As they talked, Lily looked around, spotting an exterior door about fifteen yards away, with a long chain wrapped around it to keep the swinging doors locked together. She politely tapped Francis on the shoulder, and he looked down at her, following her, pointing to the chain.
He smiled and nodded before walking over to it. The others trailed off from their conversation as they watched him grab onto the chain, putting his foot on the door and pulling hard. It took a few moments, but finally the release bar on the door cracked, breaking away, and then it snapped completely free.
“Which door do you want?” he asked as he approached.
Dante nodded. “Middle?” he asked.
Francis nodded and put the chain through the metal release bar on the door, stretching it several yards back and wrapping it around his wrists, holding tight.
Bracing himself, he gave Dante a nod. “Whenever you’re ready,” he said in his gruff voice.
Dante pulled out his handgun and walked to the door. “Here we go,” he said, thankful for the awesome giant on their side. He hit the release, and Francis let a little give on the chain so the door could open a few feet.
As soon as the zombie arms jetted through the opening, he tightened his hold to make sure that the door held fast. Dante lined up his shot, popping off one by one.
For each zombie that hit the ground, another one rushed in to take its place. Dante took his time, selecting his shots and hitting each one, all while the door stayed fast thanks to Francis and his strong arms.
This went on for several minutes, until finally the last ghoul dropped. Just to be sure, Dante smacked on the door a few times, listening to the sound echo in the gym. There were no returning moans or footsteps.
“I think we’re clear,” he said.
Francis cocked his head. “Are you sure?” he asked.
“Yes, thank you,” Dante said, and the giant let go of the chain. The door didn’t move at all with the mountain of dead bodies clustered around it.
The group stepped over the corpses, filing into the gym.
“I’ll get us some light,” Dante said, and jogged over to the far end to the exterior doors. He peered through them to make sure there were no other surprises and then pushed them open.
The sun-drenched the dust-covered floor, revealing a few small tents and camping equipment, as well as several pools of blood.
“Guess they didn’t know about the bites,” Ace muttered.
Maddox shook his head. “That’s gotta suck, thinking you’ve survived and that you’re safe, only to have your friend or mother wake up and start ripping your throat out,” he said.
“Is this going to be big enough?” Dante asked as he walked back over.
Ace shrugged. “Damn well better be,” he said.
Tate nodded. “I think if we can find enough lights, we can branch out into the classrooms if we need to.”
“I tell you what,” Maddox said, “why don’t I go get our boy Henry and he can tell us what he thinks?”
“I could use a nap on a real bed, too,” Francis piped up.
Maddox grinned. “Don’t worry big man, I’ll hook you up.”
The giant approached Lily, Dante, and Ace, extending his massive hand to shake them all in turn. “Thank you for coming to rescue me,” he said sincerely. “You didn’t have to risk your life for me, yet you did. I will do my best to make sure I live long enough to repay you for your kindness.”
“You keep cracking skulls like you’re doing, and we’ll call it good,” Ace declared with a grin.
Lily rolled her eyes. “What my cousin here means, is that there’s no repayment necessary,” she said.
“Go get some rest,” Dante said. “We have a lot of work ahead of us.”
Francis smiled and nodded, before heading off with Maddox.
“Yo bro, you coming?” the latter called.
Tate glanced at Dante, who had a concerned look on his face. “Nah, you go ahead,” he replied. “We got some stuff to handle here.”
“Suit yourself,” Maddox said, waving him off. “I’ll bring you back something to eat.”
As the duo disappeared, Tate approached Dante, crossing his arms. “I can see if on your face,” he accused. “Spit it out.”
“If this many people came from the nearby neighborhoods,” Dante said slowly, “we could have a whole lot of trouble waiting in the wings for us.”
Tate nodded, taking a deep breath. “I was kind of thinking the same thing,” he said.
“You want to do a quick tour?” Dante asked.
Tate motioned to the door with a flourish. “After you,” he said.
