Angie shifted her weight off of her cane and drew her sword. She let her smile fall. "We're probably fucked."
"That's what I was thinking," said Park.
The corpses staggered closer. Angie readied herself, wondering how many she could get before they were overwhelmed.
A different, louder noise came from behind her. Angie turned again, starting to feel ridiculous. The other two trucks sped across the field, flinging snow out from either side.
Angie realized they were coming too fast. The trucks weren't coming this way to rescue them. Or, that's not why they started this way. The trucks had come for the same reason they had: they were blocked off and routed this way. This was Sharon's plan. They were being led into a corner.
"Back, back!" she yelled, running to the children and pulling them back with her free hand. She grabbed one small shoulder after another, pulling until they started backing up on their own. "Everyone back!"
Angie, Park and the children scrambled backwards. The trucks, finally seeing them, struggled to stop. The tires locked as the two drivers slammed on the brakes. The trucks slid across the snow. Angie and the others backed further and further away, closer to the corpses behind them. The groans grew louder.
Angie dared go back no further. The trucks finally stopped, spraying snow across Angie and the others.
Maylee climbed out of the back of her truck, dropping to the snow. "What happened?"
Angie sputtered snow from her mouth and limped forward, the children and Park following her. "Bull. Dunwoody's dead, we're okay."
"Hurry! Everyone in!" Maylee urged, her face and tone flat, all business. This was not lost on Angie.
She pushed down her feelings on that as she and the others hurried to the trucks. They split the children into two groups, each one squeezing into the remaining two trucks as best they could. Maylee climbed back into her truck. Angie and Park climbed in with her.
The corpses were close now, groaning and reaching. Their frozen skin cracked in the wind, spilling thick black ooze down their bodies. The guards in the trucks fired, their rifles cracking into the cold air. The corpses jerked with each shot, their heads exploding backwards across the snow. They fell. A few were left, but far enough away to not worry about.
"Go go go!" Angie ordered.
The trucks, now overflowing with children, turned as best they could in the snow. They sped off, racing back up the way they had come. The line of corpses groaned as they zipped by. The corpses were packed together, too thick to plow through. Angie hoped an opening would appear, but she doubted one would.
She saw a dark mass coming toward them. She stared, squinting into the wind. When the mass came into focus, she saw it was a mass of animals. A lot of them, racing toward the trucks.
She looked to her right, to a thick grouping of trees and brush. They were boxed in.
Angie pounded on the cab. "Go through the corpses!"
A guard named Hartnup sat at the wheel. "There's too many!"
"We don't have a choice!" The animals were close now. Their hooves and paws pounded in the snow.
The truck banked hard to the left, right into the line of groaning and reaching corpses.
The truck collided with rotten, frozen bodies with a force that sent shudders through all in the bed. The truck slowed as it ground over the bodies. The ones who weren't crushed reached over the sides, their dead and rotten fingers grasping at Angie, at Park, at Maylee and the children. They held on to the hood, scraping cracked fingernails across the metal. They held on to the sides, biting at the children but missing. The children screamed, trying to squeeze as close to the middle of the bed as they could.
A second later the truck was clear of the line. It sped up, pulling some of the corpses with it. Angie looked behind her. The line of corpses receded into the distance, blowing apart again as the other truck followed their example. This one had an easier time, taking advantage of the opening they had made.
The adults did their best against the corpses hanging on the truck. The guards shot and Maylee swung. Park fired his rifle this way and that. Angie had her sword out, stabbing at dead hands until they fell apart, sending the corpses spilling to the snow. Lilly stomped at dead heads despite Angie wishing she wouldn't.
After a few moments of furious battle, most of the corpses were cleared from the truck. The tires spun along in the snow, speeding the truck forward. The town grew larger ahead.
The truck bounced over a large rut in the snow. Yelling in surprise and fear, Maylee and a few of the children fell from the bed. They landed, rolling in the snow. The rest of the corpses fell after them.
"Maylee!" yelled Angie, watching as the truck kept going. Maylee staggered to her feet. The children stood up around her. They rapidly receded into the distance as the truck raced on.
