“Shit,” Jenni whispered. “Bill, did you hear?”
“I heard,” Bill answered, gazing up at them through the hatch.
Jenni and the boy scooted down into the bus as the back door slammed shut. The woman who had tried to save her now lay with the zombies on the cold, muddied ground.
“How many trucks?” Bill asked.
“Four,” the boy answered. “And those guys were really fucking sick and scary. ”
His sister sat in a seat nearby, wrapped in a light blanket, shaking uncontrollably. “You need to get our Mom and sister. ”
“Ed, call it in,” Bill ordered. “Nerit was right. It’s going down today. ”
Jenni sighed. They had come up back roads to this place deliberately. In all likelihood, they had just missed the bandits on the main roads.
“How long ago did they leave?” Bill asked.
“Thirty minutes ago maybe,” the boy answered.
“Let them know, Ed,” Bill said.
“Taking care of it,” Ed answered, turning the bus around and heading back down the road.
Jenni held tight to the pole near the front door and took a deep breath.
It was time.
2. Four, Three
Nerit's eyes narrowed when the first report came in from Ken. He was part of the team at her old hunting store. The sound of his voice made her go cold inside as she tucked away all her emotions.
“Everything going as planned here at the gun store. But, you know, you can't help but feel the ghosts,” his voice said.
Katarina lifted an eyebrow.
“You know what to do,” Nerit said.
Katarina nodded and strode out of the communication hub.
Peggy chewed on her bottom lip, her hands trembling.
Thirty minutes later…
“We reached our target and all is quiet except for the undead.
They're making some noise. We have two missing. Maybe carried off by the baddies. Two remaining, but lunch meat. We saw four zombies running on down the road. I swear one of them had a shopping bag,”
Ed's voice said.
Curtis looked up. He was seated in the corner, listening to the reports coming in.
“Nerit?”
“The bandits got two of the people we were rescuing. We rescued two others and four of the bandits’ vehicles are heading toward Katie and Travis,” Nerit translated.
“Can we do this?”
“Of course,” Nerit answered.