“I’m trying to start it!” shouted Louis through the radio. “I’m pumping the gas. It says I have plenty!”
“You probably flooded it,” said Charlie. “Press the pedal to the floor. Just hold it and turn the key.”
Gem jerked the car backward, slamming into the rotting bodies between her and the GTO, knocking them down and rolling over them. Forward, backward. Forward, backward. Finally she’d crushed enough that she was against the Pontiac’s front end again.
“It started!” shouted Mason, obviously having taken the radio from Louis.
“Punch it and stay with us!” Charlie
screamed
into the radio
.
Gem hit the gas again, rolling over the dead zombies she’d killed moments earlier, but her car was having difficulty
gaining traction
over the many squirming, living dead speed bumps that littered the roadway.
“Charlie, where are you
?
We’re on Pine Street, but there is such an enormous cluster of infecteds we can’t see you
!”
It was Hemp
.
“Baby, we’re heading south on the kids’ street. Where are you?”
“
Right in front of the kids’ house. You are
in the Crown Vic, right?” he said, his voice more calm than Gem would have expected it to be.
“Facing south?”
“Yeah, why?”
“Make sure the windows are rolled up.”
“They are … why?”
Suddenly, the distant sound of machine gun fire met their ears, and
bodies in
the crowd in front
before
them started dropping from sight,
beginning
at the far end of the crowd of zombies
.
Sharp taps hit the windshield of the Crown Vic, and Gem realized bullets were slamming into the Ford.
Bullets from the AK-47 on top of Flex’s
truck
.
Flex
knew they wouldn’t penetrate the body or the glass of the Ford.
“They’re firing on them,” said Gem. “Fuckin’ A. Charlie, start taking out as many on the sides as you can.”
“Gotcha. Girls, cover your ears and duck.”
Taylor and Trina did, and so did Eddie and
Emma
. Charlie spun the roof-mounted AK-47 to the east, fanned the spray of bullets from south to north, then did the same on the west side of the car. The nearest creatures’ head
s
exploded, the spatter covering the side windows, preventing the more distant kills from being seen by the vehicle’s occupants.
They’
ve
seen enough anyway
, thought Gem. No need for more visual evidence that their foe could be destroyed. The fact was their foes were growing more massive in number, and this was evidence that they were indeed getting smarter.
“We’ve got to move,” said Louis. “They’re all over us!”
Charlie turned around. “Shit, Gem. I can’t even see the car!”
“Jesus,” said Gem. “We can’t do shit for them. Nothing.”
The radio on the seat came to life again. “Hey, dudes! Where are you guys?”
Gem tried to hear it over the pounding gun. Charlie had ejected another magazine and was currently working her way through the fourth.
Gem grabbed the radio as she again gunned the engine backward.
“Who is this?” Gem asked.
“It’s Nelson,
chick
! Where are you?”
Chick
, thought Gem. It sure was Nelson.
“We’re on
Pine street … and we’re in trouble, so if there’s –”
“Hell yes there’s something I can do! I’m driving a bigger truck than I’ve ever driven,
and I’m sure it’s blowing out more carbon monoxide than a wood chipper,
but from what I understand, what’s in it might help you!”
Gem heard C
harlie’s
gun fall silent
again
.
“
Here,
Charlie. Take this and
tell him where we are
before you reload
.”
Charlie took the radio.
“
Nelson, d
o you know where Pine
Street
is
, just off School?”
“Hell yes
I do! M
y Uncle lives here, remember? I’ll be there in no time
, but
I’m runnin’ over rats like crazy.”
“Nelson, why are you coming?”
“Charlie!” shouted Gem. “I need you to reload that gun!”
“Gotta go, Nelson,” said Charlie. “If you’re coming, then come now
and stay back if you can’t help.
”
Gem had managed to crush the zombies behind her car between the Crown Vic and the GTO’s front end. When she felt metal meet metal, she pulled forward again, but each time, Louis could not manage to move the car behind her forward. Gem now had clear vision – thanks to Flex and Hemp in the truck doing some steady shooting for a sustained period – but it wasn’t helping Louis and his passengers.
“Is Bunsen in the other car?” asked Trina, shouting over the gun.
“Yes, baby, she is. She’s fine. Just fine,” Gem lied.
Bright lights rounded the corner, and a vehicle traveling at least thirty miles per hour rumbled toward them.
“Is that fucking Nelson?” asked Charlie.
“In the goddamned street sweeper?” asked Gem.
“Who is Nelson?” asked Eddie.
“He might be our savior,” said Gem. She grabbed the radio.
“Nelson, is that you there?”
“Heck yes it is,” he said, excitedly. “Where do you need me?”
Gem looked at Charlie. “Who woulda thought?”
“Not me,” said Charlie, smiling for the first time since they hit the horde.
Gem hit the button. “Bring that thing straight through with speed, and come right next to Flex’s truck, my car and the GTO behind us. Spray the shit out of every zombie you get near. Douse ‘em, Nelson. Soak the fuckers.”
“Got it,” he said, and he came,
the water jets at full power.
The first run around knocked down more than half of the rotters. The truck had huge tires and they were more successful running over the prone bodies, and as he passed the GTO, Nelson spun the wheel to the left and went after the creatures attacking from the west side of the vehicles.
