Life After The Undead (Book 2): Death to the Undead (11 page)

“They
have
helicopters.”
It
was the
only
thing
I
could
manage to get
out of
my
mouth.
“They
have
freaking
helicopters!”

“I
know,”
he
replied.
“This
changes
the
game.”
He
glanced
at
me
over his shoulder.
“We’re screwed.”

CHAPTER
4

We
drove around
for
4 hours,
taking
back roads and
doubling
back
on ourselves,
just to
make
sure
the
helicopters
weren’t
following
us. I
kept
checking
the
rearview,
but
I
couldn’t
see
anything.
The
last thing
we
wanted
was
for
Florida
to
know
where
we
moved
to.

They
blew
North
Platte up
from
the
sky,
what
would stop
them
from
doing
that to
Dashton?

I
was
still in
shock,
still
not truly
believing
what
I
had
seen. Helicopters?
It
had
been
years
since
anything
was
in the
sky.
I
shouldn’t
have
been
surprised. After
all,
they
did have
TV
and
radio in
Florida,
along
with running
water
and
reliable
electricity.
Nothing
for
them had
changed;
they
were
still living
in
luxury.
They
didn’t
have
to
waste
time
on surviving
and
fighting
off
zombies,
they
could
focus
on keeping
their
technology
running.

That
was
aggravating.
They
wasted
so
much
valuable
time. They
could
use
those
resources
to
fry
the
undead
from
the
sky.
The
battle
against
the walking
dead
could
be
taken
care
of
in months.
But
no, they
were
too
concerned
with power and
control.
They
had
to hoard
their
weapons.
What jerks.

Again,
it
was
something
that probably
shouldn’t have
surprised
me. Back
in the
day,
I
used
to study
and
be
fascinated
with
that
type
of
behavior.
I
wanted
to
talk to
the
people
who
dominated
others,
figure
out
why
they
did
it. I
still
wanted
to know
why,
but there
were
more
pressing
matters
at
hand.
Survival
being
at
the
top
of my
list.

The
squeak
of
the
brakes
and
the
jerk
of
the
semi as it
slowed
brought
me
out of
my
thoughts.
I
glanced
out the
window.
Quinn
stopped in a
tunnel that
had
been
carved
through
the mountain. We
would be
safe
from
sight as
long
as
the
helicopters
didn’t
hover
at
either
end.
Either
way,
it
gave
us a
chance
to
figure things
out.

I
stared
at
him. He
sat with his
hands
folded
in his
lap, his lips
pursed,
his gaze
meeting
mine.

“We’ve
got
to
warn
the
others,” he
stated.

I
nodded.
“For
sure.”

“And
not just the
people
from
North
Platte.
Remember
those
survivors
we found
in the
mall
in
Casper?”

I
searched
my
memory.
“I
do. They
were
the
ones
with the
mini
gun,
right?”

“Yeah.
Those
guys.
If
the
copters
head
there,
they
might
think
they’ve
found us
and
blow them
off
the
map.”

I
hadn’t
thought
about that.
In
fact,
I
hadn’t
thought
about
the
other
survivors
since
we
left.
I
was
so focused
on taking
down
Liet,
everything
else
took
a
back
seat.

But
Quinn
was
right,
we
had
to
warn
them.
We
had to
give
them
a
fighting chance. Maybe
it would be
enough
for
them to join up with us,
help
us take
down
Florida.
It
was
probably
wishful thinking, but
I
didn’t have
anything
else.

I
nodded
again.
“We
do.
We
need
to
warn
them. Let’s
take
care
of him first.”
I
jerked
my
head toward the
sleeper
cabin.
“Then
we
can
warn
the
others.”

Quinn put the
truck
in gear.
“Sounds
like a
plan.”

I
pulled
out
my
walkie
talkie
and
told Pam and
Tanya
what
we
were
going
to do.

***

Dashton
was
situated
high in the
mountains,
much
higher
than
I
expected.
The
road
was narrow
and
faded.
Obviously,
no one
had been there
in a long
time.
There
were
fresh
marks
from
the
convoy
from
North Platte, but
otherwise
it looked
abandoned.
The
town was nestled in
a
natural
bowl in the mountain, a
place
that had been
carved
out
by
glacial
erosion.
It
was
surrounded
on two
sides
by
the
forest.
One
side
was
a steep
granite
cliff
that
led to the top of
the mountain,
and
the
other
side
was
a
sheer
drop
off. The
main
road
was
the
easiest
way
in, but
it
wasn’t
the only
way.
The
other
routes
would
have
been
tricky
and
required
skill, like
rock-climbing
knowledge.
More
power to
anyone
who tried to
get
in
that
way.
All other routes
were
extremely
treacherous.

The
town
itself
was
a
cluster
of
five
buildings,
the
majority
of
which
had
been partially
knocked
down
by
the
weather.
It
was
a
textbook example
of a
ghost
town.
The
convoy
parked
in the
center
of
town,
if
you
could call
it that,
and
made
shelter
as
best
they
could
in the
ruins.
They
set up
tarps
and
tents to
protect
them
from
the howling
wind, but it
was
a
losing
battle.
Winter
was
right
around
the
corner.
How
were
we
going
to
make
it?
Yeah,
the town
was
hidden
from the
rest
of the
world,
even the
helicopters
would be
hard-pressed to
find
us, but
we
weren’t
going
to survive the
elements.
I
trusted Quinn,
though.
He
knew what he
was
doing.