Carlie Simmons (Book 3): The Way Back by JT Sawyer Page A

to continuing serving my country here at home—protecting the presidency
and all it stood for, that was a cause worth fighting for, even dying for if
necessary—though I can’t say I had that sentiment about every politician I’ve
worked with over the years.” He leaned back in his chair, looking at Eliza. “I
certainly wouldn’t have hesitated for a second to step between the Grim Reaper
and your father—or his daughter.”
    Eliza was silent for a moment, letting out
a faint smile while trying to hold back tears for her father. Willis stood up
and moved alongside her, placing his hand over hers. “We’ll get through this,
Eliza. We’ve got enough supplies to hole up here for a while longer and that’ll
give you some time to round out your training.”
    “Then what?” she said, squeezing his hand
back.
     “Then we’ll keep heading north by
whatever means possible until we’re brushing past the guards at the entrance to
Fort Lewis—unless you want to stay here in this cozy little farmhouse on the
prairie.”
    She pulled back, frowning while looking through
the window at the bleak rural landscape. “Northward it is, then—just say the
word.”

 
    Chapter 23
    Thirty-Three Days after
Departing White Sands Military Base
    Willis was crouching beside a cluster of
bushes near a narrow bridge, scanning the surrounding streets in the small town
of La Grande, Oregon. The Ford Taurus they had hotwired a few miles from the
farmhouse the day before had enough fuel to make it nearly 87 miles. During the
past day of walking, Willis only had to dispatch a few zombies at a derelict
rest area along the highway. The small towns dotting the route were either
cleaned out of supplies or burned to the ground.
    Eleven miles later on foot, they had
entered the outskirts of the small ranching community of La Grande, population
13,752 according to the bent highway sign on I-84.
    “The only way into town is over this
bridge or a bone-chilling swim across the river below,” said Willis. “Looks
like six of those things are between us and our destination so I opt for
staying dry. I’ll take the lead and you follow up behind me taking any strays,
OK? We’ll stick to our blades as I don’t want to draw down a whole town full of
these things.”
    She nodded, clutching her large serrated
knife and feeling her heart punching through her chest. Most of the zombies
were clad in cowboy clothing except for the first one which was a leprous
creature dressed in a red hockey jersey. She could smell the rotting corpses
and see the black crust of accumulated tissue under their fingernails. She felt
her stomach clench up and she tasted a hint of bile in her mouth. Panic wasn’t
far away and she forced herself to pace her breathing as Willis had showed her.
    “OK, now,” said Willis as he sprang
forward with his knife, slamming it into the left temple of the hockey player
and then shoving it over the guardrail into the waters below. Eliza wanted to
run the other way but she pushed off from her crouching position. It seemed as if
she was watching someone else for a moment as she saw her blade hand go into
position just as it had so many times in training. The creature to her right
was wearing a pink-striped apron and looked like a coffee barista. Its muted
groan turned into a bellow as it lunged for Eliza. She sidestepped and thrust
the blade forward, aiming for the eyes, but miscalculated the distance and
buried it into the upper lip, splitting it down the center and shattering the
front teeth. She yanked it out and delivered another fast jab, this time
hitting her target and dropping the beast onto the yellow centerline on the
road.
    She instinctively recoiled, unprepared for
the blood splatter and the sickening noise of the blade hacking through bone,
neither of which she had thought about during training drills on a padded post.
Eliza staggered back a step, gulping down air, and then forced herself to move
forward.
    Willis had already