set on liquefied lard, and the deafening sound of splintering wood as the deck began to sag as its support posts were destroyed.
Planking rained down as it was torn free from the moorings to the house. The heavy decking crushed a few of the bulkers, but not enough to celebrate a victory.
“Holy shit,” Cindy said as she gripped the couch. Dust hung thickly in the air as it poured in the open windows and doorways.
The bulkers surged back in following the brief lull, after the collapse, the house once again began to shake as they kept ramming into it apparently looking for the weak spot.
“We need to get everyone that isn’t making the last stand into the bunker,” Ron said.
“You don’t think the door will hold up?” Cindy asked.
“It will for a little while,” Ron said, looking a little lost in his thoughts. The zombies would destroy his house and that wasn’t sitting well with him.
“Last stand?” Gary asked. “Is that literally or figuratively?”
“Figuratively,” Ron clarified. “I’m not just going to give them the house…plus, we have got to give Mike, Tracy, BT, and Azile a chance to get back here. If we close up shop, they’ll have nowhere to come back to.”
“I’m in,” Gary said.
“Me too,” Tony said.
“So are we,” Justin said putting his arm around his brother.
Everyone who was upstairs at that point volunteered. Ron pared it down to the Talbots; “his house…his rules” he had told them, and it seemed fitting anyway that they should be the ones to defend the homestead.
“Well at least let me figure out if there’s a way to keep the door shut for a longer amount of time,” Mad Jack said.
Ron waved him to go, Gary went with him.
“Alright, everyone else, grab what’s important to you and get going, consider anything left out to be gone forever,” Ron said having a hard time believing his own words.
“Better get moving, little brother,” Ron said to the departed Mike as he walked around his house one last time.
***
“She’s in that truck right over there,” I said, pointing. We were a good ten or so feet within the trees.
“Oh, you mean the one on the other side of the road with all the men near it?” BT asked.
“Did you really think it was going to work out any differently?” I asked him.
“A boy can dream,” BT said in seriousness.
“Hey at least they’re not congregating around it.” I told him.
“Is that her?” Tracy asked.
“Where?” I asked, looking up and down the road.
“She’s looking out the window, it looks like she’s going to try and make a run for it,” Tracy said.
“I told her to stay put,” I said.
“Talbot, how much luck have you had with telling any woman to do something?” BT said.
“Good point, BT.”
“She can’t see the one leaning up against the back of her truck.”
“She’s going to get caught. I do not want to get into a firefight right now,” I told my band of travelers. I started waving frantically hoping she would see me, but all of her attention was to the front of the truck. The driver’s side door started to ease open.
“Why doesn’t she go out the passenger door and into the woods on that side?” Tracy asked.
***
“Shit,” Azile said, peeking through the windshield. There was a man going down the line of trucks and looking in the cabs, she was far enough over on the shoulder that she’d been able to watch him go into the last five trucks. He didn’t appear to be on alert, like he was looking for somebody, more likely something. But her cab was not big enough that she would be able to hide.
“Come on, find what you’re looking for,” she said through gritted teeth. She watched raptly as he stepped up on to the truck two spots ahead of her. He was in for about a minute, then jumped down, heading to the one right before hers.
“Shit, shit, shit.” Azile couldn’t take the chance that he actually found what he needed in that next truck. The view ahead and behind, from what she could tell, seemed mostly unobstructed, there were men about but they were mostly distracted talking with each other. She figured she could slip out the driver’s side, cross the street and hide in the woods until that night when she would either get back in her cab and wait one more night for Mike or hunt down Eliza herself. Within moments, she was about to get to find both, although not on her terms and not even remotely how she would have planned it.
She opened the door as quietly as possible and climbed down, her left foot touching the pavement when she heard, “Well, well, what do we have here? A stowaway?”
She turned to see the trucker heading her way, his face split with a lascivious grin.
“Damn blind spot,” she said softly. “I’m not a stowaway, this is my rig.” She held herself high, trying to sound convincing over her fear.
The man faltered for a moment, but recovered. “There’s no women on this haul.”
“I was a last second addition, Kong needed someone to haul more zombies,” Azile, said, sounding convincing even to herself.
“I’m still not convinced, there would have been talk of a woman…especially one that looked like you.”
“Fine, let’s go talk to Kong about it,” she bluffed.
He looked like he might walk away. “Fine, I needed to talk to him anyway.”
Azile looked over to the tree line, wondering if she should make a run for it, that was when she saw Mike looking back at her. She didn’t want to bring the fight to him. “Let’s go.” Azile waited until this man caught up so that he could lead. She saw the look of concern Mike displayed as he watched her walk down the roadway.
***
“Where are they going?” Tracy asked me.
“Brunch,” BT said.
“Nice timing,” I told him.
“Thanks, I’ve been working on it. Do we save her now?” he asked.
“That would be the wisest course of action,” I told him.
“I forgot how much fun we have together,” Tracy said sarcastically.
“Yeah just a barrel of fucking laughs, let’s go,” I said, pushing through the scrub brush. We were parallel to Azile, but we couldn’t keep up with their unencumbered movement, add to that we had to have a factor of stealth in our travels. “Next place we live is not going to have bushes,” I said, pissed off as I ripped through the barbs of another bush.
“Thorn or bullets?” BT asked, referring to how if we did not have cover we would be out in the open.
“Why are you spoiling my bitching session?” I asked.
The further Azile and the trucker walked down the road the more men they encountered. I was running out of ideas, although I guess that’s not entirely accurate, running out of ideas would imply that I had some in the first place. The duo had stopped and the big man was moving quickly towards them talking animatedly. We were able to get alongside as they had as of yet not moved away, although it was easy to see that Azile’s ruse had come to an abrupt end.
“This sucks,” I said as I slowly stood from my crouching position, rifle at the ready. We would be able to do some serious damage before they knew what hit them. I could feel Tracy and BT rise next to me, next thing I knew
