“
Worm was an ass. He left you and half his crew behind. We had to shoot the others when they got into the swarm.”
“
See? That’s what I mean. Not many people would pull the trigger on another human.”
I shrugged. “Lots of combat vets in Snareville. We protect what’s ours, and we do what we have to do to survive.”
“
Like make babies.”
I laughed. The sound echoed away into the darkness. “Naw, that’s just a side effect of having fun.”
“
Been a long time since I had fun.” Pepper managed another smile.
“
Maybe we’ll have to fix that.”
“
Maybe.” She turned and started walking back the way we'd come. “C’mon. They’ll wonder what we're up to.”
“
Let ‘em.”
She kept going anyway, and I followed.
I stopped at the sporting goods section. From the smashed glass case, all the twelve-gauge slugs and buckshot were gone. The forty-cal pistol ammo was gone, too. Cop ammo. Tony had been holed up in this Wal-Mart for a little over a month. I grabbed four boxes of nine millimeter for Peppers MK5s. Four hundred rounds.
“
If you’re gonna keep those little bastards, you better feed 'em,” I told her as I handed her the boxes.
She moved on. “You gonna ask me about the other little towns I raided with Worm?”
Together, we stepped into the tire-and-lube center. She hung the shopping bags on the Harley while I checked the windows at the doors. All clear. No Zeds. We must have been moving too fast for them to figure out where we were headed.
“
No," I replied. "Doesn’t matter.”
Pepper re-loaded the magazine she’d emptied on the way. “All forgiven? Just like that?”
“
Bitch is gone. Pepper is here. I don’t know who you were before all this started. I just know you’re with us now. We’ll see if the past is a problem, but I don’t think it will be.”
She wrapped her arms around me and gave me a little kiss. “Thanks.”
The kiss got deeper. Our lips crushed together. Our tongues danced, then pulled away, leaving us both breathless.
“
We better get going, or I’m gonna let you bend me over that bike.”
I opened the door. With Pepper on my heels, I eased the Harley outside and pushed it across the drive. We mounted up, and I rolled into the street before I started the engine. We left town to the east.
When we got back to the house, I parked the bike in the garage. With a little smile, Jenny asked me how things went.
"Went fine. Pepper had to kill a few Zeds. Middle of town is clogged. We’ll never get through there with the trucks."
I couldn’t meet her eyes. She patted my ass and left with Pepper to drop off clothes for the other women.
Later, as the sun went down, we went inside. With a camping lantern lighting the room, we started with three teams playing cribbage. Heather spent the night again, with her kids safe and sound at a friend’s house. They were both in high school, anyway. They had better things to do besides hanging out with their mom.
Pepper and Jenny took turns playing cards. Before long, most of us were tired enough to head for bed.
“
Thanks for the new bra,” Sandy Henderson said as she headed upstairs ahead of me with Bill and Heather. “The old one was getting pretty tight.”
On the stairs behind me, Jenny giggled.
“
No problem,” I said. “Thank Pepper, though.”
John and Cathy stayed up a little longer, chatting with Pepper. The rest of us turned in. It was getting cool at night. Next week, we'd make a supply run with two teams and hit two locations at once. Winter was coming. None of us wanted to freeze.
Jenny changed into some long johns to sleep in. Her belly was swollen; her boobs were huge. She wasn't big-chested before, but this baby sure wouldn’t starve now.
I pulled her to me and gave her a long kiss. I loved her more than anyone I’d ever had before. I hoped our child wouldn’t have to live this strange life of ours.
We turned off the little lantern we used upstairs and rolled under the covers. A full moon turned everything silver as Jenny wrapped herself around me. I held her close and fell asleep with her belly pushed against mine.
I didn’t wake up until I heard the light footstep in the hallway.
A dark figure paused in our doorway, gun in hand. I tensed. Jenny stirred as I reached for my pistol. The figure walked to my side of the bed and sat down on the edge of the mattress.
“
I’m cold,” Pepper said.
I relaxed as she laid her gun on the nightstand. I reached out from under the covers and rubbed her back. Jenny shifted beside me. I looked at her in the moonlight. She was so beautiful. Her dark hair spilled across her shoulders. Her big, brown eyes smiled up into mine. She moved a little to make room.
“
Come to bed, Pepper,” Jenny said.
Pepper smiled. She gave me a little kiss on the lips and rubbed her forehead against mine. Then she took Jenny’s face in her hands and gave her a kiss, too. An intimate little handshake.
I flipped the covers open and let Pepper slide in with us. With a few giggles from the girls, we adjusted to fit. Sleep took us with me in the middle, one arm around Pepper and one of Jenny's arms around me.
I woke up as the sun warmed the room. Jenny had her chin on my shoulder, watching Pepper sleep.
“
Morning, baby,” she whispered.
I kissed her. “Good mornin’ yourself. You okay with this?”
She smiled. “I’m fine. Pepper’s a pretty girl. She needs someone right now.”
“
You two set me up.”
“
Yes. Forgive us?” Jenny said and smiled.
I kissed her again. “Forgiven.”
A voice screamed from the radio on the nightstand.
“
Boss, this’s Catfish!”
Pepper jumped awake. Cori was down on the north canal with Tony. I snatched up the radio as Pepper quickly swapped spots with me next to Jenny.
“
Go ahead, Cat.”
“
Boss, we got Zeds along the canal! A lot of ‘em!”
I heard shotgun blasts in the background.
“
How many?”
“
A lot!”
“
Ballpark?”
More shotgun blasts.
“
Tony says half of Princeton! Fred’s leadin’ ‘em!”
Fuck.
Tony was a deputy. I trusted his judgment.
“
How many times have I told you to kill that damned Zed?” I shouted.
