by Damon Hunter
“I don’t think great fuel economy is what we need right now,” Katelin said.
“Me neither,” Donna told her, “but unless you want to stay and defend the garage I don’t think we have another choice.”
Something began to pound on the door.
“Still probably better than staying here and hoping the door and the walls hold,” Jennifer said.
“She’s right,” Donna said as she opened her palm for Katelin to put the keys in it.
Katelin gave her mom the keys and went to the car.
Gavin bounded to the Toyota, grabbed the door handle and called, “Shotgun.”
“Sorry kid, age before beauty,” Bar said. “Besides, the guy who actually has the shotgun should ride shotgun.”
Gavin shrugged, conceding Bar had a point before getting in the back seat and sitting in the middle.
The teenage girls sat on either side of him and Donna took the wheel. Bar dug in his pockets, finding the last of his shotgun shells before he sat down. While Donna started the car, he shoved his remaining shells into the chamber.
Donna found a remote to open the garage clipped to the visor and hit the button as she put the car into reverse and pressed down on both the gas and the brake. The Prius was not a very tall car, so it was not long before she could let go of the brake and send the Toyota backwards as fast as it could go in reverse.
Infected bounced off the back bumper and rolled over the top of the Prius and she sped down the driveway. She spun the car around so it faced the road and put it into drive.
Seeing what was ahead of them, Donna said, “I don’t think we can drive through all of them without getting bogged down somehow.”
Everyone looked behind them and saw the mass of infected was just as big on this side.
“That way is not good either,” Jennifer said.
“Most of them are on the road,” Bar said. “We should drive through the lawns.”
Donna saw that he had a point. Most were wandering right down the middle of the street. Donna hit the gas and made a straight line to the entrance to the Abbotts’ neighbor’s driveway.
The car’s tires tore up the yard as Donna sped parallel to the road. She kicked up a lot of sod but the path was relatively free of amblers.
Like before, the horde kept moving towards the house they had just left. The infected could be stupid and easily fooled, but Donna made sure not to get too confident in her ability to outsmart and/or out maneuver them. All it took was one bite to get a person, and while dumb, they were relentless. Fatigue didn’t seem to be an issue with the infected, either. Donna, on the other hand, was exhausted. She knew being this tired could affect her judgment; she needed to stay as sharp as possible.
The horde did not go as deep as Donna thought it might. Driving over the lawns and driveways was easy going for the most part. The few infected who got in the way were no match for the Toyota’s bumper. Only a pair of pickup trucks someone left in one of the driveways presented a real obstacle. They had to bump a few infected out of the way as Donna swerved back into the street, but after a brief drive in the crowded road, she steered back up on the sidewalk and was soon traversing lawns and driveways again. It did not take long for them to drive past the horde. She left the yards and got on the pavement, where she could push the Prius up to its top speed.
Donna dug her phone out of her pocket and handed it back to her daughter. “Let me put a couple blocks between us and the horde and then tell them our location.”
Katelin nodded. Even though Donna had said to wait, she texted where they were currently, adding she would send more information soon.
Bar pointed down the road. With the sun starting to set behind it, the thing was just a silhouette standing in the middle of the street. It lowered to all fours and charged the Prius.
“We should still get the better of this, right?” Bar asked as they both continued on a collision course.
“I think so,” Donna answered.
“Think so?” Bar asked.
Donna did not answer as they were close enough to see its huge, bloodshot eyes and long green tongue flopping around the outside of its massive jaws. They all braced for impact but at the last second the vampire rotter jumped to the side.
Donna was about to call it a chicken when she crested the small hill she had been racing up to take out the vampire rotter and saw the wrecked cars someone, or more accurately something, had dragged into the road, forming a crude but effective roadblock. The charging vampire rotter had no intention of engaging them, he was just there to keep their eyes busy watching him until it was too late to avoid the roadblock.
Donna slammed on the brakes and twisted the wheel hard. She almost did enough, but the tires had trouble gripping the pavement at the speed they were going. They skidded sideways into the road block. The collision shook everyone up and made a mess of the right side of the car, but had slowed enough that all the damage was cosmetic.
Vampire rotters came out of hiding and headed their way, calling the horde as they charged the group of uninfected in the hybrid Toyota.
“Everyone okay?” Donna said as put the Toyota in reverse and pulled away from the wrecked sedan she skidded into.
“I think so,” Jennifer said.
Before anyone else could answer, there was a loud thump as something landed on the roof. The roof bowed under the weight of whatever it was, making Bar have to duck down a bit as he was almost as tall as the ceiling in the hybrid car.
Donna kept driving, steering back into the lawns to get around the horde again. She figured they couldn’t have set the same trap twice. She yanked the wheel back and forth a few times to try to get the rotter on the roof off, but nothing came flying off.
“Wait,” Jennifer said, “we can’t go this way.”
Donna was about to ask why when her window shattered from a blow from the vampire rotter atop the Prius.
The thing on the roof said, “Jennifer,” before reaching in and getting a handful of Donna’s hair.
