Ascension

Katie opened her door and went around to the passenger side where the woman was. Slowly she eased the other door open and caught the woman as she fell out. The woman wasn't dead, yet. But her head wound was bleeding badly and her breathing was shallow.

'I don't think she is going to make it.' Katie said.

'You think I don't know that? There ain't no hospitals around anymore. She got shot in the head, she is a goner. The least I can do is go get her kids.'

'What were the names of her kids?'

'Alex and Ethan. Alex is a girl, only about six, her brother is four.'

'Well he answered that quickly enough.' thought Katie. She reached into the front seat and pulled the release on the trunk. She had been picking up guns as she came across them. There weren't any people, but there were plenty of firearms lying about on the roads. Moving to the trunk she picked up an M- 16.

'I haven't tested this yet, but it should work fine.' Katie said as she handed the empty gun over to the man.

He looked at it, then at her. 'Thanks. Just point and pull the trigger?'

Nodding, Katie watched as he turned and took a few steps back the way they had come from.

'Wait!' she called after him, 'You'll need to load it first.' Fishing around in the trunk she came up with a couple of magazines and loaded the weapon for him. 'Did you see how I loaded it? Press this button here and you have to slide this lever back when you reload to get a bullet in the chamber.'

'Got it.'

The man spun around and sprinted towards the small rise in the road behind them.

Softly to herself Katie said, 'Sure. I'll come along. Thanks for asking. Just let me get this bitch's head bandaged up first alright. No. No need to wait for me to fix up the kids mom, you go right ahead without me. I'll catch up.'

While she was muttering to herself Katie pulled out a first aid kit and scanned the sides of the road around her. Seeing nothing she went back to the woman and pulled her out of the car completely before bandaging her head. Afterward Katie reached into the front seat again and pulled out her.30–06 rifle. She started to head after the man slowly, he was now out of sight over the hill and she was listening for the conflict to begin. Nothing, not even any birds chirping. She had expected shots by now.

Shrugging she changed plans and hopped into the vehicle, starting it up she backed up quickly towards the slight rise behind her. She parked the car on the leeward side of the hill, hopefully out of sight of anything on the other side, then got out and made her way cautiously into the grass on the side of the road.

Creeping up the hill in the high grass was a piece of cake. Katie kept the shoulder of the road within arm's length as she went. By the time she crested the hill she was crawling, below her the road was empty. Glancing behind her the highway was still deserted too.

Katie raised the rifle slightly and stared through the scope to try and spot the man who had preceded her a few minutes before. There! She spotted him at the inside edge of the woods. He was looking inwards, as if he had spotted something. Katie saw him raise the rifle and heard the sharp retort as it went off.

The fool almost fell backwards when he fired. Apparently the gun hadn't been properly braced on his shoulder when he pulled the trigger. He recovered quickly enough and fired again. Then he started pulling the trigger as fast as he could. His gun clicked on empty and he continued to pull the trigger. After a moment he seemed to remember what Katie had told him about reloading. He turned and fled from the side of the woods as he tried to reload. He dropped the empty clip on the ground as he made his way up to the blacktop. The full clip spun from his hand as he tried to slam it home in the gun and he lurched after it as it skidded along the road. Behind the man three zombies came slinking out of the woods.

They looked about suspiciously and Katie crouched down lower in the grass, hoping it would be enough to keep her from being seen by their special zombie vision. Their gaze slid passed her smoothly and they split apart and ran up the hill after the man.

By the time they made it to the top of the roadway, Katie had the furthest man in her sights. All three of the men were dressed in stained shirts that gleamed bright red in the afternoon sun. The man had the magazine in his hands, but it looked to Katie like fear was keeping him from being able to slot the thing home. Shrugging slightly she said, 'That's the difference between yahoos and professional soldiers buddy.'

She gently squeezed the trigger and the shot caught the far zombie just above his ear, his head jerked sideways and a spray of crimson flew out beyond him in a straight line. Before his corpse had even hit the ground Katie was sighting in on the next zombie, a woman in shorts and with unnaturally pale skin. Both zombies threw themselves down, which ruined Katie's chances to get off a quick shot. Cursing she tried to follow her target along the ground. The zombie was doing everything it could to prevent her from getting in a clean hit. It jerked its head sideways and up and down as it moved, trying to make it back into the tall grass.

As this was happening the man finally slotted home the clip and started firing. His shots hit the zombies in the torso, but didn't slow either of them. From the woods Katie saw the two kids start to shamble up the hill.

'Damn, kid zombies. Those bastards.' The trio must have offed the kids after Katie picked up the adults. 'Focus on the immediate threat first.' The woman was almost to the grass, so Katie took the shot she had. As luck would have it, the bullet hit the woman just as her head was jerking up. There was no spray this time, but the zombie immediately fell face down onto the road.

The man was in the way of her next shot. He had run up to the remaining zombie and put himself between it and the grass. The man stood over it and fired down at point blank range. Nothing happened. He had burned through his entire clip.

'Get the fuck out of my way!' Katie yelled at him.

The man looked up at her, while the zombie used the distraction to jump him. Both of them tumbled down towards the kids, fighting and flailing with their arms and legs swinging wildly. Katie tracked the melee with her scope, but didn't dare take a shot. The men ended up in a pile at the kid's feet and the fight ended there. The children lunged into the melee and Katie watched for a few more moments before she started to back down the hill towards the car.

'No way had he survived that. If the zed didn't get him the kid zombies did. Bit was infected; infected was dead. Fucking waste.'

Katie made her way back to the car and didn't bother to pick up the woman as she continued down the road. The next sign indicated she had only a few miles to go until she entered Florida.

Chapter 21 — Max

'Stewart!' Max whispered as loudly as he dared. 'Stewart!'

The woman was still on the couch in front of the small dining table. Giving up on her Max went to the open window and called out softly, 'Ruben!'

The older man was standing by the side of the trailer, squinting outwards and trying to see through the thick morning fog that had come up during the night.

'You're up early Max.' Ruben said quietly. 'You better not wake up your girl-friend, she was a little cranky when she finally turned…'

'Stop Ruben. There are zombies coming. A lot of them. They are all around the park. Get Javier. I'll wake up Stewart.'

Bill had already shaken himself awake and was lacing up his boots. Max padded down to Stewart in his socks, juggling his boots and rifle as he went. With an elbow he prodded Stewart, who came awake almost instantly and had her pistol pointing at Max a split second later.

'Wake up. Zombies coming.'

It was almost dawn, the fog was lit in a dim glow that allowed them to discern the shapes of Ruben and Javier before the two came into the trailer.