Jenna slowed down and looked around. She couldn’t see them coming.
“Run!” I screamed.
Jenna looked behind her, took Halle’s hand, and took off toward Nathan and Skeeter. I could hear the boys calling to my children, motioning for them to hurry. I could hear Halle’s frightened cry carry across the muggy summer evening air.
I pulled the bolt handle again, aimed, and shot. Grabbing another bullet, I loaded it into the chamber, and then repeated the process. I’d had so much practice over the summer that I barely had to look to load the bullets, but the more shufflers I put down, the more there seemed to be.
The first of the infected emerged from the wheat. Jenna stopped and leaned back so hard she fell backward, taking Halle with her.
I kept shooting, and the boys and Miranda yelled to get the attention of the herd. A wall of bodies was created between my friends and my daughters, with infected fanning out in both directions.
The girls hugged each other and screamed. “Mommy!” Jenna cried. “Mommy!”
I swallowed back my fear and continued shooting, focusing on the walking dead that were reaching for my daughters. I was sure Nathan and the others were killing every undead thing in their path, but the girls were defenseless.
My hands shook as I reloaded, but I forced myself to stay focused, to put down anything that got too close to my kids. Suddenly, Nathan emerged from the opposite field and grabbed the girls. They screamed at first, and then Nathan pushed them behind him. I aimed at the infected closest to him and put it down, but there were three more behind it, and I couldn’t reload fast enough.
Nathan shoved the closest one away, but as I was reloading a gunshot went off. The infected fell. Skeeter reloaded and shot again. Through my scope, I could see Nathan say something to the girls. They nodded, and then they disappeared into the north field.
My heart nearly exploded when I lost sight of them, but I continued to put down anything that tried to follow. A horrible, suffering scream made me search the area frantically through my scope. I settled on Bryce, fighting off shufflers in front of him, but being attacked from behind. From point-blank range, Miranda shot Bryce’s attacker in the temple, and then fell with her boyfriend to the ground. I couldn’t tell where he was wounded, but they were both covered in Bryce’s blood.
I pulled my chin away from my rifle, and then forced myself to reload and search for them again. Miranda was scooting backward, pulling Bryce with one hand, shooting with the other.
“No!” she cried, aiming at the shufflers closing in on her. “Help us!”
I shot one after another. Skeeter did, too, but Miranda only managed to get off two more shots before half a dozen monsters obscured her from view and then began to feed. When her screams of pure anguish filled the air, I closed my eyes tight. Skeeter’s rifle popped. Even after Skeeter ended her suffering, the echoes of her screams lingered in the surrounding wheat fields for a few moments.
I looked up, seeing Nathan, Jenna, and Halle emerge from the field and then run across the road and toward the porch. I watched the girls until Ashley corralled them into the safety of the house, and then I looked through the scope again. Nathan ran toward the herd with my hatchet to help his brother-in-law. As much as I wanted to go inside the house and hug my babies, I knew none of us was safe until the last of the herd was taken down.
In one moment, it was as if they were endless, and in the next there were only a few left. I shot, Skeeter shot, and Nathan hurled the hatchet. Bodies lie all over the road and in the ditches. It looked like a scene out of a horror movie; a massacre. Nathan and Skeeter didn’t return to the house, instead they stood over the bodies of Miranda and Bryce. They were lying together, chewed and bloody. Skeeter pulled out a handgun, and shot Bryce in the head. He’d already made sure Miranda wouldn’t come back.. Spending another bullet wasn’t necessary.
I climbed down the ladder, and stood in shock as I watched Jenna and Halle push through the screen door and bury their faces against me. I wasn’t sure if I collapsed, or if they did, but all three of us were sitting in a sobbing mess on the porch.
Ashley stood over us for a moment, and then began running toward the road. Her wails were the background music to my reunion with my children. Elleny and Zoe stood in the doorway in shock, neither of them seeming to be able to make sense of what had just happened, nor of the scene on the porch. It seemed like everyone was crying, both happy and sad tears.
Night was falling, and Skeeter and Nathan guided Ashley back to the house. She was sobbing, fighting to stay with her sister. Skeeter had to force her the rest of the way into the house.
Nathan watched Ashley and Skeeter until they disappeared behind the door, and then looked down at my family, offering a small smile. “You have some incredible kids there.”
“Miranda?” I asked, already knowing the answer.
He sighed. “Bryce was attacked. She tried to save him. I couldn’t get to them in time.”
Halle’s face was buried under my arm, and her dirty fingernails dug into my skin. I kissed her head. “Come on, girls. I’ve got you. Let’s go inside.”
Nathan helped us up, and we walked inside together. The girls were filthy, and I couldn’t be sure, but I thought they were still wearing the same clothes they put on the last morning I saw them.
I couldn’t stop staring or smiling at them. It almost didn’t seem real.
“We saw your message,” Jenna said, trying not to cry.
I shook my head. “Where’s your dad?”
“He was bit,” Halle said in her small voice.
“He made us leave him,” Jenna said, her voice quivering. “He made us.”
“Ssh ssh,” I said, hugging them both. “How long have you been alone?” I didn’t know why I was asking. I wasn’t sure I wanted to know, or that it mattered.
“I don’t know,” Jenna said. “A week? I think.”
“Wow,” Skeeter said. “Tough like their mama.”
Jenna smiled and nodded, and leaned her head against my chest. “That’s what Dad said, too, when we left him. He said we could do it because we were tough like you.”
I looked at Nathan, who was holding Zoe and Elleny close. It made me sick to think my sweet little girls had been alone that long, and I wasn’t sure I wanted to know what they had gone through during that time.
“If you hadn’t have cleared the way for them, it would have been tough for them to make it past Shallot alone, if not impossible,” Nathan said. “You were right. It wasn’t for nothing.”