by Mark Clodi
Standing Dora addressed the crowd, "We knew this was going to be hard. We knew not everyone was going to make it. The hardest part should be behind us. Did any of you think the farmers would let the cattle go willingly? I didn't. Perhaps I should have explained this better before we left. I think we have done fine so far, we broke through and we crippled the group of super zombies that were imprisoning us. One of the wonder twins is dead. I killed her myself. Look back there." Dora pointed to a column of smoke back the way they had come, her finger, however moved further down towards the three cars idling by the side of the road. "That is all that is left of the zombies, we plowed through them with the bus I was on, I don't think I disabled any of them, but I could see there were only about a half dozen of them left. That means we have killed super zombies on a one for one basis with the people we've lost so far. Hopefully they will be smart enough to go find easier targets, but if not we will kill them all. We lost Jake, he was a good help, but got hurt too badly to come with us any further. However, he told us where to go, so let's do this. We've got to travel less than a hundred miles and we have ten hours of daylight left, we can do this today and be safe tonight. Is everyone ready?" Dora didn't give them a chance to say 'no' she just nodded and said, "Good, let's go!"
Throughout her speech gunshots had been going off to eliminate the slow zombies that got too close, now the gunfire stopped as people got down off the roofs of the buses where they had been keeping watch and prepared to leave. Moments later a few more shots rang out from inside of the buses to kill any zombies that had gotten too close again during the pause in firing.
Dora shut the door to the bus and while waiting for the vehicles in front of her to start moving she turned to her passengers, "Okay, that speech was all well and good, now here is your little motivational moment. The last bus is going to be hit, and hit hard, we know that, most of you know that and if any of you want to run or cry or piss yourselves that is okay, so long as you are running towards any zombies who get onto this bus, are crying while you fire your fucking guns and are pissing yourselves while you bash the motherfuckers over the head with your bare fists if you have to. Really people, what Paige told me about how you acted before is pathetic. Do you want to live or die? Those of you from the other buses are excepted of course, but anyone on this bus, they fight or they walk. Got it?" The people nodded slowly. "Good, I know I can count on you. Now the back door is broken, we got it held shut with baling wire and duct tape, but it is a weak point, if Paige or Chris need help those of you sitting in the back three rows have to go help them. If you don't I will and I will kick all of your asses down the aisle ahead of me to get there." Dora turned to a teenaged girl with rifle who was sitting directly behind the driver's seat and pointed at her, "You! What is your name?"
"Jamie."
"Good. I like that name. Everyone, meet Jamie. She is our backup bus driver. Jamie, can you tell me how much experience you have driving a bus?"
The girl flushed and shook her head, "I…I've never driven before. I am only fifteen, I don't even have a license."
"And there you have it folks, a few words from our back up bus driver. Jamie will be taking over for me if I have to deal with any problems on this bus. Now do any of us want to see that happen?" Everyone shook their head or said 'no'. "I don't want to see that happen either. Time to go. Jamie?"
"Yeah?"
"I mean it, you're it. If I have to deal with any problems I will be turning this over to you, so you better watch what I do. And don't worry girl."
"Why?"
"I only have about five minutes of bus driving experience myself."
As the last two pickups started moving the three cars with the super zombies also slowly started forward. The little girl in the blood stained white dress looked up at Jim Tiller as he drove the big Ford pickup and said, "If we can't have them, no one can. Right Jim Tiller?"
Tiller merely nodded in agreement.
"You tell me when to get them. You tell me and I will get them. Okay?"
"Don't worry I will tell you." To the only other zombie in the truck with them Tiller said, "We will hit them when they get close to where the Iowans are fighting the horde. Mo and I will call in all the undead we can to swarm them from the front and we will hit them from behind when they are pinned down. Tell the others." The zombie in the back called out Tiller's orders to the other two vehicles by leaning out the windows on either side of the pickup truck as they slowly followed the buses.
Farther behind still Jake pulled himself up from the shallow grave he had buried Willy. The man was skinny to the point of being gaunt, his hands and face were pale with splotchy tan spots. His clothing, ripped and bloodstained, hung on him as if it were three sizes too large, which for now, it was.
He stood after patting the last of the dirt into place and said, "Thanks Willy, you won't come back. I have never been much for words, but you were a good person, you gave your life for what you believed in. I have lived a long time and I can tell you that there have been many men and women who died never finding anything to believe. You were wise beyond your years and if you had lived I have no doubt you would have ruled Iowa and led the charge to kill every last zombie on the face of the earth. I won't kill all the zombies for you, but I will keep my promise to you and to Dora, I will do my best to get the other living to Iowa. Rest in peace young man, you deserve it."
Turning to go Jake, picked up the shotgun from where he had set it earlier, checking the gun he found he had four shots left. On the way to the blue Caliber Jake picked up Dora's bent barrel shotgun and salvaged another three shots out of it. He was feeling weaker and knew he would not be worth much in a stand up fight, but he still retained his ability to push slower, weaker zombies away from him and he might be able to surprise anyone hassling the buses if he could catch up to them.
