She handed the map back to Lena and Dal and did her best to get comfortable in the metal truck bed. Officially, she was on watch. It was a good way to pass the time.
The truck bumped along, rolling through open grassland. They passed stands of oak and bay trees. Amanda recognized the dry stream bed that marked the edge of the Cecchino property.
Where was Cassie now? It had been hard to sleep last night, knowing her best friend was out there on a mission. It had taken a concerted effort not to obsess over all the terrible things that could happen to her.
It was weird to think that only a few weeks ago, her biggest concern in life had been getting an A in PE. Two quarters of B-minuses in her junior year of physical education had tanked her GPA. Technically, she’d still had a 4.0 because of her honor classes, but Stanford, UC Berkley, and Cal Poly weren’t interested in 4.0 students.
Amidst nightmares of getting stranded at junior college due to her abysmal PE grades, Amanda’s mom made a New Year’s resolution to lose weight. She bought a stack of Jane Fonda videos, some hand weights, and an aerobic step.
After a month of dedicated exercise, her mom went down an entire pant size. That had been enough evidence for Amanda. If she could get herself in shape, maybe she could squeak out an A- in PE.
She threw herself into the workouts the same way she threw herself into learning Spanish, biology, and trigonometry: with one-hundred percent commitment.
By the time the third quarter of her junior year rolled around, she pulled out a solid A in PE. This had been a particularly epic feat because that had been the quarter of the timed mile. Amanda had knocked out a nine-minute mile, which had been enough to tip her grade from a B+ to an A.
Ever since then, Amanda had dedicated herself to her workouts. Her mom had faded off after a few months. But Amanda had Stanford, Cal Poly, and UC Berkley in her sights. Would she let up on chemistry studies? No way. And no way was she going to let a mediocre PE grade stand between her and her dreams.
Amanda liked weight training the best. She’d been surprised to realize she was actually pretty strong. Maybe big muscles came with being big-boned? She wasn’t sure. But she could knock out reps with the ten-pound weights and barely break a sweat.
She’d never told anyone about her workouts. Not even Cassie. She knew she didn’t look like the popular girls at school; they actually managed to look pretty even with sweat-smeared make-up and un-perfect hair.
Amanda knew what it looked like when a big-boned girl hopped up and down on an aerobic step. There was nothing pretty about it.
So she kept her workouts a secret. When Cassie and Stephenson congratulated her on pulling out an A in PE, she’d downplayed it so they wouldn’t ask too many questions.
When they’d been rescued by Dal and Leo at the beginning of the invasion, Amanda had been forced to ride a bike all the way from her house to the Cecchino cabin. Most of the way had been on dirt trails with lots of rolling hills.
She smiled to herself in remembered pride. No one had commented on the fact that she had no problem keeping up; everyone had been more worried that Stephenson might have a heart attack. Amanda had known it was her studious application of Jane Fonda videos that had given her the needed endurance for the feat.
No one really knew how much work went into the good grades kids like her got in school. Most kids assumed it was natural mental talent. But the truth was that those straight As were backed with a lot of effort and dedication. PE was no exception.
The truck rolled to a stop. They were on yet another hilltop in the middle of nowhere. Stands of redwood trees were now sprinkled in throughout the bay and oak trees, a clear sign they had entered Armstrong Woods. The state park was a local favorite for old-growth redwoods.
Amanda picked up the antenna from the back of the truck. Stephenson had rigged a PVC pipe with some duct tape to the back of the truck’s cab. That’s where the antenna was mounted during broadcasts.
Amanda had just settled the antenna into the PVC pipe when she saw something move in the trees. The tree line was twenty yards away down a steep hillside, leaving Amanda eye-level with the taller parts of the trees.
She paused, frowning at the trees. Something moved out there. Whatever it was, it jumped among the branches like a monkey. She tracked the movement by the ripple of leaves that moved from tree to tree.
Her heart rate spiked as she caught sight of the thing. It was big and earth-colored. There was no way it could be an animal. There was no animal that big in North America that lived in trees.
“Guys, there’s something in the tree—” She cut off in a scream as it materialized.
It was a mutant zombie. He had a lean face, a bushy beard, and was dressed from head-to-toe in khaki. He'd probably been a granola backpacking dude before getting infected.
He burst from the trees like a flying demon, coming straight for them.
17
Bird of Prey
“Look out!” Amanda cried.
The warning fell from her lips just as the mutant hit the ground. He landed no more than ten yards away from the truck. Dal stood next to the vehicle, the transmitter in his arms. He had only enough time to shove the transmitter back through the open door of the truck before the mutant hit him.
The monster slammed them both into the side of the truck. They ricocheted off the side and hit the ground, rolling down the hillside.
“Dal!” Lena screamed.
Dal’s gun still lay in the front seat of
