Again, Josh dared to lift his head just far enough to see. An Army jeep packed with soldiers and police were idling on the side of the road. They were obviously trying to bait the zombies to follow the jeep.
Josh exhaled with relief as the zombies clustered around the rear door rotated toward the shouting men. “They’re luring them away,” he whispered to Corina.
The soldiers and police continued to make noise to draw the zombies’ attention.
“Why aren’t they shooting?” Sam asked in a much-too-loud voice.
“Too close to the bus. They could hit one of us,” Josh answered.
“But they have to kill them,” Sam protested.
“I don’t want to get shot,” Troy said. “Do you?”
“No,” Sam stuttered.
“Be quiet!” Yessica hissed at all of them. “The zombies will hear you.”
The jeep started forward, drawing the undead after them, leaving the area around the bus free of zombies. Still craning his head so he could watch the monsters ambling away, the sick feeling in Josh’s stomach lessened. The zombies were leaving, and soon the convoy would be moving again.
“Oh, thank God,” someone gasped. “They’re gone.”
“Let me off!” The shrill exclamation sliced through the now quiet atmosphere of the bus.
A small figure in jeans, a University of Texas hoodie, T–shirt, and sneakers bolted out of the shadows of the back rows. Jumping down the stairs, the college age girl hurried up the aisle. Jamie attempted to grab her, but she jumped onto the empty seat beside him and evaded him. Sprinting down the narrow passage, she ricocheted off the people trying to stop her. Ron attempted to tackle her, but she was faster and dodged past him. Falling into Derrick, her hand lashed out toward the door controls.
“She’s going to open the door and let them in!” Sam yelled.
Josh froze in fear.
Chapter 5
Josh watched the light from the jeep dance over the bright red hair of the girl lunging for the door controls.
“No!” Derrick shouted, shoving her away.
Her hand clung to the control box, and her fingers found her target.
The front doors whooshed open.
“OHMYGAWDSHEOPENEDTHEDOOR!” Sam screamed.
Falling into the pole near the door, the college girl caught it with a hooked elbow and her body swung toward the steps.
“Close it! Close it!”
The frantic voices on the bus echoed the chant.
Bonnie barked angrily at the open doorway, chiming in.
“I don’t want to get eated!” Yessica shouted from beneath her seat.
It was probably only a split second between when the doors opened and when Derrick hit the controls, but it felt like hours. The girl scrambled down the metal stairs in an attempt to escape. Why she was so certain she’d be safe outside was a mystery to Josh. It made no sense.
“She’s trying to get out!” Sam stood, pointing at her accusingly. “Stop her!”
Ron grabbed the girl’s thick red curls just as she was about to jump out and jerked her head back. She fell backward with a loud thump onto the steps, but her splayed legs prevented the doors from shutting.
“It’s not closing!” Sam shouted. It was as if he was determined to narrate the events happening around him.
Josh was instantly on his feet, ready to stop the college girl from letting the zombies in. Darting into the aisle, he collided with his dad.
Jamie pushed Josh back onto his seat. “Let me handle this, Josh.”
Unable to just sit back and watch things unfold, Josh followed, but stayed a few feet behind his dad.
“I want out! I want out!” the young woman screamed. Her body was lodged between the doors, and she fought Ron as he tried to pull her away. “I want out! You can’t keep me in here!”
“I need to shut the doors! Get her out of there!” Derrick yelled.
“Just let her out!” someone exclaimed from the back.
“She’ll die!” Troy shouted back at them.
The loud thumping of her legs kicking the doors and floor, coupled with her cries of protest, only added to the building tension on the bus. Jamie helped Ron grab the woman’s wildly flailing arms, but they only managed to get a good grip on the sleeves of her hoodie. Using that to her advantage, she twisted about in their grasp, got to her knees, and pulled her arms out of her hoodie. Freed from the men trying to subdue her, she triumphantly spun about and let out a shrill shriek.
