by Mark Clodi
The zombies turned on her, the looks on their faces were no longer just of anger, but also tinged with caution, when Dora raised the gun they all scrambled for cover instead of leaping towards her. Most went behind the suburban out of Dora's immediate sight, but two just dropped and rolled in the tall grass of the median. Dora fired into the grass to keep them honest, then dropped prone herself and fired through the open windows of her car, blowing off one zombie's foot just above the ankle and causing it to drop to the ground, where it rolled backwards and away from Dora's next shot.
Willy was struggling to pull himself from under the wreck, he had both hands free now, though his left arm was bleeding profusely. From somewhere he had gotten a long screw driver in his right hand and was digging quickly into the dirt with it, as if to tunnel his legs out from under the top of the vehicle. Dora rolled sideways on the theory that staying in one place for any length of time was probably a bad idea. Andi's leg came down out of nowhere when Dora woman was on her back, instinctively she brought the barrel of the gun up to block the attack, shoving the gun sideways as she did so. The zombie girl tumbled into the grass and Dora shoved herself to her feet with one arm and started to backpedal. Andi was already up and took two steps towards her before stopping and giggling.
"What? Easier to hit a standing target…" Dora started as she brought the shot gun up, she stopped aiming when she noticed the barrel was bent sideways, "Goddamn it! Is nothing easy?" the other zombies came around from behind the car and got up when no more shots were fired. Two, including the one with no foot, ducked under the hood to go after Willy.
Dora raised the gun up anyway and aimed for Andi, but tried to imagine where the shot would hit given the bend in the barrel, the zombies laughed as she fired, until a young zombie woman next to Andi went down missing everything above and to the right side of her nose. As the girl tumbled to the ground like so much meat the other zombies again jumped in, Dora fired once more, hitting an Hispanic woman who looked eerily similar to Mary in the stomach.
After that it was a chaotic melee where she used the shotgun as a baseball bat to break bones while the zombies pummeled her from every side. Andi stayed back and yelled, "Don't kill her! Don't bite her! I get the Dora! Bring her to me."
Under the hood the zombie's reached for Willy and he kept his hand with the screw driver buried in the ground until the last second, then he whipped it out and put it through the first one's head with enough force to pin the thing to the hood of the suburban. The one footed zombie didn't back off, instead he reached forward with his hands and latched onto Willy's wrists. When he started pulling all Willy could do was scream.
Dora fought to keep from letting the zombies get a hold on her; two of them had come forward with their gut shot companion lagging a few steps behind. Andi seemed content to wait the fight out, the three to one odds would have scared Dora even a week before but in the last two minutes Dora has already killed three super zombies and hurt two others badly. The zombies she was facing were all about her age physically, in their mid to late twenties when they died, the gut shot woman was African American with prominent belly, that woman had Beth's arm and was still carrying it as she came forward, the other two were both white, one was a woman about five ten with scraggly strawberry blond hair, a darker complexion with a face scarred by acne. The man was taller and more muscular; he was pushing six foot, three inches tall and weighed well over two hundred pounds.
"My you are a big boy!" Dora said as he stepped up and swung at her. He missed and looked confused that he had not hit her, Dora responded by swinging the shotgun barrel over and around, landing it on his forearm as he blocked her attempted head shot. His wrist broke with a sickening sound and the barrel still smashed him in the head, sending him reeling to the ground.
The zombie was not out, but he was twitching around and would need a few moments to mend, by that time the fighting might be over. Dora immediately moved backwards again, this last step took her back onto the solid footing of the pavement. As the two women approached Andi screamed at them again, "Get her! Now! I want her now!"
The women looked dazed for a second, as if the girl's shouting had more power than that of an annoying six year old. Seizing the chance Dora thrust the bent shotgun barrel at Fatty, hoping to catch the still hurt zombie off guard. The blunt end of the barrel struck the zombie right through the left eye and Dora screamed primordially as she shoved it home into the woman's skull. The zombie fell backwards ripping the shotgun from Dora's hands.
