As The World Dies | Book 4 | After Siege

by Frater, Rhiannon

  “Thank you!”

  Over a year's practice made Emma fast and efficient. She killed the zombies one after the other in fast succession, only pausing long enough to reclaim her reloaded magazines. The bodies piled up, throwing off the balance of their undead brethren. A few tumbled to the ground, knocking more down. They clawed at each other, struggling to get up. Emma killed them too. The stink of offal and old blood wafted over her, a stench she would never get used to for as long as the apocalypse lasted. The bus stopped rocking when the last of the zombies fell. A quick look around revealed Kurt had killed all the zombies close to the bus. Nothing moved in the heap of bodies below her.

  “All clear on this side,” Emma announced.

  The road above their location was littered with corpses that Nerit had sniped. The older woman surveyed her handiwork for a moment then said to Emma, “We have some coming down the hill after us, but we have a little time until they're here. I took out the fastest ones.”

  The back door clanked open and Juan jumped out. “We got a plan! I just need to get something wedged under this tire so it can get some traction. I need help!”

  Emma glanced down long enough to see Juan kicking dead zombies out of his way while searching the terrain for an object sturdy enough to lodge under the back tire.

  “On my way!” Monica pushed the ammunition bag toward Emma. “Keep us covered,” she said, and disappeared through the hatch.

  “We need to buy Juan time.” Nerit pointed at the zombies shambling around the curve in the road. “I'll pick off the ones coming down the hill. You keep an eye out on the lower road.”

  “Gotcha,” Emma said.

  While Nerit stood near the front of the bus, sniper weapon ready, observing the slow, steady march of the undead from Lookout Point, Emma remained near the rear. The walking corpses pursuing them were far enough away to not be a threat. As long as the bus was in view, the zombies would continue to shuffle toward it. The creatures were annoyingly persistent in seeking out the living.

  There weren't any zombies on the road below their position. Or so it seemed to her naked eye. With so many trees and high brush, it was hard to declare the area clear. Gunshots didn't always draw out the dead since sound reverberated in the hills, making it difficult for the zombies to locate the source.

  Scrutinizing the area, Emma mentally made plans if things went sideways. If on her own in the same situation, she'd already be on the move. She learned early in the zombie apocalypse to ditch vehicles if they broke down. Being trapped in a hot, stranded car was not a fate she'd wish on anyone. The Texas sun would cook a human in no time. She knew that horror from experience. A month after the end of the world, she'd found a station wagon with an entire family dead inside. A flat tire and bloody handprints smeared on the outside of the vehicle had told a terrible story. Trapped, the family had faced a terrible end. She'd seen many things that haunted her, but she'd learned a lesson from staring at the small bodies wrapped in the arms of their parents.

  Keep moving.

  Don't get trapped.

  Glancing over the side of the bus and past the crumpled guardrail, she contemplated the steepness of the hill and the possibility of scaling it. The trees jutting out of the hillside might help slightly with the climb, but the incline grew sharper further down. One wrong move would result in a deadly fall. The harness attached to the roof could be used to lower the injured, but they'd have to move fast to avoid being spotted by the zombies. Otherwise, the undead would hurl themselves down the incline after the living. The chances of escape going that way weren't good, especially with wounded people. Emma killed the idea, not even bothering to bring it up to Nerit.

  Walking was another option. Slow zombies could be outpaced if everyone was healthy and capable of maintaining a brisk walking speed or light jog. She doubted the people they'd rescued could do either and discarded that possibility as well.

  Which just left the one option. Finding a way to get the bus unstuck. Another glance at Juan revealed he hadn't had success yet and was scouring the area for something to use to wedge under the tire. Monica lingered at his side, weapon drawn and ready.

  “Find anything?” Emma called out, impatience getting the best of her.

  “Trying. Everything is too small, too rotted, or too big,” Juan groused.

  “Zombies are coming! We need to go now!” Ted yelled. “Stop wasting time!”

  “We're dealing with it! Stop blocking the back door. Get inside!” Monica shouted back.

  “We should just leave on foot!”

