About a Woman, a Zombie Chronicles Novel

by Mark Clodi

  Jake stood beside the military truck and waved when they approached. Dora pulled up alongside him and rolled down her window. "Got yourself a new ride Jake? I thought you would tag along with one of us?"

  "This seemed like a better idea. I stole their truck. Now they don't have it and we do."

  "I am good with that, how are things out here this morning?"

  "Stirred up. Like someone poked a stick into an ant hill, stealing their truck didn't make it any better. I got in a bit of a tussle with one of them when I took it. I made my move when I saw them shifting their slow moving zombies around to this side early before sunrise. Did they figure out your plans?"

  "Yeah. We had a leak."

  Jake nodded, "Too bad, we better get moving while they are still all riled up and disorganized."

  "Oh, Jake, wait a second, we brought you something, a down payment." Dora reached over and pulled out a small lunch pail style cooler, inside were two pints of blood, their donors names written on them carefully by Mary, there was also a walkie-talkie. The blood was sitting on top of a chemical hand warmer and before Dora had grabbed it Beth had been rocking it back and forth in her hands as Mary had instructed her to do. "I hope you like red."

  Jake caught the cooler with one hand and unzipped the lid, when he looked inside Dora saw a change come over his face, like he was seeing God, he pulled his eyes away and nodded curtly to Dora, "My favorite color."

  "So it isn't spoiled?"

  Softly he answered, "Oh no, it isn't spoiled." then louder, "Okay let's get out of here before they find new vehicles, if we can get a mile away we will leave all of the shamblers behind. I am going to get in line behind the first bus, okay?"

  "Sounds good, the walkie-talkie is on the channel we are using and has a two mile range, if we get further away than that we area probably all fucked anyway."

  Dora radioed the others that Jake was moving behind the first bus and then told Seth and Becka to move out. The previous night Steve had outlined the rout he wanted to take and gone over it with the two teens until they had it memorized. However looking at a map and driving along the route were two different things. Steve wanted to go about a mile towards the heart of Kansas City, then head north, sticking to main roads where possible, but driving around major wrecks using side streets. One unfortunate change in plans had been the tow truck, there just hadn't been time to run down a wrecker and get it back to join the caravan. Steve was confident they could push any minor wrecks out of the way, if they ran into bumper to bumper gridlock, they would just have to find another way around.

  The first goal was to get over the Missouri river, something that could only be done at a few key points. Steve's first choice was at highway six thirty five, it was the closest bridge to cross the river and with any luck they could head north to highway one fifty two and then east to highway thirty five. After that it was just a matter of sticking to the road until they got to Bethany, or wherever the National Guard was fighting these days.

  The two motorcycles would start ranging ahead to find the best roads once they crossed the river, they had strict instructions to stop whenever things looked bad ahead. Both Seth and Becka had shotguns and fifty shells to fend off anything they might run into. Alex had rigged up a swivel mount on each of their handlebars to hold the guns more or less in place, so if they had to fire on the move it would be a simple matter of pointing the motorcycle at the target and pulling the trigger. The main drawback with his system was the guns required about thirty seconds worth of untying to get them free, which is why both carried hunting knives and back up revolvers as well.

  The other vehicles had a few adults spread among them, the group was relying on teens to fire out the windows and drive off any zombie hordes that they ran into, a strategy no one was sure would work. Dora had three passengers in her point vehicle, Willy, his friend Beth and another twenty year old named Cliff. The buses were pretty much unchanged, other than having a few seats removed from the tail end of each of them. Into that space went everyone's belongings, a single pack for each person and extra fuel, ammunition, spare tires and food.

  The motorcycles led the way towards the bridge, they had used it before and knew it should be clear, the streets were eerily silent as they crept along at fifteen miles an hour. Getting over the bridge was no problem, both lanes were open, though they were separated with a guardrail. Dora called to the cyclists to let her catch up a little then they all proceeded onto the bridge. When they were about halfway over Dora caught some sign of movement on the far side, at the same time Becka slid sideways on her motorcycle, skidding to a ragged halt along the cement rail that kept traffic from rolling into the river. Seth flipped up his shotgun and took a shot at the zombies that appeared from the sides of the road at the far end of the bridge.

