Forget The Zombies (Book 2): Forget Texas (12 page)

“I’m Grant,” I said.

“And what are you doing with my wife and kids?”

“I’m the person who got your wife and kids out of San Antonio when it was being swarmed by zombies. These people are with us,” I said, pointing a thumb over my shoulder and Dave finally took in the line of people in our crew and looked surprised.

Jay stepped forward and stuck out a hand, “Hi, I’m Jay.”

Dave didn’t return the gesture.

Jay dropped his hand and said, “Whatever.”

“Where are you guys going?” Dave asked.

“North to Oklahoma,” I said.

“The soldiers said they’d let us go north soon,” he said.

“They’re lying,” I said, looking behind us into the dark and not liking the wasted time. Some of the cars had their interior lights on but most did not. A few silhouettes milled around on the road.

“That’s pretty harsh,” he said.

“You should believe Grant, mister,” Huck said.

“Why should I?” Dave asked.

“Because he has good instincts,” Huck said. “He got us out of the refugee camp before the zombies overran the place.”

“Joni, I think we need to stay put and wait for the soldiers to give us the all clear,” Dave said.

“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Joni said.

“Dave, why don’t you come back inside?” Trudy said with some irritation in her tone.

“Can I say something?” Randell asked, stepping into the dim light. He didn’t wait for permission and just plowed ahead. “Dave, you need to listen to Grant and come with us. My name is Randell P. Clooney and I’m a son of the great state of Texas. In the past month, I’ve seen some horrific things. People eaten alive. Cities on fire. Good friends dying.” His voice caught on the last sentence, but he kept going. “But I’ve seen some heroic things. People facing nearly certain death making the only decisions left before them and I’ve watched them survive. I watched people reach down deep and find a strength in them they didn’t know existed.” His chest puffed out a little. “I’ve learned to trust this man,” he pointed at me. “While I don’t like what he’s saying, I fear my great state is lost. Staying here would get us all killed. I also know that the citizens of this state cannot be beaten and Texas will rise again.” He drew out each of the last four words and punctuated them with fist pump. I think he waited for some applause, but none came. A few people did nod their heads, though. If we survived, he was surely destined for politics.

“Hell yeah,” Huck said pumping a fist in the air. Jane high-fived him and made a war whoop. So much for being stealthy.

“What the hell, Joni?” Dave said. “Who are these lunatics?”

“These lunatics are my friends and me and the kids are going with them.”

Dave took a step towards Joni, but stopped when he saw the fire in her eyes. “These are my kids, too. I think I know what’s best for them.”

“No, you don’t,” Joni said. “You’ve been riding around Texas in an RV when we’ve been fighting for our lives.”

“Well, I’ve had some bad days, too,” he said, reaching for something. “We don’t have hot water in that thing and the AC ain’t that great.” He pointed back at the RV.

Joni just shook her head.

I wasn’t sure where this was going, but Trudy turned the tide for Dave as she tossed a shirt out the door of the RV. It smacked into the side of Dave’s head and wrapped around it.

“You didn’t say you were married,” Trudy said.

“Trudy, honey,” Dave said, pulling the shirt away from his face. “Things are happening fast for all of us…”

This line seemed like a cue because the sound of gunshots came from the south of us. I jerked my head in that direction and saw small flashes off in the distance.

“Times up,” I said. “We have to start moving.”

A pair of high-top sneakers came out the door of the RV and skittered across the pavement toward Dave. He stood with his arms out, looking pathetic.

More gunshots came our way and I saw car headlights breaking away from the endless line of cars south of us. Some bounced along in the backcountry and disappeared into the night. Some stopped abruptly in what I could only imagine were crashes with trees, boulders, or ditches. Another car sped along the shoulder, more off the road than on it, and canted at dangerous angle. I saw silhouettes jumping out of the way and barely making it. The sound of metal on metal broke through the oncoming chaos as one of the cars heading up the road clipped the back end of an over-sized pickup truck. The car jumped in the air and flipped over, spilling people and the contents of the car onto the road and the backcountry scrub. Screaming joined the gunshots now.

There was only one thing that could cause that sort of panic and that was zombies.

“What’s going on?” Rosalita said.

“The zombies have caught up with the back of the traffic jam,” I said. “We have to get moving.”

“Should we take one of the vehicles?” Randell said.

Another car broke from the pack behind us and started speeding up the shoulder. It made it about a hundred yards before its back tires lost their purchase on the loose packed soil and spun out of control, smashing into the back of another car. A car horn blared into the chaos.

“I think it’s too dangerous to try to drive out of this,” I said. “We only have a few miles before we get to the border.”

“How are we getting across the bridge if the soldier’s won’t let us cross?” Sammy asked.

“We’ll cross that figurative and literal bridge when we get to it,” I said. “Now, let’s move!”

Huck, Jane, and Jay didn’t need any more convincing and started up the road. Sammy and Rosalita joined them as did Randell and Carla. That left Joni, the kids, and Dave. They stood locked in indecision. Dave looked like he wanted to head back to RV and take his chances there but the door slammed on the side of it cutting off the light.

“It looks like we’re headed north,” he said and started trudging that way.

Joni and the kids fell in behind him and I took up the rear. We passed by the other vehicles on the road as passengers craned their heads out the windows and look southward. Some looked afraid while others had excited looks in their eyes after the boredom of sitting for two days on the road. They had no idea what was coming their way. I could only guess they hadn’t seen the zombies up-close and personal like we had.

Some called to us, asking questions, as we passed by on the shoulder, but I ignored them. The gunshots intensified. We had to start making better time or else the tidal wave that was coming our way would sweep over us.

