Plagued: The Midamerica Zombie Half-Breed Experiment (Plagued States of America) by Better Hero Army

where the biters all congregate.”
    Tyler had come forward along with several others. Tom was close enough to listen, but decided it was better that he not get involved just yet. They were here. That was the important part. He would leave finding a radio up to the others.
    “Rick?” Hank asked. “You used to be in the military. How does it all work?”
    “I was Army,” Rick replied irritably. “This is Air Force shit. They usually have books that tell you how to operate everything near or on what you have to operate. Air Force morons. You’re going to need to bring up the base generator if you want to do anything.”
    “I know where that is,” Peske said. “ We siphon off it all the time.”
    The duck slowed to its spot alongside the end of the concourse. Mike climbed up into it and Peske pulled away.
    “What are you doing?” Tyler demanded.
    “He’s checking to make sure it’s empty,” Peske replied. “Unless you want to be sitting under a spout if they’re in there?”
    “How the hell can you guys do this for a living?” Tyler asked.
    “Hunting zombies? It’s easy. No different than lions going into a herd of horned caribou. Any one of them could gore them lions, and the lions know it! But that don’t stop them. It’s when you start thinking like you’re going to die, like you’re prey. That’s when you get yourself killed.”
    “Or turned,” Hank said, looking back at Carrie’s curled up, shivering body.
    “Same difference,” Peske grumbled.
    Tyler didn’t say anything. He just shook his head and walked to the back of the duck. The other hunters kept watch over the wide-open fields, the airstrip, and the road that drove through a wide stand of trees toward the control tower. Peske had said all the zombies lived over there. He claimed that the zombies hunted the city of O’Fallon at night. They didn’t come this way too often. With their luck, though, Tom figured this would be the one night the entire zombie horde decided to come looking in at the old passenger terminal. He imagined waking in the middle of the night to a thousand moans, their glowing eyes staring in through the windows. He shuddered involuntarily.
    Penelope didn’t seem concerned by their surroundings. She lay curled up on her bed with the blanket for cover, staring toward the back of the duck, staring warily at Carrie. She flinched whenever Carrie cried out or snarled.
    Tom felt a chill each time Carrie thrashed. He had never seen his sister’s turning, that much had been hidden from him. The soldiers who picked him up out of the street had seen her bite wounds. Tom and Larissa tried to hide them, but the blood, it wouldn’t stop. The soldiers recognized it immediately. They didn’t let Tom stay with her, and they didn’t let her come with them as they drove off. Tom watched her running behind, chasing the truck frantically as it drove toward the expressway.

Twenty-Two
    Mike and the hunters moved some of the defenses out onto the airstrip. The laser trip wires were placed in a triangle. They only had three left after losing two the first night. Tom had expected them to start up the generator, but instead they ran the cables into the building and plugged them into a battery unit.
    “We’ll want to be quiet tonight,” Peske said with a wink as he guided Penelope through the terminal building past Tom. Tom followed Peske to find out where he was going. Pe ske put Penelope into the women’s bathroom with a flashlight and a couple of blankets. She picked up the flashlight and turned around to look at Peske.
    “I’ll be back with grub in a few, Kitty,” Peske said and shut the door on her.
    “You’re locking her in the women’s bathroom all night?” Tom asked.
    “What, did you want to use it?” Peske said while turning a key in the lock. “That other bimbo ain’t going to be needing it.”
    “What do you mean?” Tom asked. They both turned to see Hank and Dave carrying Carrie to a locking janitor’s