  Dora yelled "Ambush!" into her walkie-talkie and slowed the suburban to a halt next to Becka, who was writhing around on the ground. "Beth, get her in here!"

  The girl climbed out and offered Becka a hand up to pull her into the vehicle. There was some sort of an arrow sticking out of Becka's leg. Even with the injury the young woman maintained enough piece of mind to draw her buck knife and slash at the binding on the shotgun, after retrieving it and the backpack with the extra ammo off of the bike she allowed Beth to help her inside.

  "How bad is it?" Dora asked as Seth's shotgun rang out again in front of them.

  "It is okay, really, just a scratch. It hit the gas tank first and bounced into my leg, the padding slowed it down. I am bleeding but it isn't stuck in me or anything."

  "Can you ride or are you staying with us?" asked Cliff, his black skin was very pale as he looked at the girl pulling at the shaft of the arrow.

  Dora kept her eyes ahead of them, some of the zombies had guns and as she watched they aimed them at Seth and fired. The boy was living a charmed life, at least he appeared to be, he didn't fall off of his motorcycle, but kept heading more or less towards the mob, as Dora watched he straightened up for a moment and took another shot with his shotgun which knocked a zombie back into the mob.

  "They are behind us, they've moved in behind us mostly with super zombies." Came Steve's voice.

  "Fuck! Jake you didn't sense this?"

  It took a moment then Jake's voice came over the radio, "It was too far to sense the shamblers ahead of us and I can't sense the supers at all. I am coming up to try and move them out of the way." In her side view mirror she saw the military truck swerve out of line and pull up alongside of her. Bullets were starting to pepper the area around the suburban, one hit the upper left corner of the windshield, putting a network of stars into the safety glass, but not injuring anyone. Dora rolled down her window, Jake's passenger window as already down.

  "Can you move them?" Dora asked, watching as the mob crept forward, behind them at the base of the bridge she saw a couple of old cars drive into place across the bridge.

  Jake concentrated and the zombies ahead ground to a halt, but only for a moment, then they started moving again.

  "Dora! We gotta get moving the supers are almost to us!" yelled Steve.

  "Jake!" Dora yelled.

  He shook his head, "They got supers blocking me. I guess we do it the old fashioned way." Jake shifted the truck into gear and started forward. Ahead of them Seth took one last shot at the mob then turned his bike around and started back toward them. Dora saw his face clearly when he was shot. A surprised 'oh' took over his mouth and he struggled to control the motorcycle, he lost that battle and veered into the cement rail. Seth had been accelerating as he came back and was going a lot faster than when Becka was hit, the bike twisted sideways into the railing and Seth was airborne, he toppled onto the top of the rail, made a frantic grab for it with one hand and then tumbled out of sight off of the bridge.

  "Fuck!" Dora yelled, and started the suburban forward, the passenger door slammed shut and Dora glanced back to find Cliff holding onto a short arrow, looking in the side view mirror she saw Becka picking up the motorc
ycle and hopping on. "Now what the fuck is she doing? Cliff, Willy, Beth, get your guns out the windows and start firing, aim for the ones with guns!"

  "Fuc…" the radio started, "Overwhelming us, lost all the kids in the bed, just like that Dora. Go faster!"

  Dora was already way ahead of the buses, following close on Jake's trail, the military truck ran through and over the zombie mob like a hot knife cutting through warm butter. Willy started firing at targets in the mass of zombies and Dora saw one super go down, shot in the head.

  Just before Dora drove onto the bodies left by Jake the motorcycle passed her, Becka pulled the bike up in a hop to clear the first body and somehow made it into the wake created by Jake's truck, Dora was not so lucky the suburban started slamming into the walking bodies that closed in after Jake passed, her first instinct was to slow down. Instead she pressed her foot down on the gas pedal and followed Becka into the maelstrom.