  “I said to get back inside, Ted! Don't block the doorway!”

  “We can go now! The coast is clear heading down the road,” Ted persisted.

  Juan poked around a tree, testing some of the fallen branches. Without looking up, he said, “You wouldn't make it, Ted. You're dehydrated and can barely stand. Shut up and do what my cousin told you.”

  “But I-”

  Emma slammed her foot down on the metal roof.

  Ted yelped, obviously startled by the sound.

  Juan flashed a grin at Emma and returned to his task. Monica trailed behind her cousin, casting scornful looks at the back of the bus. Ted was probably lingering in the doorway. Emma wondered if he was foolish enough to attempt to run.

  Kicking at the brush, Juan muttered in Spanish. The brittle sticks and dead leaves skittered across the blacktop. His frustration was evident as he flung away yet another rotted branch.

  Squatting down, Emma scrutinized the area. The asphalt was crumbling along the shoulder, but those pieces were too small. There were spots where deep fissures cut the road into jagged slices further down the road in the shadow cast by the peak of the hill.

  “Hey, Juan! What about that area?” Emma pointed to a section beneath a canopy of gnarled juniper trees. “It's badly cracked. Maybe you can pull up a chunk?” “Thanks, Em! I'll check it out!”

  Juan jogged toward the location with his cousin. It made Emma uneasy that they had to venture so far away from the bus. Watching the swaying shadows beneath the trees lining the blacktop further down the road, Emma reached for her firearm.

  The noise of Nerit's sniper rifle firing caught Emma's attention. The true threat of the moment, the small herd that had followed them down the hill, closed in on the bus and the front line of zombies was in range. With the sun looming behind the herd, it was hard to get a headcount, but it was large enough to push the bus over the edge of the road if they were allowed to get close enough. She wished they could just leave instead of sticking with the bus.

  Nerit fired once more.

  A zombie collapsed to the ground.

  “Emma, I could use some help,” Nerit stated.

  Plucking the bag of ammunition off the roof, Emma hurried to Nerit's side and concentrated on picking off the front edge of the herd heading their way. Although her shoulder started to ache after the first rounds, Emma only hesitated when she had to reload.

  After a few minutes, Nerit said, “I can handle this now. Watch the other side of the road. All this noise might draw more to us.”

  “You got it.”

  Emma gathered her stuff and hurried to the rear of the bus. The heated metal was burning through her soles. The sun was higher in the sky, sunlight blazing against her skin. Wiping her face, she wished they could get the hell out of the area and soon. The blistering heat wasn't helping her nerves. Down the road, Monica gave Juan cover while he pried a chunk of the asphalt free with a three foot long branch. It was thick and sturdy, but the end was rapidly splintering apart. Emma was uneasy. Even though the immediate area was clear, Monica and Juan were in a vulnerable position.

  Lifting her gaze toward the top of the hill looming over their heads, Emma shivered despite the swelling heat. The treetops swayed, obscuring Lookout Point. How many more zombies were looming up there? Were they all marching toward the bus?

  “Got it!” Juan triumphantly hoisted a huge chunk of asphalt off the road. It was the size of a concrete
brick and he struggled to carry it back to the bus.

  Monica diligently stayed by his side, guarding their return, while Nerit culled the front end of the herd approaching the bus.

  With a meaty thump and cloud of dirt spewing into the air, a body landed a few feet from the base of the hill on the shoulder of the road. It had not been there before.

  Monica jerked around, searching for the source of the sound. “What the fuck was that?”

  Emma cocked her head and studied the top of the hill where moving figures dwelled in the gloom beneath the trees. “I think it fell from up there.”

  A second later, another body tumbled into view. The uneven rock face and occasional scraggly shrub bounced it around and slowed its fall until it landed with a meaty splat on the road. There was no need to put a bullet through its head since there wasn't one left, only a mash of bone and brain.

  Monica gestured to the top of the hill. “Holy shit, they jumped from up there!”

  They'd worried about being attacked from the sides, not from above.

  “More will follow!” Emma instantly grasped the danger of the situation and began to unhook the harness.

