“Sir, we’re not staying here. We are meeting at the Coast Guard facility and moving out from there.”

“To where?”

“Right now, sir, I don’t see how that matters much. If we don’t get our asses across that bridge, more of those things will come out of the woods for us. Don’t know if you’ve seen the fast ones, but if they come at us, most of us are as good as dead. Do you understand? Do you?”

I nodded. Spencer showed some balls and I respected that. “Give me your sidearm.”

“We’re not doing that,” the driver of the Humvee said.

“Do it,” Spencer said.

“Sir?”

Spencer pulled a 9mm from his hip holster and handed it to me. The driver reluctantly handed his pistol over to Dave.

“Pettenski, you too,” Spencer said.

Pettenski, who’d operated the machine gun, held his handgun out between Allison and Sues. Sues just stared at it, made no move. Allison swiped it up, checked the clip and nodded at me.

“Spade, anything moves on the right, shoot first. We’re out of time for questions. Pettenski, let’s roll.”

Let’s roll? Did military people really say that?

Didn’t matter. What did matter was that we had weapons, instead of gardening tools. While it might only be three guys, it was a military escort. Men trained for combat. I had no problem with that.

What I had a problem with was the pack of zombies that just crossed the bridge, and was moving westbound right toward us.

Chapter Two

The van we hid behind would work until the group was on us. After that, we’d be vulnerable.

“Should we hide?” Sues said. She turned her head, spun her body to follow. She did a full three-sixty. “There must be someplace to hide.”

“Spade, how many do you count?” Spencer said.

“The way they were moving, they’re the slow ones, sir. Best I can tell, anyway. Must be between twenty-five and thirty. Hard to get a good count. Could be more behind them that just aren’t visible at this angle with the sun where it is.”

Spencer nodded and then he did the oddest thing. He looked at me. “Thoughts?”

Must be because I appeared to be the leader of my own squad. Or because Spencer was probably twenty years old and I reminded him of his fucking dad or something. “Have a lot of extra clips for these guns?” I said.

The zombies were already across the bridge and crossing Lake Avenue. They were making their way down the parkway now. Why they hadn’t gone left or right, or split up, I had no idea. Point was; they hadn’t. They continued to make their way west.

Spencer patted at the gear on him. I didn’t see anything other than the Kevlar vest, a flashlight, cuffs and mace. Must have been more items inside the various pockets. I trusted he knew what he was talking about. “Way I figure, the tipped van is as good a place as any to make a stand. We put the kids inside. Those things won’t be returning fire, so it’s not like there’s danger from a gas tank getting hit. With six of us, we should be able to clear them.”

“Only downfall is that the shots will attract more,” Pettenski said. “They’ll come from everywhere. Out of the woodwork, you know?”

“We’d have to do it quick. Like shooting gallery style,” Spencer said. “Are you a good shot?”

“I won’t miss,” I said. It was as true a statement as any. The herd was massive and appeared to be growing, spreading. I just had to fire into it. If I missed a target that size, shame on me.

Dave just kept nodding up and down. “I like it, Chase. I do. I like it.”

I looked at Allison. Her eyes were easy to read. She was in. “Kids, I’m going to put you into the van. Fast,” I said, because once I got onto the vehicle and slid open the cargo door, we’d have been spotted. Cover blown.

“I’m fighting,” Charlene said. I expected it.

“Not this time. You’re going to protect your brother. That’s what I need you to do. No arguments. Not now. You want to be mad, fine. You want to discuss it, fine. But after. Understand?” I said. I wasn’t yelling. I definitely grit my teeth while I spoke though. I needed my daughter to understand that this was not me being mad, but I was serious and there was no time for compromise. She got it.

“Take my hand, Cash,” she said.

“On three, I’m going to jump up onto the side of the van and slide the door open,” I said.

“We’ll hand the kids up.”

“I’m not a kid,” Charlene said.

I shot her a look.

She lowered her eyes.

Silently, I counted out three, showing my fingers.

Dave quickly laced his hands together. I stepped into the makeshift stand. He hoisted me up and I scrambled to slide the door open.

“Sir,” I heard Pettenski say. I was tempted to look around.

Staying as focused as one can in such a situation, I tugged on the door handle. It did not budge. I kneeled on the sliding door, tried the passenger door, and it lifted open. “The kids,” I said.

“Sir,” Pettenski said, again.

The military opened fire. The sound of their rifle shots was not as loud as I’d expected. On the other hand, maybe my head was so filled with rushing blood that my hearing was impacted.

Cash was handed to me first. He stayed low, belly flat on the fiberglass. I helped him drop into the van. “Come on, Charlene,” I said.

Dave practically tossed her up. She inserted herself through the open door. “Stay low, and safe,” I said.

Only now did I allow myself to look, after I closed the passenger door. I wished I’d remained blissfully blind to what came at us.

The zombies might have appeared sluggish crossing the bridge, but a good chunk of them was fast, though. Half, maybe. Judging from the amount of gunfire I heard, to the few zombies that actually went down, they were also harder to hit. Way harder to kill.

And my kids were now locked inside a tipped-on-its-side van. Locked. Better than the thought of trapped. If this went bad, though, trapped is what they’d become.

I stayed on one knee on the side of the van and aimed. I fired off two shots.

Below was chaos. The military guys yelled back and forth. Too much yelling, if you ask me. They made everything more confusing. I couldn’t listen to what was said, or shouted, because I needed to concentrate. I wanted every bullet to hit true. The distraction made it a hundred times more complicated.

At least ten of the fast zombies were almost on us. I couldn’t take the time to count. I had no idea how many bullets this clip held. Seven? Ten? No clue.

I think I missed my first two. The next three, I hit the target, but not on the bull’s eye. A shoulder, gut and heart shot. Any other time, that might be considered all right. With zombies, it had to be a head shot. Kill the brain. Destroy it.

That’s when I noticed the other vehicle on its side. I mean, I’d seen it. Just hadn’t thought of using it. I closed one eye, aiming for the gas tank and let off two quick shots.

I worried I’d seen too many movies.

Thought for sure I was out of my mind after squeezing the trigger, but something sparked, and the car exploded. A giant black mushroom cap, raised into the air by a pillar of flames, erupted. Most of the fast zombies still ran at us, but as human torches.

Black smoke billowed up from their outstretched arms.

Slowly they fell, crawled at us, and then stopped.

Someone yelled something about nice shooting.

It had been. Have to pat myself on the back after. The explosion took out plenty of zombies, but there were more. Many more.

“We’re being flanked,” I heard. Thought it might be Spade.

Flanked. Did that mean more zombies from a different direction?

“I’m out,” I said, and turned. “I need more ammo!”

Spencer tossed over a clip.

I almost missed it. It bounced on my fingers and I wrapped them around and as quickly as I could, and reloaded.