Just as Josh had feared, zombies on the tail end of the herd following the jeep had been drawn to the commotion. Their burned, bloodied bodies were only a few feet away, and closing in.
“Want out now?” Troy asked, his voice dripping with sarcasm.
With a scream, the girl shoved past Jamie and Ron, darted past Josh, and ran to the back of the bus.
Derrick hit the door controls. “About time.”
Josh spotted the zombie seconds before it plunged through the closing doors. It had been slinking along the side of the bus out of sight until the very last moment. Blackened skin dripping blood and other gross fluids, it filled the entrance and blocked the doors.
Bonnie growled furiously, planting her body protectively in front of Rachel. Meanwhile, Sam started to yell at the top of his lungs, which made Drake start to shriek. The noise level hurt Josh’s head, and he motioned to Sam to cut it out.
“You’re stirring up the zombies, Sam!”
“The zombies are already here, Josh,” Sam retorted.
Moaning, the thing that had used to be a big man lunged toward Ron and Jamie. With a fearful yelp, Ron ducked away, leaving Jamie to face the creature alone.
“Shoot it! Shoot it!” Sam shouted, and his cry was picked up by a few other people.
Staring at the zombie advancing on his dad, Josh’s mind bombarded him with different outcomes: his dad shooting the zombie, his dad fighting the zombie, his dad being bitten by the zombie, and many more. His breath caught in his throat, Josh couldn’t even cry out a warning.
But he didn’t have to.
Jamie gripped the pole next to top step and used it to support his weight as he did a flying kick at the zombie. His feet struck the big creature’s badly scorched chest and knocked it off the steps. For a second the zombie managed to grab Jamie’s left leg, but the backward momentum carried the monster to the ground. All it managed to take with it was Jamie’s shoe.
The doors finally thumped shut.
Applause broke out, but quickly faded away when people realized the silliness of the act.
“That zombie was so gross!” Sam declared.
“Is it gone?” Yessica asked from under the seat.
Jamie kicked off his other shoe, which was slathered in smelly zombie goo, and turned to face the passengers. The serious look on his face was the one he wore when he was about to ground Josh for acting up.
“No one gets off this bus! Do you hear me? Not unless we’re given the all clear! I don’t care how scared you are. You will obey the orders of the men and women protecting you. Understood?” Jamie exhaled, shaking his head. “I know you’re scared. I know you want to escape this living nightmare we’re in, but you must think of the safety of everyone on board this bus. We are all in this together.”
From the back came the hiccupping sobs of the college student who’d nearly brought disaster to all of them. Accusing stares weighed her down into a small ball on her seat, and Josh felt a little bad for her. Savannah sat next to her, speaking in a soft, calming voice. She was the only one showing the frightened girl any sympathy. Josh was angry with the girl, too, but he kind of understood why she’d tried to run away. Feeling helpless and trapped was enough to make anyone a little crazy and rash. But his dad was right. People had to think about the safety of everyone if they were to survive.
“She’s acting crazy like Rog,” Troy muttered. “Just like him.”
Roger, Troy’s brother, had acted completely different from the other Zombie Hunt
ers when he’d first seen the zombies. He’d been in total denial about what was going on to the point of bringing about his own death.
The people on the bus weren’t like Josh and the other surviving Zombie Hunters. They hadn’t been prepared for the zombie apocalypse. Josh had to admit he hadn’t been completely ready either. He’d never thought about the fact his family and friends could die, and what it would feel like to survive without them.
A good distance from the road in the open field, the soldiers and police in the jeep opened fire on the zombies they’d lured away from the convoy. The fresh barrage of weapon fire was reassuring, but also scary. Troy and Sam watched the slaughter with their mouths gaping open. The zombies were a constant danger, and no one could ignore that fact, but the violence it took to kill them was still shocking to their senses.
“They’re killing the zombies, Drake,” Corina said, still hunched beside her seat. Her fingers combed through the toddler’s dirty blonde curls.
“All the monsters will be dead soon,” Josh added.
