The Living Dead Boy (The Living Dead Boy #1)(8)

“It’s not closing!” Sam shouted. It was as if he was determined to narrate the events happening around him.

Josh was instantly on his feet, ready to stop the college girl from letting the zombies in. Darting into the aisle, he collided with his dad.

Jamie pushed Josh back onto his seat. “Let me handle this, Josh.”

Unable to just sit back and watch things unfold, Josh followed, but stayed a few feet behind his dad.

“I want out! I want out!” the young woman screamed. Her body was lodged between the doors, and she fought Ron as he tried to pull her away. “I want out! You can’t keep me in here!”

“I need to shut the doors! Get her out of there!” Derrick yelled.

“Just let her out!” someone exclaimed from the back.

“She’ll die!” Troy shouted back at them.

The loud thumping of her legs kicking the doors and floor, coupled with her cries of protest, only added to the building tension on the bus. Jamie helped Ron grab the woman’s wildly flailing arms, but they only managed to get a good grip on the sleeves of her hoodie. Using that to her advantage, she twisted about in their grasp, got to her knees, and pulled her arms out of her hoodie. Freed from the men trying to subdue her, she triumphantly spun about and let out a shrill shriek.

Just as Josh had feared, zombies on the tail end of the herd following the jeep had been drawn to the commotion. Their burned, bloodied bodies were only a few feet away, and closing in.

“Want out now?” Troy asked, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

With a scream, the girl shoved past Jamie and Ron, darted past Josh, and ran to the back of the bus.

Derrick hit the door controls. “About time.”

Josh spotted the zombie seconds before it plunged through the closing doors. It had been slinking along the side of the bus out of sight until the very last moment. Blackened skin dripping blood and other gross fluids, it filled the entrance and blocked the doors.

Bonnie growled furiously, planting her body protectively in front of Rachel. Meanwhile, Sam started to yell at the top of his lungs, which made Drake start to shriek. The noise level hurt Josh’s head, and he motioned to Sam to cut it out.

“You’re stirring up the zombies, Sam!”

“The zombies are already here, Josh,” Sam retorted.

Moaning, the thing that had used to be a big man lunged toward Ron and Jamie. With a fearful yelp, Ron ducked away, leaving Jamie to face the creature alone.

“Shoot it! Shoot it!” Sam shouted, and his cry was picked up by a few other people.

Staring at the zombie advancing on his dad, Josh’s mind bombarded him with different outcomes: his dad shooting the zombie, his dad fighting the zombie, his dad being bitten by the zombie, and many more. His breath caught in his throat, Josh couldn’t even cry out a warning.

But he didn’t have to.

Jamie gripped the pole next to top step and used it to support his weight as he did a flying kick at the zombie. His feet struck the big creature’s badly scorched chest and knocked it off the steps. For a second the zombie managed to grab Jamie’s left leg, but the backward momentum carried the monster to the ground. All it managed to take with it was Jamie’s shoe.

The doors finally thumped shut.

Applause broke out, but quickly faded away when people realized the silliness of the act.

“That zombie was so gross!” Sam declared.

“Is it gone?” Yessica asked from under the seat.

Jamie kicked off his other shoe, which was slathered in smelly zombie goo, and turned to face the passengers. The serious look on his face was the one he wore when he was about to ground Josh for acting up.

“No one gets off this bus! Do you hear me? Not unless we’re given the all clear! I don’t care how scared you are. You will obey the orders of the men and women protecting you. Understood?” Jamie exhaled, shaking his head. “I know you’re scared. I know you want to escape this living nightmare we’re in, but you must think of the safety of everyone on board this bus. We are all in this together.”

From the back came the hiccupping sobs of the college student who’d nearly brought disaster to all of them. Accusing stares weighed her down into a small ball on her seat, and Josh felt a little bad for her. Savannah sat next to her, speaking in a soft, calming voice. She was the only one showing the frightened girl any sympathy. Josh was angry with the girl, too, but he kind of understood why she’d tried to run away. Feeling helpless and trapped was enough to make anyone a little crazy and rash. But his dad was right. People had to think about the safety of everyone if they were to survive.

“She’s acting crazy like Rog,” Troy muttered. “Just like him.”

Roger, Troy’s brother, had acted completely different from the other Zombie Hunters when he’d first seen the zombies. He’d been in total denial about what was going on to the point of bringing about his own death.

The people on the bus weren’t like Josh and the other surviving Zombie Hunters. They hadn’t been prepared for the zombie apocalypse. Josh had to admit he hadn’t been completely ready either. He’d never thought about the fact his family and friends could die, and what it would feel like to survive without them.

A good distance from the road in the open field, the soldiers and police in the jeep opened fire on the zombies they’d lured away from the convoy. The fresh barrage of weapon fire was reassuring, but also scary. Troy and Sam watched the slaughter with their mouths gaping open. The zombies were a constant danger, and no one could ignore that fact, but the violence it took to kill them was still shocking to their senses.