Monica diligently stayed by his side, guarding their return, while Nerit culled the front end of the herd approaching the bus.
With a meaty thump and cloud of dirt spewing into the air, a body landed a few feet from the base of the hill on the shoulder of the road. It had not been there before.
Monica jerked around, searching for the source of the sound. “What the fuck was that?”
Emma cocked her head and studied the top of the hill where moving figures dwelled in the gloom beneath the trees. “I think it fell from up there.”
A second later, another body tumbled into view. The uneven rock face and occasional scraggly shrub bounced it around and slowed its fall until it landed with a meaty splat on the road. There was no need to put a bullet through its head since there wasn't one left, only a mash of bone and brain.
Monica gestured to the top of the hill. “Holy shit, they jumped from up there!”
They'd worried about being attacked from the sides, not from above.
“More will follow!” Emma instantly grasped the danger of the situation and began to unhook the harness.
Zombies traveled in swarms. It only took one moving in one direction to spur others to follow. In their constant quest to seek out the living, the undead were relentless. Devoid of emotion, the need for self-preservation, or the ability to feel pain or fear, they sometimes stumbled into deadly situations which a living person would avoid. The first zombie probably had been drawn to the edge by the gunfire, spotted the bus, and fell.
Another toppled over the edge, spinning through the air. It landed with a loud thump much closer to the bus.
Nerit barked out orders while hurrying toward the hatch. “Juan, hurry up! Emma, get inside!”
Another zombie struck the ground only a foot from the bus. The plunging bodies were a deadly threat to the humans below, not only because of their velocity, but because the road was so narrow some would likely strike the vehicle. Within seconds, Juan and Monica were dodging the dropping bodies. Like lemmings, the zombies leaped from the cliff, desperate to reach the living far below.
“Shit! Shit! Shit!” Juan barely managed to hold onto the chunk of concrete and asphalt in his hands.
The zombies struck the ground with loud, fleshy thwacks. Emma expected them to explode, but to her horror, most barely appeared fazed by their fall and struggled to stand. Only a few were so mangled they fell apart on impact. One zombie clawed at the ground, its intestines falling out in long gray-pink ropes.
“Move, Emma,” Nerit said, pushing her toward the hatch.
There was a loud clang, an explosion of glass, and the shriek of bending metal when a zombie struck the roof of the bus, leaving a huge dent in the top of the vehicle. It tumbled off onto the road.
“Oh fuck,” Emma gasped.
Nerit dropped through the hatch and Emma scrambled after her, remembering to grab the bag of ammunition at the last moment.
24
The Escape
Emma dropped through the hatch and landed in the aisle behind Nerit.
“Help Juan and Monica, Emma!” Nerit directed. “Kurt and I will provide cover.”
Emma sprinted for the back door. Ted was already there, blocking the exit and yelling at the top of his lungs for Juan to hurry. She promptly shoved the blustering man out of the way and took his spot, swiftly assessing the situation outside.
Juan struggled to move faster under the weight of the asphalt and concrete lump he was carrying while Monica shadowed him. Keeping an eye on their surroundings, she hurriedly guided Juan out of the way of a falling zombie.
Emma ignored Ted’s angry face in her periphery as he labored to sit upright on the bench he’d fallen onto, but he was too weak. She was about to jump down when Ted yanked her arm to pull himself up.
“We’re going to die if he doesn’t hurry up!”
Irritated, she jerked away. “Don’t touch me!”
“You need to hurry!”
“Then stay out of our way, Ted!”
The reassuring sharp bark of weapon fire started again. Nerit and Kurt were positioned at the front, sniping the zombies approaching from the rest area. Nerit and Kurt were doing their jobs.