"Them?" he said confused.
"The fucking monsters. Is that them?"
"Yeah. I guess that is them. Now can you move thistruck or what?"
The driver looked down at him as if he were a piece ofgum stuck to one of his tires. Without saying a word, he sat back in thedriver's seat of his truck and slammed the door shut. The hiss of air brakesbeing released was the only warning that Dustin had before the truck blastedinto gear, smashing into the sedan in front of him. In a few seconds, the truckwas motoring down the emergency lane, taking off rearview mirrors and paintwith each car it passed.
Finally, a stroke of common sense. Dustin ran back to hiscar, dodging another vehicle that was eager to follow the truck's example. Hewas too tired and nervous to even yell anything at the driver. When he got backinto the car, Suzy was in tears. Dustin checked his rearview. He could see thehorde approaching the first set of cars that were still stuck on the on-ramp...the ones who had decided to play by the rules. He watched as the first of thecreatures shattered the glass of the car and pulled its occupants outscreaming. He tried to start the car.
Only it didn't start. It just made a sick wheezing noiseas he clamped down on the clutch and turned the key. The cars behind him werehonking furiously.
"Start it! Start the car!" Suzy yelled.
"What do you think I'm trying to do?" he yelledback. He looked in the rearview mirror to see that the horde was coming closer.Some people were getting out of their cars, running up the street. He saw onewoman with a baby in her arms fall to the ground. The people behind her didn'tstop.
"Start the car!"
Dustin didn't bother to respond. On the fourth try, thecar finally started up, and they lurched to a crawl as people were floodingaround his car. Up ahead, he saw something he didn't want to see. Another crowdof humanity was fleeing in their direction, which could only mean there weremore coming from up the highway.
"I have to get out of here!" Suzy yelled.
Dustin could only inch ahead a few car lengths before hehad to stop completely. Up ahead, he saw the semi-truck stopped in its tracks,the driver hanging out the door and firing his shotgun at whoever came close,running or not. All hope of escape was blocked. Before he could formulate aplan, Suzy threw open her door and bolted from the car, screaming, "I'mnot going to die here!"
Dustin threw the car into park and was about to get outto chase after Suzy when one of the creatures dove into the door that Suzy hadleft open.
With the little space left available to him, Dustin wasable to get his baseball bat up between himself and the creature that wasattacking him. Cold, clammy hands clawed at his face, and he screamed as one ofthe icy fingers gouged his eye. Behind him, he heard broken glass. Hopes of abrave stranger pulling him out of the car danced in his head for a briefsecond, until he felt another set of chilly hands wrap around his throat. Hisscreaming stopped, and he couldn't breathe.
No matter how hard he wanted to scream, he couldn't. Thevice grip hands kept him from doing so, even when the creature behind him bitoff his ear. He could feel the blood running down the side of his head. He wasblinded with pain, and he finally managed to let out a scream when the creaturehe was battling managed to hook his fingers into his eye socket and pull hiseye out. There would be no escape.
Chapter 41: The New Katie
Katie pulled the door open. As fast as she could, whilethey were still trying to respond, she placed the gun to their heads and pulledthe trigger. They dropped. The bangs were loud. By the fourth one, she could nolonger hear them, and the front of the house was clear. More people were headedher way, but she no longer cared if they were alive, dead, or somewhere inbetween.
She flung the door to the bedroom closed and leaned withher back against it while she re-loaded her gun. It was hers now. By the simpleact of pulling the trigger and splattering her family's brains on the floor ofthe old man's bedroom she had claimed it for eternity. Even if someone managedto pry the gun from her cold, dead fingers, it would always be hers. She smiledat the old man on the bed. Fred Walker would walk no more. In the end, thedecision had been easy for him. The bite. It had to be the bite the radio said.He had wanted to die.
What was more difficult was her own decision. With afamily dead, and more than a handful murdered by herself alone, she really hadno reason to go on. But she did. She wasn't acting on instinct; she wasconscious of her decision.
Her first stop would be back home, if there was a home togo to. But first, she had to make it there. She pulled the door open to findanother one walking through the front door. She looked very familiar, althoughher hair was stringy and matted with dirt and part of her cheek was missing,exposing her teeth. The old her would have hesitated, perhaps even tried totalk some sense into the woman.
The new her pulled the trigger and barely winced at thebooming echo as that somewhat familiar face turned into a mass of red flesh andbone fragments. She stepped over the recent addition to her corpse collectionand made her way down the street.
The sun was up. It was a new day, and her nostrils werefilled with gun smoke. She strolled down the street, her bare feet welcomingthe cool morning asphalt. Though it seemed like she had run miles last night,she was actually only a block down the road from Fred Walker's now lifelessabode.
There were people in the