“Ace, do you and Lily feel comfortable staying here?” Dante asked. “We need to make sure this place is locked down tight.”
Lily smiled at him. “We’ll take care of it.”
Ace took his keys out of his pocket and tossed them over to Dante. “Just don’t ding up my truck,” he warned.
Dante chuckled and led Tate outside.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Dante drove with Tate in the passenger seat, and they drove around a small neighborhood half a mile from the school. So far there had only been a couple of zombies that had run up to them, and Tate put them down with a precise shot to the head.
The neighborhood was part tranquil, part war zone, just depending on which house they went by. From the looks of it, several families had been able to leave, but others weren’t so lucky.
“Three streets down,” Tate said, “one more to go.”
Dante turned onto the next street, stopping short when they spotted a pack of ten zombies in the road. They hadn’t noticed the vehicle yet, milling around each other.
“What do you think?” Tate asked.
Dante cocked his head. “You don’t happen to know a good auto body repair shop, do you?” he asked dryly.
Tate chuckled. “Maddox and I have been restoring a sixty-seven Impala,” he offered.
“Good enough for me,” Dante said, and then floored it, picking up speed. The roar of the engine attracted the ghouls, and they immediately sprinted for them.
The truck hit sixty when the first zombie impacted the front bumper, completely demolishing it. The ghouls behind it bounced away, flying in various directions.
A second later, Dante slammed on the brakes when they cleared the mini-horde, looking back and seeing a lot of devastation in his wake. Three zombies still stood, unscathed.
“Three coming up,” he said, and both men readied their handguns, waiting for the ghouls to reach them.
As soon as the corpses came up alongside the truck, each man popped off shots at near point blank range, dropping them.
“Should we inspect the damage?” Dante asked.
Tate nodded. “Just make sure you clear the truck when you get out,” he said.
They made sure to jump away from the vehicle, which ended up being a good plan, as there was movement beneath. One of the ghouls crawled out from underneath it towards Dante, squirming and writhing with busted legs.
Tate shook his head as he came around to look at it. “These things just keep coming, don’t they?” he asked.
“Yeah,” Dante replied, and fired, putting the zombie down. The duo walked around to the front of the truck.
The front end was beat up a bit, covered in blood. Tate let out a low whistle.
“Ace ain’t going to be happy with you,” he drawled.
Dante crossed his arms. “We totally got surrounded, right?” he asked.
“Oh, without a fucking doubt,” Tate replied, and they cracked up together.
As they headed back inside, Dante shook his head. “You know, I'm not a fan of how that thing got underneath the truck like that,” he admitted.
“You and me both,” Tate agreed. “Would be way too easy for one of those things to get tangled up in the axel, or even in the engine.”
Dante sighed. “There goes my big dream of doing donuts to take out big crowds.”
“Nah man, y
ou can dream big,” the redneck assured him. “Just means we gotta find you a monster truck.”
Dante’s eyes widened. “You can find those around here?” he asked.
Tate chuckled. “You ain’t from around here, are you?”
His companion shook his head. “Seattle.”
“Shit man, we’re going to add a trip to the dirt track to our list,” the redneck replied with a grin. “I’m gonna make you a country boy yet.”
CHAPTER TWELVE
Dante and Tate pulled up to the school gym, seeing one of the sets of doors propped open. Ace emerged from inside, putting his hands to his forehead.
“What happened to my truck, man?!” he cried.
Tate shook his head sadly as they exited the vehicle. “We were fucking surrounded man, zombies everywhere,” he said. “Dante had to punch it or we were done for.”
Ace nodded, though sadness still covered his face. “Well, as long as y’all are safe, man,” he said.
Dante glanced at his partner-in-crime, receiving a wink.
“And don’t worry,” Tate continued, clapping Ace on the back, “we’ll get it fixed up for you.”
Lily came outside, swiping her palms together. “How did the neighborhoods look’ she asked?
