Siege (As the World Dies #3)(134)

Ken let out a soft sigh. “I know. I feel the same way about girls. Love Lenore. She’s my girl. If she were a guy, maybe she’d be my groove thing, but...”

“Sometimes love ain’t enough,” Dale sighed. “But at least I got laid last night.”

“Did not!”

“Oh, yeah. Sure did!”

“Who? Tell!” “Peggy.”

“No!”

“Yep.”

“She’s a dirty whore!” Ken frowned, clearly jealous.

“Oh, yeah,” Dale answered with satisfaction.

“No fair! I didn’t get laid! I’m laidless. No fair!”



Suddenly, Dale reached out and grabbed Ken’s shoulder.

“Okay, if you insist!” Ken joked, then saw the look on Dale’s face. Turning, Ken gasped as he saw a horde of zombies emerging from the trees next to them.

“They shouldn’t be here!” Dale grabbed the radio. “We got hundreds of zombies at our location. A massive horde. Do you read me?” In a panic, Ken hit the Lock button and the doors all locked.



“Repeat that,” Kevin’s voice answered.

“We got zombies,” Dale answered, then muttered, “Oh, shit” and tossed the mouthpiece to Ken. Shifting gears, the Durango lurched forward as the zombies began to encircle it. The vehicle smashed into a few undead then rolled down the street out of their grasp.

“Zombies everywhere. Coming out of the trees on both sides of us. Oh, shit, and up the road. I thought you got them to turn to the west,” Ken screamed into the radio.

“Pull back,” Kevin ordered. “We must have missed some in the recon.” “I should say so,” Ken snapped back. “Because, brotha, they are all over the freaking place.”



Dale shifted gears again and began to turn the big vehicle around. The narrow road didn’t allow a full u-turn, so he had to back up to readjust the angle again.

“We are totally surrounded! This is not good,” Ken shouted into the radio.

Dale backed up to readjust one more time when the wave of zombies hit the truck in full force. It was an unrelenting wall of flesh, bone and decay that pushed in with such force, the Durango rocked. Moaning, desperate faces filled the windows as claw-like hands scrabbled at the doors. “Fuck,” Ken whispered into the mouthpiece, then dropped it.



The moans of the hungry zombies was deafening. Dale reversed and tried to back up but it was as if the truck was trying to push its way through a brick wall. The zombies barely yielded and the press against the truck from all sides continued.



“Dale,” Ken said softly.

“I know,” Dale answered. The Durango was now being pushed across the road, despite Dale’s attempts to floor it. There was too much pressure coming against the vehicle from the enormous wave of zombies coming up through the forest. Sliding sideways, the truck protested as the metal groaned against the constant assault. Ken screamed as a zombie’s body pressed against his window began to pop and split apart like a ripe melon.



“Shit, oh, shit,” Ken whispered. He heard Kevin’s voice demanding to know their status, but he ignored it. Dale was cussing so colorfully Ken would have been impressed if he wasn’t so damn scared.

Then the truck was pushed over into the ditch on the side of the road. The undead in the ditch were squashed beneath the truck, but more took their place beating and pushing against the Durango. The two men inside ended up lying on the driver’s side windows, staring up at the zombies swarming on top of the capsized vehicle. “We’re not gonna make it, are we?” Ken asked, his voice catching.



“Nope,” Dale answered. They both watched in horrible fascination as one of the zombies began to beat against the window with a rock. Cracks slowly began to spread across the glass.



“Nope. We’re not, Ken.”

“Oh, God,” Ken whispered, covering his mouth in horror. Dale pulled the smaller man into his arms and cradled Ken’s head against his chest. “It’s okay, Ken.”

Ken sobbed softly into his chest.. “Lenore is going to kill me.”

“At least you know someone loved you,” Dale consoled him.



“Yeah,” Ken whispered as the glass shattered and rained down around them. “Yeah. I do.” “Ready to go?”



Ken watched Dale flick the safety off his pistol. Pressing his lips tightly together, he nodded.

“I’ll do it for both of us.”

Ken nodded fervently, unable to speak anymore. Dale kissed Ken’s forehead gently as he brought up his gun. “Sleep tight, Ken,” he said, and fired.



Ignoring the bits of brain and blood splattered over him, Dale wrapped his arm tightly around Ken’s shoulders and took a deep breath. “I’m right behind you, buddy.”



Just as the first of the zombies fell into the truck on top of them, Dale pushed the gun into his mouth and fired.





2. The Helpless Living


Despite everything going on in the outside world in the deadlands, Katie fell asleep on the couch in the communication center. She had felt drained all morning. When she had laid down on the sofa, she hadn’t expected to fall asleep, but she had.