Learning To Live (Zombie Overload Series) (16 page)

So
that's what we do. Kally joins in and we see Mom and Dad leaning out
their windows helping us.

This
is getting us nowhere. For every ten we shoot twenty take their
place. Sighing in resignation, I holster my gun and lower myself
inside. Even though the bullet-proof glass is strong and thick, the
thuds from the undead fists are magnified in the interior. And that
really helps my headache.
Horseshit!

Irritated,
I throw open the backseat and reach into the storage compartment.
Pulling out a few boxes of the grenades, I lay them carefully on the
floor while I replace the seat. Turning, I slide back on the seat and
stare at them for a few moments.
Ok look, little blowup thingies,
let's come to an understanding, shall we? You are much, much more
powerful than I am. Please don't blow my ass up. K?

Taking
in a deep breath and willing my heart to slow down, I grab the boxes
and put them on the roof, then climb up. I find a spot on the roof as
far from the other guys as I can get, which isn't very far. I study
the box for a minute and then with shaking hands and fear making me
want to piss myself, I take one out.

Ok. What
have I seen in the movies? They hold this little bar down, pull the
pin, and then throw. Right? Is that right? God please let that be
right.
Wait
. I can't
do this! What if I can't throw it far enough? Why the hell aren't I
letting the guys do this?

Because you
value them more than yourself, remember? Right. That's right. Ok. On
three. One. Two. THREE!

I
pull the pin and throw it as far as I can. It lands and I freak out
because it doesn't go off right away like Jake's did, but the next
instant, an incredible bang sounds and zombie pieces fly everywhere.

The
blast didn't do it, but the shock from the incredible noise made me
fall flat on my ass. Not hard to do since I was already using only
one foot to stand on. Over the ringing in my ears, I can hear
everyone screaming at me. Everything from "You dumbass" to
"I'm gonna kill you."

Will
grabs my arms and slides me across the roof of the truck to the
opposite side. He kneels in front of me and, with one hand, grabs
both sides of my jaw from underneath, and roughly turns my head to
meet his fury-filled eyes.

"I'm
getting really sick of this Rambo shit."
Did
Jake tell
him about that? That heifer! I'm gonna kick his ass!
"You
pull one more stunt like that and I'm personally going to beat your
ass."

I
don't say a word but my eyes are flashing with anger. He just screwed
up, and he knows it. He releases my face and steps back. But just to
mess with his head, I turn away and act as if checking my throbbing
ankle is the only thing I'm worried about. I watch from the corner of
my eye as his boots move away from me. And then I smile.

Will
tells my brothers, "Watch my back. Your sister's pissed at me."

They
all shoot a worried glance in my direction, but I just sit and look
as innocent as I can.

"Yep.
You're in trouble now," Ricky says.

What
the hell? Do I even
have
an innocent look? Guess not.

I
turn and give them all a glare. Then I get to my feet...uh...foot and
reload my gun. The guys have all the fun with the grenades while I
shoot the ones I can. As I'm once again reloading, it dawns on me
that we really shouldn't be using all this ammo. I raise my arms and
wave to get everyone's attention.

Finally,
the shooting stops and I scream at them, "Stop shooting! We're
gonna run out of ammo!" Everyone looks around at everyone else
then slowly lower their guns.

"Well,
what the hell are we supposed to do now, then?" Dad yells out.
Um, was I supposed to know the answer to that?
Sorry.
Got nothin'.

I
shrug. I shake my head. And then I drop my head.
Shit!
Now what?
I sink to the roof
of the truck, my mind racing. Finally, I have an idea, but it could
get messy. I steal a peek toward Will and am relieved to find he's
distracted talking to my brothers about a plan that none of them can
agree on. I quickly pull my phone out of one of the leg pockets in my
fatigues and dial Jake. After three rings, he picks up.

"Yeah,
what?" His voice is cold and uncaring.
Well, screw
you, too, Buddy!
Any other time,
I would have hung up after telling him how I felt, but this just
isn't the time.
No
use lying, it
did
hurt a little-but just a little. Swear!

"Jake,
listen, we need help. We're surrounded by, well, at this time my
guess is about three hundred undead. Maybe more, maybe less. But not
much less. And there's more coming down the road."

I
hear him gasp when I mention the number of the horde.

"Canada,
where are you?"

"Back
of the store. We can't get out of the security fence and there's too
many to drive through. We stopped trying to shoot, knowing we will
run out of ammo, and there isn't near enough grenades. I don't know
what to do, Jake!"
Little bit of panic toward the end, there.

"I'm
on my way. Just stay as safe as you can. I...I'll be there as soon as
I can. Please stay safe. And...Canada, I'm sorry." I lower my
phone when I hear him disconnect. I feel a little spark of
electricity shoot through me.
He still cares about me!

Grinning
like a fool, I turn around...and find Will looking at me with
narrowed eyes.
Ah, hell.
I
quickly lose the grin and, again, guilt floods through me.

I
slip my phone back in my pocket and avoid Will's killer stare-glare
by checking on my sister, Kurt, and Norman. Both trucks are being
rocked violently by the undead, and the passenger side window of the
tow truck has been busted in.
Damn it!
It's
not going to be long before all the windows are out of both vehicles.
We don't have time to wait for Jake.

I
hop to the hatch and lower myself inside. Instinct tells me to get
the hell out when I see all the faces of the killer dead and hear
their fists banging into the windows, but I take a few deep breaths
and force myself into the driver's seat. Rose and Kurt are parked
only about thirty feet away but it's wall-to-wall dead people in
between. I raise my brows, shrug, and start the truck.

