Obeying despite his reluctance, Curtis watched the safety harness drift down toward the barn.
The zombies were in a frenzy, shaking the old structure. It threatened to come apart at any moment. Curtis hunched down by the open doorway and watched, feeling cold and disconnected from those around him.
Monica grabbed the safety harness and struggled into it. He could imagine Bette telling her, You first. He saw their heads draw together in what had to be a kiss; then Bette signaled for them to hoist Monica up.
As Monica swung over the heads of the zombies, they leaped up at her, forgetting the barn temporarily. Curtis couldn’t take his eyes off her. He loved how her brown hair swam around her face in the wind. He imagined touching it.
Then Monica was being pulled into the helicopter. She quickly wiggled out of the harness.
“Hurry! Hurry!” Monica clung to safety straps just inside the doorway. “Her arm is broken! She made me come first.”
4.
The Restless Dead
The zombies had returned to shaking the barn. Pieces were breaking off and it was beginning to list to one side. Bette was holding on for dear life with her one good arm.
“She won’t be able to get into the harness by herself,” Kevin said. Pleasure washed through Curtis at the thought that they’d be leaving Bette behind.
“No! No! Don’t leave her!” Monica screamed.
“I’m not,” Kevin said, slipping into the harness and securing it. “I’m going to get her myself.” He discarded his headset and inched toward the door. With a thumbs-up to Curtis, he stepped out of the helicopter.
Operating the hoist, Curtis watched Kevin’s descending form, wishing both he and Bette would fall to the zombies. Then he and Monica could renew their love … and he’d be close to Bill and Travis again, not pushed aside by Kevin and his arrogance.
The zombies again focused on the food dangling overhead. Curtis glanced at Monica, but she didn’t acknowledge him. Her gaze was firmly fastened on Bette.
Kevin reached Bette, his feet just barely out of reach of the leaping zombies. Struggling to stand on the rickety structure, Bette reached out with her good hand. Just then, several zombies hit the barn with such force that Bette was knocked off balance. She lurched forward.
Kevin managed to grab her as several zombies seized her booted feet. Flailing about, Bette struggled to break free from the grasp of the undead. Kevin hooked his legs around her waist. Curtis saw that both of them were screaming, but he couldn’t hear them over Monica’s earsplitting shrieks. She yelled at him to reel them in.
He still hoped the bitch died.
“Fuck this,” Greta said, pulling the big bird upward.
* * *
Bette felt like she was being pulled in two. Kevin had such a tight grip on her, she could barely breathe. The zombies on her legs were heavy. She kicked at the creatures until she managed to get free of most of the gripping hands.
The helicopter rose, swinging Kevin and Bette over the barn. One last zombie, a woman in a housedress, held firmly to Bette’s foot. To the soldier’s horror, it pulled itself up her leg. Its desiccated, black lips and toothy grimace made Bette scream with sheer terror. She tried to push the creature off with her other foot, but the zombie grabbed that one as well and drew itself higher.
Both legs imprisoned, Bette struggled. The zombie’s teeth gnashed together as it drew closer to her flesh. The young woman could not tear her eyes from the thing’s horrible face.
Kevin let go of her with one arm and Bette gasped in terror, feeling as if she was about to fall. The zombie’s head exploded; its fingers went slack and it tumbled to the ground. Bette felt Kevin wrap his arm around her again and realized he’d shot the zombie.
She lifted her eyes to see Monica gazing down at her. Bette raised her good arm in victory.
* * *
Curtis felt cold and angry, but put a smile on his face when Kevin and Bette fell into a heap inside the helicopter. Monica shoved everyone aside and took Bette in her arms.
“I promised you a happy ending, babe!” Bette shouted before pressing a fervent kiss to her lips.
“Are you bit?” Curtis asked, hoping she was.
“No, no! The car accident banged us up,” Monica answered.
“Gotta check,” Ed said, then did just that.
Curtis almost wanted Bette or both of them to have been bitten and wasn’t sure what he felt when Ed nodded that they were okay.
“Now what?” Greta asked as she swung the aircraft around.
