About a Woman, a Zombie Chronicles Novel

by Mark Clodi

  Willy cheered and pounded on the roof of the car as Dora started to accelerate back towards the buses once again.

  Chapter 40

  Becka had a problem, the motorcycle was leaking fuel. Apparently when the arrow had deflected off of the gas tank it had torn a gash in the heavy plastic and it was from this slit that the fuel was leaking.

  "You got any duct tape?" asked Jake, as Becka examined the hole, she shook her head. Jake reached up to where the wiring harness was inside the bike's frame and gently tugged it. The wiring harness controlled all of the electronics on the motorcycle. This bike did not have a lot of options that required electricity, just the front light, tail light and turn indicators, which had been broken off when Becka put the bike down on the bridge. Following the harness to the front of the bike Jake found the start of the tape and began unwinding it, until he had about a foot of the black sticky tape in his hand, he tore it off and said, "Okay tip the bike over so the gas doesn't come out of the side anymore."

  Becka tilted the motorcycle over until it was almost on the ground again on the side opposite from the gash in the tank. Jake pulled a battered handkerchief from one of his pockets and wiped the outside of the gas tank thoroughly, then he got close and laboriously sucked air into his lungs and blew on the tank, causing the rest of the liquid to evaporate quickly. Finally he divided the tape into three pieces and stuck them over the hole. "That should do it. Pull it up and let's see, huh?"

  Becka struggled to lift the motorcycle upright and Jake gave her some help to pull it up the rest of the way. "See? Good as new? Take this." he said handing her the handkerchief.

  "What? Why?"

  "Clean up your pants, the gas smell hides the blood smell a little, then take out that piece of paper and stuff the rag in the hole instead. You're some kind of fool, you know?"

  Becka nodded, doing as Jake instructed.

  "You could have been safe with the others, instead you are here with me right now, no humans in sight anyway."

  "You're one of the good guys."

  Jake laughed, "How little you know girl! I didn't come back with my morals, I only rediscovered them after killing a few people on my own. More than a few people."

  The girl shook her head, "You couldn't help that. You did the best you could and you repented." A thought seemed to cross her mind, "We forgot about father Cruz." she brought her hand to her mouth, covering it.

  "Who is he?"

  "A priest, he is in the church, the zombies won't go there. But he doesn't have much food or fuel or anything. He is in Saint Assissi's Church."

  Jake looked up at the mob of shambling zombies that was on the road way, his will was holding them there, "He didn't want to come?"

  "I think, they forgot about him."

  "Shit."

  "Why?" she asked him.

  "'Cause you got this look in your eye, like you want to be a hero."

  "Don't you?" Becka asked innocently.

  Jake started laughing, "Why I suppose I do! I bet your other friends could use more of a hand right now, maybe we should handle one thing at a time?"

  "Okay I think we can do that, get them to safety, then come back for the priest?"

  Jake stuck out his hand, "Deal."

  Becka eyed his hand warily, "No blood promise? You'll do this for free?"

  "We all wanna be heroes. Besides I am thinking of another angle to get what I need, one that would make everyone happy."

  Becka's eyes widened, "You….you never planned to collect from us?"

  Jake shook his head, "A contract like that? I might get some pints out of it, but I doubt I would get them all, except maybe one at a time from Dora."

  "So why did you make the deal?"

  "You think they would have taken my help without a deal? Just on my word? Darling, I'm not human anymore, they wouldn't have trusted me further than they could see me. Greed, well everyone understands that."

  "You would have given us the buses?"

  "I did give you the buses. C'mon we gotta get going, not stand here jawing all day."

  "I needed a rest."

  "You got any food? You better have a bite of it if you do."

  "Sure," said Becka, reaching for her backpack, it wasn't there, she had moved it into Dora's suburban. "Uh, fuck." she cursed weakly.

  "No food, huh? We'll make a quick trip by a gas station and grab some energy bars and a drink. Amazing how five minutes of heavy fighting makes you need energy and something to drink."

  "It's not just that, all my ammunition is in it too."

