Dead Life Book 5 by D Harrison Schleicher Page A

to move across the ground.
                  “God I hate those things,” Gina said.
                  “Check his pockets for the keys to the truck.”
                  “Fuck that. They’re in the ignition.”
                  “You already checked?”
                  “No, but I’ll tell you what. I’ll check the ignition. If they’re not there you can check his pockets.”
                  Al made a move to go for the truck but Gina blocked him. “Go clear the trailer old man.”
                  “I’m not going in there unless I have to. Check the truck.”
                  Gina went over to the truck and looked in the window. This was their lucky day. The keys were there. Now they just had to hope the truck would start. Gina gave Al a thumbs up and opened the door. For as beat-up and rusted out as the exterior of the truck was the interior was remarkably clean. She got in, pushed the clutch, and turned the key. Nothing. The battery was dead.
                  “We’re going to have to try and pop the clutch,” Gina said.
     
                                                                                  *******
     
                  I opened the lift gate and climbed across to the U-Haul. There wasn’t much missing from the back of the truck. I could tell they had taken enough to hike out though; one other thing telling me that Gina and Al were still alive. I climbed the shelving and stuck my head up through the vent. There was some empty water bottles, energy bar wrappers, a deck of cards, and a half empty bag of grenades on the roof of the U-Haul. The grenades were within my reach so I snagged them and pulled them back through the vent with me.
                  “Looks like they left in a hurry,” I said.
                  “How do you know that?”
                  “Al left his grenades up there.”
                  “I think he’d leave me behind before he’d leave those,” Cindy said, with a sad look on her face.
                  “They’re okay,” I said, more to convince myself than her.
    I helped Cindy into the U-Haul and we started gathering what we would be able to fit into the truck together. There were a lot of hard decisions to make. Space was at a premium and there was lots of crap to be sorted through. It didn’t help that every once in a while a zombie would poke its head around the edge of the truck and try to join us. Our zombie friend visits became more frequent so Cindy and I decided it would be best to wrap things up. After a half an hour we stopped sorting and got ready to load the truck.
    The back of the truck was already full of gear and we’d have to make room for what we had decided we could take. I jumped to the bed of the truck and reached for Cindy’s hand. As she was stepping over a hand shot up from between the vehicles and grabbed her around the ankle. Cindy fell on top of me and we both landed in a heap in the bed of the truck; along with the mostly crushed body of one of the undead. The tire of one of the trucks had passed over its torso. She was smashed flat from her hips to her shoulders. The wheel having just barely missed her head.
    Cindy panicked and scrambled to get away from the zombie that was firmly attached to her ankle. As Cindy struggled to free herself from the zombie it drug itself up her leg and bit down on her foot. Cindy screamed out in pain causing me to shout out also. I kicked out, connecting with the top of the zombies head, causing Cindy to scream again. The creature was securely attached to her boot. Sprawled out as we were there was no way I could get to my sword. With all attempts at remaining quiet long gone I pulled my pistol out and shot it in the head. Cindy stopped struggling and lay on top of me