Sliding into the driver's seat Jake patted his belly; there was white skin there now, regrown from draining Willy dry. The skin was pulled taunt over his new innards, it was thin and translucent and fully visible through the tears in his shirt, he noted with curiosity that his navel had not come back, nor was there a scar from the appendicitis surgery he had forty years ago. His body was still healing, it was going slower now than when he was feeding, but it was still happening at a rapid rate. The keys were still in the Caliber's ignition, he turned them and the engine came to life smoothly, Jake started forward at the precise moment that the buses moved out ten miles ahead of him.
Chapter 44
The buses made good progress the rest of the morning and into the early afternoon. There were many cars to move out of the way, but it was apparent as they went that others had used and partially cleared the highway before them. If one side of the highway was clogged up with abandoned cars it usually meant the other side was clear, there were wheel paths worn in the grass between the two sides of the highway and the caravan had learned to stop whenever they came to one. Usually it meant that there was a wreck ahead blocking the road. After sending Becka ahead to scout time and again they started to just follow the path established by others. Zombie activity in Kansas City had been light, as long as they kept moving, once they left the outskirts of town on highway thirty five they made eighty five miles in about five hours. Becka and the others pulled off of the highway to a halt in a rest area. The place looked deserted, no zombies came shambling out of the tree line or from the visitor's building and there was plenty of space to park the buses and pickups.
Steve called the council together while everyone else took turns going to the bathroom and watching for zombies. Mary had removed the tube that gave him air and he was able to speak again now that the swelling in his throat had gone down. His voice was raspy and he continuously took sips of water from his canteen, but he could speak and breathe again. They set out pickets to keep a lookout for wandering zombies as the group stretched their legs and devoured a quick meal. From where the buses were parked Dora could just see back down the highway far enough to see the vehicles f
ollowing them.
"Too bad we can't kill off our shadows." she commented.
"I would like to. I think we could lay an ambush for them, but it would be really risky, we might lose the ambushers."
"Worth the cost?"
"Dora! No!" said Mary. Alex shook his head too and even Steve, after a moment's consideration shook his from side to side.
"No, well I don't think so. It might cause them to drop back farther, to be more cautious. We could call for volunteers, with the understanding that we would never come back for the people."
"So a suicide mission. I'll do it." said Dora.
Steve just looked at her, then his eyes slowly traveled down to Dora's belly, then back up to her eyes, they stared at each other, neither breaking away as he said in a gravelly voice, "Don't be ridiculous." His voice was still soft and rough.
"Steve." Dora said, with some warning in her voice.
"We don't know that it would do any good. Your speech aside our losses were closer to four humans to each super zombie. And you and Paige were really the only ones to do any killing, I don't think the others would do so well on their own."
"Willy, he shot a few too." put in Dora.
"Yeah. So. We don't have him any more either. I wanted to rest everyone up for about a half an hour. If no zombies show up anyway, if what Jake told us is true we only have about fifteen miles to go and," Steve gestured with his hands towards the highway ahead of them, where smoke was clearly visible, "that looks like fighting to me. So I think his word was good."
"So what do we do? Just bull straight ahead and hope for the best?" asked Leon.
Steve shrugged his shoulders, took a drink and said, "What choice do we have? I am hoping there are soldiers alive up there and that when they see us they push out to help us. I am not too keen to stay here and see what Tiller comes up with to stop us."
"I don't get why he cares." said Alex.
Dora looked back at the three vehicles sitting about a mile and a half south of them, "I don't think it is Tiller. Remember what Jake said? He had some control over the zombies he made and over weaker zombies in general? I think is happening to Tiller."
"What do you mean." asked Mary.
"I haven't mentioned how things went down with Andi, have I?" Dora shrugged, but kept watching the cars on the highway for any sign of movement, "She was angry, very angry at Jim Tiller, she mentioned something about not having to follow his orders, that she could do anything she wanted and no one would tell her what to do. I think, maybe, she or her sister created Jim and Waller before him. I think the girls are actually in control."
"That makes sense, unless food has gotten that scarce?" said Alex.
"I think Tiller would have moved on by now. It's our rotten luck the girls are the alpha zombies."
"Why?" asked Mary.
"Well Mary if you were a powerful undead six year old and some group of bad buys just killed your sister would you just walk away? I bet she is mad and is making all the other zombies come along with her, if we could take her out I think the others would go looking for easier victims."
"Maybe so." said Freddy speaking for the first time, "But that still doesn't help us up ahead. Do you think the army could pick up our radio signals?"
Steve shook his head wincing as the bandages around his neck shifted, "I doubt it. The radios only have a two mile range, and I doubt the army is monitoring that frequency anyway. I am not saying not to try, by all means yell your heads off that we are alive on every channel we have, I am just saying not to expect them to come rushing out to save us."
"Still," said Paige, "we should set a bunch of the kids up with radios on different channels and tell them to keep yelling for help as we get closer, someone may hear us and they may send the cavalry."