Ricky
sticks his head inside the truck.

"What
the hell are you doing?" he asks.

"Just
sit down and hold on." I put the truck in drive and slowly move
forward. I'm not sure what would work best, flooring it or taking it
easy, so I start with taking it easy, since I probably shouldn't lose
the guys on top.

At
first, I become more hopeful that this is going to work because when
I push, they move back. But the closer I get to Kurt's truck, the
more resistance I get. They just are
not
giving
up on that warm flesh inside.

Pressing
down harder on the gas, I manage to move them a bit further. Some
fall and I have to gun it to get over them, but all-in-all, they move
rather well. Although there would be no way to get through all the
zombies like this, at least we might be able to save the people in
the most danger. I finally manage to get right up next to the other
truck-
sorry 'bout the scratches and loss of mirror,
Kurt
-and roll my window down.

Rose
rolls her window down and Kurt starts in, cussing me about his paint
job and missing truck part.
You'd think he'd be grateful,
wouldn't you?
I ignore him,
after I roll my eyes at him, and ask Rose if she thinks she can
manage to climb through the back window. She gives me an "Are
you frikken kidding me" look, but nods. I pull forward to line
up the windows, put the truck in park, and use the power switch to
lower the back window.

Rose
ungracefully makes it inside and starts yelling for Kurt to "Come
on," but he's still too busy being pissed about his truck. When
the glass next to his head explodes inward, he shoots across the seat
of his truck and is inside my truck in no time flat.

I
look over at Norman's truck, not knowing how we can get to him. He's
on the other side of Kurt's truck by about twenty feet. I'll have to
go up and around Kurt's truck to get to him and I'm not sure I can.
It's getting pretty crowded around his vehicle, now that they have an
open window. But I can hear his screams for help and there's no way
in hell I can just ignore him and let him die.

I
pull my phone back out and call my dad.

"Hey,
we need to get that semi to the gate and block it. Then we can deal
with what's inside without new ones coming in. Do you think you can
do that?"

"I
can try. Can't hurt. But you realize they can still get in from
underneath as high as this sits up?"

"Yeah.
I'm hoping once you get in position, the rest of us can line up
beside you and block it. Separating the horde into a herd will be
easier to manage in case we are stuck here for a while. I called Jake
and he's on his way. While you move the truck, I'm gonna figure out
how to get Kally and Norman with the rest of us." We hang up and
I turn my head to look back at Rose and come nose-to-chin with none
other than Will.

I
gasp and jerk my head back. Will only stares at me with that hard
coldness he's too damn good at.

I
give a shaky little laugh and say, "Oh, hey, Honey. Everything
ok?"

In
a low and quiet voice, he says, "Is it? How's your boyfriend
doing?"
Really? Right now? Shit!

"That
was Dad!"
I tell him.

"Not
earlier, it wasn't. And you can't deny it either-I heard you tell
your dad you had called him," he snarls at me.

"
Yes
,
I called Jake because we need
help
.
We can't do this alone and he has more weapons than we do. You could
have called him yourself, you know. I just want to get everyone out
of this shit
alive
!"

"We
will
talk about this
later. What's your plan?"
Talk about this later?
I
don't wanna to talk about this later!

I
tell him my plan and he goes to the roof to tell the others. Rose and
Kurt had gone up when Will came down, obviously they were ready for a
different view other than zombies pressing on windows. I watch as Dad
slowly works his way through, around, and over the crowd. Not being
able to pick up much speed, the semi bucked at having to run over the
large lumps but it managed.

I
start my difficult journey to save Norman. As I get past the front of
Kurt's truck, my stomach clenches when I see the undead surrounding
Norman's own vehicle. One zombie is halfway inside the broken window,
his hunger and obsession obvious. I see the terror on Norman's face
and fear floods through me.

Sure,
I don't know him. Just met him a day ago. But I damn sure don't want
to see him die. The zombies are moving with us, making it harder to
see and break through the mass of cold flesh. If only this were like
the movies and a vehicle really could smash through hundreds of
zombies and sustain only minimal damage-but, once again, it's not.

Slowly,
much too slowly for us-and I'm sure even more so for Norman-I move
closer and finally make it to the driver's side. I get as close as I
can and start forward, moving the herd with the front of my vehicle.
They scream, moan, groan, slap, punch, and scratch at my truck. The
thuds from below when I run over them make me cringe each time. I
sure hope their body parts don't screw up something we need under
there.

I
inch up until my back window is even with his front window, and he
starts through. I'm watching the undead surrounding us when his
scream jerks my attention back inside the other truck. I can see him
jerk his leg and kick the head of a zombie and then he's inside my
truck. Safe.

"You
ok?" I ask him.

Gasping,
he says, "Yeah. Yeah, I'm ok."

"Good.
You can go up top with the others if you want."

"I'm
good. I think I'll stay down here for a few minutes."

"No
problem," I pull out my cell and call Kally.

She
answers with an upbeat, "What's up?" I laugh. Only Kally
could make this seem like a pre-zombie phone call.

"Hey,
Sis. I need you to get inside your vehicle and start following me
when I go by. Go slow. I know these are military vehicles but I don't
want to take the chance of tearing them up. We need them way too
frikken bad."

"Okey
doke. I'll be right on your ass."

"Kinky,
baby," She laughs and we hang up. I start toward the semi now
positioned as we planned. On the way I pass Kally, ready and waiting.
She slowly moves in behind me and we block off our side of the semi.