Below, a steady stream of zombies stumbled past the field, heading west. Away from the fort.
Kevin fell into the seat next to Greta and donned his headset.
“Now what?” she repeated.
Kevin hesitated, then said, “Signal the next Durango for phase two.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
1.
Hordes
Dale and Ken listened in silence as the drama unfolded on the CB radio. When it was clear that Monica and Bette were both safe, Ken let out a sigh of relief and collapsed against the dashboard. “Oh, God, I was praying so hard, I thought my head would explode.”
“Well, at least they didn’t get eaten,” Dale said. “Guess that proves the Baptists wrong, eh? The hot lesbians live to kiss another day.”
“You’re really sick, you know,” Ken nagged.
“Yeah, I know,” Dale answered, winking. “And that’s why you like me.”
Ken blushed deeply.
* * *
Bill and Katarina listened with their fingers intertwined and their hearts pounding. It was far too easy to imagine themselves in the place of the two women. The thought of losing each other was too much to bear.
After, they held each other.
“I love you, Bill,” Katarina whispered.
“I love you, Kit-Kat,” he answered, giving her a gruff kiss.
“Durango Two, prepare to depart,” Kevin ordered.
“That’s us, honey,” Bill said, kissing her one more time. He stroked her long red braid, then sat back in the driver’s seat and steadied his nerves. Shifting into drive, he spotted the helicopter drifting into view. “Let’s hope it goes better for us.”
“I’m praying something fierce,” Katarina confessed. “But if it’s our time, I just pray that the Good Lord gives us time to do what we need to.”
With sadness in his eyes, Bill nodded.
“Durango Two, depart,” Kevin said.
* * *
“We almost lost Bette and Monica,” Travis told Katie and Juan as his closest friends entered the communication center. “But they’re okay.”
“Shit,” Juan said. “How?”
“Runners. They’re on the helicopter now. A little battered, but okay.” Travis rubbed his face. “They’re okay.”
“And they got a lot of zombies moving away from us,” Peggy added from her position by the radios. “So that’s good.”
“So the plan is working.” Katie sat down in a chair and ran one hand gently over her large belly.
“So far,” Travis agreed.
“Shit. I told my crazy-ass cousin not to go.” Juan sighed and rubbed his day-old stubble. “Who’s the bait now?”
“Bill and Katarina,” Peggy replied. One of her well-manicured hands rested against the earpiece of her headset.
Katie and Travis linked hands. Giving her a small encouraging smile, he squeezed her fingers.
“Bill knows those roads. He’ll be fine,” Travis said, reassuring himself along with everyone else.
Katie gave him a hopeful yet solemn look.
* * *
Don’t scream don’t scream don’t scream don’t scream don’t scream … Katarina’s mantra repeated endlessly in her mind.
The Durango idled at the crossroads, waiting for the lumbering zombies. The hungry dead clogged the road, filled the ditches, and staggered among the trees. Though the air conditioner was recycling the air in the SUV, the stench was growing unbearabl
e.
Thousands of outstretched hands reached toward their vehicle. The marching zombies were mostly gray and sun-blackened. Their bristled hair stood up around their heads. Their clothes were unrecognizable scraps clinging to decomposing flesh.
“Dear God, Bill, one is in a wheelchair,” Katarina yelled when she saw a terribly eaten-looking zombie rolling down the road, swept along by the undead around it.
Bill arched his neck to see, then laughed. “Shit, babe, don’t that beat all.”
A little boy, a baseball cap on his head and a bat in one hand, reached the Durango and banged on the door with his fist. Katarina studied his cherubic face, somehow still cute in death. In another time, he would be any Little Leaguer, begging to enter his mom’s SUV after a hard game. But this child was hissing and growling, trying to reach their tasty flesh.
The boy began to hit the Durango with his baseball bat.
“Time to go,” Katarina said.
Bill waited for a second, until more zombies were within a few feet of the SUV, then hit the gas. Slowly, the car moved onto the side road, heading west, away from the fort.
Almost in unison, the zombies leading the horde altered their course to pursue the Durango, the little boy dragging his baseball bat on the asphalt.