  "Did it fall off when you were playing Evel Knievel up there on the road?" seeing that Becka didn't know who he was talking about he added, "When you jumped over the railing?"

  "No, I tossed it into Dora's car. I'm lucky I grabbed my shotgun when I jumped back out for the bike. I only have five shots for it. I'm screwed."

  Jake stepped around to her and hugged her by the shoulders, his hug was a little stiff and very short, "Darling you don't need a gun, you have me. What's your name anyway?"

  Dora hit the gas the suburban responded sluggishly, somewhere along the way all of the windows on the driver's side had been broken out, probably when she side swiped the Caliber. They came up to and passed the wreckage of the Probe and Toyota, both looked like they had rolled over and over again in the median. The zombies looked up briefly as she roared passed them, Dora took one hand off of the steering wheel to flip them the bird as she passed, screaming out "Losers!"

  A couple responded with inaccurate rifle fire which made Dora laugh. She had no trouble catching up to the other vehicles, they were heading straight back towards her, with the Caliber in the lead, gaining speed as they came. An old Ford Ranger with an extended cab was on the other side of the Caliber and inside Dora finally saw one of the twins she had been keeping an eye out for. She barely had time to notice the girl in the oncoming car, "Hey do you think they are actually going to ram us?"

  "Yeah, take the exit!" screamed Willy, firing at the vehicles while leaning out of the open passenger window. Through some sort of miracle the front window was still mostly intact and blocking the worst of the wind, the worst that had happened was that the antenna had been torn off of the hood. Dora cut right and zoomed down the exit at forty miles an hour, which turned out to be a problem as there was a solid line of abandoned vehicles in front of her and a variety of shamblers among them.

  "Oh fuck me!" She screamed as she forced the suburban up onto the raised curb and through a chain link fence, the street in front of the cars was clear and after crashing through an electric box of some sort Dora bounced out onto it and across the intersection to the awaiting on ramp. There was a wreck there as well, but the shoulder was clear and she had no problem getting back on the highway from there. Willy scrambled over his seat and past the two sitting in the second row to take up a position in the back with his gun, somehow he was reloading as he went. "Beth! Cliff! You have to do more than sit there with your goddamned thumbs up your asses! The shotguns are more effective if you point them at the bad guys and pull the trigger!" yelled Dora. Both of them complied, pointing their guns backwards.

  The walkie-talkie came alive from where it had fallen on the floor by Dora's feet, "…are you at? D-! Are you okay?"

  Dora fumbled around with her hand on the ground, trying to get the radio, it eluded her, "Dora! Answer us please." then nothing for a moment, before, "Alright Ken, slow it down, we have to wait."

  "Not for one person, you know we can't." came Ken's reply.

  "Oh, I'm feeling the love." Dora muttered to herself still fumbling for the radio. She finally grasped it when all three shotguns fired simultaneously in the back of her vehicle. The noise shocked her and the radio slipped out of her hand into the passenger's side of the floor. "Fuck!"

  "You will slow down now! I am not saying stop but we are not leaving Dora!" came Steve's voice.

  "They're gonna hit us!" yelled Willy, a moment before the suburban was smashed into from behind.r />
  Forgetting about the radio Dora fought to control the suburban, it twisted sideways and came close to rolling, but Dora was able to straighten it out and regain control.

  "They're on us! Two of them, fire at the roof! They're on the roof!" said Willy, he aimed his shotgun and started firing holes into the roof.

  Looking in the rear view mirror Dora saw the three vehicles had backed off a little, they were trailing behind her by a hundred feet, for the moment it didn't look like they were trying to ram. When the next shotgun blast went off Dora jerked the suburban sideways into a hard swerve, she was rewarded when she saw a slender male zombie fly off the side of the vehicle onto the ground. The zed had barely begun to roll when Willy's shotgun blasted it in the head.

