Zocopalypse (Death Fields 1)

I don’t either. There’s nothing but corn and fields and creepy broken down barns. Lights wash over us and the trucks get closer.

“Oh, my God, what is that on the grill?”

I turn and look out the back window. Raindrops have started falling but in the glare of the headlights I can just make out what she saw. Strapped to the front of the truck is an Eater, “alive,” struggling against the binds on his arms and legs. The second truck presses down next to it and their side-by-side on the two lane road. A matching Eater strapped to the front like a hood ornament.

“Go! Go! Go!” I scream—because what else is there to say.

“I’m going! I don’t know where, but I’m going!”

The trucks bear down and we come to another set of barricades. “Go through it—don’t stop!” I cry.

My mother, God bless her, who would rather be curled up with a good book right now or baking cookies or watching a crappy musical on TV, charges through the barricade like a woman possessed. The rain starts to fall harder and her visibility drops. “I’ve got to get off this road, Alex, or I’m going to kill us both.”

I pull out my map and squint in the fading light. It takes a few seconds but catching a few street names, I find our basic location. “Take this left and it will head us into a small commercial area, from there we can get to the highway.”

“Do you think that’s a good idea?” We’ve been avoiding populated areas.

“It’s a crappy idea, but the other choice is some horrible Children of the Corn situation. Is that preferable?”

She takes the left.

In the distance, I see the buildings. Old ones—like one of the dozens of forgotten towns all over the south. My stomach feels like I swallowed a rock and the trucks haven’t stopped their pursuit. Through the rain I see the sign for railroad tracks and just ahead a row of train cars lines the rail.

“Go over the tracks and don’t stop. Just keep going. We’ll go so fast no one will see us.”

It’s a terrible plan. It’s not even a real plan, but my mother listens anyway. Without stopping she crosses the tracks, our tires bouncing up and down hard, nearly tossing me out of my seat.

I turn keeping an eye on the trucks but the first one screeches to a sudden stop. Over the rain I hear a series of pops. I duck instinctively. “Is that gunshots? Are they shooting at us?”

My mother doesn’t stop but continues through the tiny town, so small that if you blink you’d miss it. I do miss it because I’m keeping an eye out on the trucks. The second one plows into the first and both drivers hop out. I see them for the first time, two white men, angry and looking up at the top of the tallest three story building. They quickly pull out their weapons and fire.

“Slow down,” I tell my mom but she doesn’t stop. The last thing I see is the men go down in the glow of their headlights, both clutching their chests. I wait for the gunman on the roof to turn on us but he never does. “Why didn’t they shoot at us?”

She turns a corner leaving the small town behind us, my heart still racing like a jackrabbit. “Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth, Alex,” is all she says and drives us into the dark.

Chapter Forty-Nine

~Now~

The

door to our room has barely shut when I turn to face Cole. The man who has maintained his composure through all of this crumbles in front of me. I step forward and wrap my arms around his hard, lean body and say, “I’ll give them the information. Everything I know.”

“You can’t,” he replies, tightening his arms around my back. “There has to be another way.”

“There is no other way!” I shout into his chest. “And Erwin knows it. That’s your sister, Cole. I mean, I don’t know any of you that well but I know you better than anyone else left in this crazy world. She’s your sister. I can’t let this happen to her. Or to Wyatt.”

Wyatt. The sight of his face when they took the hood off. The absolute anger and tension coiled tight beneath the surface. I wonder if he has any idea what they have in store for him. That he’s caught in a lose-lose game of chance.

I tilt my head up and say, “He saved my ass more than once. So did Chloe. I have to do something and the only thing I can do is tell them what they want to know.”

“Do you think Erwin will stop just because you give him the information?”

“No.” I release Cole and step back. We both sit on the edge of the lower bunk. “Think. How do we get them out of there?”

“Everything is locked down—particularly that room. Richardson and Walker have their guns ready any time either of us step out of line. There’s no way into that room and even if there was, there’s no way out.”

We were in the pit of the base. No windows. No exits that we know of.