“Clear now, so we should be good out here,” Dante replied. “At least from hordes.”
“We should still have someone keep watch for stragglers,” Tate suggested.
Dante motioned to the building. “How are we looking in there?” he asked.
“Henry is still looking around,” Lily replied.
A few moments later, Henry came outside, flanked by Maddox with Teagan hanging off of his arm. She stroked his chest, glaring at Lily.
“So what’s the verdict?” Tate asked.
Henry shrugged. “I can make this work,” he replied, “but we’re going to need lights to make the indoors work.”
“That’s going to take some time to get,” Ace said.
“Time we don’t really have,” Tate added.
Henry nodded. “Which is why our main focus is going to be the football field,” he said, and waved for them to follow him. They headed around the gym to the field, which was overgrown, but had a fence around it. “It’s not too late in the season, so if we can get this cleared and plowed in the next week or so, I can still get some stuff planted.”
“What kind of stuff are we talking?” Maddox asked.
Henry tilted his head back and forth. “Beets, lettuce, maybe some spinach if we can find it.”
“Ugh, that does not sound appetizing,” Teagan whined.
“Sounds better than starving to death,” Lily snapped.
Dante sighed. “How long is that going to take before we can eat it?” he asked.
“Six to eight weeks,” Henry replied, “which is why we’re going to have to stagger everything when we plant it. Doesn’t do us much good to have an entire field’s worth of food ready at the same time when we won’t be able to eat all of it.”
Tate pursed his lips. “No way to store it?” he asked.
“We can try canning, but it’s going to be limited,” Henry said. “Not exactly a huge supply of the raw materials we’d need.”
Dante cocked his head. “Still… if you can make us a list of what to look for, we’ll do our best,” he suggested.
“I can do that,” Henry replied, nodding. “But in the meantime, I think we’ve done all we can do today. The sun is starting to get low, and this place is nowhere near ready to be staying at.”
“Yeah, I’d rather not be out on the road at night, either,” Ace agreed.
Maddox nodded. “So are y’all gonna come back down tomorrow to do some shopping?’ he asked.
Ace glanced at Dante, who nodded in agreement.
“Yeah, I think this takes priority over everything else, don’t you?” he asked.
Maddox nodded. “Agreed.”
“You drive safe,” Tate said, and headed over, shaking everyone’s hand. Maddox approached and did the same, but Lily simply glared at him, arms crossed.
“For what it’s worth, you did good today,” he said gently.
She jutted out her chin but nodded in acknowledgement. As they headed off, they heard Teagan laying into him. The words were unintelligible, but they could tell she was pissed.
“Giving praise to an ex in front of your girlfriend,” Ace drawled. “That’s a man sleeping on the couch tonight.”
“Told you he was a dumbass,” Lily muttered.
Dante chuckled. “I can see why you left him.”
They clambered into the truck, and Ace fired it up, rolling down the window to hang his arm out. Dante turned and watched Lily as they drove away, and she was blankly staring ahead, not really looking like she was staring at anything at all.
“You okay?” he asked softly.
She nodded. “Yeah, I’m good,” she replied with a smile. “I worked customer service before all of this, so I’m used to dealing with dumbasses.”
“That’s not what I mean,” he replied.
She paused and swallowed hard, staring straight ahead. Her jaw was tight, and it looked like she was fighting tears.
Dante reached out and grabbed her hand, and she squeezed back.
“I’m rattled a bit,” she admitted, “but I’ll be okay.”
They shared a small smile and continued holding hands as they headed for home.
END
Up Next: With zombies on the island still being a major threat, Grace, Troy and the other members of the QXR civilian squad are sent on another dangerous mission in Lowcountry - Pt. 5
Pick up Part 5 here. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08R6L1Q9C
The main Dead America Series can be found here. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07RWMXVNJ
Follow for new releases! http://www.DeadAmericaBooks.com
Dead America: Lowcountry | Book 4 | Lowcountry [Part 4] Page 7