Still thinking on her feet Dora turned and ran towards the zombie's vehicles, the Ford Ranger was still running. She had just made it to the door when Willy's scream sounded from behind her, causing her to stop and turn around. The one footed zombie had the boy out from under the suburban and was dragging him to Andi. Willy didn't look very good at all, both of his arms looked longer than they should and his left leg ended in a bleeding stump at the shin. He was crying and letting out a low moan punctuated by screams as the zombie jerked him left or right on the way to Andi.
It was Dora who was struck off guard this time, as the blond slammed into her in a waist high tackle, knocking them both into the ranger's side door and leaving a dent six inches deep. Dora couldn't breathe, her ribs were broke, she just knew it, either that or she had been torn in half. For the zombie's part it didn't fare much better than she did, it had tackled her with its shoulder and a large part of the dent in the truck was from where the thing's head had slammed into the door.
Both women, dead and living, rolled around on the ground trying to recover before the other did. The blond rose to her feet first, as Dora rolled under the truck to get away. However, she was not fast enough; the zombie caught Dora by the ankle and pulled her back out into the open. Once the zombie had her out, it grabbed Dora's other ankle and started swinging her around by her feet, a motion that ended abruptly with Dora being smashed through the tailgate of the truck.
Dora was partially able to cushion the blow with her arms, but the impact left her feeling like she had snapped her left wrist, she ended up in sitting cross legged with her back to the cab of the pickup, one hand clutching her head, the other cradled on her lap as she sat up. The blond zombie was gawking at Dora over the smashed in tailgate of the truck.
"What the fuck are you? You look human." said the blond.
"Yeah, you do too."
"I'm not, but I can see you in a different way, you look alive. You can't be, otherwise you would be dead." the zombie gestured at the crushed in tail gate, "That would have killed anyone."
"I was a stunt woman before z-day. I can take a fall real good." Dora quipped trying to buy time to get her second wind.
Willy screamed again causing both of them to look over at the boy where the other zombie had dropped him next to Andi. The girl picked Willy up by his upper arm, his elbow bent sideways and flopped his wrist and hand down towards the ground, eliciting another scream. This caused the girl to giggle and shake him a little harder.
Andi pulled Willy up until his screaming face was next to hers and then she said in her little girl voice, "Don't play with your food Andi. Don't leave food behind Andi. Don't listen to Dora, she is a potty mouth Andi. Don't tell anyone Andi. Don't do this Andi, don't do that Andi. Andi, Andi, Andi!" Her voice grew louder and she started shaking the boy more with each mention of her own name. Dora could only watch, there were no weapons or anything else in the back of the truck for her to even try throwing at the little girl to distract her. Fortunately the blond seemed just as mesmerized by what was going on and didn't use the moment to attack Dora.
"I can do what I want!" the girl screamed into Willy's face, "I can do what I want! No one can tell me what to do! I make you do what I want, you don't make me do what you want! You're all mine. I get to make rules not you!" then slowly she leaned in and took a bite out of Willy's neck, his head lolled sideways and his eyes stared directly into Dora's as the girl bit down, he was no longer screaming and mouthed the word 'Go' at her,
tears streaming down his face. This broke Dora's infatuation with the scene and she slowly pushed herself up near the back window of the ranger. The blond was looking at Andi feed on the boy and the one footed zombie had not been paying attention to Dora in the first place, with a shotgun Dora was certain she could have put an end to all three of them in a matter of seconds. The fourth zombie, the tall muscular one, was still shaking in the tall grass by the shoulder of the road, no threat to anyone yet.
The high pitched pining of a motorcycle broke the silence, it arced up out of the ditch and straight into the blond zombie. Dora saw Jake and Becka riding double on the bike, which slowly crashed after smashing into the zombie woman. Becka bailed off from behind Jake and rolled into the median while the tall lanky man tried to regain control of the motorcycle and steer it towards Andi. He fell short of that goal and flipped over the handlebars as the wheel dug into the grass, Jake ended up on his back with his head at Andi's feet. Even from where Dora sat in the back of the truck bed she heard him say "Fuck."
