Will To Live (22 page)

Nick's eyes light up, and he gives me a nod of respect. I nod back and watch him as he races off toward the house. Will and I grin at each other, then he wraps his hand around mine as we head for the house. Candlelight shines from most of the downstairs windows, which will soon be extinguished once the sun rises a bit more. After we enter the house, Will and I separate so we can quickly locate the people we plan to take with us.

I find our boys and send them to eat, telling them to make it quick. Then I find Dad Rex, Dad Ben, and Rose.

Yes, we're taking my baby sister. I had questioned how often she'd gone out on missions to find me, or to help get supplies, and was told she had only left that one time when we warned them all to leave because of the incredibly large horde that was heading in the direction of the refuge. Well, it's time for little sister to face her fears and learn how to live in this new world. There's no guarantee we can stay here forever. I need to know she can survive.

When I inform her what she's going to be doing, she screeches and hollers at me, calling me every name she can think of. She insists she's not going, but when I explain to both our dads the reasons I want her to go, they agree and back me up. Pissed, she stomps off to her room to pack and throw a nice temper-tantrum.

I meet back up with Will in the dining room and sit at the table in between him and my ma. I do a double-take when I notice the big grin on my ma's face.

“
What?” I ask her.
 

“
I hear you've been upsetting people everywhere you go,” she tells me with a grin. “It's good to have you back.”
 

I laugh and grab hold of her hand as Will shakes his head in disbelief at the both of us. I then ask if he'd managed to find everyone he was supposed to.

“
I did. I sent them all off to eat. Let's start getting the trucks packed up.”
 

I kiss and hug Ma goodbye, promising to be careful. Doing the same to my mom, and promising to look out for my dad, Will and I start lugging bag after bag out to the trucks. We hook up an enclosed trailer, which had been used to carry back items when people went out on supply missions, to the back of one of the trucks to carry back the medical equipment...if we find what we need and it hasn't been destroyed, anyway.

Gradually, everyone begins to gather around the trucks and take over loading them up. Everyone but Rose.

I send both dads to find her and after several minutes, the front door finally opens. I'm leaning against the side of the truck, joking around with Will and some of the others, when the dads emerge.

Both of their faces are bright red, and I can clearly tell that they're doing their best to hold back laughter. As I look upon the vision that suddenly appears in the doorway behind them, I stand up straight and stop mid-sentence in my conversation with the others. No one else is looking toward the house, their attention being on me as I was the one currently talking. Then they all turn to see what had stolen my attention so completely.

Rose –
my little sister, my baby girl
– is standing just outside the front door. She's wearing combat boots, thick brown leather work gloves, and her body is covered from her neck to inside her boots by several layers of clothes.

She can barely move!

Picture Randy, the little brother from A Christmas Story, when his mom gets him ready for school. That's what my sister looks like.

But what makes this even more hilarious, is the huge football helmet she has over her head!

I take one step forward, my eyes bugging out and mouth dropping open even wider as I take in the full-effect.

“
What the fu–? What are you–? Huh?” I'm unable to manage a complete thought, and I'm damn sure incapable of forming a sentence more complicated than that.
 

I'm in too much shock to laugh...until she tries to come down the stairs. Her arms and legs can't bend, and her movements are stiff. I can't help it as I double over in laughter.

I feel a cushioned weight plow into the side of my body as I'm bent over with my hands on my legs, and gasping for air in between spurts of deep laughter, my eyes streaming tears. Tumbling onto the hard cold ground, I roll to my side and curl up while holding onto my stomach as I laugh even harder, much too amused to feel any pain.

“
Shut up! We'll see who's laughing when I don't get bit and you do,” Rose hisses at us all.
 

“
You would laugh if one of us got bit? Now, that ain't nice little sister,” Will deadpans.
 

Of course, that pisses her off even more, and makes the rest of us start laughing at full strength all over again. Somehow, she's able to lift and move her leg enough to kick Will in the shin, before storming –
well, what we interpret as an attempt to storm off
– toward the nearest truck. Watching her try to get inside, then Dad Rex having to give her a big boost up into the truck by her butt, sends us into new roars of laughter. Finally the doors slam shut and we slowly recover since we can't see her anymore.
 

