suburban started slamming into the walking bodies that closed in after Jake passed, her first instinct was to slow down. Instead she pressed her foot down on the gas pedal and followed Becka into the maelstrom.
The thumping sounds as she hit the bodies was accompanied by the sounds of breaking glass and twisting metal as her headlight and grill were shattered and both side view mirrors were torn off. A quick look into the rear view mirror showed her that Bob was following her but was a little to the left behind her. Some of his shotgun toting teens were standing up and firing over the cab, as Bob went over a body the bump was enough to toss one of the hapless teens out of the truck and into the mob where he disappeared screaming.
Becka was still up, somehow, she was standing on the motorcycle pegs, blood running down her right leg, zombies grabbing at her much too late, she was a speed demon whose way was cleared by the heavy truck ahead of her. Unfortunately she was too close, as the truck slammed into the cars pulled in front of them it slowed down fast and Becka had to swerve to avoid it. There were less zombies on the road at this point and she was able to thread her way through the mob until she came to the rails on the side of the road. The girl spun sideways and up onto the rail at an angle, then she accelerated and ramped the motorcycle up and over it. For a second she was framed by air, an instant snapshot in time that Dora would always remember, the girl was perfectly upright and looked like a professional stadium rider going over a jump on a Saturday night and then she too was gone over the side.
The cars blocking the road ahead of them had been hidden there unseen from the side Dora's group had started on. Jake's truck didn't slow and he hit them where they were pulled together, right where the front bumpers touched. The cars, for all of their weight, did not have anything on the heavy military truck. When he hit Jake turned right, hoping to clear one of the vehicles out of the way for the buses, the car on the left spun sideways and almost entirely off of the road. The one on the right was the one Jake was trying to force completely off of the road, the truck's bumper crumpled and was torn off, it rolled underneath, pulling the radiator down as it went. The hood flew up into the windshield, shattering the glass, but not falling away, it remained there blocking Jake's vision.
About the same time Jake lost all ability to steer the truck, something gave inside and the steering wheel just turned uselessly from side to side. He felt both vehicles hit the shoulder of the road, then the truck started to flip slowly, ass end over front and he was in a strange free fall, instinctively he grabbed for the blood in the cooler, snagging it as the truck slowly spun around him. He twisted around in mid-air and planted his feet against the steering wheel, just before the truck landed on the cab, he pushed himself out into the daylight. He hit hard and rolled to the bottom of the embankment, through a chain link fence and onto a small paved road beyond. Finally he came to a stop against, of all things, a stop sign.
Looking up he could still hear the zombies roaring in his mind and he saw the tops of the buses going by through the hole he had made in the mob. The convoy didn't stop for him. He pulled open the cooler as he watched it recede into the distance, wondering how he would catch up. Jake had half of the pouch of blood gone when he was aware of another noise, a puttering of a small engine, looking over he saw the girl on her motorcycle under the bridge, she turned from scanning the river then pulled around to him.
'Need a ride?' Becka asked him.
He pointed at her leg, 'Clean that up. I only got so much will power, girl.' then turned away from her to finish the other pouch of blood. When he looked back he saw she was off the motorcycle by the side of the road, using a plastic bag to wipe blood off of her leg, she grabbed a piece of paper off of the ground and shoved it into the hole in her pants, stemming the flow of blood.
'You know you could have stayed in the truck with Dora?'
'I saw Seth go over, I knew they wouldn't stop. I had to be sure.'
'Are you sure?'
Becka looked at the height of the bridge, then at the distance to the river, she shook her head, 'No, I am pretty sure, but not a hundred percent. You ready?'
Back on the road Dora saw Jake slam a hole through the cars blocking the way, she practically ran into Jake's truck as he veered right in front of her, then both vehicles were off the road tumbling down the steep embankment to the flat land below.
'Fuck.' she was fairly sure Jake had survived, but couldn't stop to check. Steve was still screaming into the radio, something about supers on the last bus and that Leon's pickup was lost. The caravan burst through the main mob of shamblers and Dora was slowing down to stop when the walkie-talkie chattered to life again, 'Don't slow down! They have other vehicles and are in pursuit!'
'What can I do to help?' Dora called out, she glanced to her side mirrors to get a better view of what was going on behind her then cursed as she realized both of them had been torn off.
'Drop back with the lead trucks, shoot the fast zombies off of the rear bus.' said Steve, 'Did the motorcycles make it? Do we have anyone scouting ahead?'
'Did you really think we would at this point?' said Dora looking around, hoping that Becka or even Jake in his truck would miraculously come zooming forward.
'Shit.' said Steve, his transmission was accompanied by gunfire both through the walkie-talkie and outside the windows of the suburban.
'Bob?' Dora called out.
'Here, what do you want me to do?'
Good man, thought Dora, 'You need to scout for the buses, do your best not to lead us into any pile ups and keep us moving. I am dropping back to help get the scum off the last bus. Clear?'
'Yes. I will do my best Dora.'
'I know you will.' privately she hoped it would be good enough. The section of highway they were on was still clear, Dora swung right and then left cutting across both lanes of traffic and forcing Bob and the first bus to slow momentarily as she wrestled the suburban into u-turn. She was just accelerating when the second bus passed her and she continued to speed up heading back the way she had come when the third bus with Steve's truck following closely behind it passed. Steve's pickup bed was empty, the only person still firing was leaning out the side window of the truck. Dora saw movement from the window of the extended cab as someone from inside the truck was trying to crawl into the pickup bed. Behind the truck came a motley assortment of vehicles, all filled with zombies trying to catch up to the trailing bus. On the bus itself Dora saw a wild melee going on as the people there fought the boarders, trying to knock the zeds off onto the highway. Dora could not be sure, but she thought she caught sight of a little white blur fighting in the back as she passed, it looked like one of the twins was on board and rampaging.
'Dora! What the fuck are you doing?' Steve yelled a moment after they passed.
Dora aimed her truck straight at the middle of the oncoming pack, Willy leaned out of the window, firing his shotgun and screaming curses incoherently in a manner that would have made a sailor cringe. Beth and Cliff were cowering in the back seat, not firing at all and Dora smiled into the rear view mirror at them, saying, 'Don't worry, I have a plan!'
She looked forward to see that the oncoming vehicle, an old black Toyota four by four was barreling right at her, screaming Dora pressed her foot to the gas pedal and the suburban lunged forward.
Willy screamed and fired his shotgun at the driver of the Toyota, the oncoming truck didn't have a windshield to deflect the shot and it took the zombie right below the jaw. From experience Dora knew it was probably not a killing shot, however it did disrupt the zombies ability to control the vehicle and he swerved sharply into the Ford Probe that was next to him, both vehicles turned into the median. Dora steered the suburban towards the hole they created and brushed sides with a Caliber as she broke through the zombie vehicles. The jolt from sliding alongside the other vehicle slowed her suburban down and she used this to jerk it around sideways.
Dora fought for control and started pumping the brakes as the truck started to tip over onto the pavement. She turned into the roll and managed to prevent it from rolling over, but the suburban tilted up at an angle on two wheels for a good thirty feet of pavement before Dora brought the vehicle to a halt. Dora's suburban ended up at a dead stop, sideways to the lanes of traffic and pointed with its nose at the median.
Dora laughed and looked into the back seat at the two teens there, Cliff's face was almost white and Beth was bent over trying to find something on the floor, she came up a moment later with her shotgun and started loading it out of reflex while she gave Dora a frightened stare. Beside Dora, Willy was whooping with delight, 'Did you see how I shot that one? I shot him and he rolled over and took that blue car with him!'
