“Dad?” Buck shook his dad’s leg. “Dad, open your eyes.”
Skeeter came up and placed a shaky hand on his shoulder. “We can stay. Just lock the doors, right?”
Buck shook his head. “No, he’s right.” He picked up Bob’s bag and handed it to her. Pulling the 9mm from his dad’s waistband, Buck tucked it into his own. “We gotta move. Now!” Buck went to the door and cracked it open. He glanced down the rear of the RV and didn’t see any movement. He pushed the wrecked door open and helped Skeeter down.
Pulling Skeeter over to the line of cars, the two slipped between the parked cars and began making their way down the line, crouched low and staying below the line of site. It didn’t take long for the screams and sound of feet crunching in the gravel to catch up to their ears, then the pounding on the side of the RV. Buck tried not to think about his dad trapped inside, or the fact that it was his errant shot with the crossbow that left him in the condition he was in.
He continued to lead Skeeter down the hill and away from the crazed zombies beating on the RV and screaming at the top of their lungs.
Hatcher stood on the ladder just feet above the three figures below him. He lined up each one with his pistol and easily removed the top of their skull with single shots. As the last one fell to the ground, body twitching in the dirt, he dropped to the roof of the shack and climbed down to the ATV waiting below. As expected, Mitch had left his damaged unit behind.
Hatcher checked the fuel level and knew he couldn’t go the long way around. He’d simply have to go back the way they came and hope to make it back to the ranger station. He sighed and straddled the ATV. Switching it on, he knew this was one ride he really wasn’t looking forward to.
Hatcher pulled his radio and keyed it. “Anybody listening out there?”
He stared into the sky and sighed. He’d already tried the more powerful radio in the tower and received no reply, what did he think would happen with a handheld?
“If anybody is listening, you need to find your way back to the station. The military are on their way and they won’t be taking prisoners,” he said, his throat tightening. “Does anybody read me?” He waited a moment and tapped the radio against his forehead. “Dammit,” he cursed to himself.
He turned the wobbly wheeled ATV around and began the trek back down the steep, rocky road. Hatcher let the engine act as a brake as the knobby tires slid through the sharp rocks. When he hit the bottom of the fire road, he turned and accelerated, feeling the shake and wobble as the ATV fought him. Hatcher suddenly realized the extent of Mitch’s strength to be able to handle the warped vehicle and make it appear to be more capable.
He slowed the vehicle enough to where the vibration was more tolerable and noted that, at the rate he was travelling, the military would most probably be done and left before he made it back. Hatcher gritted his teeth and thumbed the accelerator again. Pushing the vehicle to its limit, he felt his shoulders take the brunt of the shaking as the speed increased. He crested a small hill and felt the ATV pick up more speed on the downhill side, incredibly, smoothing out the shake as the speed increased.
Hatcher lowered himself on the machine to decrease the wind resistance, wishing for the first time that the machine was built for speed rather than durability.
He felt the brisk night air bite at his eyes as he shot across the dirt roads, and the sting of dust and small insects sent cold tears streaming across his face. Keeping the engine revved and his full attention on staying upright, he pushed both himself and the ATV to cover as much ground as possible in as short a time as he could. He was determined to reach the ranger station and a telephone. If nobody would answer the radio when he called for help, perhaps they would answer a direct call.
Hatcher fought to keep his eyes open as the stinging caused him to squint. He couldn’t be certain, but he thought he saw dark figures sprinting about on either side of him in the darkness of the trees. None had ventured out in front of him, nor made their presence known by screaming loud enough to be heard over the engine’s howl, but he was almost certain they weren’t figments of an overactive imagination.
He slid the ATV around a sharp curve and nearly flipped the machine, having come up on two wheels, but with a creative application of brakes and then accelerator, he righted the little off-road machine and spun gravel as he shot off in the direction of the station once more. The cold mountain air chilled his face and hands as he pushed both man and machine to their limits and he breathed a slight sigh of relief when he recognized the wide arc of road leading up to the last long hill before the downhill run to the station.
Hatcher leaned farther across the handlebars and mashed the accelerator wide open, the engine whining in protest as the ATV climbed the hill for home. Daniel knew he didn’t have much farther to go when something darted across the road ahead of him. It was just beyond the reach of the ATV’s headlight, and he nearly released the accelerator due to being startled. Instead, he adjusted his grip and settled