Angie turned, pounding hard on the cab. "Go back! Go back! We lost Maylee and some kids!"
Hartnup spun the wheel, turning the truck sharply in the snow. Angie crouched down. The children screamed as the truck spun.
After a few dizzying moments, the truck righted itself and sped back the other way.
Maylee and the children grew as the truck sped closer. Maylee was gathering them together. The second truck veered out of the way, slicing its own path across the snow.
Maylee gathered the children into a tight group. The corpses that had fallen near them were closing in. Maylee saw them and rushed to fight. She swung her bat, splitting their heads open. They kept coming. There were too many.
The truck arrived, spinning back around so the bed faced the children. It skidded to a stop in the snow. The guards and Park hopped out. Angie followed, her ankle howling with complaint as her foot crunched to the ground. She ignored the pain and limped toward Maylee and the children as quickly as she could manage.
They were too late. The corpses closed around the small cluster of screaming children. Maylee swung furiously, knocking dead head after dead head aside, but there were just too many. The children screamed.
Then, they started glowing.
Angie stopped, blinking in surprise. The guards stopped around her. The children glowed bright against the white of the snow. The light seemed to come from within their small bodies. Angie remembered what Maylee had described. She had wondered at the time if Maylee had been exaggerating. This was no exaggeration.
"No!" yelled Maylee, running to the children.
Maylee's voice shook Angie from her stunned silence. She and the others rushed forward.
The light from the children suddenly flared outward, so bright Angie involuntarily shut her eyes. She opened them as the glow faded. The corpses assembled around the children were staggering back. They doubled over, white glop pouring from their mouths and eyes. The corpses fell to the snow, disintegrating to white mush as they landed. Then the children fell, crumpling into the snow. Dead.
The others stopped again, stunned by what they had seen. Only Angie remained moving forward. Park shook his head clear and followed.
"Fuck me...." he whispered.
Maylee shrieked, her voice shrill and piercing in the cold air. She pounded at the corpses with her bat, spreading white glop spread across the snow. "Shit shit shit!" she screamed in time with each blow.
"Maylee!" Angie shouted.
Maylee kept slamming her bat down. Many of the corpses were now an indistinguishable pile of white mush. Angie could see that she was crying.
"Maylee!" she yelled. "We have to go!"
Maylee stopped mid-blow and looked at her, her bat still over her head. Her look chilled Angie. It was a desperate, feral look. A look of anger, rage and pain.
Then it was gone. Maylee lowered her bat, her face expressionless. She rushed for the truck.
They all climbed back in as quickly as they could. Ahead of them, the other truck sped toward the town. It was almost there. Angie limped across the truck bed, back toward the cab. Park shut the tailgate and climbed inside and gave the all clear.
Angie turned to face front and banged on the top of the cab. Hartnup shifted and the truck lurched forward.
After a few seconds, they were back to full speed. The sky overhead was still dark, a few gusts of wind whipping across the field, sending clouds of snow in front of the truck. They drove on, the wind tearing the snow from the windshield. Animals raced at the truck from each side, missing but close. A panther lunged and dragged its claws across the side. A boar slammed into one of the tires, nearly knocking the truck off course. The boar spun out of the tire, bouncing across the snow as the truck sped on. The outskirts of town drew close.
Then Sharon was in front of the truck. She was suddenly standing there. It was very matter of fact, like she'd been there all along.
Hartnup slammed on the brakes. The truck shuddered to a stop, its rear swaying in the snow. They stopped inches from Sharon, as if Sharon knew exactly where she would have to stand.
For a moment all in the truck stared at Sharon. Angie tried to process how the woman had appeared so suddenly. Angie was out of her league. Dead people rising up and eating the living was one thing, but what the hell was this?
Sharon twisted one of her hands into a fist. The truck shuddered and shook. Smoke billowed from the tailpipe and hood. The truck stalled. Sharon released her fist and the truck settled, still.
"Everyone out!" yelled Angie, not really knowing what else to do. She just knew they had to get away. She felt it. She feared this woman. It was a level of fear she hadn't felt since she'd been left alone with two young children. Since her parents had died. Since she was a small child.