  "Holy fuck!" screamed Dora, as a pair of slender white legs appeared from the top of her car and landed on the hood in front of her. The little girl was wearing a white dress with dirt along the edges, sewn into the hem were small red teddy bears. The girl's legs were on the hood in front of the shaft from the steering wheel and her body was arched over the windscreen. Dora heard a tearing sound and saw the girl's hands wrinkle the steel of the roof near the top of the windshield like it was tin foil.

  Slamming on the brakes did not dislodge the girl, and caused Beth to fire her shotgun through the back of the passenger's seat into the dash. The glove box was blasted open and batteries, bandages and napkins exploded into the front of the car as if hit by a tornado. Dora hit the gas but still the little girl on her hood still did not fly off. The girl's body leaned back, forcing her butt out towards the front of the vehicle as she looked inside. Dora locked eyes with the girl and they both smiled at the same time.

  "I am totally going to kill your little girl ass." Dora promised.

  Above the roar of the suburban's engine Dora heard the girl giggled and said, "Jim Tiller says 'Andi that Dora is a potty mouth, you stay away from her!'"

  "Andi is it? How do you know I'm Dora?"

  "Everybody knows Dora!" then Andi took one hand off of the roof of the suburban and drove it through the window towards Dora. Her arm was not long enough to reach the woman behind the wheel and the girl tried to pull it back through the window, which had shattered but not broken out around her wrist. Dora reacted quickly reaching forward with one hand to snap the arm sideways and pin it in place to the metal support on the side of the windscreen. Andi was barely visible through the cracked windshield as she drove her other fist next to her first arm and reached for Dora. The girl was very strong, but for all of her efforts she could not get any leverage on the hood of the car to pull her pinned arm away from where it was being held.

  "Shotgun! I need a shotgun here, I can't hold her for long!"

  "Duck sideways!" Cliff yelled and Dora leaned towards the driver's side window. Cliff fired his gun through the windshield dead center between the little girl's fists. Dora felt the girl's arm go limp for half a second before both started moving frantically again. As she started to sit up in the driver's seat again another shotgun blast roared out, jerking Dora's head forward and striking the little white arm where it was held pinned against the glass. Dora had a solid hold on the girl's hand and she came away with it as it was severed mid wrist by the shotgun blast. The inside of the window was a bloody, cracked mess that Dora could hardly see out of. The wonder twin pulled her remaining arm back outside, screaming all the while.

  Dora was veering towards the inside shoulder of the highway and immediately over corrected. Looking out through the ragged holes in front of her Dora could not see Andi on her hood anymore, but she heard the ceiling crumple as the zombie moved onto the roof. Glancing up she saw the girl's fingers crumple the roof beside the driver's side window, she had only a moment to ponder about the angle before the zombie's body slammed into her through the broken out side window. Dora was forcibly pushed over into the passenger's seat and lost control of the vehicle entirely.

  Andi was screaming in rage as she attacked Cliff, beating him about the head with both of her arms, the bloody stump ended in bone shards that were tearing up the young man's face and neck. Just before the suburban started to roll Dora saw the girl put her remaining fist through Cliff's right eye.

  Chapter 41

  Up. Down. The crunching was louder than Beth's screams as the vehicle rolled along the highway over and over. Abruptly the sounds from Beth faded away and only the crunching remained. Somewhere along the way Andi was thrown out of the car, the girl had grabbed onto the steering wheel to hold her position and seemed shocked when it broke off in her hands leaving her with nothing to hold onto. Dora's position was just as tentative, and she barely managed to hold onto the front seat and keep herself from being flung out as the vehicle rolled. The rolling suburban angled off of the road and into the median between the lanes of the highway.

  In the end it stopped upside down, with Dora sitting on the ceiling looking up at her arms, they were entwined into the seat cushion. For a moment Dora just looked at them, both of her arms were punched all the way through the seat, disappearing into the leather seats. Her hands were grasping some unseen metal support near what was originally the bottom of the seat, Dora knew she would never have had the strength to reach through the seat, yet she was looking right at what she had done. Slowly she disengaged herself and tested out her other limbs, everything seemed to be working. Her hand came away with a little blood from the back of her head, it felt like it had been slashed open, but was now gummy and half scabbed over. The vehicle was empty, she was the only one who had not been flung out in the crash.

