Since The Sirens Box Set | Books 1-7

by Isherwood, E. E.

  “Probably. This box says there are 500 rounds of 7.62x39. Do you think that will be enough?” He laughed and actually seemed to relish the challenge.

  “Well, I guess we'll see,” she replied while trying to catch some of his enthusiasm.

  Once the truck was off to the far side of the bridge, she felt confident she wasn't going to accidentally hit living people, so she leveled the rifle and squeezed off a few shots.

  “Got one!” she cried.

  “499 to go,” Liam replied with a laugh. He banged his mag back into the body of his rifle and stood close by.

  “You take the hundred on the left and I'll take the hundred on the right.” He didn't wait for her to answer but instead delivered shots toward his targets. More and more of those falling off the truck stood up and tried to decide between chasing the large truck or lunging for the tasty-looking couple firing guns at them.

  The zombies were definitely the same as those from the farmer's fields they'd seen the day before. They'd been covered in dust from their trek from St. Louis, and a few stood out because they were blackened and burned. There was no doubt in her mind those were from Liam's fireball back at the farmhouse.

  Most of the zombies chased Dave's truck as he sped off to the south. A small portion stood up against the railing of the southbound bridge as if thinking about how to get across to her and Liam. However, a few fast-walked the opposite way up the highway, and it exposed a critical flaw in their short-term prognosis for surviving this encounter.

  Liam fired off a couple of shots and brought down one of the lady zombies going to his right. A large man was close behind, presenting a big target for him.

  She tried to speak, but her voice wouldn't come out. Her throat was totally dry from fear until she forced herself to calm down.

  “Liam,” she finally said, “if those things get off that bridge ... ” she intentionally left that hanging.

  “Yeah, I'm on it. I've got a number 16 for it.” He fired off several more shots at the large stray far to the right, but the zombie walked with uneven steps. Several blotches of black blood appeared on the man's dingy white shirt, but his head remained intact.

  More followed that first one.

  He turned back to her with a boyish grin. “I messed up my count. I'll get it. I promise.”

  She didn't have time to worry about Liam's side of the crowd, because her side was in even worse shape. Dave was now off the bridge and speeding away, but zombies kept falling out the back. Most landed in sickening positions that would have killed normal people, but the infected tumblers did their best to get to their feet and look for victims.

  Most turned back toward her, because the truck was moving way too fast.

  She squatted down and rested her elbows on the three-foot tall railing, so she had a solid base to shoot across the gap. It took her several rounds to zone in the iron sights, but once she did, it became an elementary matter of picking out heads and putting bullets right in the center of them.

  Her heart missed a few beats when she imagined Dave was never coming back.

  Steady, girl.

  Victoria burned through the rest of her ammo until she pulled the trigger, and nothing happened.

  “I'm out,” she cried with anxiety.

  “Me, too,” he replied in a calmer voice. “That means we've killed sixty total, right?” He laughed because they both knew it wasn't true.

  “I think I killed two with one shot,” she bragged.

  “Count it,” he said.

  They both dug into the large box of ammo and pulled out the smaller containers with twenty rounds inside. They split them open and dumped the contents on the pavement, so it was easier to grab individual cartridges and stuff them in the mags. Her fingers were a little shaky from the adrenaline and fear, but so was Liam's.

  “You okay?” she asked him.

  He saw her glance at his hands as he picked at his pile. “I'm good. Nice and steady, you know?”

  She wished they had taken all the mags so there wasn't so much reloading to do, but that would have left the others without ammo for their rifles. She prayed they were loading their own and preparing to fire off a few to help them.

  While loading her thirty rounds, the zombies made it off the bridge to their right. At the opposite end, a larger group was already crossing the median. Soon they would be trapped between both forces.

  “Dave, we need you,” she said in her calmest voice. Her heart pounded with abandon inside her chest, but she didn't want Liam to suspect how scared she was.

  “He knows,” Liam replied. “Right? He knows to come get us.”

  It was one of those little details that seemed so obvious it didn't need to be said, but Victoria really wished it had.

  “Yeah, he'll come for us,” she said with great effort to believe it.

  Looking far down the highway, Dave still hadn't turned around.

  “Lock and load,” Liam said as he pulled the charging handle. “Don't be stingy with the ammo. Use it all.” He gently kicked the big box sitting between them.

  “Right,” she replied.

  She glanced at the zombies comically reaching out for her from across the gap between the bridges and wished all the zombies were that stupid. The whole zombie apocalypse would be over in minutes if they were.

  She laughed nervously to herself.

  Liam fired a long-distance shot at a lone zombie that was the first to make it onto their bridge.

  “29 left,” he said quietly to himself.

  She remembered what Liam had taught her about gun handling. He said it was important to count ammo as it was fired, so you knew when you were going to need to reload, but she was just focusing on the actual firing part of his advice. She got down on her hands and knees before laying down on the cool cement.

  Deep, calming breath. Exhale. Fire.

  Her chest heaved like the high seas and it was nearly impossible to steady herself without outright holding her breath for two seconds. If she tried it longer, she saw spots in her vision.