Will pulls me up off the ground and I wrap an arm around my stomach because of the sharp pangs from laughing so hard. Finally able to stand upright after a few minutes, I wipe the tears from my eyes and tell everyone it's time to go.

In the lead truck, Dad Rex, Nick, Rose, and Cindy begin to pull away from the house. Will, our boys, Angel, and I are in the second truck. The third truck carrying Dad Ben, the two med techs, and Gage bring up the rear.

We leave the property behind once more and head back to the town we first found Cindy and Kris. The trip takes even more time than before, as we –
once again
– search all the nearby towns we pass, looking for Vicki and the others. Plus, to make things even worse, we have to constantly be aware of the other living. We had come upon a convoy of marauders leaving massive destruction in their wake, and have done our absolute best to avoid being seen by them.

Something has got to be done about these people, but right now isn't the time. Well...it
wasn't
that is, until Nick drops a bombshell on us all.
 

Dad screeches to a stop in front of us, almost causing the rest of us to plow into each other. Before we even have time to recover from the sudden stop, Nick is out of his truck and racing back to ours. He yanks open my door and practically screams in my face, his words unintelligible. My first instinct is to get him to shut the hell up before every zombie in the next ten miles head our way, and the same panic that Nick is obviously feeling washes over me from that thought alone.

When I finally get him calmed down a bit, and he's able to tell me what has him so upset so that I can understand him, I feel a deep chill run through me.

No!

Nick is positive he saw Vicki struggling with a marauder inside one of their many vehicles.

If they do have Vicki, it's going to be one hell of a fight to get her back. I'm not feeling confident that we will be at all successful, and I'm even more terrified we will all lose our lives.

But there is no way in hell we can just let them have her, no way in hell I could ever turn my back on Vicki, or anyone else who needs help.

I push Nick out of my way and exit the truck. Too soon, people surround me, asking questions and expressing their own shock and fear. Keeping silent, I move away from the crowd, waving off anyone who calls out to me.

I walk further out into the abandoned cornfield, the stalks long since turned dark brown and pathetically bent over, giving up under the assault of the elements. I stand all alone in the midst of the corn. My eyes stare out over the horizon as my mind kicks into overdrive.

After several minutes, my back straightens and my head lifts higher. I turn back to the others and stare right through them. I hear a gasp as they take in the look on my face. The look that says it all.

People are going to die today...but it won't be any of us.

Thank you for purchasing and reading the fifth book in the Zombie Overload series.

If you liked it - and I hope you did - please
give it a good rating/review, and tell your friends about it. If you would like to be updated when the next book is finished, you can send an email to zombieoverload
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Please be sure to type UPDATES in the subject line.
 

Again, thanks!

C. M. Wright

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C. M. Wright

PO Box 85

Skidmore, MO 64487

Thank you to my fans who read the previous books and have given me the confidence and courage to keep writing.

*****

Special thanks to: William, Bryson, and Austin Noble, and all my family and friends. I love you all. You have no idea how much I appreciate each of you!

*****

Many,
many
thanks to Trisha Wilko for the amazing photos, and for being the model, on the covers of
all
of the Zombie Overload Series books. You are beautiful, even when you look hideous! Love you, my friend and fellow Walking Dead freak!
 

*****

A huge thank you to Fiona Wilson and Eric R. Asher for being such incredible beta-readers. You both have no idea how much I treasure your mentoring and friendship. Thank you for all you do. And thanks too, Eric, for allowing me to bother you during work and way too late at night when I have a paragraph that is pissing me off! You always know how to fix it.

*****

Thank you to everyone at Skidmore Service/Firestone Grill for all the encouragement and patience as I finished this book. I'm sorry if I ignored you...it really wasn't intentional!

And thanks to my dad, Raymond, for pushing customers to buy my books. You're a great salesman!

C. M. Wright
is a
wife and mother who recently moved from IL, and currently lives outside Skidmore, MO. She loves all things zombie, and is a huge fan of The Walking Dead.
She likes to laugh and make others laugh, so she does her best to bring that to her readers...for the Zombie Overload series, anyway. Eventually, she is planning to write about other creatures that go bump in the night.
 

Send C.M. Wright an email, find her on Facebook and Twitter. She always responds to her fans, answers questions -
if she can
- and even holds contests on her Facebook Page. She loves hearing from her readers, whether it's good or bad.