  Zombies traveled in swarms. It only took one moving in one direction to spur others to follow. In their constant quest to seek out the living, the undead were relentless. Devoid of emotion, the need for self-preservation, or the ability to feel pain or fear, they sometimes stumbled into deadly situations which a living person would avoid. The first zombie probably had been drawn to the edge by the gunfire, spotted the bus, and fell.

  Another toppled over the edge, spinning through the air. It landed with a loud thump much closer to the bus.

  Nerit barked out orders while hurrying toward the hatch. “Juan, hurry up! Emma, get inside!”

  Another zombie struck the ground only a foot from the bus. The plunging bodies were a deadly threat to the humans below, not only because of their velocity, but because the road was so narrow some would likely strike the vehicle. Within seconds, Juan and Monica were dodging the dropping bodies. Like lemmings, the zombies leaped from the cliff, desperate to reach the living far below.

  “Shit! Shit! Shit!” Juan barely managed to hold onto the chunk of concrete and asphalt in his hands.

  The zombies struck the ground with loud, fleshy thwacks. Emma expected them to explode, but to her horror, most barely appeared fazed by their fall and struggled to stand. Only a few were so mangled they fell apart on impact. One zombie clawed at the ground, its intestines falling out in long gray-pink ropes.

  “Move, Emma,” Nerit said, pushing her toward the hatch.

  There was a loud clang, an explosion of glass, and the shriek of bending metal when a zombie struck the roof of the bus, leaving a huge dent in the top of the vehicle. It tumbled off onto the road.

  “Oh fuck,” Emma gasped.

  Nerit dropped through the hatch and Emma scrambled after her, remembering to grab the bag of ammunition at the last moment.

  24

  The Escape

  Emma dropped through the hatch and landed in the aisle behind Nerit.

  “Help Juan and Monica, Emma!” Nerit directed. “Kurt and I will provide cover.”

  Emma sprinted for the back door. Ted was already there, blocking the exit and yelling at the top of his lungs for Juan to hurry. She promptly shoved the blustering man out of the way and took his spot, swiftly assessing the situation outside.

  Juan struggled to move faster under the weight of the asphalt and concrete lump he was carrying while Monica shadowed him. Keeping an eye on their surroundings, she hurriedly guided Juan out of the way of a falling zombie.

  Emma ignored Ted’s angry face in her periphery as he labored to sit upright on the bench he’d fallen onto, but he was too weak. She was about to jump down when Ted yanked her arm to pull himself up.

  “We’re going to die if he doesn’t hurry up!”

  Irritated, she jerked away. “Don’t touch me!”

  “You need to hurry!”

  “Then stay out of our way, Ted!”

  The reassuring sharp bark of weapon fire started again. Nerit and Kurt were positioned at the front, sniping the zombies approaching from the rest area. Nerit and Kurt were doing their jobs.

  Now it was time for Emma to do hers.

  Gripping a handhold outside the door, she swung herself down to the ground, landed with a thud, and drew her weapon.

  The immediate area around the bus was free of shambling zombies, but there were some falling from above. The strong winds carried the zombies closer to the bus, tossing them like dolls as they fell. Luckily, most of the ones striking the ground either bashed their heads open upon impact, or were so mutilated they could barely move.

  The herd that had followed the Fort crew down the hill swiftly closed in on their location. The gunfire from the front of the bus culled the numbers, but there were far more than Emma had realized. The herd must have come up the other side of the hill, drawn by the activity.

  Rushing toward the cousins, she called out, “Monica, help Juan carry it! I’ll cover!”

  With a curt nod, Monica holstered her weapon and grabbed the edge of the heavy chunk. Arm muscles straining, she helped her cousin move at a faster pace.

  Emma fell in in beside Monica and Juan. Another zombie plunged toward the road. As it fell, Emma studied its arc. It was going to miss them, so she relaxed slightly until it landed a few feet behind the trio, exploded on impact, and splattered them with guts and blood. Emma winced when a meaty chunk hit her cheek and rapidly brushed the foul-smelling thing away with one gloved hand.

  “Fuck!” Juan exclaimed.