"Sure do it. Use kids in the front bus or maybe even put someone in with Bob in his truck."
Steve shook his head again, "I think we're not going to want any kids up front, remember we think we are going to be running into a horde up here, so there will be fighting. I want the kids as safe as possible, so we'll keep as many as we can in the second bus. You know as soon as we hit any kind of resistance those three," Steve pointed at the cars parked on the highway behind them, "are going to come right up on our asses and take another shot at us."
The council members all nodded agreement to this and Paige called out to everyone at the rest stop that they were leaving in fifteen minutes. The council meeting broke up and as they walked their separate ways to take care of eating and other business. Dora realized they hadn't decided much of anything at all.
"It looks like an all-out charge to the finish line then Paige." Dora said as the two walked over to their bus.
"Yeah, but is there a finish line to get to?"
Dora laughed, "Usually you're the optimist! I think we'll find something and I think we will end up a little safer. If not, then we turn around and head back to Doraville."
"Fuck that, I will just keep heading north. Canada has to be better off than we are."
"Traitor!" Dora said with a laugh, "Still, in case you don't make it, it has been fun." Dora held out her hand to Paige.
Paige became flustered and said, "Wh-what? In case I don't make it? Like you are a shoe-in or something?"
"Well if I were a betting woman, I think I stand the best chance."
Paige laughed, ignored Dora's outstretched hand and turned and walked to the bus. "Load up people! Iowa here we come!"
Behind her a small smile came to Dora's mouth and she checked the new shotgun she had for the fiftieth time then made sure she had her pockets overloaded with shells.
After everyone was loaded up again they took a quick head count and pulled out of the rest area. Behind them the three vehicles paced them, getting off to a belated start, and even further back Jake's caliber started up as the super zombie tailed the other three vehicles.
First contact came outside of Bethany, Becka was cruising along slowly when a group of three zombies leaped out at her from in front of a vehicle by the side of the road. Becka turned sharply into the median and sped up to get away as supporting shots rang out from the two pickups that were behind her by only about sixty feet. The three zombies all fell, two disabled and twitching, one with his head turned to mush by a well-aimed shotgun shell.
"First contact." radioed Bob from the truck.
Smoke was hanging in the air ahead, reducing vision to three hundred yards. Paige yelled out, "Dora! The three behind us are coming up fast!"
Gunfire erupted from Steve's pickup bed as the crew there started trying to fire at the zombies trailing them. They were too early yet and their shots had little effect. Steve was doing a good job of keeping his truck next to the other pickup, even though his seat was still loose and he had no windshield. The truck was mechanically sound even if the seating left a lot to be desired.
Paige thought she could see some sort of shimmering in the air around the truck, either debris or heat from the engine, she wasn't sure as she watched the lines in the air became more distinct. What she was seeing looked more like lines from a comic book, lines that would be drawn to indicate motion or action. These things, almost invisible lines, were colored. They seemed to be almost black where they touched objects in motion and then faded out to white and almost colorless the farther in front of the moving object that they went.
Many of the lines split apart into fragments of smaller strings. All of the lines coming from so many moving things were making a hazy cloud in front of anything that was moving. Combining the lines altogether made vision nearly impossible for Paige. It didn't help that they were starting to drive into the smoke of Bethany either. Paige waited patiently for a clear shot as the three zombie filled vehicles catch up to the trucks. The lines were getting in the way, she closed her eyes tightly, trying to clear them from her vision. When she opened her eyes again the lines were still there, even more pronounced than ever.
"Chris, do you see a bunch of lines all over everything
?" asked Paige to the man riding in the tail gunner position with her.
Paige watched as the black and white lines arced from Chris's head, then his head turned and looked at her, matching up with the black lines perfectly, as the white lines faded away he said, "Lines? What are you talking about?"
"I just see crap in my way, my eyes are clouding up or something. Fuck I don't need this now." she watched as the lines around Chris changed, before he moved a muscle Paige knew he was going to turn back towards the oncoming vehicles and raise his shot gun to fire.
"Well clear out your head out girl, here they come!"
Everything clicked in an instant for Paige, somehow the lines she was seeing matched up to where things were going to be, if the lines were darker it indicated a more sure form of movement, if they were white they were potential moves. Rising to the level of the window again, she looked at the scene behind them. One of the cars had hit the back of Steve's truck, not hard, but the vehicle was stuck between the slow moving bus and the faster moving car, he had nowhere to go and Paige saw where the impact was going to turn the truck slightly just a second before it happened, the whole tapestry behind her was woven in distortion and she was having trouble sorting all the images out. Beside her Chris was firing his gun, he yelled at Paige, "Shoot! Shoot!", but Paige held her fire, still trying to sort through the mess.
A zombie got her over her inhibitions. Two jumped off of the trailing vehicle into the back of Steve's pickup, the other truck was having similar problems as zombies swarmed onto it from another car. Briefly Paige caught sight of the trailing vehicle, inside Tiller was driving while the remaining wonder twin was frantically jumping on the seat beside him, behind them in the back seat was a third zombie.