Drake squeezed his eyes closed and shook his head. “Not Mama.”
The words stung.
Maybe Drake really did blame his older brother for their mother’s fate.
Josh turned to face his dad. Jamie was staring down at his dirty socks, his shoulders slightly jumping as the shots rang out. Josh knew that his dad had gone to therapy for a while after he’d arrived home from the war, and that he didn’t like to talk about his experiences overseas. The war haunted him. Now Jamie was stuck in a new war, and had already lost his wife. His dad had to be scared and sad, too, but was being strong for everyone else on the bus.
The love and respect he had for his dad surged through him in a great wave. Josh bolted forward and wrapped his arms around his dad’s waist.
Without a word, Jamie hugged him close and kissed his cheek.
“Here we go!” Derrick announced.
The bus lurched into motion.
Finally, the convoy was moving again.
Chapter 6
The sluggish speed of the convoy was nerve wracking. The zombies trapped behind the barbed-wire fence trudged along beside the bus, easily keeping pace. Like most of the other passengers, Josh couldn’t look away from the burned walking corpses wading through the wild grass. There was something grossly fascinating about their scorched appearance. It was hard to believe they were real and not movie set extras.
“Why are they burned?” Sam asked.
“There was a plane crash near here. That’s what the bus driver said,” Corina answered. “It set fire to a whole bunch of houses.”
“Why don’t they just shoot them?” Sam asked for what felt like the hundredth time.
Josh didn’t bother to answer for the hundredth time.
“Because they’re not an immediate threat.” Troy was slouched in his seat. “Remember? Josh told you that before.”
“But if the soldiers shoot them they die.”
“And then the soldiers run out of bullets faster,” Troy answered.
Sam sighed. “I think the soldiers should shoot them.”
Army jeeps zoomed up the lane beside the convoy. The heavily-armed men and women were a reassuring sight. There didn’t appear to be any more zombies on the road, but Josh’s stomach was still in one big knot. Things could have gone very wrong if the zombies had made it onto the bus. Only his dad had a weapon.
Again, Josh struggled against feelings of helplessness.
Corina sat silently beside him, picking at the hangnails around her cuticles. Her polish was chipped and her nails dirty. She was usually very neat, but now she was as grungy as Josh. Catching him looking at her, her lips slightly trembled.
“My mom always got after me if I bit my nails or picked at my hangnails,” she said.
“Mine, too.” Staring down at his very filthy fingers, Josh could imagine his mother telling him to wash them before dinner. The lump in his throat hurt at the thought of her.
“Do you think...” Corina hesitated, tears brimming in her eyes. “Do you think my mom got away?”
“Maybe.” Josh knew his mother was dead, but there might be hope for Corina. He didn’t want to take that away from her.
Lowering her hands to her lap, Corina whispered, “Should I have looked harder for her?”
“I don’t think so. She’d have wanted you to be safe and not running around looking for her.”
“Like Brad did for his mother. And he died.”
Josh nodded. “Yeah.”
He had been jealous of Brad for a long time. The older boy had a motorcycle, good looks, and Corina as his girlfriend. But all that was now in the past. Josh was saddened by the fact he’d died trying to rescue his mother. That could have easily been his fate. It was hard to shake the instinct to look for loved ones instead of finding safety. If he hadn’t been in charge of taking care of Drake after his mother had become a zombie, Josh might have been tempted to go looking for his dad. In a way, Drake had saved Josh’s life by keeping him at the treehouse.
Again, Josh was struck by how lucky he was to have some of his family still alive when his friends had lost all of theirs. His father and brother sat across from Josh with their eyes closed, both dozing. Josh had spotted his dad’s hands shaking when he’d gathered Drake into his arms earlier, but he seemed calmer now that the convoy was moving.
Since Drake was asleep, and not crying, Josh was a lot less anxious. Drake acting up made him feel both protective and frustrated. His little brother annoyed him on a regular day, but his screams had gotten on Josh’s last nerve. Plus, he didn’t like how people looked at Drake with disgust and anger in their expressions, or how they’d said mean things about shutting him up.
