by Mark Clodi
"Enough, cinco in the shotgun, a dozen in my pockets, little over two reloads. Kevin, amigo, how many bullets to you have?", asked Juan.
"Ah, how many are in the gun?"
"Only cinco, five amigo, you shoot them all?"
"I think so, how can I tell?", replied Kevin.
"Gimme the gun hombre, you take the shotgun for now, you got bullets in your pockets? A few? Any?", prompted Juan.
"Ah Juan I put them in my pack, I might have a couple in my pockets." at this point Kevin stretched out on the back seat and fumbled through his pockets, "Yeah man, yeah, I got a few, four, no six! Here ya go Juan.", he said as he handed the shells up to the front seat.
Hank and Juan looked at each other with worried expressions, then Hank started to laugh, Juan joined him and Kevin sat looking at them puzzled. "No big deal Kevin, how many guns did you start with? Yeah, unless you were lying you didn't have any and you survived for three days without them, neither me or Juan had guns to start with either, I kept my guns at Juan's place in his gun safe, which is where Juan's were, which is where they all are right now. It's a long story, the short version is we don't have a key to get in right now, Juan's uncle Mike borrowed a rifle to go shoot rabbits with last weekend, he swung by the shop for the key and well, he is not back yet so our guns are all locked up. Safe and sound. Anyway we lived for awhile without guns, they are just a crutch man, nothing more, we'll get by. Guns just make it easier. We will be more careful, unless you would all like to swing around to the Gas 'n Go again? No? Yeah me either. Besides the Mike's Club is just up here."
"Hank.", said Kevin in a way that made Hank know they were in trouble, "Check your rear view."
Hank glanced instinctively up, but the blast that had shattered the front windshield had also taken off the rear view mirror, using his driver's side mirror Hank was able to see well enough. "Shit, it ain't our lucky day is it? And here I was thinking the day was gonna go smoothly."
Behind them in the distance Hank could see a lone guy on a motorcycle, a hog it looked like. It suit him, Dave being the current incarnate of pure evil and all. After a few blocks it was apparent that it was Dave and he was following them. However he stayed well back from them, not that Kevin, who now had his reloaded rifle back, or Juan with the shotgun would waste a shot on him yet.
Chapter 6
"Well we are good and corn holed boys, I ain't bringing that shit bag to the Mike's Club, we might not get a shot at him, and he mentioned something about others just like himself, like he was not the only one or something. We gotta set us an ambush or something and finish that asshole off first. Tell me when to stop Juan."
They drifted in and out of stalled cars for awhile, with Hank heading them south on Havana street until it hit I-25, where they stopped, looking up the on ramp, Hank turned to look back at the hog and its rider. Dave had stopped on the other side of a parked car and ducked down to peer at them through the windows.
"Hank that pendejo knows the windows would deflect a shot enough to give him a flesh wound, he watches, he waits, for what? Nightfall? We ain't gonna get a shot off at him. Take the highway and look for a good place, you drop me off after a wreck and I will wait until he goes by and shoot his head off."
"Maybe Juan, maybe. Say you think your wife has her phone on? Maybe we could call her now and see if the boys could set something up for us? We ride through and they jump him after we pass?"
"Better Hank, that is better. I'll see okay?" Juan pulled out his phone and dialed his own cell phone number, which his wife had, after a tense moment where Juan was worried that his wife would not pick up she answered, "Hola?"
A quick conversation in Spanish followed, first Juan had to assure her that he was okay. Then Nanci had to talk to Hank, and Hank had to reassure her that Juan was okay and that Hank was okay and that the guy they were with was okay. Then Nanci wanted to talk to Kevin herself, but Hank killed that by telling her, in Spanish, that Kevin didn't speak any Spanish, as Kevin didn't object Hank figured he was right, he asked if Ramon was around and after a few more minutes of her calling out the news to everyone that Hank and Juan were alone and okay she put Ramon on.
"Kevin keep watch on mister Dave there, okay, this might take a minute or five."
