“That's Roosevelt!” Mary said to the group before heading down the steps to greet the shirtless man.
“Oh my, what happened to you, poor thing?” Mary said as she used her hand towel to dab the sweat off his muscled up dark skin.
“You ok Miss Mary? You’re looking at me like I’m a juicy steak or something.” Roosevelt said, confused with the old woman.
“Oh yeah honey, I’m just fine.” She said in a breathy voice.
“What’s going on?” A man asked as he ran up next to Roosevelt.
“Horde trapped us at the truck stop. I barely got this piece of crap back here. We need to go help Johnny and Bud. They're both on top of the truck stop and Johnny has a bullet wound that needs to be looked at.” Roosevelt explained, shivering from the cold.
“Mary go grab him a shirt while we get everyone together and ready to go.” The man said.
“Alright Dwight don’t be so damn bossy!’ Mary replied in an annoyed tone. She quickly turned and stormed off back to the house. Dwight chuckled.
“I think Miss Mary is sweet on you.” Roosevelt looked at Dwight in horror at the thought of the extremely old white woman hitting on him.
“No, she's just super nice.” Roosevelt said, not totally convinced himself. Dwight chuckled again.
“Keep telling yourself that.” He said as more and more men ran up to the truck.
“Anyone else here know how to drive that stupid thing?” Roosevelt asked, pushing Mary far from his mind.
“I can.” Dwight replied before turning to address the rest of the men. Mary came back out with a black pocket tee shirt and handed it to Roosevelt with a wink and then turned to head back inside out of the cold.
“Alright guys, Johnny and Bud are trapped on top of Richey’s. There's a horde out there that needs some Sweetwater love! Load up in the trailer and I’ll drive us back down there to kick some zombie ass!” Dwight said, getting a cheer from the crowd of men. Seconds later, all the men were piling into the semi’s trailer while Dwight and Roosevelt climbed into the cab.
“Stinks in here.” Dwight said, waving a hand in front of his face.
“There was an extremely overweight zed in here when I got the truck. Had to kill it and toss it out before heading back here.” Roosevelt said. Dwight looked in his side mirror to see the last of the men climb into the truck. They had locked the doors open so they could jump out and start killing zeds immediately. Dwight put the truck in reverse and started backing down the road like an expert until reaching a wide-open field where he spun the wheel and guided the trailer into the tall yellow weeds. After turning the truck around Dwight quickly had the truck up to fifty miles an hour, cruising down the road. When he spotted the first signs of the horde they were barely out of the town. The horde was sprinting down the road toward the semi and the town, so Dwight slowed the truck, stopping in the middle of the road. Men jumped out by the pairs and darted to the front and began opening fire on the horde. Automatic gunfire filled the crisp winter air, sounding like a wintertime war zone. Zeds fell by the dozens, lifeless for a second and final time in the middle of the road as more and more of the men ran forward to help hold the advancing monsters back.
“Fall back!” Dwight screamed as the horde pushed on by the hundreds. There were just entirely too many for the hundred or so men to hold off. Roosevelt snatched an AK-47 from one of the men's hands that had turned to run and continued firing on the advancing zeds until the bolt locked back. Roosevelt turned and darted back to the cab of the truck and climbed in next to Dwight as he waited for his men to get in the trailer, but it was too late. The horde was full of sprinting monsters and they were on his men in a flash. Screams of terror and pain filled the air as the zeds tore into Dwight's men, biting anything they could get their teeth on.
“Get in the damn trailer!” Dwight screamed as he watched his fellow townsmen being eaten alive. Blood and guts were strewn all over the pavement as more of the zeds rushed in to feast on the human smorgasbord.
“To hell with this!” He said, firing up the big engine and jamming into gear. He aimed the truck at the advancing horde of monsters slamming into at least thirty of them. The front row of the zeds were crushed by the impact causing the skin on most of their faces to tear away in bloody chunks from the constant pressure of the front grill of the truck. The rest were crushed by the sheer weight of the truck rolling over their bodies as they fell from the impact. Dwight threw the truck into reverse and backed up into another large group of the dead, the bottom of the trailer catching a line of the zeds and cutting them in half at the waist.
“You need to lead them away from the town!” Roosevelt said over the screaming engine. Dwight looked over at him as he slammed into another group piled up on top of some of his men that had already been taken down earlier. The coppery smell of blood filled the air as Dwight backed up and pulled forward over countless bodies whether they were his men that were already dead or not. He slammed the truck into fourth gear and gunned the engine, but the road was so covered in gore that the tires couldn’t catch traction. Smoke began to roll from the tires as the blood on the pavement heated up and started to mix with the melting rubber of the tires giving the air a disgusting stench. The tires