All the passengers on the bus were a lot quieter now that the convoy was inching along the country road. The girl who’d tried to escape earlier was seated a few rows back with Savannah at her side. She silently stared out the window with tears running down her face. The couple who had argued with his dad were still in the rear, whispering to the other passengers in a huddle. Ron was still seated next to Rachel and Bonnie, but he had the decency to look embarrassed after not helping Jamie get rid of the zombie.
“It doesn’t feel real,” Corina said, pulling his focus back to her. “None of this. Even them.” She jerked her chin toward the shambling corpses stuck behind the barbed wire fence. “It’s like a really bad dream that I can’t wake up from.”
“I feel that way, too.”
“But you always believed in zombies. I thought maybe it was easier for you.”
Josh shook his head. “I believed that zombies could be real because of the articles I read on the Zombie Tracker forum. There was a lady on there who said she was a scientist and that she knew about research that could end up making zombies. I didn’t want it to happen, but I was afraid it would. I just thought that my family and friends would be together. That we’d all survive.”
“It happened so fast. The world just changed.” Corina rested her head on Josh’s shoulder. “I wonder if it will ever go back to normal.”
Frozen in place, Josh wasn’t certain what to do. Should he try to hold her hand again? Or put his arm around her? Or was he supposed to just sit still? He caught movement out of the corner of his eyes, and saw his dad looking at him. With a slight smile, Jamie motioned for Josh to just relax.
Exhaling slowly through his lips, Josh tried to do just that, but it wasn’t easy. He wanted to comfort Corina, but not make a fool out of himself at the same time.
Growing up was rough.
Savannah scooted past Josh’s side, and perched at the edge of Troy’s seat. Leaning toward Jamie, she whispered, “I got Zoey calmed down, but she’s not in a good headspace. Is there a chance we could maybe get her some medication from the medics?”
“They said there’s going to be doctors at the FEMA camp,” Jamie answered. “I don’t know if they have anything right now. I’ll ask.”
“Why was she so crazy?” Tr
oy blurted out. “Trying to get off the bus with zombies all around.”
“She’s scared, and not thinking straight. She thought if she got off the bus, she could just run away from the zombies,” Savannah answered.
“How does that make sense?” Sam’s pudgy fingers gripped the back of Jamie’s seat and the boy leaned forward to be part of the conversation. Yessica was asleep under their seat, and Josh noticed Sam was careful not to step on her fingers. “That’s crazy.”
“I knew this guy in high school who used to run toward things that scared him,” Jamie said. “We went to the haunted house one year and he was so scared of the monsters, he’d run at them and hit them. We got thrown out. We were so mad at him.”
“That’s a good way to get killed.” Troy shook his head with disapproval.
“Why was he so dumb?” Sam asked.
“It’s a fear response. We have three: fight, flight, or freeze. Fight is what my friend would do when he was scared. He’d instinctively charge toward things that scared him to fight it. He once kicked his television over when watching a horror movie. His dad was not happy. Flight is when you run away.”
“I have that,” Sam said.
“Me too,” Troy agreed.
“What’s freeze?” Corina asked.
“It’s when people can’t move. They’re so scared it’s like they’re frozen in place,” Jamie replied.
“That’ll get you killed,” Josh said somberly.
“Yes and no, son. It depends if you’re freezing in a safe spot or not. Not being seen by the enemy is as good as running away if it keeps you safe. You boys say you have the flight response, but so does Zoey. She saw all those zombies, so her instinct was to run away.”
Troy gave Jamie a doubtful look. “But she almost ran into them.”
“That’s because she wasn’t thinking clearly,” Savannah replied. “She panicked.”
“That will get you killed, too,” Sam said with authority.
“You boys did a lot of training for the zombie apocalypse. You taught yourselves to think before acting. That’s why you survived when others died,” Jamie pointed out.
The Living Dead Boy (Book 2): Lost in Texas Page 3