“Wrong question, asswipe,” Katelin said as she lowered herself into the Urban Assault Wagon with one hand so she could keep one of her guns trained on the front of the car. “The question is will she let you assholes stay?”
They looked back at the teenager as she took a seat and drew her other machine pistol.
“I’ve got them, Mom,” the teenager said.
The driver’s-side door opened, and Clay turned to see the woman had the key, as well as a Glock, which she pointed at his head.
“Put your weapons on the floor, and get in the seat behind you,” she said.
“Look, we didn’t know the owner of this thing was still around,” Clay said.
“Shut up and do what I say.”
Bo put the axe down and said, “We don’t mean you any harm. We just wanted to get away.”
“Easy to say now, fuckface,” Katelin said. “Would you be singing the same sad song if things were reversed?”
“Language, Katelin,” Donna said as Clay dropped his guns on the floor and moved to the seat behind him.
Donna climbed in and kicked his stuff aside so she could drive.
Gavin, who was strapped into the middle seat in the front, took off his seat belt.
“If you don’t have a weapon, you can stay.”
“I don’t have a weapon, but I would rather sit with them.”
“Do it, then, but hurry.”
Donna swung the vehicle around to get as close to the clearing as possible. She pulled up next to the field and looked out, hoping to see the others coming, but all she could see was the infected heading to where the explosion happened. She put the car in park, set the brakes, and turned to point her gun at Bo, Clay, and Gavin.
“Katelin, give them some cover fire.”
Katelin went up through the hatch.
“You should let me help,” Clay said. “This is what I do.”
Donna did not answer him.
“We are on the same side.”
“Shut up.”
“I’m a professional. She is just a kid. ”
“She can handle herself,” Donna said as Katelin began to fire in short bursts.
“The lady is right. The girl is good at shooting,” Gavin said.
Donna looked at him. “How would you know that?”
Gavin did not answer.
Before Donna could ask again, Katelin yelled from the hatch, “I can see them, but there is a whole mess of infected between them and us.”
“Let me help,” Clay said. “Let me prove I’m worth taking along.”
“He saved me and the kid when he didn’t have to,” Bo said.
“Yeah, he did,” Gavin added.
“Fine,” Donna said as she handed him the machine gun.
“Keep this thing running,” Clay said as he went out the door.
Clay came around the back side of the Suburban, yelling to Katelin, “Don’t shoot me, I’m on your side.”
When she looked at him, Clay pointed to a spot in the middle of the horde. “Let’s clear them a path.”
They fired until the guns emptied, leaving a pile of dead. They reloaded as Ana stepped over the bodies and met them at the road.
“Get in,” Clay told her.
Ana ignored him and turned to face any oncoming threats as Bar and Vance did the three-legged race toward the Suburban.
Katelin turned to the road and fired at the amblers starting to head their way from the back. Clay turned to see the road in front had also begun to fill up with the infected. He aimed and took out a few of the ones who had come the closest and then went back to watching the field.
Bar tripped on a shredded body of a downed infected, and both he and Vance went to the ground. The three people with guns may not have seen them since they were too busy firing at rapidly approaching amblers.
On the road side of the Urban Assault vehicle, Donna lowered her window to shoot down two who were trying to climb the SUV to get to her daughter.
With their injuries, both Vance and Bar were struggling to get up. Bo saw this and sprung from his seat. He ran out unarmed, not even taking the axe. He helped up Bar first, and the big man ran as best he could to the vehicle.
He picked up Vance next, and the two of them made it back inside the Urban Assault Wagon as the others provided cover fire.
Once inside, Vance told him, “Thanks,” as he took a seat beside his daughter in the back of the Suburban.
Clay and Ana climbed inside and shut their doors, each saying to Donna, “Drive.”
Donna did not have to be told twice.
Chapter 42
The Urban Assault Wagon - Fallbrook, CA
Donna plowed through the infected on the road and kept driving until they were clear of the horde. While she was driving, the sun began to rise. It brought some measure of hope that they had survived the night. They did not know where they were when she stopped and said, “What now?”
“North,” Vance said. “We go north. You still good to drive?”
“I’m exhausted.”
“Let’s stop and rest awhile. We need a plan anyway.”
Soon nearly everyone was asleep, the short night of sleep having caught up with all of them.
After a while, Gavin opened his eyes and looked behind him at the girl. He knew her. He knew all of them. She looked asleep. Gavin could understand. He was tired himself. There was something he had to do, though, before he rested.
Bo and Clay were sleeping too and so was the man with the bleeding leg he did not know. The fat man with the broken arm had begun to snore. The other girl in the front seat was the only other person awake. She was busy watching the road and did not see Gavin pull the knife from his satchel.
He unsheathed it thinking he would get the girl who shot his father first, and if he did it quiet enough, he would get the girl in the front too. She had not murdered his dad, but she tried, chopping him with an axe.
He pulled the knife from the sheath and examined the blade. It was sharp. He could see it was designed just for this kind of thing. He undid his seat belt and climbed up the seat, raising the combat knife to thrust it into Katelin’s heart.
The barrel of a gun came up into his face before he could bring the knife down. He froze as he saw the same fate for him as his father.
“I don’t sleep anymore, not really,” Katelin told him.
Gavin did not say anything.
“You think I didn’t recognize you?”
Again he stayed silent.
“Here is the deal, kid. I get what you’re doing. My dad is an asshole who can’t even remember his only daughter’s birthday, but if someone shot him in the face, I would be a little raw about it. Thing is, though, right now out here in the Quarantine Zone, me and you are both team human. Your dad forgot that when he decided to put a gun to my head.”
“Are you going to kill me too?”
“Depends.”
“On what?”
“Are you team human, kid?”
“Yes.”
“Good. Don’t forget it, and you and I will be fine.”
“Are you going to take away my knife?”
“Are you going to stab any of us with it?”
“No. We’re all team human.”
“Then I don’t see why you can’t keep it.”
Gavin put the knife back in his satchel and soon found himself drifting off to sleep.
NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR
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Damon
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Rot Series (Book 2): Rot II Page 13