Deadly Night: Jenni and Katie's Untold Tale: A Short Story From the As The World Dies Universe (As The World Dies Untold Tales Book 4) (6 page)

Travis nodded once, then escorted Julie to the lowering ladders.

Katie hurried to the back of the truck to join the others already taking cover behind it. She unslung her rifle from her shoulder and aimed toward the intersection illuminated by the spotlights on the wall.  It was difficult not to check on Travis, and a swift peek revealed he was having some difficulty pushing the sickly woman up the ladder while holding Parker on his hip.

“Just cripple them, slow them down,” Katarina ordered, pulling Katie’s attention to her. “Don’t waste ammo trying to get a headshot. We’re just buying us time.”

A second later, the zombies sprinted into the spotlights.

A barrage erupted overhead as the people in the fort opened fire.

Bullets pummeled and shredded the first line of runners, but the others following flowed past the dead in a rush. Screeching, the runners hurled themselves at the people behind the truck. The acrid smell of weapon fire carried on the breeze.

Again, Katie checked on the progress of the woman and children they were rescuing. Julie was nearing the top of the wall with Travis close behind. One of the construction workers leaned over and tried to claim the baby from Julie, but she resisted. Parker clung to Travis, his big dark eyes staring in terror over Travis’ shoulder at the onslaught of the undead.

Redirecting her focus, Katie pulled the trigger as one of the quickest zombies reached the back of the pickup and tried to scramble over the back. She wasn’t sure if she hit it or someone else, but the back of its head blew out and it vanished from sight.

“Time to go, Katie,” Bill said, shoving her toward the ladder.

“You go,” she answered. He was bigger and slower than her.

“Ladies first,” Bill insisted.

“Bill, get your butt up there,” Katarina barked at him. “You’re gonna be slower than us.”

With a small grunt and nervous look at the zombies, Bill obeyed.

The redhead kept firing. Zombies fell beneath her sure shots, but more were closing fast. Gunfire had crippled many, and they crawled along the ground toward the humans with terrifying resolve.

Katie checked again. Travis was over the wall, and Bill was halfway up. The second ladder was free.

“Who’s next?” she asked over the sound of gunfire.

A mass of zombies surged into the fort lights.

“All of us,” Katarina replied.

Katie ran to the first ladder while Felix started up after Bill. Katarina fired a few more times, then climbed after Katie.

The ladder wobbled beneath their bodies, but a flood of adrenaline pushed Katie faster. As she neared the top, Travis and Mike, another construction worker, leaned down, grabbed her hands and pulled her up.  As soon as Katie’s feet were under her, she leaped onto the sentry platform.

Bill and Felix arrived at the top of the wall almost at the same time, clutching at the same rungs. Losing his balance, Bill tumbled off the top, falling onto the pile of dirt below the sentry platform. At least he had fallen into safety and not into the street where the zombies waited. Felix wobbled but stayed upright and turned to help Katarina.

Katarina was dragged onto wall just as the runners reached the area below her feet. Travis kicked a ladder over while Felix knocked over the other one. Most zombies couldn’t climb, but runners were cleverer than the average slow zombie. Screeching, the runners leaped and clawed at the barrier but were unable to reach the people above them.

“Where did all the runners come from?” Nerit seemed to appear out of nowhere to stand next to Katie.

The sound of gunfire made it difficult to hear.

“They must have been mixed in with the others, then sprang into action when they saw us,” Katie answered, slinging her rifle across her shoulders.

“Fresh kills.” Nerit frowned. “From where?”

A fragile voice spoke up. It was Julie. She stood close by, clutching the baby and holding the hand of the little boy. “There are other survivors on the roads. We’ve seen a few caravans overrun by zombies before.”

“Maybe a group was trying to reach us and got swarmed,” Travis suggested. He stepped next to Katie, his arm brushing against hers.

Such a simple touch sent Katie’s blood racing. Annoyed with her reaction, she shifted her weight onto her other leg to avoid contact.