  The thumping sounds as she hit the bodies was accompanied by the sounds of breaking glass and twisting metal as her headlight and grill were shattered and both side view mirrors were torn off. A quick look into the rear view mirror showed her that Bob was following her but was a little to the left behind her. Some of his shotgun toting teens were standing up and firing over the cab, as Bob went over a body the bump was enough to toss one of the hapless teens out of the truck and into the mob where he disappeared screaming.

  Becka was still up, somehow, she was standing on the motorcycle pegs, blood running down her right leg, zombies grabbing at her much too late, she was a speed demon whose way was cleared by the heavy truck ahead of her. Unfortunately she was too close, as the truck slammed into the cars pulled in front of them it slowed down fast and Becka had to swerve to avoid it. There were less zombies on the road at this point and she was able to thread her way through the mob until she came to the rails on the side of the road. The girl spun sideways and up onto the rail at an angle, then she accelerated and ramped the motorcycle up and over it. For a second she was framed by air, an instant snapshot in time that Dora would always remember, the girl was perfectly upright and looked like a professional stadium rider going over a jump on a Saturday night and then she too was gone over the side.

  The cars blocking the road ahead of them had been hidden there unseen from the side Dora's group had started on. Jake's truck didn't slow and he hit them where they were pulled together, right where the front bumpers touched. The cars, for all of their weight, did not have anything on the heavy military truck. When he hit Jake turned right, hoping to clear one of the vehicles out of the way for the buses, the car on the left spun sideways and almost entirely off of the road. The one on the right was the one Jake was trying to force completely off of the road, the truck's bumper crumpled and was torn off, it rolled underneath, pulling the radiator down as it went. The hood flew up into the windshield, shattering the glass, but not falling away, it remained there blocking Jake's vision.

  About the same time Jake lost all ability to steer the truck, something gave inside and the steering wheel just turned uselessly from side to side. He felt both vehicles hit the shoulder of the road, then the truck started to flip slowly, ass end over front and he was in a strange free fall, instinctively he grabbed for the blood in the cooler, snagging it as the truck slowly spun around him. He twisted around in mid-air and planted his feet against the steering wheel, just before the truck landed on the cab, he pushed himself out into the daylight. He hit hard and rolled to the bottom of the embankment, through a chain link fence and onto a small paved road beyond. Finally he came to a stop against, of all things, a stop sign.

  Looking up he could still hear the zombies roaring in his mind and he saw the tops of the buses going by through the hole he had made in the mob. The convoy didn't stop for him. He pulled open the cooler as he watched it recede into the distance, wondering how he would catch up. Jake had half of the pouch of blood gone when he was aware of another noise, a puttering of a small engine, looking over he saw the girl on her motorcycle under the bridge, she turned from scanning the river then pulled around to him.

  "Need a ride?" Becka asked him.

  He pointed at her leg, "Clean that up. I only got so much will power, girl." then turned away from her to finish the other pouch of blood. When he looked back he saw she was off the motorcycle by the side of the road, using a plastic bag to wipe blood off of her leg, she grabbed a piece of paper off of the ground and shoved it into the hole in her pants, stemming the flow of blood.

  "You know you could have stayed in the truck with Dora?"

  "I saw Seth go over, I knew they wouldn't stop. I had to be sure."

  "Are you sure?"

  Becka looked at the height of the bridge, then at the distance to the river, she shook her head, "No, I am pretty sure, but not a hundred percent. You ready?"

  Back on the road Dora saw Jake slam a hole through the cars blocking the way, she practically ran into Jake's truck as he veered right in front of her, then both vehicles were off the road tumbling down the steep embankment to the flat land below.

  "Fuck." she was fairly sure Jake had survived, but couldn't stop to check. Steve was still screaming into the radio, something about supers on the last bus and that Leon's pickup was lost. The caravan burst through the main mob of shamblers and Dora was slowing down to stop when the walkie-talkie chattered to life again, "Don't slow down! They have other vehicles and are in pursuit!"

