“You're so lame, Ed. ” Jenni rolled her eyes.
Ed shrugged and the mini-bus lurched back onto the country road, the zombies in hot pursuit.
***
Travis pressed the button on the mouthpiece, “Is it just me or are the shadows longer in the summer?”
Peggy's voice cackled back. “I hate the damn bad weather. ”
“It's putting us in a bad mood, too,” Travis sighed as he understood her code.
More trouble was coming.
“Still pacing us,” Lenore said from the backseat. “I keep seeing flashes of light off the windshield. ”
“Town is in sight,” Katie said as they crested a hill. The towering hotel loomed in the distance.
“If they are gonna make their move, it should be now,” Ken decided. He was looking as strained as they all felt.
The mini-van passed them as planned. Katie watched the vehicle take the lead with a mixture of relief and fear. Now their job was to protect the ammunition and guns.
“They're making their move!” Lenore exclaimed.
Katie glanced into the review mirror to see the vehicle that had been tailing them suddenly come roaring into view.
The CB radio cackled again. “About those shadows,” Peggy's voice was trembling. “Four more are heading in from the north. ”
Katie's hands gripped the steering wheel even more tightly as the mini-van and Hummer accelerated to top speed.
Behind her, a mud-covered truck came barreling down the road.
3. Two
From her bird's eye view on top of the hotel, Nerit watched it all happen with a strange sense of pride.
The mini-van and Hummer split up the second they hit town. The mini-van took a predetermined course that would lead it straight down Main Street. As expected, the bandits followed the mini-van. To the north, the four trucks racing into the town also changed course.
“Find their frequency. They're talking to each other,” Nerit said into her head set. She adored Calhoun for rigging up a system where she didn't have to constantly be dealing with the walkie-talkie. He was insane, but a wizard with electronics.
“On it,” Peggy answered.
Next to her, Juan was crouched down, fidgeting with his gun. He was rigged up to the speaker system Calhoun had created. He kept messing around with the microphone, looking nervous and worried.
The Hummer whipped around a block, now heading directly toward the incoming trucks on the north end of town.
Meanwhile, the mini-van took another turn, just keeping ahead of the truck pursuing it. Below, the gate was already yawning open slowly, guards watching to make sure no zombies slipped in.
The battered, mud-covered truck accelerated as the gate came into view. The mini-van was starting to slow.
“Nerit?” Juan asked.
“She's on it,” Nerit assured him.
Then through her binoculars, she saw the windshield of the bandit truck explode into shards of glass. The vehicle veered off into a building, busting through the storefront and plowing into the building out of sight.
“Shit. ”
Nerit smiled proudly. “I trained Katarina well. ”