After that he turned to Juan and said, "Hey switch me buddy, my back is kinda aching and this clutch is killing me." Then he hopped out of the car, leaving Juan staring at the deep red crimson stains on the seat that Hank had left behind.
Hank walked around the car and Juan reluctantly hopped out, stopping Hank with a held up hand, he motioned him to turn around and when he did he peeled up Hank's shirt and took a look. The left side of Hank's back was smashed and bloodied, his ribs looked broken. Hank, talking with Ramon, turned around and looked at him, Juan's pale face told the whole story, putting his hand on the receiver he asked, "That bad?" to which Juan could only nod. "We gotta get moving then? Help me down?" Seeing the seat he said, "Aw shit Juan I am sorry amigo, sorry about the seat. Sorry for letting that asshole jump me. Damn."
Juan hurried around the car and hopped into the driver's seat with barely a glance at the gore as he settled into it. After awhile Hank got off the phone and told Juan, "Okay here is what we are going to do, we take interstate twenty five down to where it meets highway four seventy east and loop over to South Parker road, then we take that up to the Broncos Parkway and up to Peoria, the boys are going to give Dave a little surprise, they will be ready in twenty minutes tops and will duct tape a towel to a car about two blocks from where the ambush is, they say to keep heading straight up the street from there and hit the gas to make Dave go faster to keep up, maybe he won't notice them then. Oh, the doc and his nurse arrived with all our other guns and supplies yesterday too. Nanci threw a fit when we didn't come home. Why didn't we call her last night amigo? She is gonna be pissed when she realizes we had the phones then, and she'll figure it out too boss."
Juan grinned and shook his head, "So? If we come home we come home, she can be mad all she wants then, so long as we make it okay. I am glad the doctor made it." Switching to Spanish Juan continued, "I don't think Kevin saw, but you are bleeding real bad Hank, you need the doctor."
Hank merely nodded and if Kevin noticed the exchange he didn't say anything. Pulling the shotgun up into position Hank said, "Say Juan pass me a couple shells would ya? Just in case I run out?"
Silently Juan passed over half the unloaded shells. The highway was not cleared, but it was passable, something had been through here clearing the way, anywhere that a the cars would have made a solid block and prevented them from passing through had been opened forcibly, and there were no zombies on the road, only corpses.
Coming up to the intersection of the two major highways, twenty five and four seventy, they noticed a huge pile of cars. Along the side of the road there were bodies lined up, or what looked like bodies anyway, they were all in body-bags. Military body bags.
"Mire Hank", said Juan pointing.
"Yeah I see, I guess we just missed them, looks like they were heading into Denver though, not out. National guard do you think?"
"Si, I think so."
Juan, like most people, knew someone in the National Guard, someone who had been over seas, and had been a veteran. Someone who told stories of the war and the body bags seen up close and personal instead of the sterile coffins filmed by the media coming out of the back of a plane somewhere.
"None of them are moving around, that many dead someone would have turned, right?"
"Si, that means they know, a cap in the head to finish it. That is good. Hard to do to friend." replied Juan, looking at Hank.
"You mean those are from the army?" asked Kevin pointing his gun at the bags along the side of the road.
"Si, probably, my cousin described them to me like that along the side of the road sometimes, when they were laid out waiting to be picked up after the fighting stopped."
"And they ain't moving, which means the guard knows how to put the z
ombies down." added Hank.
"It looks like they came right up the highway, did they block off access to the four seventy exit?" asked Hank.
"No, I do not think so amigo, not on purpose anyway. I think I can get us by." Juan steered the car over the highway overpass and onto east bound four seventy, as they started down the ramp onto the highway proper Hank could see a bit of a blockade ahead, he motioned to the right and Juan nodded, "I see, over that way, but does it go all the way through this shit pile?"
"Well my angle is a little better, I think so, a lot of crap on the road though." That is when they heard the screaming, coming from within the pile up or somewhere on the other side. Two cars were actually on top of a truck and a new Volkswagen, obscuring sight around the barrier completely. Juan put the fiesta in gear and crept the car forward, the wreck looked about three car lengths long and Juan edged their car closer and closer to the side of the road from the shoulder until it was obvious that they were going to hit the cars and guardrail before making it through, then he gunned it. The fiesta was too wide by a couple of inches and the screaming metal and grinding made Hank think Juan had lost his mind, "Juan, what the hell are you doing?" he yelled. Then they were through, the car started shaking a bit and the ride was rougher, but they had made it through.
