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.”
Jennifer took the weapon and charged an ambler who had gotten into the yard, cutting into it until it went down.
Jennifer turned to take out the next one but saw it had one hand. She raised the sword but paused, unable to bring herself to hack into her father.
He did not pause. He grabbed her arm and bit down.
Katelin stepped forward and brought her sword straight down, splitting the top of Jennifer’s infected father’s head. He dropped dead in the yard with a mouthful of his daughter’s flesh on his tongue and her blood running down his chin.
“Damn it,” Jennifer said. “I went through all that, when I could have just let him bite me at home.”
“I’m sorry,” Katelin said.
“Well, if I have to die, it might as well be by Killer Kate.”
“You haven’t turned yet.”
“Let’s go,” Donna said.
Both teens turned to look. Bar was out of the pool and Gavin was standing between Donna and Bar. Donna was pointing at the other fence.
“Come on,” Donna implored as she ran to the fence and started climbing. Gavin and Bar did the same.
“Maybe you’re immune,” Katelin said, holding up one of her bite-marked arms. “Come with us. I can always kill you later.”
“I should stay. I can hold them off until I turn,” Jennifer said before charging into the infected, swinging her sword.
“Suit yourself,” Katelin said as she turned to go for the fence.
She made it two steps before she heard something say, “Jennifer. Come to me.” Katelin stopped to see Tanner perched on the roof. Like Jennifer’s deceased father, he was down a hand, victimized by Bar’s shotgun. There was another wound too; blood covered his shirt, but he didn’t seem particularly bothered by any of his wounds. Katelin realized that to get to the fence she would have to run past him.
He glared at her with vibrating yellow eyes, looking like they were about to jump out of their sockets, and said, “Killer Kate.”
Katelin really did not know anything about sword fighting, but she did her best impression of a sword fighter’s stance, based on what she had seen in a movie, as vampire rotter Tanner eyed her with bad intent.
He leaped from the roof and came straight for Katelin.
Vampire rotter Tanner was about to reach her when Bar tackled him. Tanner had gained incredible strength when he became infected, but Bar still outweighed him by at least sixty pounds. The rot did not negate the laws of physics and Bar’s mass knocked Tanner into the pool.
“Go,” Bar yelled at her as he moved to the edge of the pool. Vampire rotter Tanner’s head popped out of the water and Bar used his good arm to deliver a punch to Tanner’s temple. Bar grabbed Tanner by the head and forced the infected teen underwater.
Katelin took a step to help him, but he yelled, “Go, damn it. I’ve got him,” and she stopped.
She could not see Jennifer but could see more infected had worked their way through the hole in the fence. Katelin did not want to leave Bar but staying did not seem like a good option. She sprinted for the fence on the other side of the yard.
As she pulled herself up to the top she looked back. She saw vampire rotter Tanner reach up with a clawed hand and grab Bar. A second later Bar was in the pool, another second later, the water began to turn red.
“What are you waiting for?” she heard her mom say from the other side of the fence.
Katelin dropped down and joined Donna and Gavin in the front yard.
“Bar?” Donna asked.
“Tanner got him.”
“Jennifer?”
Katelin shook her head.
“We need to keep moving,” Donna said as she started running to the street. She stopped and looked east, seeing that the road was filling with infected moving their way. A look the other way showed the same thing.
“We might be fucked here,” Katelin said as she looked and saw infected coming from every direction.
“Language,” Donna said as she stood in the middle of the road, unsure what she should do. She looked back the way they came to see the fence they had just climbed over fall down as the weight of the growing horde in the back yard leaned on a weak spot in the fence and sent it tumbling to the ground.
Gunshots rang out and all three of them turned in the direction of the shots. They saw a black Hummer plowing through infected while a pickup truck with four men holding machine guns drove just behind it. The men in the bed of the truck were shooting anything the Hummer did not run over.
The three turned and ran toward the vehicles.
The Hummer came to a stop and Eric Vance hopped out, carrying his Sick Slaying Stick.
“Get in,” he said as he looked for threats.
The three of them piled into the overpriced SUV with the weird eagle design on the door as the men in the pickup bed continued to mow down any infected who got near them. Katelin looked back to see one of the men firing a gun was Clay. The other two were wearing camouflage but the fourth gunner was not wearing a shirt at all.
“Bo?” she asked as Vance slid in beside her.
“He’s in the other truck.”
“Can we go now?” the man in camo gear behind the wheel asked. He looked back at Ana, who was in the middle of the cab with a gun aimed at his head. She looked to Vance, who had taken the seat next to her in the front, giving the others the back seat.
“The others?” he asked.
“We’re it,” Donna said.
“Yeah,” Vance told Dolan, “let’s get the hell out of here.”
“Wait,” Katelin said, pointing behind them. Running towards the Hummer was Jennifer, carrying the sword. She was not moving like either a vampire rotter, which moved on all fours, or an ambler, which never ran. It was clear she had not turned.
Vance stepped out with his pistol, adding his gun to the four in the truck covering the teenager’s escape.
Jennifer joined them inside. Gavin sat on Donna’s lap to make room and Dolan drove hard and fast until they cleared the horde.
Donna shook her head. “I guess without Bar we won’t be sailing out of here.”
“No need for that anyway, ma’am,” the driver said. “Cam Carson’s compound is completely secure.”
“The radio guy?” Katelin asked.
“One and the same,” the driver replied.
“We can’t stay long,” Donna said. “There is no such thing as a safe compound in the quarantine zone.”
“Don’t worry, ma’am. Mr. Carson has a plan,” Dolan told them.
It did not make any of them feel any better.
* * *
WHAT'D YOU THINK?
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ROT Series (Book 3): The Survival Page 13