the truck roared away, leaving him to the zombies.
Once Katie cleared the other vehicles, she turned the truck around, switched gears, and headed back down the road.
Jenni looked at the two girls huddled beside her. They were both trembling and staring at her with wide eyes.
3.
The Devils in the Darkness
“So then these fuckers show up, saying they’re there to rescue the people holed up in the community center, that they were going to evacuate them to a safe place,” Jenni explained to the group gathered in the city council room in city hall. All the usual suspects were there: Nerit, Juan, Travis, Peggy, Katie, Bill, and Curtis. It was nearly two hours since they had returned. The few people they had rescued were resting after having a late dinner.
“How many were there?” Travis sat at the end of the table jotting down notes. He felt sick to his stomach at the loss of life and the helplessness he felt.
“Four,” Nerit responded. “They cleared out some of the zombies when they arrived, then used a crowbar to get the doors open.”
“The girls told us that the men didn’t even wait for the people inside to let them in. They just immediately broke in,” Katie added. “Said they were on a tight schedule or some horseshit like that.”
“When Esmerelda, the woman who was in charge, said she would call Peggy for confirmation, they shot her,” Jenni continued. “They grabbed some of the little girls and held them hostage while they ransacked the place. Every time a zombie wandered in, the guys would shoot it. But there wasn’t much to steal, so the bandits loaded the young women and girls into their vehicles and drove away. They left the elderly and the boys behind. The truck we found went off the road when one of the remaining survivors opened fire on it and blew out a tire. The bandits took off on foot, leaving the girls for the zombies.”
Nerit shook her head and lit another cigarette. “Animals.”
“Bastards don’t deserve to live,” Curtis growled.
Nerit took a drag of her cigarette and finished the story. “Since the survivors had limited ammunition and the doors were wrecked, it was only a matter of time before they were overrun. Lily and her little boy had hidden in the bathroom when the bandits first arrived. She barricaded the door
when the screaming started.” People listening shook their heads in sympathy. Nerit continued. “They were the only ones to survive inside the facility. We found them because two zombies were still beating on the bathroom door.”
“So four people survived out of all the people who had been living there.” Travis ran his hand over his hair as he scribbled down these facts. He couldn’t fathom the horror the other group suffered tonight. It was unbelievable that other humans would do this to innocents.
Peggy sat nearby, her face drained of blood. Travis felt for her. He knew she considered all the survivors she spoke to, on the radio or the Internet, her friends. Juan looked pissed off. Curtis looked sick and Bill looked weary.
“Yes,” Nerit finally said. “But at least six women and girls were kidnapped. Their fates are unknown.”
“Bandits.” Travis felt the word hang in the air as the people around him slowly embraced the truth.
“Yes. The men who killed Ralph,” Nerit agreed.
“They’re a real threat. They’re really out there still.” Peggy dabbed at her eyes and swallowed hard.
“Let’s start bringing them in,” Travis said. “Any survivors we can reach safely, let’s bring them in.”
“You’re not mayor yet,” Curtis said.
“Well, what do you want to do?” Travis arched his brows and stared at the younger man.
“Bring them in,” Curtis said with a weak smile. “Bring them all in.”
“Peggy and I will figure out which ones to go after first. Some are pretty far away. Others are heavily surrounded by zombies.” Nerit’s expression was grim.
“We can only do what we can do,” Travis said. It was something they’d all said at times like these, but it was also the truth. Katie laid her hand over his and he rubbed her fingers lovingly. “Bring in as many as we can. Plan well. Be careful.” He hesitated. “I don’t know if the bandits knew about the fort before, but Esmerelda mentioned us. The bandits may come looking for us now.”
The somber expressions at the table said it all. Life had just gotten a lot more complicated.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
1.
The Others
Three weeks slid by. Everyone in the fort was kept busy preparing to take in more survivors. Travis found himself consumed with making sure any new expansions would be secure. He, Juan, and Eric pored over every option before them.
Groups headed out to hunt, salvage, and bring back any supplies they could lay their hands on. Construction workers made sure they had enough building supplies as new expansions were planned and repairs were made.
They began by bringing in the small groups closest to the town while Nerit made plans to recover the ones at farther distances. All the survivors were informed about the bandits—and that when the fort people came for them, they would be notified well in advance.
Things seemed calm out on the deadlands except for the wandering zombies, until …
One day, Jenni walked briskly across the roof of the old newspaper building with a rifle in her hand. Her red tank top, cowboy hat, and jeans revealed deeply tanned shoulders and arms. She had suffered a nasty sunburn the week before, but some aloe vera had done the trick and now she had a great tan.
Nearby, Jason and his crew of teenagers, along with Roger, practiced with their giant new slingshot. They were firing coffee cans filled with earth at a group of zombies staggering on the street in front of the hotel. Every time someone managed to nail one, all the teens would cheer.
So far the slingshot and concussion grenades had been the young team’s best creations. Now they were trying to combine the two. Jenni thought it looked like more fun than she was having, but then again, being on guard duty meant she was able to hang out with her hot man.
Jenni’s cheeks were reddened and her dark eyes bright as she walked up to Juan and handed him a thermos of iced tea. He smiled at her and pressed a kiss to her lips, then took several gulps of the cold brew.
“It’s so damn hot,” he complained, wiping his brow with the back of his hand.