Dora jumped out of the pickup bed onto the blond woman, she could have taken her time though because the blond was just lying on the pavement twitching. The humans had seen such behavior a few times in the past, usually when a zombie had taken major spinal or neck damage. The zeds would heal up and be moving again, given some time, but Dora had no intention of letting the woman recover. Looking around she searched for a tire iron or other means of bashing in the zombie's head, her eyes then fell upon the tail gate.
Reaching down Dora grasped the blonde's ankles, her own wrist was hurting but seemed to function alright and her ribs were now just a dull ache. Spinning the blond was no problem at all and when she had enough force she smashed the zombie into the back of the truck, aiming for the bumper. Dora's aim was a little off and the zombie's head ended up impacting on the torn metal of the tail gate, removing everything above the nose. Dora spun once more and released the body in the general direction of Andi who was on top of Jake beating him into the ground. The top of the blond's head landed bloody side down in the back of the truck bed, the thing's eyes seemed to be looking right at Dora, who laughed and turned towards the muscle man.
Becka was not up yet, she seemed to be moving as if she were hurt really bad, so Dora moved to put herself between the girl and the still active zombies. As Dora stepped towards the big zombie she smiled; there, on the road, was another shotgun. It had some twine wrapped around the barrel in front of the trigger guard, which told Dora the gun had been strapped to Becka's motorcycle at some point.
With a short whistle springing to her lips she picked up the gun and approached the still recovering zombie. He lifted his head and started to speak, "Plea-" The blast hit him square in the head, killing him. Another two steps and Dora had a front row seat to the wrestling match between Jake and Andi. The zombie with one foot was nowhere to be seen, but Dora did see a crushed path through the knee high grass leading out to the other side of the highway, looking close she saw puddles of zombie blood on the road. Turning her gaze back on Jake and Andi, Dora stopped, shocked. It was Andi, the zombie didn't resemble a little girl so much anymore as a fury of nature, and she had two hands. The one that had been blown off was smaller and a deep red color, but it was there and growing more vibrant each time she swung her little arm down to pummel Jake.
"A little, aagh, help here?" asked Jake.
"I can't shoot her without hitting you!" Dora said, which was true, they were both moving very fast. It was evident that Jake could not get the upper hand on the girl, and just as clear that killing him was going to take her some time. One of Andi's hands punched through Jake's stomach and she started to focus her efforts there, moving all the while to keep Dora from getting a shot of at her.
"Shoot anyway! Shoot anyway!" yelled Jake, as the girl grabbed his innards and started tossing them by the handful into the grass, "Fucking shoot!"
Shrugging Dora spared a glance at Willy, he lay crumpled and sobbing on the grass where Andi had dropped him. He had one hand holding his lifeblood in at his neck and his other arm was still bent in an angle that it was not supposed to be at. Looking at the fury of fighting Dora thought of the cartoon Tasmanian Devil from her child hood, it was just a series of fast blows raining down, with pieces flying off as the two circled each other. Jake rolled beneath the girls again and Dora fired her gun at the same time, catching Andi in the back, punching through the girl's body and striking Jake over the heart. Jake rolled with the blast onto his back and didn't move, his stomach was an empty skin sack, torn open so deep Dora could clearly see the bottoms of his ribs and his spinal column.
"Jesus fuck, Jake, you look bad." said Dora, then Andi, still standing, spun around and leaped for her throat. Andi's little fists were out before her in a classic superman dive, fingers reaching for the living woman's throat. For Dora it was like the girl was diving through a wall of syrup, she found it easy to shift the gun's barrel and wait until that perfect moment when Andi's head was six inches away and in a perfect line with the business end. She pulled the trigger and nothing happened, so she pulled it again, then smoke and pellets issued forth from the end of the barrel.