“Bill, can you take our guests to Peggy and Yolanda to get sorted out?” Nerit asked as the big lawman lumbered up to the platform. There was a heavy weight in Nerit’s eyes, and Katie knew that Julie and the children would be thoroughly checked for bites.

“Yes, ma’am. Julie, would you mind coming with me?” Bill extended his hand.

Julie warily regarded everyone around her but also took the time to look at the small shanty and tent town set up in the large walled enclosure. A group of people, which included children, stood near the stairs leading into the rear entrance of city hall, watching the commotion along the wall.

“No one will hurt you,” Katie assured her.

At last, Julie nodded and followed Bill.

“I didn’t think she would come,” Nerit said to Katie after Julie and Bill were out of hearing range.

“Honestly, I wasn’t too sure either.”

The screech of the zombies and grunts of exertion made by the humans as they killed the undead made her flesh crawl. Katie’s arms and back ached, but she was glad to have a moment of respite from the fray.

Travis stepped to the edge of the platform and looked over at the zombies below. “They’re piling up along the wall.”

Mike pointed to several long poles with pitchforks attached to the ends resting against the platform. “We’ll shove the bodies away. Time to put those to use.”

“We need to kill the runners, then concentrate on the slow ones,” Nerit decided. Turning toward the people fighting along the wall, she called out, “Guns for the runners only! Kill the slow ones with spears! Conserve ammunition!”

Nerit’s voice carried over the noise, much to Katie’s surprise. The older woman was a force to be reckoned with.

“Hey! Hey!” a guard further down the wall shouted. “We got the other group coming in on foot!”

In the pool of light cast by the construction lights, Katie saw Jenni, Juan, Curtis, and the asshole named Shane fighting with a massive runner. The zombie was quick, terrifying, and fierce in its pursuit of Shane. Though Katie hated the jerk, she found herself gasping as he barely eluded being caught by the zombie by shedding his jacket.

At last, Curtis, Juan, and Jenni were able to kill the creature in a volley of gunfire. Relief filled Katie as she watched Shane scramble up a lowered ladder, and the others followed.

“It looks like they didn’t find her friends,” Nerit said somberly.

“It’s too dangerous out there anyway,” Travis decided.

At that exact moment, Jenni broke from the others ran for the abandoned truck. Katie immediately knew what Jenni was planning. She was almost out of shells, so she tore off her rifle and grabbed the pistol in Travis’s holster.

“Katie,” Travis gasped.

“I can’t let her go alone!” Katie answered, shoving the pistol into her belt.

Before anyone could stop her, Katie lowered herself over the wall. After making sure there weren’t any zombies too close to her location, she dropped. She hit the ground just as Jenni slid through the blood and muck to her side.

“I’ll drive,” Katie informed her.

Jenni grinned and dove into the front seat of the truck, and Katie followed.

Chapter 8

Grabbing the passenger door, Jenni hauled it shut as Katie did the same. The zombie pack was closing in. “We need to go, Katie.”

“On it.” Katie started the engine and shifted gears.

When the group had abandoned the vehicle, they had left all the doors open, which meant the rear ones were still ajar. The momentum of the pickup lurching forward helped drag the two doors to a close. Before the one behind Jenni could shut all the way, it banged into a female zombie lunging into the cab. The zombie’s bloody, bitten hands scrabbled at the back of Jenni’s seat. The determined zombie clung to the headrest with one hand while thrusting the other at Jenni. The undead creature’s feet dragged on the ground as the truck accelerated.

“Jenni,” Katie gasped.

“I got it!”

Avoiding the grasping hand straining to reach her face, Jenni scooted around on her seat with the crowbar clenched in her sweaty hands. The zombie’s head was obscured by the headrest, so Jenni used the end of the crowbar to attempt to pry its fingers off the seat. The zombie’s grip on the chair was unrelenting, so Jenni decided on another tactic. The zombie’s bloody, broken teeth were visible in the gap between the headrest and the seat. Attempting to wedge the crowbar into the crack, she grunted when it got stuck. The zombie’s hand flailed far too close to her cheek as Jenni struggled to liberate the crowbar.