  "I could get to like this 'Super Dora!' stuff." Dora said to herself as she felt the half healed head wound. She went to her hands and knees and reached for the butt of a shotgun that was laying under some of the supplies they had packed in the vehicle before they left. The gun looked fine, automatically her hand reached for the shells she had in her shirt pocket and she started reloading. Dora slowly crawled out of the window on the slightly down-hill side of the roof. Standing upright didn't improve her view any, there was nothing good to see on her side of the suburban. Creeping around to the front she peeked and saw that the three vehicles that had been following her were now stopped by the side of the road, their zombie passengers were out and gathered in two clumps by the side of the road. Dora saw one of Beth's hands briefly before a zombie clamped its teeth around the wrist and pulled it away.

  "Dora." came a small voice, startling the woman. Looking down Dora saw Willy, his body was under the roof of the suburban, with just his head, right shoulder and arm not buried beneath it. His face was coated in blood, but his eyes still looked bright. "Get me out of here."

  "Fuck. Sure I will just move the whole goddamned truck off of you, no problem, Willy."

  "You're strong and you don't have to do much, just lift it a little."

  Dora looked at the hood of the car, it was sagging, almost touching the ground, the frame of the suburban had bent extensively. She pressed her hand to the front of the bumper and lifted, the truck did not moved much, but it did move. Willy frantically tried to get out from under the vehicle.

  "I can't get out." he said after a moment, "When you lift up it teeters on to my legs and I can't pull free. You'll have to roll it off of me."

  Dora just looked at him incredulously, "Yeah, right short stuff, and after I do that I will gather you up and fly you out of here."

  He smiled, "Okay."

  Looking about Dora saw the spare tire from the suburban lying next to the side of the vehicle, she moved this over to Willy's arm and said, "Okay, I will try and lift enough, then you slide this next to you and when I push down we might be able to get it off of you. Are you all busted up under there? I really don't feel like seeing any other gross things right now."

  "I feel fine." said Willy with a sort of empty smile on his face.

  "Fuck. It is going to be bad then, just move the tire when I get this high enough." Dora had to circle around to the front of the suburban where she sat the shotgu
n on the bumper. Moving around to the front put her in view of the zombies and in seconds one of them spotted her and alerted the other eight or nine. "Don't look, lift!" she told herself, putting her legs into it. She heard Willy struggling with the spare, then glanced under, he had the tire about halfway into position, it might be enough.

  "Zombies are here, gotta let this down." Dora said, lowering the hood, it did not go down as much as she thought it had before, so the tire must be supporting it somewhat, turning around Dora confronted the mob, one of whom still had Beth's arm in its mouth, nibbling on her pinkie finger.

  "Stop right there motherfuckers!" To her surprise the zombies stopped, Dora instantly had a headache, one of the zombies, a big fellow dressed in overalls, shook his head as if to clear it and took a step forward.

  "It almost worked lady…I felt, something, a pressure, but you don't have the touch, not like Andi and Mo, or even Sam does. I am afraid this is the end for you then, if you just kneel down I'll make it quick for you."

  In answer Dora sprang sideways and brought the shotgun up off the bumper, shooting the overall wearing zombie just under the chin, his head rolled forward and fell off of his neck as the other zombie's howled in rage and pressed forward to attack. Dora backed behind the vehicle and then crouched down and pushed herself with all of her might through the window to go under it. The zombies rushed around to the other side where she had been. By the time the zombies realized where she was Dora had shot another one from behind at close range where it was standing on the overturned wreck.

  'I am keeping up with them.' Dora thought to herself with more than a little confusion, normally any super zombies she ran into were so fast that she had to anticipate where they would be in order to shoot them and nine times out of ten even that didn't work. This combat was different, Dora didn't even feel tired, just energized. She leaped backwards, her off hand reaching for more shells to feed them into the gun from underneath as she did so.