The First Days (As the World Dies #1)(73)

By killing the zombies toward the front of the crowd, they had inadvertently made a nice little ramp of bodies right up to the truck.

Two more zombies rose up at the far end of the truck and started to race for them. Jenni shot both of them.

"Fuck!" Mike grabbed the walkie-talkie. "Get us the hell off this thing!"

More zombies were beginning to charge now. At least four. Jenni kept firing, but more were coming.

Her body was jerked upwards so hard, the revolver fell from her hand and she gripped her rifle tightly with the other. Pain erupted through her back and arms as she was dragged upwards. The zombies kept coming. She curled her legs up to her chest as fast as she could, and they swung their arms under her trying to catch her. Being far taller, Mike was much longer, and one zombie gripped his leg. The large black man screamed in anger and fear and fired point blank into the zombie's face. Another grabbed his booted foot and was lifted with him. Mike kicked his leg hard, but the creature was tenacious and was trying to pull itself up to bite him.

Jenni tried to take aim with her rifle, but they were swinging a bit wildly due to being hoisted so quickly. "I can't get him."

"Muthaf*cka," Mike snarled and kicked as hard as he could. The zombie fell and landed face first on a spike.

At least a dozen zombies had clambered up onto the truck now under them.

"Why aren't they swinging us back," Jenni screamed.

They were now lifted high enough that no zombie could grab hold.

"We're bait," Mike answered.

Sure enough, Jenni saw that all the zombies making their way up onto the trucks were pooling directly under the two humans hanging over them.

Sadly, Jenni saw their bags of ammo were getting trampled into the dirt.

They both hung there, over the zombies' heads, watching them leap and scream, trying to grab them.

"They can't take us toward the fort or they'll follow," Mike said. "And that will compromise everyone."

"Do we shoot?" Jenni held tight to her rifle.

"Praying sounds good to me. Told you, the black man always gets it,"

Mike said grimly.

Twenty of the undead were now crowded onto the truck.

"Oh, well. We're not dead yet."

"Yeah," Mike said. "Yet."





3. Close Encounters





Things were going to hell. Travis and Katie felt as if the world was toppling around them. The guards were all shouting at each other. Jenni was screaming as Mike’s voice yelled over the walkie-talkie. Juan was arguing with the Mayor. Jason was screaming, "Get my Mom down!" And the zombies were clustered on top of the one truck, trying to get to Jenni and Mike.

"Fuck me," Travis whispered.

"Who's a crack shot," Katie demanded, looking around at the men with the rifles.

"I am. Through the eye every time," one man said. He was older and had a weather-beaten face.

"Take out the zombies on the left end of the truck," Katie ordered.

Travis looked sharply at her. "Are you sure? They are so close to falling into the spiked area."

"As the zombies fall back, they'll fill up the top of that ramp of dead bodies and the other zombies won't be able to scramble over them." Katie pointed. "We might be able to eliminate that slope in the pile and make it harder for them to get up."

Travis studied the situation. "Yeah. I see that. And if they try to climb, they'll pull the bodies down on them. Go for it, Ed." He nodded to the volunteer.

Ed nodded and began to target the zombies.

The rifle began to roar and Katie watched as the zombies began to fall backwards back into the corral. She was grasping at straws, she knew it, but they had to do something.

"Shoot the f*cking ones under us," Mike shouted into the walkie-talkie.

"They can't reach you," Juan's voice answered over the cackling static.

Katie ran down the stairs from the guard post and toward Juan. Jason came running toward her. "Katie, get her down!"

"Jason, we're doing our best without compromising everyone," Katie answered, resting her hands on his shoulders for a moment.

Jack was barking hysterically at the zombies that were still intent on getting Jenni and Mike.

"Why don't we have grenades? Or flame throwers or something like that!" Jason's voice was high and strained.

Katie sighed and moved on toward Juan. "Because we're not soldiers, Jason. We're just trying to survive." She glanced toward the zombies to see that Ed, the hunter, had significantly reduced the population. But there were still maybe ten or so under Jenni and Mike. "Juan, what are we going to do?"

Juan was studying the situation with great intensity. He lifted his walkie-talkie to his mouth. "Travis, status?"

There was a burst of static then, "We slowed them down from getting up on the truck. They can't just walk up anymore onto the truck, they're struggling to try to get up now. Katie had a good idea, but it may not last. The more they claw at the dead, the more they slide down. But they'll be able to get back up soon if we don't hurry."

Juan looked at Katie, then toward the zombies. "I think we should pull Jenni and Mike back and leave them over the spikes and let those last few zombies fall into the spikes."