Ascension

'An…an alliance. Against Sentry.'

'And they couldn't just come up and say so?'

'Well, I think we were moving too fast, the people who grabbed me were just doing a favor for the person who wanted to talk to me. She caught up to us, I think, while they were taking me through the woods.'

'Where'd they take you?'

'To the highway, a little further down than we went.'

'That's all? Damn. So how are they keeping tabs on us?'

'Wait, Stewart, how about I tell you the story and then you all ask questions?' The others agreed and after Stewart gave a curt nod, Max filled them in on his morning.

His statement that it was Aubrey who had arranged his abduction was met with disbelief.

'I saw her; she got shot and wasn't moving. Then the bombardment started.' Bill said.

'It was her. Apparently she was the head honcho. And the building did come down, she told me she was buried in the rubble. Let me finish up then we can discuss it, okay?'

It was not to be, however, as he told the story he was interrupted several times by comments from his friends. By the time he finished at least fifteen minutes had gone by and the questions hadn't stopped. He ended his story by speculating that they were not the only two teams the military had sent out to deal with Sentry.

'But you don't know that for sure?' asked Stewart when he finally finished.

'No. But I know what she said. She said, 'helicopters', plural. She said 'other teams', plural.' Max shook his head, 'I don't think she is the type to make mistakes like that.'

'So she wanted you to know too, but didn't come right out and say it?' Bill said.

'What did she do before this happened?' Ruben asked.

'I don't know, it didn't come up.' Max said.

'It's hard to imagine a typical housewife leading the zombie revolution. Did she look like she was military? Or former military?' Ruben pressed.

'Geez, Ruben! How would I know? Is there a secret sign I haven't learned yet to identify ex-military people?'

'I guess you wouldn't know. Don't worry about it.'

'Did you trust her?' Javier asked.

'It's hard to say…' Max began.

'You do!' Stewart accused, 'You think she is playing straight with us! I can see it in your eyes!'

'Yeah, well, she made a good argument. I don't know about the other half of it, though, what the leftover zombies are going to do if Sentry dies. I get the impression that things will be a little chaotic.'

'Just a little?' asked Stewart. 'I bet, but would it be better for us? For the living?'

'What do you think? At least the attack on Iowa would be over.' Max said. 'Maybe we could start over there.'

'I don't see why she would help us after we do this.' Stewart said, 'But I can see that we get something out of taking this guy out too. So we take him out. If she makes it easier, great.'

'So let's load up and test what she said about the highway being cleared.' Bill said.

The other's looked at him for a moment and burst out laughing.

'Alright, alright. I understand we've all had a rough day already. But the sooner we are done here, the faster we get home. So do you want to lay low for a few hours and then travel for a few? Either that or we travel now, then knock off a little early. Hopefully without the drama of the hotel.'

'Fine. You're a real hard ass Bill. I can't see what Max sees in you.' said Stewart with a light tone. Bill couldn't tell if she was joking and what she said made him feel oddly proud.

'We should go on, at least four or five hours, if the roads are clear we could get two hundred miles in that time. That should get us well into Georgia.' said Max.

'Sounds good. Georgia or bust. Stewart why don't you drive Ruben and I'll ride with Javier and Max in the….'

Stewart cut him off, 'Nope, you separated me from him before and look what happened.'

Max ended up in the lead truck with both Bill and Stewart. Ruben didn't grumble too much to be in the beat up vehicle, but demanded that they stop at the first sign of a better car so they could all ride in comfort.

Two hours later they were pulled off at an interchange, eyeing a gas station that appeared deserted but had a good looking Ford Escape parked in back. The five of them had stopped at the top of the off ramp and Max was getting a feel for what was around them.

'There are zombies in the store. I think four. Maybe five. But there's a human there too.'

'You can't tell for sure?' asked Ruben.

Max shook his head, 'They are really close together, like on top of the human.'

'Are they eating him?'

'I…well I can't say for sure, but it looks that way to me.'

'Then we'll do a mop up, kill them all, get their keys and take their car.' said Stewart, 'We'll make it an old school car-jacking.'

'Sounds good. They are super zombies, right Max? Can you tell how, er, super they are?' Bill asked.

'Pretty super.'

'Lips super?' asked Bill referring to the zombie from the evening before at the hotel.

'Yeah. Maybe a little more than 'Einstein' on our scale, but not quite superman.'

'But they don't have anyone with them and they don't know we are here yet.' said Stewart. 'I'll punt this one to our C.O. to decide.'

'C.O.?' asked Max.

Ruben hooked a thumb at Bill and said, 'Him. 'Commanding Officer'.'

'Oh, I see how it is, you don't want me to make any decisions, unless they are to decide potentially dangerous stuff.' Bill said.

'Welcome to command.' Ruben said gruffly, 'Don't you know that grunts run the Army? You officers are only around to get in our way.'

'Seriously though,' began Stewart, 'Is it worth the risk, four or five supers could fuck us up. Just for a nice, shiny vehicle.'

Ruben and Javier stared at Stewart for a moment, then Ruben took off his helmet, revealing his hair which was windswept back into a duck tail. Stewart started laughing, followed quickly by everyone else.

'I am tired of riding in a shit car. Hell we could have, should have, stopped for that other F-150 back there on the highway. Why didn't we again?' Ruben asked.

'It had front end damage.' Bill said.

'We could've checked it out at least. I mean, for Christ sakes, it had a windshield! If we go on I think Javier and I get to take the good truck.'

'Okay, fine, we have plenty of fuel and we don't need the fight. We'll swap trucks and go on. Screw fighting super zombies. Ruben the very next good vehicle you see you stop and we'll take it. Okay?'

Ruben muttered something under his breath.

'What?' Bill asked.

'I'll stop after your hair looks like mine. Sir.' Ruben said sullenly.

Bill laughed. 'Fine, we probably deserve some 'air time' too.'

'It's not the air.' said Javier, 'It's the gawdammned bugs.' This last bit was said in an almost perfect imitation of Ruben's voice which made everyone except him laugh again.

Ruben just shook his head, 'What? It is the gawdamned bugs. They hurt at fifty miles an hour… Shit!'

The others looked around and saw what he Ruben did; the zombies were leaving the gas station and piling into the Escape.

'Stay still, maybe they won't see us.' Max said.

The super zombies were laughing and pointing at each other as they climbed into their vehicle. They were all armed with rifles of some sort and it was only the driver who spotted Max's group by the road just before he got in. The zombie quickly looked away and got into the car and started it up.

'Think he saw us?' asked Bill. They watched the other vehicle back up and go barreling out of the station where it turned into the intersection accelerating as it went. The Escape turned towards them onto the road.