Jennifer turned, reaching for the truss.
That’s when Cassie realized their mistake. A second dark shape dropped down from the trusses, falling straight toward Jennifer. They’d been so focused on the first zombie, they’d never seen the second one sneaking up on them.
Cassie opened her mouth to scream a warning, but it was too late. The second zombie landed on top of Jennifer, knocking her to the ground. Her sister screamed as the monster pinned her. He wrapped his hands around her head, attempting to slam her skull against the ground. Jennifer shrieked, clawing at the Soviet’s face with her bare hands. The two of them jerked and writhed on the pavement.
Jennifer’s cry went through Cassie like a bolt of lightning. In the blink of an eye, she saw what would happen.
a) The zombie had Jennifer’s head firmly in his hands and would not let go.
b) He would crack open her skull.
c) He would kill Jennifer.
d) He would do all that in the span of a few seconds.
In a situation like this in chess, a trade had to be made. One piece had to fall so another could be saved. Cassie didn’t care what it took. She had to save her sister.
If she opened fire, she had as much chance of shooting Jennifer as she did the Soviet. So Cassie did the next best thing. She charged.
For the first time in her life, she took advantage of her height and build. She was bigger than the Soviet in every way. She barreled into him with the ferocity of a bull, smacking into him so hard they both rolled across the concrete. Her shirt tore against the asphalt. Pain ripped across her back and shoulders.
They tumbled to a stop, the zombie on top. He smiled at her, a pleased purr rippling up from his throat. His eyes were tinged with red on the edges. His hands reached for her, descending around her head.
“Cassie!” In her periphery, she saw Jennifer scramble to her feet. Her machine gun lay on the ground several feet away. She lunged for it, but Cassie knew she wouldn’t get to it in time.
The only thing between her and the Soviet was her own machine gun. Somehow, Cassie had managed to hang onto it. It was squashed between them, the barrel pointed at Cassie. There was no way to position it to take out the Soviet, so she did the next best thing.
She shoved it upward, smacking the length of the barrel right into the Soviet’s face. The bone of his nose crunched from the impact, but all that did was make him mad. He bit down on Cassie’s hand, tearing through skin and crunching down on bone.
Pain ripped up her arm. Cassie screamed and bucked, but the zombie held her down. He kept his teeth locked on her hand. He sucked on the blood that gushed from her ruined hand, smiling at her around the gore. Once again, he reached for her head. Cassie saw her death reflected back at her from the depths of his eyes.
“Cassie, no!”
An explosion rocked the bridge, sending Cassie and the zombie sideways. His teeth tore free of her hand.
Cassie clung to the machine gun like a lifeline.
A second explosion rocked the bridge, throwing Cassie and the zombie up against the railing. Somehow, she ended up with her head lodged against his stomach. The machine gun was pointed right at his abdomen.
Their eyes met for a half second. Then Cassie pulled the trigger.
Bullets ripped outward. The zombie’s torso was shredded into a gory mess. Cassie shifted the barrel, sending more bullets into his face. His body went slack, slumping to the ground.
Cassie released the gun and rolled away. She curled into a tight ball around her bleeding hand as a third explosion rocked the bridge. Debris rained down around them.
“Cas!”
Cassie closed her eyes, sobbing around her ruined hand. Her body shook with shock. Coherent thought eluded her.
“Cassie!” Jennifer was beside her, gently lifting her in her arms. She cradled Cassie against her chest, rocking her like she was a little girl. “Cas, are you okay? Cas?”
Unable to form words, Cassie held out her hand. Blood gushed from it, dripping onto the asphalt. She glanced at the dead zombie.
Jennifer followed her gaze. The zombie’s chest and face had been shot off. A shudder went through Jennifer. Tears spilled out of her eyes. She glared down at Cassie.
“You’re going to be fine,” she said fiercely. “This is a new type of zombie. We don’t know what their bite does. It might not do anything.”
She was in denial. Cassie loved her for that.
