Dante and Tate shared a look, nodding in agreement.
“Go ahead and take you a couple boxes of each,” Tate said. “We’ll manage.”
Jack nodded in appreciation and grabbed four boxes. He shifted from foot to foot and then lowered his voice. “For the love of god, don’t tell my wife what I’m about to tell you,” he said quietly. “She’s not really the trusting type, and there’s already enough things out there trying to kill me.”
“We got your back,” Dante assured him, chuckling.
Jack took a deep breath. “My brother’s arm is isolated, and mostly automated, so he’s going to have food,” he whispered. “Has a whole processing set up right on site. If this thing stretches on like I think it will, and you boys get hungry, you come see us up in Kingstree. I’ll leave a map to the farm in the Kingstree post office, under the register.”
The boys nodded, and Dante shook his hand. “Very kind of you, sir.”
“We do appreciate it,” Tate added as he shook his hand as well.
“I fear hard times are ahead of us,” Jack said, shaking his head. “Good people are going to be harder and harder to come by. The fact you didn’t put us down and take our stuff shows me you’re better than most.”
They headed out of the back room, and then Dante clapped the older man on the back. “Hey, before you go, I think I saw some jerky by the counter,” he suggested. “Can’t have a road trip without snacks.”
“Billy, why don’t you get us something for the road?” Jack asked, and Billy broke away from the door to load up on jerky.
The group congregated by the door, and Jack poked his head out to make sure the coast was clear.
“You boys be safe out there,” he said. “And remember my offer.”
“We will, sir,” Dante said. “And you be safe, so that your offer can stand.”
Tate nodded in agreement and handed the shotgun back over to him as they bustled outside to their car. Once they fired it up and headed off, Dante nodded and secured the door.
“All right, let’s get back to work,” he declared as Maddox emerged from hiding. “We have us a jailbreak to get to.”
CHAPTER SEVEN
The two trucks pulled up within a block of the jail, stopping next to each other.
“All right badass,” Maddox drawled, “how do you want to do this?”
Dante nodded. “We got three guns total,” he said. “Ace will drive us to the other side of the lot, which should attract a good number of them. Lily and I will take out as many as we can with our shots. You block off the other side of the lot and do what damage you can.”
“And what if there are some still standing after we hit ‘em hard?” Tate asked.
“They can’t climb,” Dante explained, “so just hang out in the truck and beat them down.”
Maddox furrowed his brow. “Well, why in the hell didn’t we just do that in the first place?” he demanded.
“Because dumbass,” Lily piped up, “you get enough of those things, and they can tip over a truck.”
He thought about it for a moment and then shook his head. “So we doing this, or what?” he urged.
Lily and Dante climbed up into the back of the truck, sitting against the cab, their potato cannons beside them. They sat on top of several bags of soil and other goods for the farm, which made a decent seat.
When they were in position, Lily pulled out a can of compressed cleaning solvent, spraying a generous amount into the firing chamber of the cannon.
“That looks like a lot,” Dante commented.
She nodded. “Oh, it is,” she agreed. “But it needs to be. We need this stuff to hit hard, right?”
Dante smiled and nodded as she primed his cannon as well. She banged on the back of the truck, prompting Ace to start driving.
“Y’all hang on,” he said through the back window, “this might get bumpy.”
His passengers in the back braced themselves as Ace sped through the parking lot of the jail, hitting a speed bump and sending them up off of their seats a bit. When he reached the other side, he slammed on the brakes.
“You’re good!” he bellowed.
Dante and Lily stood up, racing over to the edge of the truck and setting up their potato cannon barrel on the truck gate. They looked out and saw about fifteen or so zombies racing towards them, about twenty yards away.
“Wait until they’re close,” Lily instructed.
He nodded, following her lead since he wasn’t sure exactly what the cannons were going to do. She stared down the ghouls, spread out a couple yards apart from each other, but still fairly tightly packed.
“Hit ‘em!” she cried, and both sparked up their lighters, pressing a flame to the firing chamber. A moment later, there was a significant BOOM as both cannons fired.
The result was a blunderbuss, sending shrapnel flying through the air at high velocity. The nuts and bolts smacked into zombie skulls, dropping half of them in a single shot. Their heads exploded in a spectacular display of red goo.
Even with the success, eight or so were still racing towards the truck.
“Reload!” Dante yelled.
Lily took a knee as he grabbed his crowbar, awaiting the coming enemies. The first corpse hit the side of the truck and he gave it a forceful strike to the top of the head, slumping it over. Before he could strike again, seven more slapped into the vehicle, causing it to rock a bit.
Arms flailed, reaching over the end gate at them. He swung down again, but the constant movement of the truck wobbling made it difficult for him to aim properly, and his blow landed on a shoulder. He grunted and pulled back, striking again, this time hitting a head.
“Reloaded!” Lily yelled, and he turned to help aim the makeshift cannon as she lit it.
The force
