'Til Death Do Us Part (33 page)

“
I don
’
t like this at all
, Gary,
”
BT said as he stood up fro
m the car he was looking inside. H
e tried his best to not think of the empty child seat.

“
Should we go back and find another route?
”

“
And that
’
s a problem, we go back and we run the risk of running back into Q-Ball and a few of his best friends. I look at that and all I can see is ambush. That would be all your brother
’
s fault by the way.
”

Gary smiled.
“
So I guess we
’
re going forward?
”

“
The devil we don
’
t know in this case is better than the one we do know.
”

“
Should we keep looking for a car?
”

“
Won
’
t do any good if we find one here.
”

“
You
’
re right,
”
Gary said.
They
couldn
’
t take two steps without dodging something
;
anything less than a city plow would only get mired in the devastation.

“
Let
’
s go back
.
I want to be clear
of this place before nightfall,
”
BT said.

Two shots from
Deneaux’s
direction hastened their pace.

“
Sorry,
”
Deneaux
said a little unnerved.
“
I was enjoying the sun and dozed off a bit. A zombie grabbed my ankle. If it had bit first I
’
d be a zombie waiting to happen.
”

A soldier zombie with crushed legs had crawled over to
Deneaux
;
its outstretched hand had sought purchase on her leg before she put two rounds
through
its skull. BT still hadn
’
t made up his mind if he would have been upset or not if the zombie had succeeded in its mission.

“
We need to go,
”
BT said.

“
No words of consolation?
”
Deneaux
asked.

“
For the dead soldier?
”
BT asked.

“
I l
ike you more and more every day,
”
Deneaux
said as she kick-
started her bike.

“
Zombies!
”
Gary yelled. Speeders were sprinting out of the woods across the highway.

“
Which way
,
hot shot?
”
Deneaux
asked BT.

“
Forward,
”
h
e said as he ran for his bike.
“
Company bringing up the rear.
”

“
Fuck me,
”
Gary said as he looked down the roadway in the direction they had come. A legion of motorcycles were coming their way
,
and he was fairly certain they weren
’
t heading to Sturgis.
“
Q-Ball?
”
He asked as BT
’
s bike roared to life.

“
A good a guess as any. Get on
Deneaux
’
s
bike, that
’
s your best shot,
”
BT said.

“
Are you sure?
”
Gary asked.

“
Get on or I
’
m leaving,
”
Deneaux said as she stowed her cigarettes.

BT nodded tersely.

Gary hopped on.

“
Hold on tight, when I lean you lean. Understand?
”
Deneaux
asked Gary.

Gary merely shoo
k his head as the bike took off.
Zombies
were within fifty yards and vengeful gangsters were less than a half mile away. BT was rapidly falling behind as
Deneaux
expertly weaved her way in and out of the traffic. BT looked more like a blind man trying to make his way through an unknown
and unseen
obstacle course.

“
Stop the bike,
”
Gary said. After a couple of hundred yards he repeated his request. She didn
’
t acquiesce.
“
Deneaux
,
stop the fucking bike!
”
h
e yelled.

“
Why?
”

“
BT isn
’
t going to make it.
”

“
What do you think we should
do? J
oin him?
”

“
I know you won
’
t
,
but I
’
m going to help him.
”

“
You
r funeral,
”
s
he said as she stopped just
long enough for him to get off.
She
sped away without looking back.

“
Bit
ch,
”
h
e said quietly.

Deneaux
flipped him the bird.

“
No way, there
’
s no way she hear
d
me.
”
He turned to get in position to cover BT
’
s approach.

The zombies were sprinting to catch up
,
but the gang was motorized.
“
It
’
s almost going to be a tie,
”
Gary said, not really knowing which group he should start to sight in on. It seemed that the zombies were having the same problem. BT was who they had been focused on
;
but the bigger
,
louder (more food) group was coming into their killing grounds. The
m
ajority of the zombies peeled off their pursuit of BT and headed to the new dinner buffet.

Q-Ball was so fixated on exacting his revenge he was blind to the new threat, but not all of his gang were. A fair number slowed and either turned around or waited on the periphery. Q-Ball was close enough to BT that he pulled his sidearm out of his holster and rested it on his handle bars. Gary had opted for the zombies to BT
’
s left because his avenue of escape was being threatened. What the biker
’
s did wouldn
’
t matter if B
T
couldn
’
t make it to Gary to begin with.

BT had the luck of the angels on his side when Q-Ball
’
s shot whined off the top of BT
’
s handlebars. BT presented a much larger target
,
and as such
,
should have been the one to catch the
round. As it was
,
BT almost crashed as his
front wheel shook violently—
hi
s
great strength the only thing keeping the bike upright. Gary turned his attention to Q-Ball when he heard the round.

Gary
’
s gut wrenched as he sighted in on a human being
,
but Q-Ball had gained more ground on his friend and the odds that he would miss again had been greatly reduced.

“
Forgive me
, F
ather
, for I have sinned…
”
h
e said as he pulled the trigger.

A
geyser
of blood
erupted
from Q-Ball
’
s throat. The bike fell and slid along the ground, it slammed into at least five zombies
,
destroying their bodies as it went.
H
owever
, there
w
ere
plenty more where they came from as they descended on the dying biker.
Gary imagined he could hear the gurgled screams for help as the zombies tore him apart. BT had surged ahead of the lead zombies who now turned the
ir
attention back to the gang that
suddenly
found themselves leaderless and cut off from retreat.

Gun
fire blazed as BT pulled up to Gary.
“
Where
’
s
Deneaux
?
”

“
She took off,
”
Gary replied.

“
Thank you
,
Gary.
”

“
It was you or him,
”
Gary said
,
looking a little worse for the wear.

“
I
’
d have to say you chose wisely, come on
,
ma
n
, hop on.
”

Gary looked at what remained of the motorcycle seat and was not convinced that an anemic spider monkey would be able to fit. Still
,
he hopped on, half his ass hangin
g over the rear fender.
The
gang would not last long and the zombies were always hungry.
Always fucking hungry
, he thought dourly.

They had traveled a couple of miles at the most whe
n they could no longer hear gun
fire.

“
Do you think it
’
s over?
”
Gary asked. He didn
’
t have to yell, the traffic was so thick the bike was barely moving.

“
Doesn
’
t matter
,
whichever side won
will still be coming for us,
”
BT said
,
dodging an engine block that looked like it had been ejected from its former location by a rocket launcher.

“
What the hell happened here?
”
Gary asked, looking around.

“
Not sure
,
but I bet it has something to do with that.
”
BT
took
his hand off the handle bars for a moment to point before quickly putting it back.

“
Checkpoint ahead, be prepared to stop
and have your vehicle searched,
”
Gary read the sign.
“
Well
,
leave it to the military to really foul things up.
”

“
I don
’
t think your brother could have said it any more eloquently.
”

“
There it is,
”
Gary said
,
pointing past BT
’
s face;
although how BT could have possibly missed the hast
ily erected gates replete with r
azor wire
,
gun turrets
,
and the standard deuce-and-a-
half military trucks was anybody
’
s guess.

“
So the US military in all its infinite wisdom backs up traffic for days and the zombies swoop in thinking this is the world
’
s largest food court,
”
BT said.

“
And then they start firing on everything, living and dead
, trying to contain the virus,
”
Gary finished.
“
T
hese people start firing a
t the zombies and the military…
bad news
.
”