After: Whiteout (AFTER post-apocalyptic series, Book 4) by Scott Nicholson Page A

go now go .”
    Marina began mouthing the words, too, slack-faced and
blank-eyed.
    Rosa dropped the revolver and headed for the group. She
wasn’t sure what would happen—the Grateful Dead teenager might want revenge,
the Zapheads could swarm her and rip her limbs from her torso, or Joey might
urge them to beat her to death with their rifles.
    They
haven’t hurt Cathy or Marina yet. If the Zapheads wanted to kill all humans,
they’d be dead, too .
    Rosa was unwilling to contemplate the reasons the Zapheads
wanted them alive. Maybe Joey felt some loyalty to her. Or they felt threatened
by the soldiers and not the others. Or maybe they needed more bait.
    Whatever
the reason, Rosa didn’t want her daughter joining their chants. Rosa wasn’t like Cathy—she wouldn’t raise a Zaphead child.
    “Marina,” Rosa called again, approaching warily. She expected Marina to break into a run
toward her, but the girl stood in place, swaying back and forth in a catatonic
state. By the time Rosa strode between the first rank of Zapheads, she’d
forgotten about her own possible death. All she wanted was for Marina to move, to speak, to blink.
    As
she hugged Marina, her daughter yielded to the embrace and whispered a soft
“Momma.” At least she was still partly here.
    Rosa looked over her shoulder at the Zapheads surrounding
them. They watched with interest, as if not understanding the meaning of an
embrace. The Grateful Dead girl with the bleeding face lifted her arms a little
as if wanting a hug, but ended up staring down at her palms.
    “Go
now go,” Joey said, flailing one little hand into a wave.
    He
was motioning to the far end of town, away from the McDonald’s restaurant.
Cathy gave her infant an affectionate stroke on the cheek, and asked, “Go this
way, sugar bunches?”
    “Sugar
bunches!” the Zaphead in the bloody military cap said. The Grateful Dead girl
added, “Go now go!”
    The
Zaphead with the reattached hand led the way, and the rest of them followed.
Cathy trailed a little behind them, and then turned to Rosa and Marina. “Well?
You guys coming or not?”
    Rosa wasn’t sure if they had a choice. Joey bore an odd
look of pleasure, his eyes sparking with fiery delight. That mockery of human
expression was almost more terrible than his petulant anger at the “old people”
who had tried to kill his mutant brethren. She recalled a Bible verse of the
wolf living with the lamb and the calf lying down with the lion. And a child
shall lead them .
    Her
priest had explained the context of the verse as God’s promise of eventual
peace and harmony, not a literal future where children guided adults. But her
priest couldn’t have foreseen a day like this. Such a prophecy would have
seemed profane heresy.
    Nevertheless,
she followed, hugging Marina so close that they both staggered awkwardly. The
first Zapheads had stopped in the street ahead, and Rosa wondered if they had
changed their mind about killing them. Then she saw the bodies. The Zapheads
lifted the two dead soldiers and the body of their elderly comrade, half
dragging and half hauling them away.
    The
town of Siler Creek had never hosted such a bizarre parade. No fire trucks or
flags, no cheerleaders waving pompoms, no smiling politicians. Just a
collection of the living and dead walking through a ghost town where blank
windows served as the audience.
    The
sun was sinking over the tops of the far buildings and the ridges beyond,
throwing long shadows that made the scene even more sinister. The clouds had
thickened, tinted pink and purple by dusk, and the air carried dampness
redolent of autumnal decay. Combined with the faint rot of corpses clinging to
the interior of her nasal passages, Rosa was pretty sure this was what the end
of the world smelled like.
    “What
are they going to do with the dead people, Momma?” Marina whispered.
    Rosa was relieved she had shown a sign of awareness, even
if the question was so grisly. Considering the body hung on the