Vampire rotter Tanner pulled Donna towards the window, only her seat belt keeping her from being flung out of the vehicle on the initial pull. The seat belt was designed to keep people from flying through the front windshield, not keep them from being pulled out the window. When Tanner pulled again, she began to slide free. Donna grabbed at his long fingers, trying to pry them loose, but had no success as she was being yanked from the car.
Only Jennifer getting ahold of Donna’s shirt from the back seat kept her in the car. Gavin joined her getting a grip on Donna’s belt and pulling as hard as he could. Despite both of their efforts, Donna kept going out the window. They were slowing her down, but Tanner was still winning this life and death version of the game tug of war.
Katelin’s first move was to grab the steering wheel. Without her mom steering they were headed straight for someone’s front porch. She wanted to pull a gun and start blasting holes in the roof, but keeping them from plowing into a house took first priority.
She yanked the wheel hard and they managed to swerve enough to avoid going through somebody’s front door. She did not get to be relieved long as she had steered them right toward the pickup trucks someone had left in their driveway.
She yanked the wheel again and the car dug deep grooves in the lawn as she steered them off the curb and onto the road.
They did not go far as Donna had been pulled out of the window to the point she no longer had her foot on the gas pedal. The car was still in drive, so they kept moving, but at a pace even the amblers could catch them.
“Plug your ears,” Bar said as he ducked down as low as he could go and put his shotgun against the indentation in the roof by his head.
In the car, the blast was loud. No one could really hear afterwards. Bar pumping in another shell and putting another blast through the roof hardly registered as more than a popping sound.
It was hard to tell how much damage he did to vampire rotter Tanner but it was enough that they were able to pull Donna back into the
car. Donna stomped on the gas as the infected converged on the slow-rolling Prius.
The result was not very satisfying, as the hybrid four cylinder was not built for quick acceleration. The car was nearly covered with infected men, women, and children by the time the Toyota began to pick up some speed.
“Duck, Mom,” Katelin yelled as infected hands started coming through the area where Donna’s window had been.
Donna did as her daughter said and lowered her head so her kid could spray the amblers reaching in the car with machine gun fire. With her head outside when Bar started firing, Donna still had her hearing, but having Katelin fire near her head changed that.
Katelin cleared out the infected by the window and the Prius kept picking up speed as they drove through and over the rotters in front of them. Donna hopped the curb on the other side of the road and steered back onto another lawn. She straightened out the Prius and soon they were moving along the relatively clear lawns and driveways again.
Jennifer tried to tell them to go the other way, but Donna could not hear her. Bar could get what she was saying and tapped Donna on the shoulder. Donna turned for a second to hear Jennifer say, “Dead end.”
Donna looked back to the front to see the street ended on a cul de sac. She looked back to see the horde had grown in size. It was hard to see being able to drive through them all. Even if they could, Donna had nothing between her and the hungry amblers but air without her window.
Donna looked at the trio of houses in front of them. “Who doesn’t have a pool?” she yelled back to Jennifer.
“I have no idea,” Jennifer said.
Donna picked the nearest one with a nice wide section of fence and aimed for the section between the fence posts.
The Prius burst through, sending shards of faded redwood in every direction. Donna aimed for the back fence, glad to see the yard she picked to drive through was fairly flat and did not have a pool.
They hit the next fence and burst through again. Donna had hoped the house backed up to another road but was disappointed as this one backed up to someone else’s backyard. This person did have a pool. Donna slammed on the brake pedal with both feet but could not keep them from going into the water.
Chapter 26
The Sacred Son’s of America’s True Patriots Militia Recon Team - Oceanside, CA
Even though it was not on the hour, Vance checked his phone as he rode with Norris and Dolan in the Hummer. Ana rode with him in the Hummer while Clay, Bo, and Ben went in one of the pickups. They could have fit more people in the Hummer, but apparently Norris felt the Hummer was for officers only. Vance was a major in the TMRT. As the lone surviving member, Ana was declared general of S.W.A.R.C. which seemed just as legit as being commander of the S.S.O.A.T.P. militia. Vance was glad he checked, since Donna had sent a message with some key information.
“They are on the move,” Vance told them.
“Where?” Dolan asked as he picked up his phone. He had plugged the address of the Rutherfords into his phone’s GPS.
“Going south on Parker,” Vance said.
“If they are moving, how are we going to find them?” Norris asked.
Dolan tapped on the screen of his GPS and said, “Basic math. We pick up Parker on the far east end and intercept them. Depending on the speed they are going, and I’m going to assume the local speed limits aren’t going to mean shit to them right now, we should meet up with them if we go to this location.”
“Is this like one of those if a train leaves Kansas City heading west and another leaves Denver heading east when will they run into each other kind of problems?” Norris asked.
“Exactly,” Dolan replied.
“I always thought those were stupid.”
It was tempting for both Vance and Ana to say something, but they stayed quiet, since nothing good would come of it. It was clear the militia did not choose their commander because of his brains. Vance was not comfortable with this man and his like-minded armed idiots being so vital to the safety of his family.
Dolan’s phone guided them to the south end of Parker street. It was a dead end.
“They didn’t go any farther south than this,” Dolan said as they led the convoy north.