Everyone scrambled out of the truck, landing in the snow. Hartnup slammed his door and ran back to join Angie and the others.
Sharon stepped around from the front of the truck. She smiled at the children. "Hello you guys. I've been looking for you." She held up a hand. The children started screaming. The sky grew darker overhead.
A gunshot cracked the cold air. Sharon's shoulder jerked and she stumbled backwards, dropping her hand. The darkness above faded.
Park lowered his rifle and cocked it. Sharon looked at him, her smile taking on a hard edge. She stepped his way, leaving the children for the moment.
Angie seized the opportunity. "Maylee! Get the kids to town now!"
Maylee pulled the nearest children to her and motioned for the others to follow. She and Hartnup led the children away, hurrying across the field.
Sharon turned and watched them go. She turned back to Angie and Park. She looked bored.
"Oh gee," she said, her voice deadpan, "I wonder if I can catch them."
Park had raised his rifle in the time it took this to happen. He fired again, hitting Sharon in the forehead. Her head snapped back. She quickly righted herself, a dark smudge the only sign the bullet had made contact.
"Stop that!" she yelled, wiping the smudge from her forehead. Then she held up both hands. Angie couldn't move. She couldn't even begin to move. She strained against the unseen force to no avail. Park was frozen next to her.
Sharon stepped closer, keeping her hands up. "So, you're the ones giving my sister so much trouble?" She looked between Angie and Park. "I appreciate that, but you're in my way."
Angie's throat constricted. Her insides felt like they were twisting around themselves. If she'd been able to move, she would have doubled over in pain. Her throat tightened. Her insides screamed in pain. Blackness appeared at the edges of her vision. It grew, spreading toward the center. She felt her mind slipping away.
Another woman rushed in from Angie's left and shoved Sharon aside. Sharon flew across the field, slamming into the truck, flipping it over. Sharon's body dropped behind it. Instantly, Angie could move. She doubled over, panting. Her vision returned. Every muscle hurt, but she could think and breathe.
Park was bent over next to her, coughing up blood into the snow. "Hurray," he said in a flat voice. The bleeding from his mouth slowed. "We're saved."
"What?"
"That's Beulah," said Park, straightening. Angie straightened next to him. She didn't want to. She wanted to lay down in a fetal position and stay there forever. Her stomach muscles twitched, but she stood up straight.
The woman called Beulah turned to them. She had long, dark hair. She was wearing an old, plain white dress. Her feet were bare in the snow.
She stepped over and smiled at Park. "Hello, Parker," she said, then turned to Angie. "Hello, Angela, we haven't formally met." Off to the side, Sharon was extricating herself from the crumpled truck. The metal twisted and groaned in complaint.
Beulah turned to Park, her smile gone. "Kill her, Parker. Kill her and I'll spare you."
"Do your own dirty work!" Park snapped back. He coughed bloody spittle into his hand.
"I'm not like Sharon!" Beulah yelled. "There are rules!"
Angie stepped over to Beulah, struggling to keep her exhausted legs from shaking. She leaned on her cane more than usual. "You're responsible for all this?" she said, keeping her voice strong. "How many lives have you ruined for this?"
Beulah looked at Angie. Suddenly, Angie couldn't move. It was different from when Sharon had held her in place. This was gentle but firm. It almost felt like it was her idea. Something deep in her mind told her the greatest idea in the world was to just stand still.
"I am fixing it," said Beulah. "I am saving your kind!"
Angie stayed in place, but was able to speak. "Why don't you both just leave us alone!"
"Angie..." came Park's voice from beside her. Angie looked as best she could, her head unable to turn. Park was slowly lifting his rifle, pointing it at her.
"I'm not doing this," said Park, slowly cocking the rifle.
"Of course you are, Parker," said Beulah. "It's all part of a grand design. Isn't it beautiful?"
Then Sharon was free of the truck and rushing at Beulah. She collided with her, slamming her shoulder into Beulah's chest. Beulah flew back at least twenty feet, tumbling across the snow.