They did not all go down, which was what had begun to disturb everyone familiar with the effects of urushiol, but most did. In the end, the remaining creatures were mostly female.
“I’m not going to be able to move this car,” said Louis, over the radio. “How are we getting out of here?”
“Flex, if you’re listening,” said Gem, “Pull the truck over beside the car behind me. You’re going to have to put Louis, Mason, Ian and Bunsen in the truck with you guys. We’re full.”
“Got it,” said Flex, and the truck started pushing forward, its own cow catcher sweeping bodies into banks on each side. He cut wide when he came beside the Ford, so as not to push bodies beneath it.
It was slow going, but he managed.
“What now?” It was Mason.
“You’re going to have to get out and jump in the back of Flex’s truck,” said Charlie. “Lift the cover and hop in.”
“But … the bodies.”
“We need to get the hell out of here before more show up, so hurry. Just go. You’ll be there in seconds.”
Eddie and
Emma
couldn’t seem to help themselves. They turned and watched through the rear window. Slider had settled and now lay in the front seat beside Charlie and Gem, seeming exhausted.
The doors closest to Flex’s truck opened, and Bunsen was the first out. The rear door of the truck opened and she easily jumped in.
“In the back, guys. Hurry,” said Hemp over the radio.
All in a row, the three young men clamored over the piles of melting muck and zombies, scrambling over the side rail of Flex’s truck. Once in, Gem heard one of them slap the back of the cab twice, and Flex took off.
“Jesus, what the hell
is
this thing?” It was Ian’s voice, and he sounded horrified.
“Leave it alone,” said Hemp. “Sorry. Forgot to say something. It’s a head.”
The vehicles pushed forward with Nelson and his street sweeper in the lead.
Gem wondered how she would ever thank him. Then she remembered she still had some of the weed from the Tallahassee evidence locker.
She wouldn’t be needing it for a while anyway.
As the vehicles made their way clear of the massive zombie kill,
Emma
spoke.
“What about Jimmy and Nikki?”
Charlie reached back and took
Emma
by the hand.
She said nothing.
There was nothing that could be said.
*****
Chapter Thirteen
Hemp rode in silence as they pulled up to the bar where the three sisters, if only briefly, held fun karaoke nights with plenty of singers and a way to forget what the world had become.
But Hemp knew that those days, at least in
Concord
, and at least for now, were over. He felt responsible.
Of course it was ridiculous. He was only one man, and while his discoveries had made the battles they faced – such as the one they had just barely won – less one-sided than before, there were plenty of reminders that they were severely outnumbered.
He left his gun for the moment, instead opening the back door and helping Kev out. Flex came up beside him and the men helped him inside, where Doc Scofield saw him right away and rushed over.
“We have some cots set up over here,” he said. “We’ve got two left. Lots of folks got hurt out there tonight.”
“Any bites? Scratches from … them?” asked Flex.
“No,” said Doc. “Three of them were injured in a crash. Drove their car over the road trying to avoid a street filled with rotters.”
“They were out in force tonight,” said Flex, easing Kev down on a cot. “How you doin’, buddy?”
“I feel okay,” he said. “Hanging in there.”
“Good. Doc, I want you to soak his wound in pure urushiol. Have somebody run and get it. I have to talk to you.”
“You don’t have to leave,” said Kev. “I know the risk and what might happen.”
Flex sighed. “Yeah, I guess you do. Sorry, Kev.”
“Kimberly,” called
the doctor
.
The
blonde woman hurried over.
“What can I do, Doc?”
“
Please g
et the gallon bottle of urushiol oil from the back. Bring some
alcohol, soap and water and
cle
an towels, too, would you
?”
She touched Kev on the arm. “Are you okay, Kev?”
He nodded. “I am
… for
now.”
“Good. I’ll be right back to get you cleaned up.”
Hemp nodded at the doctor and saw the three kids who had been riding in the back of the truck. They approached him, looking exhausted.
“It was gross riding in there with that thing,” said Mason. “I touched it before I realized what it was.”
“I’m very sorry about that,” said Hemp. “It’s important to my research, though, and there was nowhere else to put you. Are you kids alright?”
“No worse for wear,” said Louis. “Jimmy’s gonna be pissed about the car.”
“You can probably get it back,” said Gem, walking up hauling Trina in her arms. “Zombies don’t drive.”
She turned to Hemp. “They
don’t
drive yet, right?”
Hemp shook his head. “I’ve got a last chore to do,” he said, and went to a box containing plastic grocery bags. He put one inside another and went back outside.
Hemp immediately saw Bunsen in the back of the truck, her paws on the window, scratching.
“Woah, girl. How did we forget you?”
He opened the back door and Bunsen jumped to the ground, immediately
circling him
for rubs. Bunsen was fairly sensitive to the tension felt by the humans around her, but she did her best to ignore it when some soft strokes might be available.
Who was Hemp kidding. Even some pretty rough neck scratches were welcome.
Bunsen then
spotted
Slider running toward her, and she reared up on her hind legs to meet him. It was his trick, and it was her defense. Seconds later, it looked like two furry giants hugging.