  Be calm, like Liam.

  She missed the head of the first zombie that came onto the pavement at the end of her side of the bridge, but she took a little pride that her shot sheared off the waifish woman's foot. It wouldn't kill her, but it did take her out of the attack for a while.

  29 left.

  More walked out of the grassy median and got onto the bridge. She fired a few more times and immediately lost track of her numbers.

  Dang it!

  She looked beyond the zombies at the edge of the bridge and felt relief at seeing Dave on his way back. His truck crossed from the southbound lanes to the northbound side and smoke belched out the stacks as Dave drove it to rescue her and Liam.

  “He's coming back!” she yelled.

  She fired another round, but the next trigger pull did nothing.

  “I'm out!” she shouted with excitement and fear while getting to her feet.

  Victoria was surprised how fast thirty rounds went out the barrel. Of those thirty, she thought she'd hit maybe five in the head. The other shots, including the footless lady, were either useless hits or complete misses. Her efficiency was pretty poor if it took 30 shots to bring down five zombies. So far, she'd managed to down the strays coming onto the bridge, but more came up the median each minute. She had to somehow get better at shooting.

  Liam was already at the cache of ammo. He shoved cartridges into the boxy magazine as fast as he could. His fingers shook, but he tried to hide it from her by turning away.

  “Oh, thank God,” she said softly. “I thought it was just me.” Her heavy breathing made it difficult to speak.

  “Liam, look,” she said with urgency.

  When he turned around, she showed him how her hand was shaking just like his.

  “We got this,” she breathed out. “I'm scared, too, but we can do this together. Just have some fun.” She smiled and winked, and he responded immediately.

  “It's easy to say, right?
I'm trying to take my own advice.”

  “Me, too,” she agreed. “It's going to save us.”

  They both finished loading their next thirty with what she thought was impressive speed. Liam turned around and started his count of shots, but when she spun around to get back into position, she couldn't pull the trigger.

  Not while Dave's truck approached from behind her targets.

  5

  Even after just reassuring Liam, she had to take a few deep breaths to purge the fear. More zombies ambled onto the decking a hundred feet away, and she lost confidence in her ability to stop them all.

  Liam popped off round after round in a nice, even cadence.

  “Twelve, eleven, ten,” he mumbled to himself between the shots.

  She fired a few rounds and scored a couple of key headshots, improving her kill ratio, but no improvement was going to save them, because the mass of zombies that had gone after Dave's truck were now coming back onto the far end of their bridge.

  “L-Liam!” she stutter-shouted to get his attention over the shooting.

  He stopped firing and may have turned around, but she didn't want to take her eyes off the south end of the bridge.

  “I'm almost out,” he said to her back. “You shoot on my side while I reload. Got it?”

  “Ya, but ... zombies coming,” was all she could say as she tore herself away from her side.

  “I know,” he said with haste.

  Once she had her back to the onrushing zombies, she was able to scurry to where Liam had already created a nice little mess of spent shell casings. There were far fewer zombies on his side, and they were more spread out, so it was easier to see her bullets make a dent in their numbers.

  She ran through her ammo in seconds. She killed five or six of the close ones, giving her and Liam some breathing room. A larger grouping was down near the end of the span, but it would take some time for them to walk across. She turned back to Liam and the ammo cache. Her head swooned with the thought of the impending disaster because the zombies on the south end of the bridge were almost upon them.

  “I'm ready for your great plan, now,” she said in jest.

  Dave was still a quarter of a mile away but moving at highway speed. The zombies filling that end of the bridge were going to be on them a lot sooner than Dave could reach them.

  Liam handed her a full magazine. “Take this. Give me yours.”

  She did as he asked.

  “Liam, they are super close. We have to run away.”

  “I had you shoot on my side, because I thought we could cut a path, but that isn't going to work.” He frantically pushed shell after shell into the second magazine.

  She slammed the mag in her rifle. “Should I shoot them?” It seemed a dumb question, but Liam was up to something.

  “Wait,” he advised.

  “Oh kay,” she said slowly.

  Dave was close enough for her to make out details inside his truck. His blonde hair practically glowed as it was hit by rays of sunshine. Sabella was also in the front seat and held her rifle up on the dashboard like she was anxious to fire it out the glass. Victoria thought the cavalry had arrived.

  But the lead zombies were only a few yards away.

  Liam pounded his magazine into the housing and then tapped her on the shoulder. “Sling it. We're going swimming.”

  She did as he commanded but wasn't sure she heard him right.

  “We can't swim in that,” she said in a high pitch. “There's zombies in the water.”

  “There's zombies everywhere. We have to get off this bridge.” He led her by the wrist and held her steady as she hopped up on the low railing. “We're going for that piece of shore, then we'll run up to the highway in that direction.” He motioned toward the north bank because there were far fewer zombies on that end of the bridge.

  “I trust you, but--” she started to say.

  Liam pushed her over the side.

  Her first instinct was to be pissed that he would do that, but she rotated in mid-air to see something had bumped Liam, too. One of the zombies had reached him before he could get up on the railing with her.

