“All right,” Zion agreed, “so what does it do?”
The blonde held up a finger, signifying she needed a minute. She finished tinkering with the engine and then primed it. “You may want to take a step back,” she warned. “It won’t kill you, but might leave a mark.”
The duo took a few steps back, waiting with bated breath. Once they were clear, Tori pulled the ripcord and the engine sprung to life. She moved back to the handle that stood at her waist, with a motorcycle throttle attached to the right side.
“You ready?” she asked.
Zion gave her a thumbs up, and she hit the throttle. The center metal rod began to spin rapidly, and the plastic arms whirled like a helicopter. It started to move so fast that they were barely visible.
The audience nodded appreciatively, impressed.
“Jack, the can!” Tori called over the loud engine.
Jack looked down and grabbed an empty soda can from a pile on the ground next to his feet and then lobbed it at the blades. The machine shredded it into pieces, sending debris flying against the back wall. Tori grinned as she flicked the power off and turned back to the duo.
“If that can was any indication, I’d say your little test worked,” Zion declared, holding up a hand.
The blonde nodded vigorously. “Yeah, I’m pleased with it,” she agreed, pushing her glasses back up her nose. “Although I think the impaler three thousand should be our priority.”
“Why?” Zion asked, brow furrowing. “This thing looks like it could tear those bitches to shreds.”
Tori tilted her head back and forth. “Don’t get me wrong, this thing will do the job when the time comes,” she assured him. “However, it’s going to be heavy. Like it will take three of us to move it into position heavy.”
“Which means,” Harold added, “for it to be effective, we’re going to need a horde to be headed in our direction.”
“And even then, it’s just going to thin some of them out,” Missy piped up.
Zion crossed his arms thoughtfully. “Still, if you make it heavy duty enough it could help out.”
“What would you need to make a real one of those?” Calvin asked.
“We have most of the main components,” Tori replied. “The metal and blade components, anyway. We even have the gas.”
Zion cocked his head. “But…”
“We need engines,” the blonde finished. “The weed eater engine I used on the test isn’t going to pack enough punch.”
Calvin pursed his lips for a moment. “So what are you thinking?” he asked. “Go karts?”
“I was thinking,” Tori replied, “riding lawn mower engines?” She held up her hands as the duo shared a concerned look. “I would have thought those would be plentiful,” she quickly added. “I can’t imagine too many looters targeting those.”
Zion nodded. “Problem is, they’re out of season, so a lot of smaller stores stopped carrying them,” he pointed out.
“There’s always that super garden center in the mall,” Calvin suggested.
His companion shook his head. “That mall is a clusterfuck and a half,” he replied.
“I thought you were luring zombies away,” Jack piped up. “Why not just do the same there?” he asked.
“We tried,” Zion explained, “and we were only able to get the ones outside to follow. The ones inside just didn’t want to come out the doors, and I sure as shit wasn’t going to play doorman for them. So we just locked them up inside.”
Tori nodded, pushing her glasses back up on her nose. “It’s okay,” she assured him. “I’ll see if I can come up with a workaround.”
“Although when we’re out raiding, I’ll keep and eye out for some,” Calvin said quickly. “Never know what we’re gonna find.”
She smiled, eyes lighting up as she regarded him.
“Just write down everything you need,” Zion said. “We’ll take care of it as best we can.”
“Thanks, Zion,” Tori said, and then her eyes flicked back to his companion. “Thanks Calvin.” She shot him a little wink, and a goofy grin broke out on his face.
“We’ll be back this afternoon, so have your shopping list ready,” Zion said, and led his swooning friend away. “We need to get going.”
“Yeah,” Calvin added, “you know how Wendy gets when we don’t show up on time.”
“Monique ain’t much better,” Zion added, and they shared a chuckle as they headed back across the garage.
“Oh good, you two haven’t left yet,” Cheryl called as she emerged from the stairwell.
Zion waved to her. “What’s up?”
“Just got a call from the cattle drivers,” she replied, “and they landed a big one.”
“How many?” he asked.
She tucked a stray lock of hair behind her ear with a pencil. “Their best guess was eight to ten thousand.”
“Well damn.” Zion crossed his arms and smirked at his companion. “Looks like they beat our record.”
Calvin clenched a fist in front of his face. “We’ll get ‘em next time.”
“Was there anything else?” Zion asked. “We were about to head out to Wendy’s.”
“I’ve already taken the liberty of letting her know you’re going to be running a bit late due to the mob,” Cheryl assured him.
He nodded. “They hittin’ the crossroads, I take it?” he asked.
“They’re approaching the front edge of the crossing now,” Cheryl informed him, checking her clipboard.
“The crossroads?” Missy asked, the students having clustered behind them to listen.
“Where our roads meet the interstate,” Cheryl explained. “It’s only a few miles down, so we pull everybody back from it to make sure it’s as quiet as possible.”
Calvin grinned. “Those critters are like lemmings,” he added. “You get one of them going one way, and the rest of them follow.”
“Oh okay,” Missy said, nodding. “I get it. Thank you.”
“How long until we can hit the back road?” Zion asked.
Cheryl held up a finger. “Give them one hour and you should be good.”
“Well,” Zion said with a sigh, “since we have all this time on our hands, Calvin maybe you can take Tori