* * *
“So why are lesbians hot to you Neanderthal straight men but gay men aren’t?” Ken asked, staring out the passenger-side window.
“Uh, ’cause women are hot,” Dale answered.
“I have it on good authority that I’m hot,” Ken responded. “According to many, many women and men.”
“Eh,” Dale said with a grin. He enjoyed giving Ken a hard time—the young man was so easily riled. Dale knew Ken had a mad crush on him, and he’d made it abundantly clear to Ken that nothing would happen between them except friendship, but Ken couldn’t help but flirt. Teasing him seemed the natural response.
“I’m so not ‘eh.’ I am anything but ‘eh.’ I am a hunk. Before I came out, I had so many women after me, I was a stud.” Ken frowned at Dale. “And I was still a stud after I came out, until the world died.”
“I’m sure there are guys in the fort who are gay but aren’t out,” Dale answered seriously.
“Really?”
“I’m pretty sure,” Dale said, shrugging. “My money is that you’re not the only Nancy boy.”
Ken sighed. “Well, they’re so deep in the closet, I can’t find them.”
“It’ll happen. When the time is right,” Dale promised.
“Are you sure you’re not gay?” Ken arched an eyebrow at him.
“Yep. Tried it … kinda … once. Well, actually, I thought she was a girl, but she was a guy.”
“Real Crying Game–ish, huh?”
“Yeah.” Dale nodded. “She was damn hot, too. Until, you know, that.”
“You brute! You turned her down over that?”
“Hey, I tried. I just couldn’t.” Dale said earnestly, “I did try, really.”
Ken let out a soft sigh. “I have the same trouble with women. I love Lenore, and if she were a guy, maybe she’d be my groove thing, but…”
“Sometimes love ain’t enough,” Dale said with another nod. “But at least I got laid last night.”
“Did not!”
“Oh, yeah. Sure did!”
“Who? Tell!”
“Peggy.”
“No!”
“Yep.”
“She’s a dirty whore!” Ken frowned, clearly jealous.
“Oh, yeah,” Dale answered with satisfaction. He winked at Ken, then caught movement just beyond his friend’s window.
“No fair! I didn’t get laid! I’m laid-less. No fair!” Dale reached out and grabbed Ken’s shoulder. “Okay, if you insist! Take me!” Ken joked, then saw the look on Dale’s face. Turning, Ken gasped as he saw a horde of zombies emerging from the trees next to the road.
“They shouldn’t be here!” Dale grabbed the radio. “We got hundreds of zombies at our location. A massive horde. Do you read me?”
In a panic, Ken hit the LOCK button, and the doors clicked.
“Repeat that,” Kevin’s voice answered.
“We got zombies,” Dale answered, then uttered, “Oh, shit,” and tossed the mouthpiece to Ken. The Durango lurched forward as the zombies moved to encircle it. The vehicle smashed into a few undead, then broke free.
“Zombies everywhere. Coming out of the trees on both sides of us. Oh, shit, and up the road. I thought you got them to turn to the west!” Ken screamed into the radio.
“Shit,” Kevin said. “We must have missed some in the recon.” His voice got softer—probably he turned away from the mic—as he said, “Pull back.”
Dale turned the big vehicle around. The narrow, tree-lined road didn’t allow a full U-turn, so he had to back up to adjust his angle.
“We are totally surrounded! This is not good!” Ken shouted into the radio.
Dale was backing up a second time when the wave of zombies hit the truck in an unrelenting wall of flesh, bone, and decay. Moaning, desperate faces filled the windows as clawlike hands scrabbled at the doors.
“Fuck,” Ken whispered into the microphone.
Dale tried to back up, but it was as if the truck were pushing through a brick wall. Fear gripped him as Dale realized their situation had gone from bad to worse.
“Dale,” Ken cried. “Dale!”
The flood of zombies was forcing the Durango across the road. Sliding sideways, the metal sides of the vehicle groaned from the constant pressure. Ken screamed as the zombie pressed against his window split apart like a ripe melon.
“Shit, oh, shit,” Ken whispered, ignoring Kevin’s demands for a status report.