  “Liam!”

  She shouted it as one long word until she splashed feet-first into the canal. Her new ponytail was the last thing to enter the canal.

  The impact was shocking as the bubbles percolated around her body. Compared to the muggy, hot morning, the water was almost cold. Her feet slammed into the shallow bottom, but she recovered and used that to push her way back to the surface.

  She came out of the water to the sound of gunfire but got sucked down again by her momentum. She didn't dare open her eyes in the murky green water because it was likely filled with zombies. The water pressure made blood pulse against her ear drums as if to remind her how close she was to death.

  When she came up the second time, she flailed her arms like crazy to keep from slipping back into that silent darkness.

  “Come on, Liam. Jump!”

  She did her best to rub water out of her eyes, so she could see the edge of the bridge high above, because she had to know Liam was alright.

  He wasn't hanging over the side, yet.

  “Liam!” she screamed.

  More gunfire rattled from up on the decking.

  “Come on,” she begged quietly. “Please, Liam. Jump.”

  She knew him well enough to know he wasn't up there trying to be a hero. He was in real trouble.

  More shots echoed above her and they were less chaotic than the previous ones. She took that as a good sign.

  Until a mailman zombie came over the side.

  “Oh, crap on a cracker!”

  The uniformed man made a noise as he fell, clearly not dead. She used all her strength to get out of the way, and he splashed down right where she'd been.

  It spent a second under the water just as she did, but then it seemed well enough to poke her hip and grab for her legs.

  “Liam!” she screeched. Her breathing was erratic, and she kicked and flailed with her arms and legs to move even further from where the zombie had come down. Her sneakers made contact with the infected man a couple of times, but she did get free.

  Must get out of the water.

  She paddled like mad for the shore where Liam had pointed earlier.

  “Geronimo!” Liam yelled from above.

  The angle of his jump was going to put him right where the mailman had touched down, and he still hadn't come back to the surface. She had just enough time to look at him and then the bubbly water below his feet. He held his arms at his side like he'd done this before and he shot into the water a tiny bit upstream from the mailman.

  “Oh, God,” she said in a worried voice.

  Instead of going for shore, she went back toward her boyfriend. She kicked and pawed at the water, and she was right next to him by the time he popped up.

  “Wow! That was close!” Liam's voice was almost hoarse.

  “There's one right here,” she replied, using the current to move him downstream from that cursed spot.

  “The mail dude?” He spat out some water and rubbed his eyes.

  She nodded but tried to hide her fear. Her heart hadn't stopped pounding since the explosion, but now it tried to beat quietly so as not to stir up the zombie in the water below them. There was no way she was going to mention all the other zombies that had fallen out the back of the truck. They were down in the water, too, and the current wasn't strong enough to move them very far.

  “Come on, we have to get out of here,” she whispered. “Follow me.”

  Something touched her knee as she kicked, causing her to alligator roll a few times, just to be sure it couldn't grip her.

  “This way,” she repeated, as if nothing happened.

  Her vision tunneled big time as Liam went over the same spot. When she estimated he'd cleared the dangerous area, she paddled some more, but her hand immediately made contact with something warm and mushy, like a plate full of spaghetti under the water. She ign
ored that, but desperately wished she had the ability to walk on water.

  “Ball up your fists,” she advised. The image of spaghetti made her think of putting her finger in the mouth of a zombie. That's not how she wanted to go out.

  “Good call,” he replied as he splashed behind her.

  Dave sounded his horn again from very close. It resonated between both tree-lined shores like they were inside a closed room. He blew it as he sped across the bridge.

  “Holy hell!” Liam shouted.

  She looked back and then up. A whole mess of zombies and zombie body parts fell over the side of the bridge in a giant wave, starting from the south side.

  The top half of a screaming zombie woman splashed in the small space between the two of them. Long, bloody tendons and stuff from her severed legs followed her under the water like the tail of a meteorite.

  Arms, hands, and mangled bodies splashed all around them. Pieces crashed into the trees on the north bank, too. The cracks of branches sounded like gunfire.

  “We have to get out,” she said with the last shreds of her fake calm.

  “You ain't lyin',” he replied.

  The half-woman popped out of the frothy water right in her face. Something was wrong with her eyes, like they'd been blown outward, but her blood-stained teeth were totally fine. They snapped over and over as if driven by a little motor.

  Victoria belted out a full-on horror movie scream.

  Without thinking, she pushed the woman's forehead, but that sent her right at Liam.

  “Look out!” she yelled after realizing what she'd done.

  The woman snapped her teeth and reached for Liam with her arms, but without legs to steady herself, she went right back under the water. Her long, stringy blonde hair was soon lost from sight.

  “I can't believe I did that,” Victoria blurted out.

  “Don't worry. I want to scream, too.”

  A last few zombies shot into the trees on the far side of the canal as Dave finally let off his horn. The air brakes whined while he downshifted somewhere above them.

  “He's cleared a path on the bridge,” Liam said as he treaded water with her.