She took in the scene, taking a moment to gather her courage. There were huge cracks in the concrete where the explosion had gone off. The trusses lay in a wreckage. The bridge groaned loudly from the abuse, but it still stood. Their jeep had slid up against the railing opposite to them, but was otherwise unscathed.
Cassie shifted her gaze to the dead Russian zombie who had bitten her. One fact hung before her: she did not want to turn into a monster. She didn’t want to turn into something that hunted humans and ate brains. She didn’t want to hurt the people she cared about.
She didn’t want someone to put her down the way Spill had put down Griggs. Cassie couldn’t bear to even consider that. Who would do it? Jennifer?
Leo?
No way. No way would she put that burden on their shoulders, not when she could take care of the problem herself. She would rather die doing some good for the country.
In the blink of an eye, their roles had switched. Jennifer was no longer the ideal piece to blow the bridge.
That was now Cassie’s role.
She sat up, gently pushing Jennifer away. “I’m going to stay behind and light the last set of fuses.” Cassie swallowed back her tears. She had to stop crying and get her head back in the game. There was important work to be done. “You need to get off the bridge before the busses get here. Take the jeep.”
“No.” Jennifer shook her head vehemently, tears dripping off her cheeks. “No. I’ll stay with you. We’ll go out together.”
“I can’t let you do that.” Cassie wiped away the last of her tears, summoning every scrap of courage she had. She had to make Jennifer leave the bridge, no matter what. If that meant she had to put on a brave face, she would do that. “You need to go.”
Argument gathered in Jennifer’s grief-stricken eyes. She opened her mouth to argue, but Cassie cut her off.
“You have to make sure Leo knows what happened to me.” She pulled off her necklace with shaking hands, passing the chain with its small black knight pendant to Jennifer. “Make sure he knows I died protecting our home. You have to make sure he knows that.”
“Cassie …” Jennifer dissolved into sobbing. Her wails were like knives in Cassie’s chest.
Jennifer’s grief nearly broke her, but she was determined to see her sister off the bridge to safety. She peeled open Jennifer’s palm and placed the pendant in her hand. “Promise me you’ll tell him.”
She waited for Jennifer’s shaky nod before gently shoving her sister away. “Go. The busses will be here soon. I’ll make sure they don’t make it to the other side.”
Cassie told herself this was a good way to go out. It was a better fate than Griggs had. At least her death would count for something.
“I love you.” Jennifer’s words were followed by a fresh wave of sobs.
“I love you, too.” Cassie gave Jennifer her best smile. “Keep fighting, Jen. Don’t stop until our country is free.”
Jennifer nodded. She threw her arms around Cassie and squeezed the breath out of her lungs.
“It should have been me,” she said between sobs. “You’re a better person than I am.”
“Now you’re just being stupid.” Cassie gave her one last hug before firmly stepping away. “Let me turn this into something good.” She held up her bleeding hand for emphasis.
Jennifer swallowed and nodded. With one last anguished look at Cassie, she turned and ran to the jeep. When she sped away, Cassie wasn’t sure if she was running toward safety, or away from nightmare.
48
Petals
Ca
ssie dropped her brave facade as Jennifer disappeared from sight. Chills swept her body. Cassie slumped against the side of the bridge and cried.
She didn’t want to die. She was only eighteen years old.
She was supposed to graduate from high school. She was supposed to go to college. She was supposed to keep playing chess and make something of herself. She was supposed to take a road trip across country with Amanda and Stephenson someday, when they all had driver’s licenses and jobs.
She was supposed to do and experience so many things. Hell, she was supposed to go to the beach with Leo when the war was over. When she said goodbye to him at the bridge, she never dreamed that would be the last time she saw him. She wished she could see him one last time.
Maybe it was better that he wasn't here. Leo wouldn’t see her this way, wounded and dying of infection. At least he would remember her as a whole person. She glanced down at her hand. Blood still dripped out. She already saw the puckering signs of infection around the wound.