Vance checked his phone, hoping that if they changed course they would tell him. There were no messages.
Vance looked up from his phone when the Hummer came to a stop. The road ahead was blocked by a bunch of smashed-up vehicles.
“Almost looks like someone set up a roadblock,” Dolan said.
“Who would do that?” Norris asked as he got out of the Hummer. “Rotters ain’t that smart, even them vampire types.”
“Don’t be too sure,” Vance said. “I’ve seen them do some clever shit.”
“You think this is a trap?” Norris said as he looked through his binoculars.
“Could be.”
“Bullshit,” Norris said. “We do have problems though. Huge horde ahead. If your family is in that shit, I don’t think they’re coming out. I say unless we hear a new location, we head back to base.”
“No,” Vance said, “we don’t give up this easy.”
“You seem to be missing something, Mr. rogue TMRT. This ain’t a TMRT or even whatever the fuck S.W.A.R.C. is operation. This is a S.S.O.A.T.P. militia mission and I’m in charge of the S.S.O.A.T.P., not you. If I say we are leaving, we are leaving.”
Vance was about to reply when a vampire rotter came over the top of the Hummer and dove at Norris, taking him to the ground and sinking two rows of rotten teeth into the S.S.O.A.T.P. commander before anyone could react.
Dolan pulled the door shut as another vampire rotter came bounding toward them.
There was gunfire behind them as the men in the back of the pickup opened fire on something. Whatever it was, they did not get it before it got them. The other pickup with men in it, including Clay, Bo, and Ben went hard into reverse and swung around to get going the other direction as more infected started coming this way.
The driver and passenger of the first pickup jumped out to try and save their buddies in the bed. The passenger went around and shot the vampire rotter munching on his pal. The driver was too busy looking at the bed to see the ambler come up behind him and bite his exposed neck.
The passenger stepped to the bed to see if one of the men in the bed had emerged unschathed. None of them had and one of his buddies put his infected teeth into the passenger’s nose as he stuck his head over the edge of the bed to get a closer look.
“You going to slide over and drive or what?” Vance said to Dolan.
Dolan slid over and got the Hummer swung around. They drove past the pickup and saw the members of the S.S.O.A.T.P. had joined the ranks of the infected.
Dolan picked up the two-way radio and barked, “Rendezvous at Carson’s.”
Vance pulled his pistol and let Dolan see it pointed his way before saying, “Not yet.”
Chapter 27
The Abbotts’ Toyota Prius – Oceanside, CA
With a driver’s side window gone and a roof with two big holes, the water came inside quickly. Donna had not just driven into a pool, but put the Toyota into the deep end.
Having a busted out window also made it easy for Donna to get out. She saw Katelin climb out right behind her.
The water pressure made opening the doors impossible, but Jennifer kept trying anyway. Bar knew better and immediately busted out his window with the butt of his shotgun. The first thing he did was grab Gavin and shove him out the window into the pool. He hoped the kid could swim, but knew either way, chances of him drowning in the car were higher than out.
Jennifer did not see him undo her seatbelt as she tried to get her window to come down. The power windows were not working. If she did not have to close her mouth to keep it from filling with pool water, she would have screamed. The water had nearly filled the entire car.
Bar grabbed her and pushed her out of his window and into the pool.
Bar was not sure if he wou
ld fit through the window of the Prius. If he got stuck, the Toyota would be like an anchor holding him at the bottom of the pool. The car was sinking nose first so there was still a pocket of air in the back. Bar poked his head into the last bit of Prius not filled with water and took as deep a breath as he could. He then sat down and waited for the water to fill up the car completely.
It did not take long, but Bar could not hold his breath a long time either. With the water pressure equalized, he was able to open his door and get out, but his lungs were already burning. He only had one arm to work with and his soaking wet clothes were heavy in the water.
He kicked for the surface, but his kick felt weak. He hardly moved as his lungs felt like they were about to burst.
Donna and Jennifer both dove down and grabbed Bar. Both were strong swimmers and between the two of them, they were able to drag the old sailor to the surface.
Kicking to the top of the water, they all saw things were not too much better on land. Katelin’s wet guns were not firing and the infected were starting to come through the hole in the fence.
Gavin and Katelin stood back to back. Gavin drew the combat knife from his bag and Kate drew the long sword.
Katelin had the sword in her right hand and one of Ana’s hatchets in her left. She stepped forward and put the sword through an infected man’s chest. While she twisted the blade free, she chopped down on a female ambler, putting the hatchet between her eyes.
Both weapons were stuck in her ambler victims as another male ambler reached for her. She let go of the hatchet and drew the short sword. Grabbing the ambler by the hair, she stabbed it through the throat.
As Katelin freed both her swords, Gavin came in behind another ambler headed for Kate and sliced it across the the back of its thighs. The ambler turned to face the kid hacking up his leg. While it was looking at Gavin, Kate removed its head. Gavin had to dance out of the way as the pus and sore-covered severed head rolled off the ambler’s neck.
Katelin felt a presence behind her and turned. She was glad she looked before she swung one of the katanas, as it was Jennifer. She handed Jennifer the short sword, saying, “If we go down, we go down fighting.”