'Get him off,' Charles sobbed. 'Get' him' off, please.'
Nilla got her shoulder into the narrow gap between the dead man's chest and Charles' back and heaved, pushed and pushed, tried to brace her feet against the asphalt for leverage. The armless corpse shifted but not enough'his teeth were chewing at Charles' skin, digging in deep. Nilla grunted and heaved one last time with all her strength and somehow dislodged the ghoul. She wasted no time yanking Charles up to his feet. With her shoulder in his armpit she hurried him back toward the Toyota. Behind them the corpse staggered up to its knees.
'Just a little further,' Nilla told Charles, her arms around his waist. He clamped both hands against his throat. His legs shook violently and she dragged him for a second until he could get under his own power again. 'Just get to the car,' she told him. They were barely moving forward, inching along, Nilla's slight frame no good at carrying Charles' weight.
The dead man got one foot up and started rising, only to lose his balance and tumble backwards. Nilla's mind surged with hope. Just a little further. Just a little'
Charles' hand fell away from his neck and a pencil-thin jet of blood shot out ahead of him. He wheezed and choked and Nilla shoved one of her own hands against his wound. Her hand was soaked with blood instantly. It started to run down her forearm, into her shirt sleeve.
The corpse rolled back against the pickup truck and levered himself upward on its bumper. This time he ended up on his feet. He began staggering toward them. They had a head start but the dead man stumbled forward faster than Nilla's dragging pace.
Nilla looked forward again'and nearly collided with the Toyota as it came screeching up to her. In the driver's seat Shar looked stunned, paralyzed, her fingers white on the wheel, her face narrow and wrinkled with fear.
Behind them the corpse had nearly closed the gap. In a few seconds he would be on them. Nilla let Charles fall across the side of the car and wrenched open the back door. She pushed him inside and jumped in on top of him. She grabbed a bundle of fast food restaurant napkins off the floor of the car'they were filthy and probably covered in germs but it didn't matter'and stuffed them into the crook of Charles' neck. She yanked the door closed behind her.
The dead man stumbled up to the side of the car and lurched forward, his face slamming against the window only inches from Nilla's nose. She fell backwards in terror as the corpse stumbled back for another strike.
'Shar!' Nilla screamed. 'Shar! Drive!'
The teenaged girl threw the car into drive just as the armless guy slapped his face against the window a second time. Glass erupted into the car in a green cascade, tiny cubes of safety glass spilling down across Nilla and Charles, bouncing off the car's upholstery. Nilla spun around as the car lurched forward and saw the corpse standing in the road, his face a blurred distortion of human features. As the car raced away from him he stumbled after it, unable to stop coming for them even though it was hopeless'he would never catch them now.
Monster Nation
Chapter Fifteen
There are too many of them, Archie. No, I don't mean' there are more of them than we thought, than our, our models showed. I'm talking about your computer model, the one you' it's like they're multiplying, reproducing but' Yeah. That's exactly what I mean. It's time for Warlock Green to come out of the closet. [Telephone conversation between the Adjutant General of the Colorado National Guard and an undisclosed second party, 4/4/05]
A hazy cobweb of vapor trails filled the big sky over Cherry Creek, left behind by planes and helicopters full of refugees headed in every possible direction. The aircraft were all gone but they left their tracks behind.