Jenni flicked off the safety on her gun. "They must have made the school the rescue center. " She twisted around in her seat and studied the buildings as they passed. Blood and bits of bodies were littered across the courtyard in front of one of the buildings. The doors to what appeared to be the gym were wide open.
"Katie, floor it!"
Two zombies raced out of the gym toward the truck and it was if a dam had broken. A torrent of moaning, screeching zombies poured out of the building, a mixture of adults and children, racing toward them. The slower, more mangled corpses lurched out behind them, intent to join in the feast.
"There is a fuckload of zombies coming our way!"
Jack began to bark anxiously at the approaching mob and looked at Katie worriedly, as if wondering why she wasn't hurrying it up.
Katie was following the road around the school and the truck swiftly approached a knot of cars crashed into each other. They had to do a half loop to get around the school and this kept them in range of the chasing mob. To the other side of the road there was farmland and no easy escape.
"They're gonna cut us off!" Jenni was horrified at how shrill and terrified she sounded. But then again, she was terrified.
The first of the zombies scrambled past the crashed cars and onto the road a head of them. They immediately began to charge the truck.
"We're meals on wheels," Jenni said with a bitter laugh.
"Chewy center is what it's all about," Katie said gloomily.
The truck plowed through the first zombies, but more were spilling out of the fence. It was starting to get hairy. The truck barreled through them and Katie saw another turn in the road. And more zombies coming from that direction. Another part of the fence was down due to someone ramming into it.
"Damn stupid people!" Katie slammed on the brakes.
A series of cars were clogging the road. People had obviously abandoned them in haste and had probably run for the school. Now they were probably running for the truck. To their right was the fence, to their left a slight shoulder and an embankment.
"Just go," Jenni shouted.
The zombies reached the truck and began to slam their fists against the metal and the glass.
Katie reversed, shoving her foot hard down the accelerator, looking very satisfied as the truck bounced over a few zombie bodies. She aimed the truck for the narrow path to the side of the blockade of cars.
"We might tip," Katie said.
"Go down it! Off road through the field," Jenni said urgently. She glanced at the zombies banging on her window. "Before they break in!"
Katie didn't say a word, but expertly dodged one crashed car and started the truck down the embankment. The vehicle tilted scarily to one side and Jenni found herself clinging to the door to keep from falling into Katie. Some of the zombies were still with them and banging on the windows.
The truck hit the field and the wheels plowed through the sun-hardened earth. Luckily, it was just a field of wild flowers and the truck was a 4X4. The zombies still followed. Some even clung to the edges of the truck bed. In the mirror, Jenni could see the zombies from the school flowing into the field.
Katie aimed the truck for the road on the other side of the field. "How are we doing?"
"We got stowaways and lots more trying to catch up.
There was a tremendous jolt as the truck struggled up the embankment and back onto the road. Jenni looked back to see two zombies go flying off the back of the truck and onto the road as they lost their grip. The last one had managed to get into the truck bed and was staggering toward the back window. Jack was barking wildly at this point.
"Slam on the brakes!"
Katie obeyed immediately.
The zombie was flung forward and hit the back of the cab. It fell back into the bed out of sight.
Jenni flung the door open, slipped out, and held her gun up.
The zombie grabbed hold of the side of the truck and hauled itself up. It found itself looking straight into Jenni's determined gaze.
"Pop," Jenni said, fired, and the zombie's head did pop like an enormous blister.
"Get back in!" Katie was struggling