The Living Dead Boy (The Living Dead Boy #1)(37)

“Hail! Big hail!” Troy gasped.

“We can’t run into it! We can get really badly hurt!” Corina exclaimed.

Josh spun about and studied the area. The zombies were a few cars away, but closing in. Running back to the big Lincoln, Josh tried the door. To his relief, it opened.

“In here!”

He dove into the hot, musty interior and scrambled to the passenger side. Dust rose from the seats, and Josh sneezed violently.

Troy scrambled into the car and climbed over the seat into the back. “It’s gross in here!”

Danny was right behind him, still holding onto his spear. “Better than being out there!” He nearly jabbed Troy in his haste to scale over the seat.

Corina was next. “Be careful, you guys!”

She slid along the front seat into Josh to make way for Dulce.

The first zombie in the group reached the car just as Dulce was about to climb inside. Without hesitation, the girl punched the end of her spear into the creature’s eye. The zombie clawed at the stick, trying to reach her, and took another step forward. Dulce planted her feet apart and pushed the spear further into the zombie’s eye socket, knocking it off its feet and into the other undead creatures. She slid behind the wheel of the car and slammed the big door shut before the scrabbling fingers of the zombies could get a good grip. She pushed the lock down, and rested her forehead against the steering wheel.

“Lock the door, Josh!” Troy waved at the passenger door.

“Can zombies open doors?” Danny asked.

“Who knows? Better lock it anyway,” Troy replied.

Josh locked it for good measure.

“Hey, you killed that one, Dulce. Check it out. He’s not moving,” Troy said, clearly impressed.

“One down and how many to go?” Corina sneezed on the dust and wiped her nose with the back of her hand.

“Too many,” Josh answered, feeling lost and helpless.

The zombies slowly encircled the car, pounding on the windows. Their glassy white eyes devoid of life sent shivers down Josh’s spine. They reminded him too much of his mother after she’d returned from the dead.

“Not good,” Dulce said in heavily accented English, her dark eyes concentrated on the view outside the very dirty and smeared windshield.

“You did really good, Dulce,” Corina assured her, patting her shoulder.

“No, not good,” Dulce said, pointing out the window.

The thudding noise evolved from sounding like a brick hitting the ground into hammer blows against metal. Beyond the zombies clawing at the long hood of the Lincoln, the giant-sized hail battered another car. The windshield splintered beneath the onslaught. A few more blows weakened the glass enough that several fist sized holes appeared in it.

“Not good, not good, not good,” Troy chanted.

“We’re about to get pounded by the hail.” Danny let out a long breath. “This is gonna suck.”

Like a curtain being drawn over a window, the front edge of the hail storm was heading straight for their car. Soon the Lincoln would be bombarded by the baseball-sized hail.

“They’re going to be able to get us if the windows bust!” Danny exclaimed.

“Look for weapons,” Josh ordered.

Dulce and Danny spoke in Spanish while Corina searched the glove compartment. Josh felt around in the door pocket and along the floor, but came up empty. There was a loud snap, and Josh jumped in surprise. Embarrassed, he realized Dulce and Danny had bent the spear over the back of the front seat until it broke into two pieces.

“I got a tire iron!” Troy held it up triumphantly. The tool was greasy and looked pretty battered, but it would work as a weapon.

The zombies continued their assault on the car, beating on the windows with their hands and even their mouths. One of the zombie kids kept trying to bite at them through the glass. Josh tried not to look at their bloody faces and broken teeth. There were two little girls among the zombies and an older woman that reminded Josh of his grandma. A woman with lots of red frizzy hair was missing most of her face. She left gross smears of blood and bits of flesh on the window as she tried to get to him.

“It’s Zoey,” Corina said sadly.

“The girl from the bus?” Troy asked.

Corina nodded, and looked down at the screwdriver clutched tightly in her hand. She’d found it in the glove compartment. “I guess she didn’t make it to safety.”

Josh tried not to look at the zombified girl and felt under the seat for anything he could use to fight the zombies. “She went off alone. You can’t survive alone with no one to watch your back.”

A loud thump on the roof announced the arrival of the hail. The children froze, raising their eyes as more struck the roof. Soon there was a steady, terrifying staccato. The chunks of ice bombarded the car and zombies. Josh had never seen hail so big. Jagged, white, uneven balls of ice smashed into the hood of the car.

Out of the corner of his eye, Josh saw Zoey jerk and fall against the car door. A huge dent in her forehead was clearly visible as she slid out of sight. The zombies didn’t have any sense of self–preservation. Instead of seeking shelter, or protecting their heads, they continued to claw at the glass, hoping to reach the children inside the car. Massive welts started to appear on their exposed body parts as the hail pelted them.

“Last year a big storm hit Dallas and hail this size hurt people,” Corina whispered. “Put a bunch in the hospital.”