The First Days (As the World Dies #1)(89)

"The idiot's leading them right toward the open gate," Travis growled.

Katie glanced over into the new area and saw the gate was still closing.

Juan and two other men were trying to oil the gears and watch the mechanism controlling the gate as it slowly closed.

"We didn't have enough f*cking time," Juan shouted up toward them.

"Not enough f*cking time!"

More of the construction workers made it over into the fort, breathing heavily, terrified.

The continuous loud screeching noise of the gate drawing closed ripped at her ears and Katie lifted her rifle to try to get a clear shot of the zombies. It was hard to get a bead on any of them with the kids on the sputtering motorbike swerving back and forth, both obviously panicking.

The gate seemed to be taking forever to close. The motorbike scooted through the now narrow gap in the gates and a few people cheered. The zombies hit the gate and began to push through the gap that was only wide enough for one person to squeeze through at a time. Shots began to fill the air as people on the walls opened fire on the zombies still rushing down the road.

"Juan!" Jenni ran across the bridge between the two walls.

Katie followed, trying to avoid some of the men scrambling into the fort.

Jenni reached the top of the other wall and knelt. The first zombie was pushing his way into the new area and the last two men with Juan were now climbing the ladders. Jenni aimed and fired and the first zombie's head split open. It was lodged between the two gates that were still trying to close.

Juan ran toward the opening, a shovel in one hand.

Meanwhile, the two kids were trying to climb up a ladder, both of them trying to use the same one, jostling each other in their haste. Katie ignored them and moved down the top of the wall to a better position to fire at anything coming through the gate. Jenni almost slid down the empty ladder in her desperation to help Juan.

Juan began to shove the dead corpse back out from between the gates with the shovel as the desperate hands of the zombies behind the corpse tried to reach out and grab him. Katie watched in horror as Jenni ran straight up to Juan.

"Loca, what are you doing here?"

"Saving your ass," Jenni answered and swung her rifle upwards. She stood right next to Juan and started sighting the heads of those behind the dead zombie and fired through the narrow gap in the gates.

"Jenni is f*cking nuts," Travis said from beside Katie, then started down one of the ladders.

Juan's only advantage in the shoving match he was engaged in with the zombies was that the dead body was well lodged between the gates. It was slowly being pushed forward and soon the "living" zombies would be able to try to squeeze through. Travis landed in the new area and ran to help as Katie stood ready to fire at anything that broke in. Behind her, she could hear the shots of those trying to thin out the crowd of zombies at the back at the pack.

The dead zombie body shuddered and to their horror a hand burst through his ribcage. A grotesquely gnawed face shoved itself past the other zombies ruined head. It was literally ripping apart the corpse to get to the living.

"Fuck you," Jenni said, and blew its head off.

But the damage was done and the first zombie's body crumpled and more of the animated ones pushed forward, trampling the "dead" ones beneath their feet.

Travis grabbed another shovel and joined Juan in shoving them back as the gate managed to close another inch or two. The whine of the mechanism filled their ears. Jenni kept trying to shoot at the zombies through the narrow gap and not get in the men's way.

Katie stood at her watch post feeling helpless. Her arms were aching from holding her rifle up for so long, but she didn't dare look away or blink.

Butterflies were gnawing away at her stomach hungrily as she tried to think about how vulnerable both Travis and Jenni were.

Mike appeared beside her and climbed down as fast as he could.

Running to join the others, he grabbed a wood plank from a pile of lumber.

Avoiding the grasping hands of the dead, he let it fall against the zombies, who grabbed onto it, to either push it away or pull it away.

"Good idea," Juan said. And he put the tip of the shovel against the board on the top as Travis pushed on the bottom. Instead of soft bodies that gave way, the shovels pushed against the hard firm surface of the plank and it gave the men adequate leverage. Mike and Jenni joined them and using the board as a shield, they shoved the zombies back through the gap. The gate shuddered and leaped closed. The men barely got the shovels out of the way in time.

Katie sighed with relief and lowered the rifle. A few arms, hands and feet were sticking out from between the closed gates. Some were even moving.

Jenni picked up a shoved and began hacking at the limbs, severing them, blood flying, until Juan pulled her back. Jenni flung her arms around him and they both staggered backwards, then fell into a heap. Travis and Mike high-fived and Travis smiled up at Katie.

"See, Katie. Easy."

Katie laughed and ran a hand over her forehead, feeling the thick sweat slick on her fingers.

"You're f*cking crazy, Loca," Juan teased Jenni as he helped her to her feet.

"I kept your ass alive!"

"Yeah, so, what, I owe you?"

"Yep!"

Juan pulled out his wallet and thumbed through some now obsolete bills. "How about a buck."

Jenni smacked him and they ended up in a shoving war.