One eye ahead, the other watching the Park with the high fence and massive concrete slabs the military had dropped in place to ward off the dead flash past her, she readied herself for the hard turn onto Cottage Grove. Then, a short sprint, and they were home free.
She was already turning the wheel when she saw the semi blocking the road. Hauling hard, she hit the brake, skidding wildly as it passed in front of her. The road was blocked, and she felt the car listing, the tires leaving the road on the passenger side. They were going to flip, this close to making it, because once again, she'd failed to anticipate the path ahead.
She held the wheel tight as the Camaro spun, dropping the gearshift, and got ready to hit the gas, just in case. Behind her, York reached across, grasping Angel, and pulling with all his might as she yelped. The shift in weight was just enough, dropping the tires back on the asphalt as Bunny gunned the engine and roared ahead.
"Hang a right on University," Tanner barked.
She nodded, way ahead of him. The others batted away the dead as she drove, involuntarily ducking as the Blackhawk almost sat on the roof, coming over them so low shell casings from the mini-gun inside the craft bounced off the hood of the car, steaming as they passed Bunny and landed in the backseat at Lucy's feet.
She yelped as Bunny spun the car onto University, pounding forward. Her heart raced with the engine as warning lights begin to go red across the dash. She was close, but her baby was close to its last, and she silently asked it to give her just a little more.
The road ahead was harrowing still, the labyrinth created by the apocalyptic rise of the hungry dead a deathtrap for anyone who wasn't ready to give it all. Bunny gunned the dying engine, egging the car on, so close now she could taste it. She had to taste it, because people were putting their lives in her hands to deliver them to safety.
She watched the street signs closely, counting down to the turn she had to make, no matter what. As it drew closer, Tanner slammed his last magazine into his rifle and settled himself for the final run. York took Lucy's hand and smiled at her, getting one back. Angel gripped the back of Bunny's seat, machete at the ready.
Bunny spun the car onto East 55th, and immediately hit the brakes. Ahead, between them and the Promised Land, was a solid wall of the dead. To get there, they would have to drive through them, and there was no other way now as the dash glowed red and steam rolled from under the battered hood. This was the only way, and it was all but certain to end in tragedy.
"Let's do it," Tanner said.
"Rock on," Angel smiled.
"Come too far to stop now," York offered.
"We believe in you," Lucy comforted.
Bunny looked at each of them in turn. In a few hours’ time, they had become her reason for living, and worth dying for. It was all she had left, and she smiled at them, a silent promise that they would be delivered to safety. It was all she had left to give.
She looked at the road ahead and after a moment, spotted her way in. Leaning down, she whispered softly to the red lights on the dash, "Just a little more, then we can rest, babe. Do this for me, one last thing."
Shifting gears, Bunny floored the gas, racing ahead. Each shift of the level ran the speedometer higher as she closed on her goal. Overhead, the Blackhawk went to work, making her a road to drive as she drifted the car to the right, aiming not for the gate, but the empty, abandoned car hauler across the street from it.
"Buckle up," Bunny bellowed, "This is gonna get bumpy!"
Everyone grabbed something as she hit the tail of the hauler, racing up it as fast the Camaro could go. The chopper swerved away as they reached the end, and the car went airborne.
Chapter Fifteen
ONCE UPON A TIME, there was a little girl named Bunny. Like all little girls, there were certain things Bunny liked, and certain things she didn't like. She liked pretty dresses, and ponies, and dolls. Like all daughters of wealthy parents, she knew no shortage of any of these things and in her 6-year-old mind, assumed that to be the way the world was.
Bunny, a pretty young thing with pigtails and a bright smile, went through life believing the days ahead of her would be fancy tea parties, riding horses, and playing dress-up with her mother. That there was any other world out there never crossed her mind.
And why would it? She lived in a nice house, was attended to by doting servants, and had loving parents who never failed to find time to spend with her. She couldn't see the cracks in their smiles, or the disdain in their eyes. To her, the world was a place full of love and joy.
As a child, Bunny looked at the world through a rainbow lens, where nothing bad ever happened. Magic was real, wishes came true, and smiles cured even the saddest person. As a child, she was oblivious to the great pains everyone around her went to in order to support this view.
Dreams end, however. Sometimes slowly, over the years, as children grow into adults, and discover the world isn’t the way they believed it to be, the illusion of a simple