“Fuckin’
puta
!”

“I’m going to take a hard turn to try to knock her loose.” Katie’s voice was clipped with worry.

Jerking the crowbar free, Jenni braced herself with one hand on the door. “Do it.”

Katie spun the wheel, taking a corner far too fast for comfort. Jenni slammed into the door, and the crowbar dropped from her grip and into the space between the seat and the door.  The zombie had the sense to grab onto the back of the chair with both hands and managed to hold on.

“I hate the fresh ones! They’re too damn smart!”

“Shoot it, Jenni!”

“I can’t with the truck shimmying like this!”

The truck was weaving through a loose collection of zombies shambling along a side street. “Trying to avoid zombies, Jenni!”

“Trying to kill a zombie, Katie!”

Jenni squeezed her hand between the door and seat, fumbling for the crowbar while dodging the thrashing arm of the zombie. Its fingers tugged on her hair, and Jenni cussed at it angrily. Katie yanked the pistol from her belt and tried to aim at the zombie’s head. The action drew the zombie’s attention to Katie, and it lunged toward her. Its snapping teeth almost closed on her fingers.

Katie jerked her hand away in time. “Fuck!”

“Watch the road! I’ll get this bitch!”

Grabbing the lever at the base of the seat, Jenni scooted her seat back as far as it would go, pinning the zombie against the bench in the rear of the cab.

“Ha! Gotcha!”

Able to reach the crowbar now, Jenni freed it from where it had been caught. The snarling zombie savagely beat on the back of Jenni’s seat, attempting to get free.

“Fuckin’ bitch,” Jenni hissed.

Setting her knees far apart to stabilize herself, Jenni stabbed the zombie’s head over and over again. At last, the creature stopped moving.

“Is it dead?” Katie asked, taking another sharp turn.

Surveying the bits of brain clinging to the end of the crowbar, Jenni experienced both satisfaction and the urge to throw up. “Yup. And she’s super-fresh. Yuck.” 

“Julie said there’s people still on the roads. A group must have been overrun near the town.”

After scooting the chair back into place, Jenni climbed into the back, shoved the dead zombie out, and pulled the door shut. Blood and brains were everywhere. “I’d hate to be the one to clean this out.”

“We’re nearing the gas station where they were headed. I need you up here.”

Rejoining Katie in the front, Jenni tried to wipe her hands off on the side of the seat. “Ugh. I need wet wipes.”

“Jenni, I need you to
focus
.” Katie’s voice was pure steel.

“Gotcha. Focused.”

Only Katie could talk to her so brusquely and not meet Jenni’s wrath. The years of Lloyd’s abusive and absolute control made Jenni resistant to taking advice or orders. It didn’t help that people often didn’t value Jenni’s opinion or take her seriously. Like Lloyd, people often just saw Jenni’s beauty and not the woman beneath the pretty face. Often, it was assumed that Jenni wasn’t too smart because she was attractive.

The memory of his face and voice made Jenni feel helpless, and she struggled against the dark well of despair that always threatened to swallow her when she remembered the past. Jenni had spent her twenties not only being beaten by Lloyd but having every part of her life controlled by him. A strict diet and daily exercise routine created by her husband had helped her maintain the look he preferred. Even her hairstyles and clothing were dictated by his approval. He would’ve lost his shit if he saw how she dressed now.

The thought made her smile.

The snapping of Katie’s fingers in front of her face brought Jenni back to the present. “Jenni.
Focus
.”

“Sorry,” she muttered.

Katie’s green eyes seared into Jenni. The look made Jenni bristle, but it was also a lifeline. Jenni didn’t want to disappoint her best friend.

“I need you
here,
Jenni.”

“You have me,” Jenni promised.

Katie slowed the truck as she talked. “We’re almost to the gas station. I need you to keep an eye out. There are zombies all through this area.”