She poked his chest playfully with one finger. “Wussy. We can always strip naked to cool off.”
“On duty,” he said regretfully. “Later, though …” With a smile, he kissed her quickly and settled back into his chair.
She took her place in the chair next to him. They both stared out over the town toward the hills. It was almost like sitting on a porch on a nice lazy Sunday, except for the intense heat, the gusts of wind, and the zombies.
“They are so going to vote in Travis as mayor,” Jenni said with a grin.
“He’s gonna be so pissed.” Juan gulped down more sweet tea, looking pleased.
“Everyone loves his calm demeanor and peacemaking skills. Plus, they know you got his back and won’t let him be too soft. Your hard-line stance has everyone cheering.”
“The ‘do your damn work or take a hike’ stance? What can I say? I’m an asshole.” Juan shrugged.
“Yeah, but it kinda makes sense. Except for the really old people like Old Man Watson and the disabled and kids.”
“I just liked it when people were doing stuff to help out and nobody had to yell at them.” Juan flicked up the brim of his hat and grimaced. “We got into this damn hotel and it was like everyone went soft and stupid. Travis complains about it all the damn time. I don’t blame him.”
“Well, nobody is going to vote for Steven Mann, that’s for damn sure. His bitch wife pisses everyone off.” Jenni lifted her rifle and surveyed the town through the scope.
“They’re both flaming assholes.” Juan watched the teenagers lob another coffee can down the street and flatten a zombie. “They want to be able to tell everyone what to do for their ‘own good’ and make sure that the social classes are restored. Must be hell for them to be forced to work.”
“Yeah. Blanche tends to just stand there and pretend to be doing something.” Jenni slowly scanned the section of town they were watching over. “It’s so damn annoying. She told Katie that she was too delicate for hard work.”
Juan shook his head and looked toward the towering hotel. “My ass, she’s too delicate. I’m sure it takes some work to teeter around in those high heels all the damn time. I’m sure that takes some work balancing on them. And her helmet-head hair? How long does that take to shellac?”
Catching a glimpse of something suspicious, Jenni gasped, swinging the rifle back along the line of trees she’d been scanning. She focused on a figure standing under the shade of some trees, watching the fort through a pair of binoculars.
“What are the chances of a zombie knowing how to use binoculars?”
“Those shit for brains?” Then Juan realized the question wasn’t a joke and leaped to his feet. “Damn! Where?”
“Two blocks down, near the front porch of the blue house. Under the trees.”
Juan lifted his binoculars. “Can’t see for shit! Yeah … that’s someone alive.”
Jenni tried hard not to blink as she adjusted the scope and make out the person. As she watched, the figure lifted what looked like a walkie-talkie.
“Bandits?”
“Maybe, Loca. Or someone trying to figure out if we’re alive in here.”
“Well, obviously we are,” Jenni said. “I mean, listen to the sound of the machinery working on the new extension.”
“True,” Juan said. “So bandits it is. Anyone else would come up and knock. Shit.”
Jenni snatched up her walkie-talkie. “Nerit, we have a situation. I’ve spotted what appears to be a man observing us with binoculars.”
“I’m on my way.”
Within minutes, Nerit was on the roof with Travis right behind her. “Where?”
Jenni pointed.
Nerit grabbed the binoculars and peered through them. “Near the blue house?”
“Yep.”
Nerit’s lips pressed tightly together. Beside her, Travis squinted, trying to see through Jenni’s rifle scope.
“See them, Travis?”
“Them? I only see one.”
“I have three, all men. And a van with fresh mud on the tires. We’re definitely being studied.” Nerit quickly pointed out the other two watchers. “How many teams do we have out, Travis?”
“Just one. They’re picking up that reverend and a family out in Summerville,” Travis answered.
“Call them. Tell them to waste no time,” Nerit said sharply. “That contingency plan we drew up is now activated.”
“Shit.” Travis pulled out his walkie-talkie and rushed for the stairs.
Nerit handed the binoculars to Jenni. “Keep an eye on them and keep me informed. Juan, we’ll need you down below. I’ll send someone else up to help Jenni.”
Jenni looked at Juan worriedly as Nerit strode away. He kissed her cheek. “It’s gonna be okay, Loca. I gotta get down to the gate.”
She kissed him firmly on the lips. “Love you.”
“Love you, Loca.”
As he hurried away, she couldn’t help but admire his taut ass. To steady her nerves, she took a deep breath. She turned toward the team working the slingshot.
“Kids, Roger, we have a situation,” Jenni called out. “You better get back inside.”
Below, she heard Travis on the bullhorn, calling a Code Red. Her palms sweating, she raised the rifle and looked through the scope at the man down the street.
“Who the hell are you?”
2.
Code Red
“How close are they?” Travis asked Curtis as he entered the communication hub.
Yolanda was at the small computer station. Curtis was perched in front of the radio equipment.
“Are we really Code Red?” Yolanda asked worriedly.
“Yeah. Unidentifieds in the neighborhood. Living,” Travis responded as he listened to Curtis calling the rescue team.
Yolanda frowned. “Peggy said another survivor group didn’t check in today.”
Travis rubbed his chin. “Yeah, I heard that.”
“When they’ve lasted this long and then one day, nothing …” Yolanda chewed on her bottom lip worriedly.
As The World Dies Trilogy Box Set [Books 1-3] Page 57
