Search for Safety: Killing the Dead Book Two by Richard Murray Page B

finding none I pulled on the handle of the back door of the car beside me. It opened and I ducked inside pulling the door closed behind me. The zombie still buckled into the driver’s seat was going wild at my presence and concerned that it would attract the attention of the zombies massed on the motorway beyond I dispatched it quickly with my hatchet.
    It looked like the driver’s side window was down or possibly smashed completely which is likely how they had gotten at the driver, but there was little I could do about that. I ducked down onto the floor of the car and lay as still as possible. My only hope was to wait for night and try and get away.
    The floor of the car was uncomfortable, sticky and smelled musty. My ankle had a dull throbbing ache that seemed to travel all the way up my leg and with my head down I could hear but not see the zombies as they moved past my hiding place.
    With nothing to do but wait and hope I wasn’t discovered, I spent a bit of time thinking up imaginative ways of killing Rachel to amuse myself. A great deal of noise distracted me and caused more than a little tension until I realised that the zombies that had been chasing us had arrived and lacking the fine motor skills to traverse the incline, had simply fallen down it.
    Now the area around my hideaway had even more zombies around it and I redoubled my efforts for coming up with a truly painful way to kill Rachel. I was going to be in for a long wait, without something to distract them they would just hang around the area.
    The sound of a gun firing came from further along the motorway. The now familiar moaning rose from the clustered dead and they set off in the direction of the sound. I waited as patiently as I could. A second shot sounded and then a third. I cautiously raised my head and peered through the windows of the car.
    Most of the zombies were moving along the road though a number of those that had fallen down the hill seemed unable to get up, they were trying to make their way along. With little choice but to move or stay in the car, I sat up and eased open the door.
    I couldn’t see anything in the immediate area as I climbed out of the back of the car. I tested my weight on my ankle and decided that it would hold, though likely hurt like hell. Staying as low as possible I made my way across the motorway to the banking I had seen the group climb.
    A head appeared over the top and I could see Lily looking down at me. She gestured frantically and I did my best to scramble up the steep hill, grasping at thick tufts of damp grass and pulling myself up more than anything.
    As I reached the top hands clasped my shoulders and almost pulled me over, I fell onto my side panting and not caring about the sweat that was stinging my eyes. Gregg looked down at me and gave me a quick thumbs up. I guess I had him to thank for the help up that last bit of hill.
    “Glad you made it mate.” He said.
    “Who was shooting?” I asked.
    “Rachel said she saw you climb into the car, so she and Pat went down that way” he gestured in the general direction of the gun shots, “with the aim of drawing away the worst of them so you could get up here.”
    Perhaps I was wrong about Rachel attempting to leave me to the zombies, she still irritated me though. “Glad you waited for me.” I said.
    “No probs mate” he replied as he helped pull me to my feet. Lily gave me a smile and a gentle touch on the arm before moving back to the rest of the group who were waiting nervously a short distance away.
    “Pat and Rachel should be on their way back, so as soon as they arrive we can get off” Gregg said before following Lily.
    I turned back to watch the zombies as they tried to climb the steep banking. Some of them would actually make it, given enough time. I gave a low laugh, a sign of relief at surviving more than anything else. I may have been wrong about Rachel’s intentions and I idly wondered if I had misinterpreted other situations in the