“He better finish the hell up so we can get home. This latest cold front sucks.” Katarina rubbed her hands over the steering wheel, her knuckles bright red from the cold. “I want some nice hot coffee.”
Winter was hitting hard in Texas and it was one of the worst ones in years. Snow had fallen already three times, and Ed was muttering about ice storms. They were barely a week into January, and already Jenni was sick of the new year. It was so damn cold.
“That sounds so good. And a nice warm bed with a nice warm Juan in it.” Jenni grinned.
Katarina blushed almost the color of her hair. Felix wrenched open the back door and slid in. “I urinated on my shoes! Can’t a man relieve himself without those damn things showing up. I’m quite irate!”
Jenni slid around in her seat and grinned at him. “Should have held it, huh?”
“When a man has to go, he has to go!” Felix folded his arms across his broad chest and glared at her. He wore several layers of clothing under his usual tracksuit and his black skin looked beautiful against the whiteness of the fabric. Felix dressed like a gangster, but spoke with a sophisticated air most of the time. He was the adopted son of rich white parents from Houston and would have graduated with a masters in literature if not for the zombie apocalypse. Jenni liked him a lot and they enjoyed teasing each other.
After the nightmare she had just endured, she was glad to joke around again. She could not get the final image of her and the boys fleeing down the zombie-infested neighborhood street out of her head. It had been so vivid, so real. If Katie had not arrived that morning, saving her, Jenni would have ended up fleeing on foot alone and she knew she would have perished. The boys had never made it out of the house. Lloyd had killed them.
Jenni laid her head against the backrest and stared at Katarina as she drove the truck back onto the country road to continue the journey home. The rest of the caravan was waiting up ahead. As their truck drew near, those vehicles slowly began to accelerate. Soon the small convoy was speeding down the country roads back toward the fort.
“I can’t believe my shoes are ruined,” Felix muttered again, then pulled out a book from his backpack. “It will be difficult to find a good replacement.”
“You could try to clean them up,” Katarina offered.
“I scrape zombie guts off my boots all the time,” Jenni added.
Felix just grumbled something that they couldn’t make out and began to read the words of Socrates.
“Boys are so moody,” Jenni decided.
“And they say we are,” Katarina scoffed. Jenni smiled a little and tried to get comfortable in the truck. It felt odd riding shotgun with Katarina instead of Katie. But Katie was back in the fort, helping with other areas of importance. Jenni suspected Travis had something to do with Katie not being assigned to any of the groups heading out of the fort. Her pregnancy had been a shock when announced. Most of the fort was happy to welcome a new life into their barren world, but others felt having children was irresponsible. The comments were never made around Katie or her husband, Travis, but Jenni heard them.
Her own feelings about the baby were mixed. On the one hand, she was happy for her friend and ready to be an aunt, but on the other she feared for that new life being born into a world full of the hungry dead. Was it really fair to bring a new life into a world so full of death? Would it have been fair to try to raise her boys in this undead world? Jason was older, almost an adult, but Mikey and Benji would have lost whatever remained of their childhood innocence.
Frowning, she felt her stomach tighten at the thought of her dead children. Tears burned in her eyes as she realized she would rather her boys were with her than dead. Juan would have been a good father, and they would have worked hard to give the boys a good life. But that would never happen. Somewhere, her boys were part of the undead hordes. “Something is going on,” Katarina said, pulling Jenni away from her dark thoughts.
The caravan was slowing down. “We got problems ahead,” Ed’s voice crackled over the CB.
Jenni snatched up the mouthpiece. “What’s up?” “Bunch of zombies have a van surrounded. Looks like people are up on top of it. Whole way is blocked.” Ed sounded peeved by the whole situation.
“We have to save them!” This was Curtis’ voice coming through the static. Jenni could imagine the grim expression on the young policeman’s face.
“Got any ideas on how to handle it? ‘Cause I’m listening,” Ed answered.
“Pull up,” Jenni said to Katarina.
With a nod, Katarina shifted gears and moved their truck out of the line to drive to the front where Ed’s vehicle, a school bus, sat idling at the top of a hill. As they drew up next to the bus, Jenni scowled.
“Fuck.”
It was hard to see how many people were on top of the van, but it was easy to see the crowd of zombies gathered around them. It looked like the van had stalled out and the occupants had managed to get on top of it through a sunroof. The door on the side was open and zombies were jostling each other to get inside. Another group was busily consuming someone near the side of the road.
Ed slid open the window next to the driver’s seat and peered out at them. His grizzled face looked pissed beneath his battered hat. Jenni pushed the button for the window and it slid down. “What do you think, Ed?”
“Got at least three dozen down there trying to get to those folks. I figure we can either drive close enough to try to get them to come to us, then flatten them. Or we can open fire and risk hitting the people.”
“They won’t draw off if they’ve got fresh food in front of them,” Jenni reminded him. “What if we get close enough to thin out the outer edge with the guns, then go in and clear out the rest with machetes, spears and my trusty ax?” Curtis walked up next to the vehicles, his weapon out.” His truck was idling behind Ed’s. “We need to hurry whatever the hell we’re doing. It’s getting bad down there.”
The zombies were so anxious to get to the people on top of the van, they were beginning to rock the vehicle. Someone on top was trying to stand to wave down the caravan and Jenni gasped as he tumbled off into the zombies. His screams tore through the cold air, then broke off abruptly. The zombies were moaning with delight as they swarmed him.
“We gotta move now!” Jenni shoved her door open, nearly ramming it into Curtis. Yanking her ax out of the truck, she motioned with it for Felix and Katarina to follow her. Shoving the ax into the specially made sheath on her back, she slammed the door shut with her hip. Determined to bust some zombie heads, she headed down the hill. “We don’t have a plan, Jenni!” Ed shouted after her.
Jenni stalked toward the undead swarm. “Kill the fuckers! That’s the plan!”
3. Sentries of the Dead