to keep Jack from jumping out.
Jenni could see the two zombies who had fallen off closing fast. Not far behind them an enormous crowd of the undead students, parents and teachers from the schools.
Jumping into the cab, she slammed the door shut and Jack licked her face with relief.
Katie drove on at top speed, her gaze flicking toward the gas gauge.
"How far?"
"An hour, but just back roads from this point out," Jenni answered, trying to get the map turned the right way.
"But we have the interstate to worry about…"
"He's alive, Katie. Jason is alive. I know it. And if there are zombies on the interstate, they may not go near the camping ground. "
Katie nodded. "I know, hon. I know. We're close. We're going to get him. "
Jenni nodded back. "We have to," Jenni said softly. She did not add that she needed to save him to make up for her failures as a mother. Katie wouldn't understand.
"We will save him," Katie assured her. "We will. "
Jenni believed her.
Chapter 6
1. Frayed Edges
Katie was still trembling from the episode at the schools. Leaving that poor man behind was bad enough, but seeing that torrent of zombified families coming out of the school buildings had left her feeling sick to the very pit of her stomach.
Maybe they were being foolish for thinking Jason was still alive. Hell, it was sheer luck that she and Jenni were both alive. Right place at the right time. She didn't want to dwell on it too much but what if she hadn't slipped free of her coat and ended up in the maw of that horrible undead thing that had tried to drag her from her car? Or what if Jenni's zombified son had made it out the window just a little faster?
Up to this point luck had a lot to do with the fact they were still alive.
Now it would be more about them keeping their wits in situations like they had just experienced that would dictate if they survived or not.
So far, so good.
Katie glanced at Jenni, who was staring straight ahead. Her lips were pressed firmly together and her brow was knotted. Jenni wasn't exactly expressing how much this rescue meant to her, but Katie knew. She understood. Jason, even if he wasn't Jenni's flesh and blood, was all she had left. Yes, technically she now had Katie and Jack, but Jason was a connection to her past. To her previous life.
Katie was envious of that fact. There was nothing, absolutely nothing, left of her former life but a picture of her wife in a phone that's battery was slowly running out and she did not have a charger for.
Again, Katie looked at the gas gauge. It was dropping faster than she liked. And, she sighed, she hadn't told Jenni yet, but they had blown one valuable point of their plan when they had escaped from the hunting store.
The extra jugs of gas for "just in case" scenarios were still sitting in the back of that old beat up white truck. In their panic to get safely on the road, they had forgotten that part of their overall plan.
Now they could not deviate one iota.
What was in the tank was all there was. Pure and simple. Simple and terrifying. The needle was dropping far faster than she thought it would.
"We're close," Jenni said softly. She was downright pale as a ghost now.
Katie nodded. The trees were growing taller and more numerous. They had turned onto a logging trail and they had seen large patches of freshly hewed stumps. But so far, no undead.
So far, so good.
They were a mere five miles from the interstate and they had to consider this entire area a danger zone.
"Katie," Jenni said in a hushed tone. "I'm scared. "