A half a block later the road was impassable with cars piled up in a steaming mass of metal. I put us in reverse,but stopped when Lana touched my shoulder. “Look.”
A woman stood on a balcony waving a white shirt. Behind her, back lit by lights inside, we saw figures pressed against French doors. The glass wouldn’t hold forever, not if they figured out they could break it and go right through. The woman saw us and her mouth moved frantically as if she were screaming for us to help her.
“Oh god.” Lana twisted in her seat. “They’re coming.” Her eyes go to mine, pleading, terrified. “We have to help her.”
“We can’t. How?” I couldn’t see how, not without putting ourselves in danger. I could pull the car up and she could jump down to the roof, but she’d probably break something, or roll off into the freaks that were starting to mass below. “How?” I whispered as behind the woman, the glass cracked. I saw the crawling fault line as it spread out from the arm of one of them. The woman’s head whipped around and then she was scrambling over the railing to hang from it. Without a thought, I gunned our vehicle and jumped the curb, pulling us as close to directly under her as I could. I honked.
Seconds later there was a thud and a scream. I rolled my window down an inch and yelled, “Hang on! They’re everywhere. I’ll drive carefully but I need to get us away from them before we can let you in.”
“Okay!” the woman yelled, her voice high and thready with pain. The car had a roof rack, so I hoped she could use the bars to hang on as we jounced back down to the street and plowed—slowly—through the freaks that surrounded us. There weren’t enough of them to stop the car, at least not yet, and I forced myself not to look in the rear view.
“We have to stop,” Lana said in a small voice.
“Not yet.” They were everywhere, standing on porches, on the sidewalks. The woman wouldn’t have a chance to get in without getting grabbed and there was no way in hell I’d risk Lana for a stranger. “Soon. I promise.”
I wasn’t sure when soon would come, but I had to hope, for Lana’s sake, if not for the poor woman on top, that we’d get her safely inside.
What if she was bitten? I didn’t want a repeat of April.
At the next intersection, I slowed. “Anyone? Anything? Lana?”
She swiveled her head all directions, as I did. “Nothing. Okay one, way down the block.”
I opened my door and straightened to see the woman’s face inches from mine. I leaped back, heart thudding wildly, ready to hit her but she wasn’t crazed, just terrified. “Can you get down?”
She nodded, her tear-streaked face waxy in the streetlights. “I think I twisted my ankle. Or broke it. It hurts.”
“Swing your legs over and I’ll ease you down. Do it quick.” I glanced over my shoulder and saw that one of them was making its way toward us, singing a nightmare version of the Smurf song. “Hurry,” I snapped, and she dropped, crying out when her foot smacked concrete. I jerked open the back door and stuffed her in, slamming it before she had a chance to do more than cry out.
I hit the locks and got it into gear before the thing slapped at the back window. “Fuck off, asswipe.”
Lana was leaning over the seat to check on the woman’s ankle. “Just twisted, I think. No protruding bones, anyway. Do you have any bites?”
The woman shook her head, her dark brown eyes haunted. “Not me. My boyfriend. He—he let a couple in who were being chased. They said they was running from those monsters. Said they’d stay for just a bit. Then one of them just started seizing. Jerking around, foaming at the mouth. Darius, he went to put his wallet in they mouth and that’s when he got bit.” Her sob cut through me. “My little boy, he’s … he’s four. He got bit too. He got bit too and he … and he—” Her face went into her hands and she cried and cried.
Dread, sorrow, horror all knotted up in the pit of my stomach. I couldn’t imagine losing a kid, period, and to lose one in such a horrific fashion …
I wanted to talk to the boys. Now. But I kept my hands on the wheel and my eyes on the road, knowing that my inattention could cost us so much. Anyway, their text had said they were locked up tight. They were fine. We just had to get to them and if we ever managed to get out of this damned city, we’d be doing all right.
Maybe it wasn’t as bad in the rest of the country. Maybe the rural areas weren’t as hard hit. It could be a matter of escaping Omaha and then we’d be golden.
God, I hoped that was true. I hoped it with every fiber of my being as we kept driving into the terror-filled unknown.
6
Then
It took us another hour to make it fifteen blocks and I was about to suggest we find a place to hole up for the night when Lana spotted the emergency lights. “Over there! Police, I think.”
It was two in the morning and my eyes were gritty with the lack of sleep. Our passenger hadn’t said much since she’d spun out her tale of sorrow. Her grief had filled the silence as we navigated the dangerous roads, then wet sobs, then nothing. She wasn’t asleep, I could tell that from brief glances in the rear view, but she wasn’t exactly with us either. Her heart and attention had been left behind with her dead son and boyfriend.
The road was clear, though cars were piled up in front of the blockade of emergency vehicles and blue