It was going so slow Dora thought she could have counted the individual pellets had she chose to. Right after the first puff of smoke came another one. Andi brushed her arm in front of her face before the shot hit her, taking the brunt of it in her regrown arm, and losing it again in the process. The girl's mouth twisted into a scream as the second shot slammed her directly in the face. Dora watched as Andi's head was worn away by the pellets, they ate away her eyes, nose and the top of her head like waves dissolving a sand castle on the beach as the tide came in. The girl slammed into Dora, knocking her backwards onto her backside next to Willy.
"Eww." said Dora, rolling Andi's corpse off of her, but leaving behind a large amount of blood and gore, "I got Andi all over me!"
She looked at Willy, he had taken his hand off of his neck, which was not bleeding anymore and straightened his arm out, twisting it around until he appeared to be satisfied it was back the way it should be.
"Shit Willy, doesn't that hurt?"
He shrugged, "Yeah." then he looked down at his missing foot and moaned, "Oh God! I…where is my foot Dora?" then he collapsed back onto his back on the grass.
Dora got back to her feet, Becka was up and moving too, walking slowly towards them, "You alright Becka?"
"What happened?"
"We killed Andi, one of the wonder twins!"
"I know we were coming to help you, but everything happened so fast. Where's Jake?"
"Here." the man called weakly from in the grass.
Stepping over to him Dora reassessed her evaluation of him; he looked worse than shit. "Jake how long is it going to take before you heal up and can go?"
Jake moved both his hands into his stomach area and waved them around, then stared at Dora.
"It might be awhile, but minutes, hours or days? Are you still an asset or do Becka and I leave you and move on?'
"You go, I can't make it, I might be out for a while. I might never make it back. I have never been this torn up. I need to feed, that would speed up the process."
Dora stepped back from him automatically bringing up her shotgun.
"Yeah darling, you could just end the contract right here, but I like to think I've held up my end of the bargain."
Dora nodded once, curtly, then said to Becka, "We gotta take one of their vehicles, the truck. Let's get Willy loaded up."
"No." Willy's voice was strong.
"We need to catch up with the others, c'mon Becka."
"No Dora. She bit me, you know what that means. I'm dead, just go…you know what you have to do first."
Realization hit Dora then and she looked at the shotgun then to Willy, "Oh Willy, I don't think…"
"I don't want to come back as one of them. Do it and go. I'm dead. Jeff told us this might happen, where we have to choose between what's hard and easy. Just do it and go."
Dora raised the gun and sighted down the barrel at the boy's head, her finger tightened on the trigger, sweat broke out on her forehead, then she lowered the barrel and sighed, "I can't. Becka?"
The girl held her hands out in front of her, "No, no! Not Willy! I couldn't"
"Well shit. Willy what can we do?"
"Leave me the gun. Make sure it is loaded. Then get out of here."
Dora was about to complain that it was their only gun, then nodded, removing a couple shells from her pockets and reloading the weapon before sitting it down by the boy. She leaned over him and whispered, "Sorry Willy, sorry I couldn't do it. I just…"
"It is okay Dora, I understand, I can do this. Now go save the rest of them. You gotta go."
Dora leaned over and hugged the boy, his body seemed so light, so frail and his skin was so pale from blood loss that she couldn't believe he was even still conscious. "Go." He said one more time.
Rising and gathering up Becka, Dora headed to the ranger and got in. In moments the two were gone, racing down the road where the buses had disappeared a mere five minutes before. In the grass in the median the boy and the zombie lay, one dying the other slowly healing. The boy raised his head, "Jake?"
"Yeah Willy?" Jake replied tilting himself over to look at the young man.
"I am still alive Jake. But I am going to die. You could help them, if you could heal up again."
" I know Willy."
"I don't want to come back Jake, when you are done."
"Okay Willy." said Jake, as he slowly dragged himself towards the boy through the grass.
Chapter 42
When the last bus in the line was slammed into from behind Paige was sitting in the seat directly behind Ken, the driver. Their bus, because it was last in line had two other adults on it, and mostly older kids, although there were still a couple nine year olds that simply wouldn't fit on the other vehicles. They were all armed and prepared when the trip began, but as the vehicle smashed in them the discipline vanished and was replaced by worry.