raised. With a sudden jolt, she was knocked to the side just as the weapon discharged. Lin heard a wet pop as a shower of tissue and fluid spattered her face and arms. It felt cool, thick, and disgusting, with the consistency of tofu and jelly. Still in shock, Lin found she was unable to open her eyes to face whatever new horror lay before her. My God! How much worse can it get? Despite that thought, she did not truly wish to know the answer.
Lin heard the booming report of several more shots in close proximity but saw only vague flashes of light through her clenched eyelids. She felt a sharp tug as she was forcefully yanked to her feet from behind. What she saw when her eyes finally opened made her want to shutter them to the new, depraved world forever. The infected horde had closed to within striking distance— danger close —she heard Garza say. He was standing, legs slightly spread in a solid shooter’s stance, with at least a half dozen of the infected sprawled around him. One of the hideous, lifeless bodies lay less than two feet from her, a ruddy ooze trickling from the hole in its forehead as its blank, frosted eyes stared directly at her…seeing nothing at all.
As Lin watched Garza decimate the front line of the swarm, she realized that his fierce rage had not been directed toward her as she had initially assumed, but rather to protect her from the dead thing lying next to her. Feeling herself being dragged away from her savior, she heard Garza yell:
“And this is for the 918, assholes!”
Corporal Rocha reached the truck at the same time as General Montes with Lin in tow. As the General slid into the driver’s seat, Rocha called for Garza to fall back to the truck. With barely a break in his fire, Garza motioned for them to go as he realized that any delay might give the horde enough time to flank the truck, blocking its path, and boxing them in before they could make it through the narrow gap spanning the interstate. Seeing the same thing and understanding what Garza was asking them to do, Corporal Rocha paused before reluctantly tapping the General’s shoulder to signal him to move out.
As the truck pulled away, Rocha watched Garza fire headshot after headshot, as he slowly retreated from the massive, pestilential swarm converging all around him. The sickening realization that he would never again see the brave soldier who had been instrumental in their escape from the airbase settled hard in the pit of his stomach, making him want to scream at the top of his lungs, and curse the entire godforsaken world. As a fellow soldier, however, he knew without a doubt he would have done the same thing were the roles reversed. When it registered that they were leaving without Garza, Lin broke into hysterical sobs. Rocha gently restrained her as she pleaded, lurching and reaching in the direction of the doomed man.
As the truck maneuvered between stalled cars on the interstate, there were several not so subtle bumps as the truck’s huge tires rolled over the infected that Rocha had dispatched next to the van. When they were about to cross the last northbound lane, General Montes’ heart sank when he saw a smaller swarm of infected closing in on their point of egress.
Seeing this, Lin cried from the back seat, “What are we going to do?”
Gritting his teeth and white-knuckling the steering wheel, General Montes exclaimed, “Hold on! This is going to get pretty damn bumpy!”
She was glad the truck was a hardtop and not one of the old open air jeeps previously used by the military, as body parts and gore bounced off the windshield before sliding over the truck’s roof and sailing overhead.
6
October 23, 2015
Marengo County, Alabama
“You win, you’ve finally taken everything,” the woman said to the world in a voice heavy with exhaustion and resignation. She had not spoken a word since she stepped out of the house earlier that morning. There was no one left with whom to speak. She
Lin heard the booming report of several more shots in close proximity but saw only vague flashes of light through her clenched eyelids. She felt a sharp tug as she was forcefully yanked to her feet from behind. What she saw when her eyes finally opened made her want to shutter them to the new, depraved world forever. The infected horde had closed to within striking distance— danger close —she heard Garza say. He was standing, legs slightly spread in a solid shooter’s stance, with at least a half dozen of the infected sprawled around him. One of the hideous, lifeless bodies lay less than two feet from her, a ruddy ooze trickling from the hole in its forehead as its blank, frosted eyes stared directly at her…seeing nothing at all.
As Lin watched Garza decimate the front line of the swarm, she realized that his fierce rage had not been directed toward her as she had initially assumed, but rather to protect her from the dead thing lying next to her. Feeling herself being dragged away from her savior, she heard Garza yell:
“And this is for the 918, assholes!”
Corporal Rocha reached the truck at the same time as General Montes with Lin in tow. As the General slid into the driver’s seat, Rocha called for Garza to fall back to the truck. With barely a break in his fire, Garza motioned for them to go as he realized that any delay might give the horde enough time to flank the truck, blocking its path, and boxing them in before they could make it through the narrow gap spanning the interstate. Seeing the same thing and understanding what Garza was asking them to do, Corporal Rocha paused before reluctantly tapping the General’s shoulder to signal him to move out.
As the truck pulled away, Rocha watched Garza fire headshot after headshot, as he slowly retreated from the massive, pestilential swarm converging all around him. The sickening realization that he would never again see the brave soldier who had been instrumental in their escape from the airbase settled hard in the pit of his stomach, making him want to scream at the top of his lungs, and curse the entire godforsaken world. As a fellow soldier, however, he knew without a doubt he would have done the same thing were the roles reversed. When it registered that they were leaving without Garza, Lin broke into hysterical sobs. Rocha gently restrained her as she pleaded, lurching and reaching in the direction of the doomed man.
As the truck maneuvered between stalled cars on the interstate, there were several not so subtle bumps as the truck’s huge tires rolled over the infected that Rocha had dispatched next to the van. When they were about to cross the last northbound lane, General Montes’ heart sank when he saw a smaller swarm of infected closing in on their point of egress.
Seeing this, Lin cried from the back seat, “What are we going to do?”
Gritting his teeth and white-knuckling the steering wheel, General Montes exclaimed, “Hold on! This is going to get pretty damn bumpy!”
She was glad the truck was a hardtop and not one of the old open air jeeps previously used by the military, as body parts and gore bounced off the windshield before sliding over the truck’s roof and sailing overhead.
6
October 23, 2015
Marengo County, Alabama
“You win, you’ve finally taken everything,” the woman said to the world in a voice heavy with exhaustion and resignation. She had not spoken a word since she stepped out of the house earlier that morning. There was no one left with whom to speak. She
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