The immensity of her loss yawned before her. Less than two weeks ago, she’d had an entire lifetime in front of her.
Everything had changed in less than five seconds, when the zombie sank his teeth into her hand. A lifetime had diminished to blink.
What happened to people when they died? Did souls really go to heaven, like so many people believed? Or would she be reincarnated as something weird, like a crawdad? Or was there just … nothing? What would happen when she closed her eyes for the last time?
A deep yearning for Leo opened up in her chest. More tears flowed from her eyes. She scrubbed them away, forcing herself to look south, toward the approaching busses. They were once again visible. They were close, no more than five or ten minutes away.
The chunks of broken concrete and broken trusses would slow them down. That could work in her favor. She wanted to make sure all four busses were on the bridge when she lit the last fuses.
In fact, the fuses could do with some shortening. Cassie didn’t want to leave them any chance of escape. By the time the Russians saw the fuses and figured out the danger, Cassie wanted it to be too late for them. Her death would mean something. She could keep all those invaders from moving into West County, taking over her home, and terrorizing everyone she loved.
Using her knife, she ripped off a piece of her shirt and used it to bind her hand. No need to risk a slippery grip on the trusses, especially since Cassie wasn’t a gymnast like her sister.
She considered her leg, where the bullet had hit her. It hurt like hell, but in light of her very short future, she barely felt the pain. She decided to leave it.
Resolute, she limped over to the truss and began to climb. The wind picked up as she crept steadily higher. She didn’t permit herself to look down; the last thing she needed to do was fall.
She stopped when she reached the second bomb. She made sure her perch was secure, dangling her legs between the metal supports that criss-crossed the trusses, just like Jennifer had done. The end of the first fuse was tied to her belt loop. Using her knife, she shortened the fuse on the second and third bombs.
There. That would give the Russians no more than two minutes once she lit the fuses. There was no way they could back four busses off the bridge that fast. She would take the enemy down with her.
There was nothing to do now but wait.
She glanced north, in the direction Jennifer had gone. Did that smudge at the end of the bridge belong to her sister, or was it a trick of the light? She decided it had to be Jennifer. Her sister was safe. She didn’t regret tackling that Soviet. Cassie would have done the same thing a thousand times over.
She stared out into the night, watching the headlights of the busses snake closer and closer to the bridge.
She was cold. Cassie hugged herself, looking down at the bandage around her hand. It was already soaked with blood.
She tried to make peace with her situation, but all she felt was fear and loss.
The busses arrived. The lead one pulled to a stop twenty feet shy of the first ripple in the concrete. The headlights blared across the road, illuminating the damage Jennifer and Cassie had done.
That gave her a sense of pride. Despite everything, that was good work. If you had to lose a chess game, it was better to lose playing a damn good game. She had played her best.
A few Soviets piled out of the bus, inspecting the damage. Turned out it was a good thing that detonating one location wasn’t enough to bring down the bridge. If it had been any other way, there was no way all those invaders would be lured into their trap.
“Come on,” Cassie whispered. “You know you want to cross.”
After several minutes of deliberating, the Russians returned to their bus. Cassie held her breath as she heard the brake release.
“Come on.” Surely they wouldn’t turn around, not when they were so close to their destination. Would they?
She nearly whooped with joy when the lead bus accelerated forward. It moved slowly, rolling over concrete and twisted pieces of metal.
Cassie pulled out her Zippo, thankful it wasn’t her right hand that had been bitten. She watched, waiting for the moment when the fourth bus entered the bridge and got near the center. Good thing the bridge was so darn long.
As the last bus entered the trap, her heart began to pound. This was it. Her time was up.
Swallowing, Cassie flipped open the lighter. She touched the tiny flame to each of the fuses. When all three hissed with life, she tucked the Zippo into the front pocket of her shirt.
Her fingers brushed something soft. The asters from Leo. She’d forgotten all about them.