Hank turned to Juan to say good job when he saw the woman running towards them, pursued by some fast zombies, the woman was blond haired, with dark green eyes and maybe thirty years old, she had long white legs that ended in running shoes, around her waist were the remains of a pair of jogging pants which were ripped and trailing behind her in a pink flutter. Under that she had on a black thong and Hank blushed to notice she was shaved 'down there' too. Up top was no less impressive for all the clothing that covered it, there was plenty of blood and bite marks on her shoulders and one of her arms ended in a jagged, bleeding stump just above her elbow. Above that wound was a belt of some sort, which had been cinched tight to stop the bleeding. The arm amputation looked recent and mechanical, not result of…feeding. Her hair highlighted her green eyes, which Hank found more attractive than the traditional blond-blue eye combination.
The three fast zombies behind her pulled up short at the sight of Hank and Kevin's guns aimed in their general direction, but the quickest one snagged blondie and ducked with her behind a car. The woman was screaming for a second, "Help me! They got Fritz, they got Fritz! Help me! Oh God they bit me! They want to rape me! Help me, hel.." and her voice was muffled into silence, though not one of the three men believed she had been killed. A new voice came out from behind another car, this one in front of Juan by a good ways, "Drive on. Just leave, you don't have to die too. We are not that hungry."
"Shit!", whispered Hank.
In the back seat Kevin was sobbing, "Its her man! Its her the woman with the kids I saw on interstate seventy! It looks like her!"
"It ain't her." whispered Hank at Kevin, "Kevin, listen to me, it is not her! You said that woman on seventy had blue eyes, this woman's eyes were green, this is not her!"
"What? Are you sure? I didn't get a clear shot of her face, maybe you were wrong? Are you sure Hank?"
"Yeah I am sure Kevin. You know Juan, she is already dead, she got bit, I saw it, you saw it. No reason to stop here and try and save her is there?"
"No Hank."
Juan shifted the car into neutral and put on the parking brake. Hank and Juan got out of the car at the same time. Looking around Juan grabbed up a tire iron off the highway from among the debris and they started creeping towards the car where they had last seen the woman.
"Kevin stay in the car and cover us, okay?" called Hank over his shoulder.
Hank heard the car door shut behind him, glancing back he saw Kevin was already out of the car bracing his rifle, covering the area where they had heard the voice come from.
"Or shit, you can do it your way." Hank said under his breath.
The voice called out again, "You don't want to do this. I can smell your blood, you don't know what it means to me."
"Just let her go and we will go, find someone else and let her go!" Hank replied.
They heard a whimper from in front of them and they approached the car from two different sides, Juan going around back, Hank passing the front bumper. The zombie was feeding on the woman, he was laying on top of her, as if raping her and Hank stood for second watching as the thing's groin moved up and down in awkward thrusts, all the while his mouth worked at her bloody shoulder and part of her neck. One of its hands was covering her mouth, the other was holding her good arm down tight against the ground. Then the tire iron came down on the back of the things head with a resounding thunk. And the zombie was just another body. Looking closer Hank was not so sure that the goddamn thing had not been raping her. What the hell was going on? Juan seeing the same thing hit the body several more times, then bent over to continue to strike it, which allowed Hank to see one of the fast zombies running up behind him. When he pointed the shotgun at Juan, Juan saw him and immediately went prone. Hank's shot rang out and the other zombie staggered under the blow. In the back of his mind Hank heard Kevin firing as well, he lined up another shot, which hit the zombie square in the face, just about decapitating it, it might still be alive, but Hank thought it would be down for awhile. Turning he saw the other zombie was laying on the ground about 2 feet behind him, trying to move, but twitching uncontrollably. Hank stepped up and put a shell through its head at an angle. "That all of them!?" Hank yelled to Kevin.