“
I know! Yell at us later!”
Her pistol started to pop.
“
Get in right now. Get to the creek bridge.”
“
Yessir!”
Jenny was already on the move, rolling out of bed and starting to dress. Pepper followed suit. I turned the radio dial to the next channel to alert the crews on both bridge barricades. The crew at the canal had a mile to the creek, and there were two bridges over the canal at their position. They couldn’t hold against a big swarm there.
I dialed in the channel for the fire department and told them to get the trucks on the move north.
"Go to the creek bridge, sirens full blast." I turned another channel to call Kenny. "We've got a swarm."
Kenny, in turn, rolled two platoons on his side of town. I dialed the last channel on the radio and passed the word to Dale. By procedure, everyone dropped their radios to channel one. We'd go from there.
I yanked my pants up as I stepped across the hall and stiff-armed the bedroom door open. Shouts of protest greeted me.
“
Get off him, Heather! Everyone roll out! We got a major swarm coming.”
Outside, the sirens screamed into the morning air.
“
How many?” Bill blurted.
“
A lot. Full turnout from all the platoons.”
Bill cussed as I slapped John’s door open. He and Cathy were already on the move. They’d heard the sirens.
“
Cathy, I want you, Jen, and the other girls in your condition on the roofs downtown with all the kids fifteen and under.”
I expected argument, but I got none.
In our room, Jenny was pulling on some sweatpants while Pepper yanked on a pair of coveralls.
“
What do you two think you're doing?” I demanded as Pepper slid her left arm into a sleeve.
“
They won’t fit over your son anymore," Jenny said. "Pepper’s going to the line with you.”
“
Like hell. Pepper, stay with Jen on the roofs.”
“
No.” Pepper buckled into her gun harness.
“
I don’t have time to argue this,” I said.
“
Then don’t,” Jenny said, pulling a sweatshirt over her head.
“
I want her on your AR, then.”
Pepper picked up her MP5. “You’ve seen me with my shirt off. With my shoulder, I can’t handle the big guns. That’s why I carry these.”
Jenny cocked a brow my way.
“
I’ll explain later,” I muttered, then to Pepper, I said, “All right, take one. Bring every magazine and all your ammo. I want you in my hip pocket.”
For an instant, I wrapped Jenny up in my arms. I took in her scent for what I hoped wouldn’t be the last time. I felt our child between us. She gave me a quick, deep kiss.
“
Take care of each other. Come back safe.” She turned to Pepper and gave the girl a hug and a kiss of her own.
“
You know the plan," I said. "I want you on the roof and in position if we have to fall back into town.”
Pepper followed me out the door. Bill, Heather, and John trotted on our heels. I heard the sirens head out of town. Everyone was awake by now. From across our quadrant, my platoon rolled in. I saw an awful lot of pregnant women in the mix. We’d lose twenty guns on the front line, but they’d be on the roof in position with the kids. As the last body came in, I briefed the crew with what I knew so far. Then we loaded into the trucks and headed for the north creek.
Pepper sat next to me in the cab of my truck as we rolled out.
“
Is that thing select fire?” I asked. She nodded. “Put it on burst and hold your fire until I tell you.”
She reached down and flipped the little switch on the side.
In minutes, I saw the fire trucks in place ahead, side by side on the bridge with their pump hoses dropped into the creek. I said a silent prayer, hoping this would work.
I parked my truck in the ditch, facing out, and everyone else followed suit. Keys left in the ignitions, we fell into position in our shallow trenches. My troops stretched east along the creek, and Dale’s lined up to my right. Kenny, our commander, shuffled his troops to the west. Justin and his platoon took up the far left. That made eighty-five guns and two fire trucks to face down thousands of Zeds.
From the center of the bridge, Ken and I looked down the road through our binoculars. A mass of walking corpses moved our way, stumbling along the canal bridge a mile distant. I couldn’t pick out faces yet, but Tony’s estimate might have been on the conservative side.
Two hundred yards out, Tony had rigged a series of cannons fueled with diesel fuel and fertilizer, stuffed with anything that could do any damage. This would be the first test for those bad boys.
The swarm shambled closer. A last straggler stumbled across the bridge. Tony stood beside me, his switch box connected to a battery on a fire truck. Wires ran out from the box to the twenty tubes that made up his cannons.
Closer. The swarm fanned out. The Zeds filled the road and the ditches. The first deader passed the last cannon. We hadn’t mowed back that part of the cornfield. It forced the Zeds to stay on the road. From the bridge two hundred yards out, though, we’d mowed down the corn for a better field of fire. Where the cannon started, the open ground ended.
At the head of the swarm, Ol' Fred reached the cannon closest to us. Tony looked at me. I nodded. He flipped two switches.
The explosion shattered the still. Flame leapt from the muzzles of the first guns. Fertilizer burned as it shot from the pipe. Zeds dissolved from the concussion, washed with burning materials from the tubes.
Tony fired the last two guns and trapped the deaders between two walls of fire.
“
Guess those five years on the bomb squad paid off, huh?” I remarked, slapping Tony on the back.
He grinned. “Glad to be of assistance, Boss.”
Flames raged on the roadbed as Tony fired the rest of his cannons. Hundreds of deaders died in that first assault, but they didn’t stop. They spread out around their dead and dying. Some caught fire in the process. Still, they came.
Platoon leaders barked orders to their troops. I glanced at Pepper. She stood beside me, eyes wide.
“
We’ll be okay. Just hold on.” I laid my hand on hers.
She glanced at me. “I know. I’ve just never been involved in something like this.”
“
Easy to run, hard to hold.”
She nodded.
“
Don’t fire until I say. That gun doesn’t have the range.”