Dale cussed up a storm as he fought with the steering wheel, his foot pressing down on the brake, trying to stop the truck.
The truck fell into the ditch at the side of the road, squashing some of the undead in the process. Dale felt the impact to the marrow of his bones. Ken dangled above him from his seatbelt, screaming. Reaching up, Dale unbuckled him and Ken fell into his arms. The two men lay on the driver’s-side windows, staring at the zombies swarming on all sides of the capsized vehicle.
“We’re not gonna make it, are we?” Ken asked, his voice catching.
“Nope,” Dale answered, resigned to their fate. He felt bad for the young man in his arms, wishing he could find a way to save him.
One of the zombies beat against the back window. Cracks slowly spread across the glass.
“Oh, God,” Ken whispered, covering his mouth in horror.
Dale cradled Ken’s head against his chest. “It’s okay, Ken.”
Ken sobbed softly. “Lenore is going to kill me.”
“At least you know someone loved you,” Dale consoled him.
“Yeah,” Ken whispered as the glass shattered. “Yeah. I do.”
“Ready to go?” Dale flicked the safety off his gun.
Pressing his lips tightly together, Ken nodded.
“I’ll do it for both of us,” the big man said.
Ken nodded again, unable to speak.
Dale kissed Ken on the forehead, then raised the gun. “Sleep tight, Ken,” he said, and fired. Ignoring the bits of brain and blood splattered over him, Dale wrapped his arm around Ken’s shoulders and took a deep breath.
“I’m right behind you, buddy.”
As the first of the zombies fell into the truck, Dale pushed the gun into his mouth and pulled the trigger.
2.
The Helpless Living
Katie didn’t remember falling asleep on the couch in the communication center. She’d been feeling drained, so she decided to lie down, but she’d been listening to the radio reports. The next thing she knew, she was waking up because someone had cried out.
Travis looked stunned; there were tears in his eyes. Peggy sobbed loudly, hands over her face.
“What happened?” Katie asked hoarsely.
“Ken and Dale…” Travis’s voice broke.
“We think they’re gone.”
“No,” Katie whispered in disbelief.
Peggy wiped her tears away and pressed the button on the microphone in front of her. “Dale, Ken, please respond. What is your status?”
Static was the only response.
“What happened?” Katie asked, sitting up.
“Zombies came out of the trees and surrounded them. It sounded like they were trying to drive away when they went silent,” Travis answered.
“Oh, God!” Katie cried.
Peggy continued trying to raise the two missing men.
“This means the zombies are closer than we thought,” Travis said hollowly.
Juan stepped into the room. “We’re taking off in the other helicopter. I’ll let you know what we find.”
“Be careful out there,” Travis answered.
“We will be,” Juan assured him, then was gone.
Katie wrapped her arms around her belly as though to shield her unborn child. The loss of life in the last few months had been staggering. How much more could they endure?
“I wish Nerit was here,” Peggy said through her sobs. “She’d know what to do. No offense, Travis.”
Travis squeezed Peggy’s shoulder. “None taken. Once we know what’s going on out there, we’ll figure out the next step.”
Peggy wiped her eyes again and turned back to the communication center. “Come in, Dale. Come in, Ken. What is your status? Repeat, what is your status?”
3.
The Pied Piper of the Living Dead
Twisting around in her seat, Katarina looked out the back window at the massive crowd of zombies following them. The creatures were so determined, they had actually increased in speed. Bill had had to press down a bit on the accelerator to keep ahead of the flesh-eating mob.
Her stomach heaved and she tried hard not to vomit. Her fear was so powerful, she was trembling. Her teeth were chattering and Bill kept touching her to reassure her. She was sure Nerit would be sorely disappointed in her, but this was very different from being a sniper. Not since the first day had she seen the dead so close, and she’d never seen so many in one place.
“Bill, how much longer?”
“About ten more minutes,” he answered. He was sweating profusely in the unrelenting sunlight that beat through the windshield. Katarina felt sweat trickling between her breasts.
As The World Dies Trilogy Box Set [Books 1-3] Page 91