"I dunno, did you save the woman?", he yelled back.
"I dunno, Juan?"
Juan was on the ground next to the woman's head she was talking to him very softly as he held his brown hands over the wounds on her neck, trying to keep her from bleeding to death. It was a lost cause, Hank could see that. However he bent down and pulled the corpse off of her and kicked it aside. Looking up he shook his head from side to side at Kevin. Hank saw the woman's face more clearly it was wounded and blood splattered, but not the woman Kevin had described from his earlier encounter, her eyes were most definitely green.
"Did you save the woman?" Kevin yelled loudly.
"Shit Kevin she is not the woman you saw, this ain't her!" Hank called back.
"How do you know? I am the only one who saw the other woman?"
"Kevin, you said your blond had blue eyes, this one has green eyes, this isn't her!"
Kevin gulped and then nodded at Hank, turning his attention back to scanning the area and silently fuming.
With a final gurgled the woman stopped breathing, Juan looked up and said, "Hank, she said her kids were still in her car, the black SUV, over there." Juan pointed at an overturned car, "She said to rescue her babies. Hank….she was bit." Standing up and backing off, he looked at Hank expectantly.
Hank stepped up and shot the woman without ceremony in the head, then walked over to the SUV. There was a man laying in front of the SUV, in a large pool of blood, his pants, a pair of clean blue jeans, were torn open, the belt loops all broken. 'Now I know where the belt on blondie's arm came from', thought Hank. The man's head had been smashed in, his chest had been punctured several times, it looked as if by fingers to Hank, and his entrails were pulled out and spread in a wide circle around his body.
Juan came around to one side of Hank, took the shot gun from him and reloaded it using the shells he had, then handed the gun back. Looking at the overturned SUV Hank commented, "Yeah sorry partner but I ain't up for much crawling around right now."
"Si." replied Juan, who got down on his hands and knees and peered into the car. It had been loaded with gear, suitcases, a cooler, bags of food, all of which was now lying on the ceiling. The back seat was empty, with seat belts hanging down. Maybe the woman had it wrong? Juan walked around the wreck peering in the windows, near the back he saw two kids hiding behind all the junk. The windows were not broken out, just cracked into a million pieces and held in place, just like safety glass is supposed to be. Juan came back around to the slightl
y swaying Hank and got down on his hands and knees and called into the car.
"Come here, it is alright, are you hurt? Are you hurt ninos?"
The sound of crying grew reached Hank's ears, but the kids did not appear. He started in after them pulling the luggage and food out of the way until he had the kids pressed up against the back window of the vehicle. "We are not gonna hurt you, okay? Okay? Come on we gotta get out of here. Your mom sent us to get you." The children were reluctant and it took several more minutes of coaxing to convince them to come out and go with this stranger. The younger of the two kids was a boy, he was maybe five or six, the girl was older, maybe eight. Both were bloodied and bruised, but did not look seriously hurt. They had light brown, sandy blond hair, he had green eyes like his mother, hers were blue, though pale, not dark. They were dressed in loose clothing, shorts and t-shirts, both had on tennis shoes and white socks. When the boy got to his feet outside of the car he spotted his father and started screaming. He then started to try and get around Juan to his dad, the girl just stood stock still in shock, not moving other than to put her hand up to her mouth, a second later she was leaning over and vomiting all over the road by the side of the SUV. When she lifted her head she saw caught sight of her mother's legs and started crying harder. Hank put his hand on the girl's shoulder and pulled her face away from the dead, she automatically reached around and hugged him tightly sending a stab of pain through Hank's back, he didn't let go.
"You got him Juan?"
Juan looked like he was losing control of the boy, who had somehow slipped around him and was on his hands and knees crawling towards his father's body. Juan was able to keep a grip on the boy's shorts and haul him in, though doing so just about pulled the little guy's pants off. This did give the boy pause for a moment and he stopped struggling long enough to try and pull up his pants, which is when Juan nabbed him by hugging his arms around the kid to keep him from getting away, "Si."