  “Right on my favorite jeans. Freakin’ flyin’ zombies,” Monica muttered.

  “This apocalypse couldn’t get any weirder.”

  Juan clucked his tongue at Emma. “Don’t give it any ideas and jinx us! It’s already breaking a lot of the zombie rules!”

  Ted returned to the doorway despite Emma’s earlier admonition. His sunburned face twisted into an angry grimace. “Keep moving! We have to get out of here! You’re taking too long!”

  “Shut up!” Monica snarled. “We’ve got this handled!” A dark shadow passed over the road.

  “Nerit! Kurt! Watch out!” Emma shouted.

  Another zombie landed on the roof of the bus. Nerit dodged inside while Kurt leaped out onto the road to avoid it. The zombie was older and burst apart on impact, leaving a deep dent over the entrance.

  “Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit,” Juan grunted.

  “Dammit! The door is stuck!” Since the roof had caved, the buckled metal blocked it from closing. Nerit kicked it a few times from inside while Kurt tried to pry it loose. “Juan, get us out of here!”

  “Working on it, Nerit!”

  “With this door jammed like that, the bus is an all you can eat buffet,” Monica said, huffing with exertion. “Maybe we should run for it.”

  “I trust Nerit to kill anything getting close to that door. We can do this,” Juan countered.

  A zombie crawled toward them. Skin and muscles tore apart, leaving its bottom half behind and dragging entrails in a bloody, gooey wake. Emma shot it in the head and aimed at another farther away trying, but failing, to walk on broken legs. Because it wasn’t a direct threat, she held her fire to conserve bullets.

  Juan and Monica reached the rear tire hanging over the edge of the road with Emma in their wake. She positioned herself near the rear of the bus where she could easily see down the road and also spot the falling zombies. There were figures shuffling through the trees along the top of the hill.

  Working together, the cousins started to push the mass of asphalt and concrete under the wheel.

  “It’s a good fit,” Juan announced. “Just need to shove it under a few more inches so the tire can get traction.”

  “You need to hurry!” Ted screamed from the open rear doorway. “They’re coming!”

  “Shut up, Ted!” Belinda appeared next to him, unsteady, her face b
eet red, and furious. Shoving him with both hands, she knocked him back onto the rear seat. “Now stay there!”

  “Thanks, Beli,” Juan called out to her.

  “I know you’ve got this, Juan,” Belinda said, positioning herself to keep Ted at bay.

  “Emma, give us a little help here,” Juan directed.

  Holding her pistol at the ready, Emma placed her foot on the wedge and shoved as hard as she could. Juan and Monica did the same, forcing it to burrow into the dirt and lodge under the tire.

  “That should do it,” Monica declared.

  “Try it, Arnold!” Juan shouted.

  The engine roared and the beleaguered driver switched gears. The wheels spun and the short bus lurched forward toward the middle of the road.

  “Yes!” Juan hooted, lifting his hands in victory.

  The bus slowly rolled a few feet away, and Belinda leaned out, “Hurry! Get inside!”

  Arnold brought the short bus to a stop and the trio scrambled after the vehicle.

  “Let’s get the hell out of here.” Monica clutched the handhold near the open doorway of the bus and lifted herself inside.

  Emma was about to follow when another zombie landed near her with a meaty splat and lashed out with a long, muscular arm to grab her ankle. Dressed in running shorts and a sweatshirt, it had once been a tall, athletic man. Emma jerked her leg back, but the zombie’s grip was stronger than she’d anticipated despite the blackened skin on his fingers being cracked and oozing. She aimed her pistol at its head and fired, blowing a hole in its skull. She tried to yank free only to discover she was trapped by the huge hand.

  “Dammit!” Holstering her gun, she leaned over and tried to wrestle her foot from her boot. The painful grip of the dead zombie pinched the leather around her ankle, preventing her from pulling free. “I can’t get loose!”

  “I got you, Em!”

  Juan had been letting her deal with the threat while watching for other zombies. Realizing her predicament, he slung his rifle onto his back and leaned over to pry the dead creature’s fingers off her ankle.