We passed by a cornfield when I heard a buzzing from behind us. The buzzing quickly transitioned into a motorized roar and we were forced to duck in between cars as two dirt bikes shot by us heading north at a reckless speed.

“What the hell?” Dave said.

“They’re just trying to get ahead of the shit storm coming our way,” I said.

“How do you know that zombies are coming?” he asked.

“Trust him,” Joni said, “they’re coming.”

“Mom, I’m scared,” Martin said.

“Don’t be a wus,” Dave said.

“Don’t talk to him that way,” Joni said.

“He’s my son and I’ll talk to him anyway I want,” Dave said.

“Hey!” I said. “We don’t have time for family drama.”

I walked ahead of them and assumed they would follow. I heard their footsteps a couple seconds later. I took periodic glances behind us and saw more cars trying to break from the pack. Some made it while others floundered, either getting caught up in the traffic jam or getting hung up once they got off the road. Few actually made it and I would imagine those were vehicles with four-wheel drive. I also saw more and more silhouettes of people taking our two-legged escape route heading up the road behind us.

Headlights cut through the darkness coming from the north, bouncing around like a pair of crazy eyes, coming our way. After a few seconds, I could make out the outline of a Humvee bounding our way just off the right of the highway. I saw the silhouette of a gunner manning a .30 caliber machine gun sticking out the top of the vehicle. They closed on us and I wondered if they would stop, but they just kept heading south as fast as they could. Less than a minute later two more came by on our side of the road and I saw three heading south on the other side. Things were getting serious. At that point, I didn’t know just how serious they really were.

Since I had hung back with Joni, Dave and the kids, a slight separation had formed between our two groups with Jay, Huck and the others being about thirty feet ahead of us. I tried to keep them in my sights as I checked behind me for any fun that may be on its way. The shooting seemed to be picking up behind us, but I was shocked when a shot sounded in front of me. I was even more shocked when I saw it coming from our other group.

Huck stood on the shoulder of the road firing at a pickup truck stuck among the other vehicles. At that point, that’s all I knew. The story began to unfold as someone in the pickup truck returned fire. I saw people from our leading group split in two with some diving for cover over the guardrail and some running forward. The people running forward jumped behind the first car they could find. Huck stood unafraid, firing at the pickup not realizing that while he had a big gun, the people in the truck had the cover the truck while he was out in the open.

“Keep the kids back,” I said to Joni as I ducked down and started moving forward using the cover of the vehicles to mask my advance.

Screams came from a car beside me and when I looked in, I saw a mother jumping over into the back seat to cover up her two kids. More shots were exchanged and when I jerked my head forward, Huck spun around violently and fell onto the side of the road, his gun clattering along the pavement.

A dark form jumped from the back of the pickup and moved forward with a gun trained on Huck’s body. A shot rang out from just off the road and the figure ducked down. It had to be Jane or Jay. Shots came from the truck directed into the darkness. No more shots came from the side of the road. The figure moved over Huck and I watched as it aimed a rifle at him.

Just as I had been trained, I whipped up my gun and squeezed off three quick shots, at least one of them hit home as the figure grunted and fell over. I decided it was best not to stay where I was and slid behind cars and made my way up the road between the two lanes heading north. I ducked walked up the side of the two cars and got directly behind the pickup when I saw a head poking up from the bed, looking back where I had been.

“Willy?” One of them called in a half-whisper. “Willy! How bad you hit?”

Willy didn’t respond. Someone in the bed of the pickup said, “Shit, I think they killed Willy.”

Another voice, deep and resonant, spoke and sounded like it was coming from the cab of the pickup, “We’re going to have to get those two that went off the side of the road.”

The first voice asked, “But what about the one that shot Willy?”

“Get him, too,” the second voice said.

“Why don’t you?” the first voice asked.

“You want me to shoot you first and then do your damned job?” the second voice asked, but it was less of a question and more of a threat. The inside man clearly was in command.

I caught two shadows coming up from the car in front of the pickup. In the dim moonlight I could see it was Sammy and someone else that I couldn’t identify. Both had assault rifles, though. I waved my hand trying to get his attention and hoped he didn’t shoot first and ask questions later. He stopped dead in his tracks, but didn’t fire on me.

“Shee-it,” the first voice said and I saw a figure slowly rise in the bed of the pickup and look over the side. The figure aimed into the darkness beside the road and popped off three quick shots. I had no idea where Jay and Jane were, but they were most likely pinned down. At least, that’s what I hoped.

I motioned for Sammy to wait, then made some hand gestures that I hope he could, first see, and then second, figure out. My hand commands were meant to state that we should advance on the pickup at the same time. He must have gotten the message because he stayed in place and nodded his head. I started forward a couple seconds later and so did he and his shadowy companion.

Slowly, we converged on the pickup together. As soon as I made it past the front of the car I was using for cover, I sprung forward with my gun aimed at the guy in the back of the pickup.

“Don’t move!” I shouted. “Or else I blow your guts all over the highway.”

The man in the back froze in place.

Sammy stood just in front of the pickup, aiming his rifle into the cab. Carla stood beside him doing likewise. It surprised me to see that she had joined in the fighting.

Something moved in the cab and a flash filled the interior accompanied by the sound of a gunshot. Sammy ducked down, but Carla stood firm and let rip with her rifle. Bullets exploded into the cab, shattering glass, smacking into metal and flesh. The man in the back dropped his rifle over the side and fell into the bed of the pickup while Carla emptied her clip, the muzzle flashes from the barrel of her rifle lighting up the dark like a violent, but contained fireworks show.