'That really doesn't do anything dear.' Tiller said as he snapped Paige's head back with a series of sharp jabs. Finally he was able to land a full force punch on her jaw that shoved the young woman up against the dash. Using one cowboy booted heel Tiller kicked her in the breast out onto the hood of the still moving truck.
Steve had seen the frantic boxing match and tried to help, however he was caught up in his seat belt and held to the bench seat, which was broken off of its moorings and floating free inside the truck. He realized that he could not steer the truck from where he was nor could he reach the pedals to stomp on the brakes to slow the vehicle down. When Paige hit the hood Steve finally got a grip on the steering wheel. Just in time he steered the truck around another stalled car, as Tiller picked himself up Steve pulled a pistol off of his belt and pointed it right at the man. Tiller swiped his hand to one side, causing the gun to discharge into the passenger door. As Steve brought the gun around again Tiller punched him hard in the neck, pushing the other man against the driver's door causing it to pop open from the force. Steve managed to grab the steering wheel, which caused the truck to swerve sharply, but saved him from hitting the pavement. Tiller raised his hand to chop at Steve's hand and was tackled by Paige who flew off the hood at him. The two of them ended up in the back of the pickup truck with Paige closer to the rear of the truck. The wonder twin was just pulling herself up off of the bed, and croaked out 'Jim Tiller.'
Tiller lurched for Paige, who ducked at the last second, then raised up, trying to toss Tiller out of the vehicle. Her ploy worked, Tiller was going over the back of the tailgate, as he flew by he reached out his hand and grasped that of the zombie girls who was laying there, both of them ended up on the pavement rolling as the truck continued slowly away. Paige grabbed the shotgun and fired at the zombies as Tiller stood up, her shots did not have any noticeable affect and she had to stop to reload the gun. Inside the cab Steve had one hand on his neck, trying to get air, and the other on the steering wheel to avoid colliding with anything not moving on the highway. He had pulled himself fully into the truck again and once he had cleared the last foreseeable piece of junk in the road he lowered himself down and pressed the brake pedal with one hand, bringing the truck to a stop.
'Steve, you okay?' Paige asked.
He motioned at his neck; he was still having a hard time breathing and couldn't talk.
'Can you breathe?'
Steve shook his head as the world started to go dim.
Seeing him collapse Paige hopped out of the truck and swung open the driver's side door. She pulled Steve out and laid him down on the pavement, then raised his chin, as if she were going to do cardio-pulmonary- resuscitation on him, by then he was unconscious.
'Don't you die on me! Don't you die!' Paige said, lowering her lips to the man's mouth. She pushed air into his lungs, but it was like blowing up a small balloon, the air was constricted and would not flow evenly passed the swelling in his throat. However after three or four blows some air had gotten in, enough to cause Steve to moan and thrash with his arms. As Paige was breathing in a fourth time Steve started to throw up.
'Oh shit!' said Paige as some of the vomit landed on her face and one hand. 'Goddamn it, where's Mary when you need her?'
Steve's vomit turned into a long, low belch and Paige wiped his mouth off and breathed in again. The sour, acidic taste made her want to throw up too, but she kept at it until the other buses had backed up to her and Mary came to her aid. After a few more minutes Mary performed an emergency tracheotomy right on the road, inserting a clear plastic pipe into Steve's airway. Steve's recovery was remarkably fast once he could breathe again, and though he was clearly in pain, he was climbing to his feet when the third bus, escorted by Becka on her beat up motorcycle, drove up. Dora was driving and she swung up alongside of the group on the road and opened the door, calling out 'Anyone need a ride?'
Chapter 43
The caravan was reorganized with Dora taking over the third bus. The pickups that had been between the buses were moved so that there were now two in front and two behind to cover the rear. Becka still had her motorcycle to help scout the way in front when it was needed. Dora also made sure that the piles of supplies and luggage were moved around to make it easier to get people to the rear of the bus in case it was needed. Paige was going to be sitting at the back to support the two pickups behind them, she was not alone, a man named Chris had volunteered to help protect the rear bus after the group realized more help was needed. They were all waiting to board the vehicles now and get underway, but before they did so they looked towards Dora and the other council members who had gathered around where Steve was.
Standing Dora addressed the crowd, 'We knew this was going to be hard. We knew not everyone was going to make it. The hardest part should be behind us. Did any of you think the farmers would let the cattle go willingly? I didn't. Perhaps I should have explained this better before we left. I think we have done fine so far, we broke through and we crippled the group of super zombies that were imprisoning us. One of the wonder twins is dead. I killed her myself. Look back there.' Dora pointed to a column of smoke back the way they had come, her finger, however moved further down towards the three cars idling by the side of the road. 'That is all that is left of the zombies, we plowed through them with the bus I was on, I don't think I disabled any of them, but I could see there were only about a half dozen of them left. That means we have killed super zombies on a one for one basis with the people we've lost so far. Hopefully they will be smart enough to go find easier targets, but if not we will kill them all. We lost Jake, he was a good help, but got hurt too badly to come with us any further. However, he told us where to go, so let's do this. We've got to travel less than a hundred miles and we have ten hours of daylight left, we can do this today and be safe tonight. Is everyone ready?' Dora didn't give them a chance to say 'no' she just nodded and said, 'Good, let's go!'
Throughout her speech gunshots had been going off to eliminate the slow zombies that got too close, now the gunfire stopped as people got down off the roofs of the buses where they had been keeping watch and prepared to leave. Moments later a few more shots rang out from inside of the buses to kill any zombies that had gotten too close again during the pause in firing.
Dora shut the door to the bus and while waiting for the vehicles in front of her to start moving she turned to her passengers, 'Okay, that speech was all well and good, now here is your little motivational moment. The last bus is going to be hit, and hit hard, we know that, most of you know that and if any of you want to run or cry or piss yourselves that is okay, so long as you are running towards any zombies who get onto this bus, are crying while you fire your fucking guns and are pissing yourselves while you bash the motherfuckers over the head with your bare fists if you have to. Really people, what Paige told me about how you acted before is pathetic. Do you want to live or die? Those of you from the other buses are excepted of course, but anyone on this bus, they fight or they walk. Got it?' The people nodded slowly. 'Good, I know I can count on you. Now the back door is broken, we got it held shut with baling wire and duct tape, but it is a weak point, if Paige or Chris need help those of you sitting in the back three rows have to go help them. If you don't I will and I will kick all of your asses down the aisle ahead of me to get there.' Dora turned to a teenaged girl with rifle who was sitting directly behind the driver's seat and pointed at her, 'You! What is your name?'
'Jamie.'
'Good. I like that name. Everyone, meet Jamie. She is our backup bus driver. Jamie, can you tell me how much experience you have driving a bus?'
The girl flushed and shook her head, 'I…I've never driven before. I am only fifteen, I don't even have a license.'
'And there you have it folks, a few words from our back up bus driver. Jamie will be taking over for me if I have to deal with any problems on this bus. Now do any of us want to see that happen?' Everyone shook their head or said 'no'. 'I don't want to see that happen either. Time to go. Jamie?'
'Yeah?'
'I mean it, you're it. If I have to deal with any problems I will be turning this over to you, so you better watch what I do. And don't worry girl.'
'Why?'