Cassie pulled them out, a few tears leaking out of her eyes as she stared at the crushed purple petals. She closed her eyes and inhaled their soft scent. The burning fuses faded to a dim background noise.
Somewhere nearby, people started to shout. A horn blared. Someone slammed on the brakes. The Soviets must have spotted the sparking fuses. Too late for them. There was nowhere to run.
Cassie kept her eyes closed. She took one last inhale from the wilted asters.
She held the memory of Leo’s smile in her heart when the bombs exploded.
49
Black Knight
As far as Leo was concerned, Bruce couldn’t drive fast enough. His fists clenched in his lap as the land blurred by on either side of the jeep.
He tried not to fret about what he might find—or what he might not find. Jennifer and Cassie were capable. They were safe. They would be waiting for him.
“Captain.” Spill gestured with his chin. “Mutants.”
Leo glanced left and saw a pack of three mutants running up a small rise. They were on an intercept course with the jeep.
After the Russian zombies, the mutants didn’t even phase Leo. He and Spill stood up in the back seat, resting their machine guns on the head rest of the front seats. They opened fire on the mutants.
Leo aimed high, focusing on the heads. Satisfaction roared through his blood as bullets cut through the skulls of the mutants, turning their necks into bloody stumps.
Distantly, he wondered at himself. What did it mean that he felt satisfaction in murder and death?
A huge, metallic boom echoed through the air. Bruce slammed on the brakes. The three of them sat frozen, listening to the scream of metal. Somewhere above the din, he thought he detected the cries of people.
“The bridge,” Leo said. “The girls brought the bridge down. Move, Bruce.”
Bruce slammed his foot on the accelerator.
Five minutes later, they arrived at Luma Bridge. Bruce threw the jeep into park as the three of them piled out onto the road.
The center of the bridge was gone. Three busses lay in the chilly waters of the bay, rapidly sinking. People trapped inside were screaming.
It wasn’t just soldiers screaming down there. There were screams of women and children in the air, too. It was a terrible sound that clawed at a deep place inside him.
Leo buried
the feeling and hardened his heart. This was war. The invaders had left them no choice.
One bus remained, teetering on the edge. The front end dangled over the bay. The back tires were suspended above the concrete. People were trying to scramble out the windows.
But the balance of the vehicle was already shot. It was like watching a slow-motion video. The front end kept tipping. The bus gave a great groan as it slid against the ruined pavement. Chunks of concrete, disturbed by the friction, broke away into the water. They landed with loud thunks on the busses below.
The last bus followed the chunks of concrete. It sailed down to the water, propelled by the terrified cries of those inside. It hit nose-first, colliding with another bus that was already two-thirds submerged in the bay.
“Yes!” Bruce punched a fist into the air as the bus hit the water. “Take that, fuckers!”
The terrified cries of the drowning people made Leo's stomach clench. He should share in Bruce’s elation, but all he felt was exhaustion. He wanted to go home.
Where were Cassie and Jennifer? He cast his gaze around, looking for the girls.
He frowned when he didn’t see them. They should be here. They had accomplished the mission, after all. They should be here to celebrate.
He finally spotted Jennifer. She was slumped on the dirt to one side of the bridge, not looking at any of them. Dirt and blood and tears smudged her face.
There was no sign of Cassie anywhere.
Leo felt his heart skip in panic. “Jennifer?” He hurried over to her. “Jen, are you okay? Where’s Cassie?”
A long wail rose out of Jennifer’s throat. It was the worst sound Leo had ever heard in his life, even worse than the desperate cries of the people in the bay. When she raised her stricken eyes to his, anger bunched in his chest.
“Where’s Cassie?” he demanded.
Jennifer just looked at him, tears streaming out of her eyes.
“Goddammit Jen, this isn’t a game! Where’s Cassie?”
She opened her palm, holding it up to Leo. When she spoke, what came out was half words, half sobs. “She—she wanted you to have this.”
Zommunist Invasion Box Set | Books 1-3 Page 50
