“Please tell me he didn’t get bit?” The blue-eyed babe bit her lip.
“Hey, don’t forget about me,” Justin screeched. “They’re freakin’ everywhere.” His sporadic gunshots ricocheted through the canyon.
It didn’t take much effort to get Justin up. He sprang up through the opening. “Guys, we’ve got to get back to— Hey, Ella? What are you doing here?”
Ella’s flushed face had turned ghostly-white as she and Twila held hands and inched their way across the bridge, step by step. Mindy was a close-second behind.
“Behind you!” Luther shouted.
Ella swung around. To his amazement, Ella fired at a Z crawling behind her and Mindy.
“Awesome!” Justin jumped to his feet.
“Dean! Dean!” Scarlett sprinkled water over his face.
“Grandpa!” Tears streaked down Twila’s sand-covered face.
Luther considered their options. “People, we’ve got to get off this mofo bridge.” Before the horde overtook them.
Dean coughed himself awake. “What the devil’s going on?” He stared blankly in apparent shock.
Luther let out a hearty laugh. “Ain’t nothing can kill you.”
“Just my dumb luck,” Dean groused.
“Can you walk?” Luther asked, wondering how they were getting off this bridge from hell.
Justin and Scarlett were back to shooting as Zs emerged to the top of the bridge. Luther helped Dean to his feet. But when Dean stepped down on his left leg, he gritted his teeth and groaned.
“Damn, twisted my ankle. Give me a minute,” Dean rasped.
“We’re out of minutes.” Shoulda gone with T-Mobile. They had to get off this deathtrap. Sure, he could carry Dean, but on the ramshackle bridge, it might as well be a tightrope. Too much weight in one spot and they’d both end up in the river.
“Let’s go back.” Luther decided it was the safest play.
“We can’t.” Mindy’s whisper seemed to scream above the river’s rush.
Scarlett wiped her sweaty forehead with the back of her hand. “There’s a horde back there.”
Justin strapped on his pack. “What the heck are Zs doing way out here in the middle of freakin’ nowhere?”
“I’m thinkin’ that houseboat encountered a horde at some point,” Dean rambled in the background.
“Justin, find us a path across this mofo bridge,” Luther said, taking charge.
“You folks, go on,” Dean insisted. “I’ll catch up.”
“That’s a big hell no! No one’s getting left behind. Uh-uh, not today.” Luther hoorahed like a hard-ass Marine.
“Here! My very last piece of chalk.” Twila handed it to Justin.
“Okay, so, I’ll mark the good spots.” And Justin was off.
“Scarlett, your bat. Dean can use it as a crutch,” Luther threw out there, thinking on the fly.
She reached for the bat strapped to the back of her pack like an expert archer.
“It just might do the trick.” Dean took a couple of uneasy steps.
Luther studied the span ahead as the sun crested over the canyon’s rocky gorge, nearly blinding him. Justin had gained significant yardage. Time to get moving. “Scarlett, hold the rear.” He could count on her to eliminate the strays. “People, walk lightly. Watch for the pop-ups.”
Hold on a minute. Is that an f’n tunnel? Luther squinted harder. Never mind. He focused on his footing, worried the old wood couldn’t handle his weight. Meanwhile, he convinced himself he had merely seen a shadow or another bend in the bridge.
When he caught up with Justin furiously shaking the rusted wire mesh blocking the tunnel’s entrance—there were not enough swear words to express his sudden distress.
Luther shoved the meshing. It gave somewhat. There was only one way to the other side. As he charged like a fullback on an insane drive to punch through the defense, Dean shouted, “Got wire cutters in my—”
Dean’s words registered two seconds too late. The instant relief from the scorching sun was nullified by the abrasive impact from colliding into the wire-mesh when he landed on all fours.
“Touchdown!” Justin cheered.
More gunshots behind him. Luther reached for the flashlight snapped to his belt, hoping he hadn’t used all his mojo. Better not be another horde waiting inside the tunnel. They had no place to go.
He quickly illuminated the tunnel to find the other end barricaded as well. Other than the bat colony stirring above, the tunnel was empty. Quickly, he and Justin ushered the gang inside.
“Boy howdy, that was something,” Dean went on in an apparent delirium.
Scarlett busied over Twila, Justin comforted Ella, and Mindy seemed lost in her own world as usual. Luther didn’t want to be the one calling the shots, not with so many lives at stake. He tried to unscramble his brain, debating over their next play.
“Need some help over here,” Luther boomed as the horde staggered closer. “Dean?”
The panic in his voice must have brought Dean back to his senses. “We can shore off the meshing,” Dean said, pulling out his hammer. “Justin, Scarlett, hold up the meshing while I nail it back to the frame.”
Sure, it might hold off regular Zs. For a while. Not X-strains.
“You all right?” Dean shot him a concerned look. “Looks like you don’t need those juju beads after all,” Dean ragged, sounding back to his normal self.
“What I need is a bucket of chicken wings—” He had burned too many carbs.
Scarlett held up a small package. “Survival Tabs. It’s all we have left. They’ll give you an energy burst.”
Oh, hell no! But he took it. At least they didn’t have to haul around that sorry excuse of a wheelbarrow. Although Dean could have ridden in it. So much for the camping stove; Ella couldn’t blame him for dumping it.
“Guys! Guys!” Justin shouted. “They’re coming!”
A slow smile came to him. Luther pulled out his last grenade. “You all catching my wavelength?”
“Everyone, to the other end of the tunnel!” Dean shouted.
“What if it’s a dead-end?” Justin shouted back.
The spine-chilling Hunger’s Howl reverberated through the tunnel like otherworldly creatures