  "What can I do to help?" Dora called out, she glanced to her side mirrors to get a better view of what was going on behind her then cursed as she realized both of them had been torn off.

  "Drop back with the lead trucks, shoot the fast zombies off of the rear bus." said Steve, "Did the motorcycles make it? Do we have anyone scouting ahead?"

  "Did you really think we would at this point?" said Dora looking around, hoping that Becka or even Jake in his truck would miraculously come zooming forward.

  "Shit." said Steve, his transmission was accompanied by gunfire both through the walkie-talkie and outside the windows of the suburban.

  "Bob?" Dora called out.

  "Here, what do you want me to do?"

  Good man, thought Dora, "You need to scout for the buses, do your best not to lead us into any pile ups and keep us moving. I am dropping back to help get the scum off the last bus. Clear?"

  "Yes. I will do my best Dora."

  "I know you will." privately she hoped it would be good enough. The section of highway they were on was still clear, Dora swung right and then left cutting across both lanes of traffic and forcing Bob and the first bus to slow momentarily as she wrestled the suburban into u-turn. She was just accelerating when the second bus passed her and she continued to speed up heading back the way she had come when the third bus with Steve's truck following closely behind it passed. Steve's pickup bed was empty, the only person still firing was leaning out the side window of the truck. Dora saw movement from the window of the extended cab as someone from inside the truck was trying to crawl into the pickup bed. Behind the truck came a motley assortment of vehicles, all filled with zombies trying to catch up to the trailing bus. On the bus itself Dora saw a wild melee going on as the people there fought the boarders, trying to knock the zeds off onto the highway. Dora could not be sure, but she thought she caught sight of a little white blur fighting in the back as she passed, it looked like one of the twins was on board and rampaging.

  "Dora! What the fuck are you doing?" Steve yelled a moment after they passed.

  Dora aimed her truck straight at the middle of the oncoming pack, Willy leaned out of the window, firing his shotgun and screaming curses incoherently in a manner that would have made a sailor cringe. Beth and Cliff were cowering in the back seat, not firing at all and Dora smiled into the rear view mirror at them, saying, "Don't worry, I have a plan!"

  She looked forward to see that the oncoming vehicle, an old black Toyota four by four was barreling right at her, screaming Dora pressed her foot to the gas pedal and the suburban l
unged forward.

  Willy screamed and fired his shotgun at the driver of the Toyota, the oncoming truck didn't have a windshield to deflect the shot and it took the zombie right below the jaw. From experience Dora knew it was probably not a killing shot, however it did disrupt the zombies ability to control the vehicle and he swerved sharply into the Ford Probe that was next to him, both vehicles turned into the median. Dora steered the suburban towards the hole they created and brushed sides with a Caliber as she broke through the zombie vehicles. The jolt from sliding alongside the other vehicle slowed her suburban down and she used this to jerk it around sideways.

  Dora fought for control and started pumping the brakes as the truck started to tip over onto the pavement. She turned into the roll and managed to prevent it from rolling over, but the suburban tilted up at an angle on two wheels for a good thirty feet of pavement before Dora brought the vehicle to a halt. Dora's suburban ended up at a dead stop, sideways to the lanes of traffic and pointed with its nose at the median.

  Dora laughed and looked into the back seat at the two teens there, Cliff's face was almost white and Beth was bent over trying to find something on the floor, she came up a moment later with her shotgun and started loading it out of reflex while she gave Dora a frightened stare. Beside Dora, Willy was whooping with delight, "Did you see how I shot that one? I shot him and he rolled over and took that blue car with him!"

  "See?" Dora said to the people in the back seat, "I told you I had a plan?" To Willy she said, "Good job Willy, you did good. You are fucking lucky you didn't fly out the window when we went through that."

  Cliff pulled his shotgun up and asked, "What now?"

  "Now," said Dora turning the suburban, "we catch up and get rid of those other vehicles between us and the buses. Then we kill any zombies left on the back of the bus. Then we get to Iowa and take a long vacation."