“Sandy, those were ATV engines. They can move fast to search for us,” Mary said, looking at a house off the road. Seeing the windows and door busted in, she paid it no mind.
Seeing a stinker stumble onto the road, Mary reached for her pistol. “No,” Sandy told her. “We will pass it before it gets up. I don’t want to kill many in this area, so maybe every cocksucker around here dies a cold hard death.”
“Got my vote,” Mary nodded. “I say we come back and kill every fucker west of the Mississippi.”
Standing in her stirrups, so she wouldn’t bounce in the saddle, “We get the kids raised and we are taking a road trip,” Sandy grinned malevolently.
“Real-life ‘Thelma and Louise’,” Mary agreed with the same grin.
Seeing I 155 ahead, “Turn here, and we’ll get on at this ramp,” Sandy said.
“It’s still a while to the bridge, like two miles,” Mary noted with uncertainty.
Looking over as they turned, “You want to stop and cut fences?” Sandy asked.
Mary looked ahead at the interstate, “That’s not so bad,” Mary answered, seeing the stinkers pretty spread out. “I like this route.”
Riding up to the interstate, they scanned for threats. Guiding the horses along the shoulder at a trot and almost side by side, Mary looked over at Sandy. “Keep them in the grass as long as possible. I’m sure, with the mud and water we’ve been through, the hooves are soft,” Mary told her.
“I will,” Sandy said, looking at the stinkers they passed, reach out and stumble after them. The few on the other side were moving to the median and Sandy watched a few hit the damn wire divider and flip over it. “You can fucking block horses, but not stinkers. My government at work.”
“Sandy, look at the trees beside us,” Mary gasped in a quivering voice.
Turing to look, Sandy felt her body shiver. Stinkers were packed under the trees, just standing until they passed and then stumbling toward the road. Glancing back, she saw the once-sparse interstate ditch behind them was now packed as stinkers poured from the shade of the trees. “Never seen that many take a sun break. We know they don’t like sunlight, but my word!” Sandy gasped, turning around and stopped, looking through a break in the trees to the south.
“Mary, look to the south,” Sandy said, but couldn’t point while holding the reins, Dan, and her AR.
Looking to her right, Mary grinned, seeing a line of ATVs speeding along the dirt road they had been on, and heading west where they would’ve been. “You da man, Sandy!” Mary sang out as trees once again blocked her view. Seeing a weigh station on the opposite side of the interstate, Mary was shocked at all the big rigs parked there. “I wish we could just get in one of those and be home by tomorrow,” Mary mumbled.
Stinkers stumbled out from the trees beside the interstate, crawling up the embankment, but the women were long past before the stinkers reached the interstate. “Only a little further,” Sandy said, seeing the bridge a quarter mile ahead and she led them in a fast trot. Letting Dan go for a second, she patted the horse on the neck. “You’re doing good, boy. Just a little further and you can rest.”
When they passed the last clump of trees on their right, Sandy turned and saw ATVs racing around in the distance, then looked further south. Curling her lip, Sandy saw the line of ATVs they’d spotted heading west were speeding back. Turning ahead, she saw where a county road ran under the interstate, right before the bridge.
Realizing the ATVs were heading for that, Sandy looked ahead for a place to make a stand as they crossed over the road. “Holy shit!” Sandy gasped, seeing thick trees really close to the interstate. “They are supposed to cut them back!” Sandy shouted and could already see stinkers under the trees.
Looking away as the ATVs turned onto the road cutting under the interstate, Mary felt flushed when seeing the trees packed with stinkers moving toward the roadway. “I fucking hate the west,” Mary grumbled, watching more stinkers stumble to the road.
Afraid to look back while she weaved around a stinker that was in the road, Sandy could see the stinkers to their front moving toward the road before they would get there. “Don’t shoot unless you have to. They are starting for the road already to our front, but we are staying just ahead of them,” Sandy called out.
Before Mary could answer, gunfire erupted behind them and both glanced back and gasped, seeing the road was literally packed with stinkers. “They are trying to follow us,” Mary said, turning back around and seeing the river ahead.
Sandy just nodded, wiping a tear from her cheek with the back of her hand that was holding Dan and they reached the start of the bridge, moving onto the roadway. Feeling one of her pack horses stumble, “Slow down,” Sandy said, pulling back on her reins. The sound of gunfire was increasing in intensity behind them and Sandy glanced back again. There were so many stinkers on the road behind them, she couldn’t even see the road, but she grinned to see all the stinkers turn and move toward the gunfire.
“Only a few stalled cars on the bridge!” Mary called out, and Sandy looked ahead.
“No shade if they want to stop,” Sandy said as the gunfire continued. “That son of a bitch,” Sandy said with a crying chuckle.
“You figured it out, huh?”
“That’s why he was so insistent on crossing in the day!” Sandy cried out, fighting not to cry.
“When I saw the first group under the trees, it fell into place,” Mary admitted, grabbing a bottle of water.
Wiping her muddy glove across her face, Sandy smeared mud across her cheeks. “I wish he would’ve said something,” Sandy said in a breaking voice.
“To be honest, knowing Johnathan, he just really suspected the bridge would be packed at night,” Mary answered, taking a drink and passing the bottle over.
“I know. He never shared his hunches,” Sandy admitted, taking the bottle as Mary looked down at the Mississippi River.
Seeing treetops well away from the banks, Mary realized how high the water was. Looking ahead, she saw the river lined the interstate for well over a mile into Tennessee. “Shit, we are going to have to stay on this for a little longer.”
Letting Dan go, Sandy dug out her binoculars. “No trees near the road, so I don’t care, and there can’t be more than a dozen on the roadway,” Sandy replied, putting the binoculars away. Behind them, the gunfire was very distant, but started falling off rapidly. “Hope they died in the most painful way possible.”
“Never heard of stinkers taking prisoners, so I’m sure they will,” Mary said as the two led their caravan into Tennessee, wandering down the interstate on tired horses and holding their muddy dogs while the sun beat down on this forsaken world.
THE END
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Forsaken World: Innocence Lost
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Forsaken World: Rite of Passage
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Forsaken World (Book 4): Dark Crossing Page 29