Zomb-Pocalypse (21 page)

Silas reaches up from the backseat and clasps his hand on my shoulder, “Just keep it steady champ.” Their words have the opposite effect on me, and the confidence boost, especially from Silas, makes me panic.

Usually I can tell myself that things aren’t as bad as I think they are, but not when these two are acting like I’m driving through a minefield. I guess I am, a minefield with teeth.

I’m an okay driver under normal circumstances. My parents use to take me out driving, though I hadn’t been allowed on the freeway yet… Zombies running up to the vehicle and trying to eat us wasn’t covered in any of that defensive driving training, and the sheer number of them is making me freak out.

“Just pull over and we can switch,” Ryan tells me, but his idea seems ludicrous. There are at least ten zombies right up against the truck, and close to fifty more heading our way.

“I can’t,” I tell Ryan. I’m too scared to pull over. Even if we switch inside the truck, sixty zombies surrounding the truck might be too many to get away from. My fight or flight response has kicked in and my brain is telling me to run.

“Maybe if I can just get to the Camp?” I question Ryan, biting my lip as I steer around another zombie. I’m trying so hard not to have a teenage girl meltdown. I’d honestly thought this stuff was behind me.

From the corner of my eye, I see Ryan and Silas exchange a look.

“What?” I demand, and Ryan looks guilty.

“He’s worried that the camp has fallen. If the military cleared this town, I don’t see why they would let the dead take it back,” Silas says quietly from the backseat. His words are like a punch to my gut. I gasp, trying to draw in enough breath to keep from hyperventilating.

I look at Ryan in the passenger seat. He looks grim. “Maybe we should find somewhere safe to hole up, and then try to figure out what’s happened,” he suggests delicately.

I see red at his suggestion. “Abby is there! And Megan!” I yell at them both. I temporarily forget my fear and step on the accelerator a little bit too hard. I instantly hit a zombie, but I try to shake off the ill feeling in my stomach. I can do better than this. I will do better than this. I need to know if Abby is okay.

Tears prick my eyes as I make my way, from memory, back to the school.

“Jane,” Ryan says, but I make a conscious decision to ignore him. He says my name three more times before he reaches over and tries to grab the wheel from my hand. I don’t think. I just react and do something that I never thought I would be able to do to anyone, especially Ryan. I draw my pistol from the holster at my waist and I aim it at him, making him back off.

I don’t actually put my finger on the trigger, but it wouldn’t take me long to move my finger the hair’s width to reach it.

“Don’t make me do this, Ryan,” I plead with him, tears running down my cheeks because it’s come to this.

In the backseat, Silas lets out a long, low whistle, “You got balls girl.”

“Shut up Silas,” I snap as I turn the truck down the road where the high school sits at the end.

I don’t look at Ryan’s face. I already know the emotions that will be most visible: shock and hurt. I can barely believe that I am doing this, but I would do a lot more to make sure Abby is safe. If she needs me, I’m not going to be sitting somewhere safe while she suffers.

I can see the military fence in the distance. For a minute, I let out a breath of relief. My celebration is cut short when we get a little bit closer and I see the state that the gates are in.

The gates hang wide open. One side is bent and crooked. The other gate is down on the ground. Zombies litter the school yard, hanging out against the fence. They all turn and look hungrily as I drive by.

“Don’t go in there!” Ryan shouts, but I don’t listen.

I gun the engine and drive over the collapsed gate. Zombies begin to move towards us, but I’m driving too fast for them to catch up. I circle the school yard to assess the damage.

Is everyone trapped in the school?

I roll down the window a few inches and scream Abby’s name out as loud as I can.

“Jesus Christ,” Silas curses from the back seat. “Are you going to do something?” he demands of Ryan, but Ryan is so shocked by my behavior that he doesn’t seem to know what to do.

I pull up beside Abby’s parents’ Suburban, which is still in the parking lot. I jump out of the truck like a crazy person, zig zagging around zombies, and run to look inside to see if there is some clue in there. A zombie staggers too close. I pull my pistol from my hip and fire twice at him. I don’t feel any elation when my aim is true and the zombie’s head explodes. It’s a fresh zombie dressed in military fatigues, and it makes me feel sicker.

Silas is beside me then, firing like crazy into the crowd as he tries to pull me back towards the truck, but I miserably shake him off.

“Are you kidding me?” Silas roars at me as he picks me up in a fireman’s hold, with me struggling and kicking, and runs for the truck. He dives into the back with me still in his arms and sets me down none too gently. I bump my head on the floor, but sit up quickly.

Ryan is in the driver’s seat now, and we are already peeling away. I struggle to get free so I can find Abby, but Silas has me in a death grip so hard that he’s practically choking me. I’m not sure it’s entirely unintentional on his part.

As we drive by the backside of the school, I see something that makes my heart drop. The gym door is flung wide open. The school must be full of zombies.

Ryan aims the truck for the wrecked gate, but there’s a zombie in front of us, standing right in the way. I grab desperately for a bag and start to vomit when I see who it is. Ryan pins the truck and plows the zombie down. Her skull is crushed and lands on top of the truck hood. Her brains smear and mix with her tangled blond hair, even as a red high heel goes flying over the windshield.

“Was that zombie wearing high heels?” Silas asks incredulously as I cling to him, and my stomach heaves again.

“We need to get Abby!” I manage to get out around my burning throat. Neither of the guys answer me.

“Ryan!” I scream at him, but he doesn’t turn around. He’s focussed on getting us out alive.

“She isn’t there anymore,” Silas says softly after a minute.

I look at him blankly. “How do you know?” I can’t help asking, not sure how he can know that.

Silas shakes his head like he actually regrets what he’s about to say. “Because, either she got out, or she didn’t.”

My heart aches to even think of Abby as a zombie.

“What are we going to do now? How do we find out?” I ask.

Silas shakes his head; he doesn’t know. Ryan finally looks back at us, his eyes hard and bright with unshed tears.

“We go back to plan A, the cabin.”