the back of his head, slamming his face into the bumper hard enough to set off the air bags.
'He's down, grab the shotgun and go finish the other one before he gets away.' Randy said.
'You know, I used to have a partner who could help out with things like that. You ain't a whole helluva lot of good like this you know.'
'I know.' Randy said, his voice inflected with remorse.
'Sorry, I didn't mean it. I appreciate your advice.'
'Just go get him so we can move on.'
Katie was already moving into the hallway, she had picked up the shotgun and carried both firearms down to the front door, Randy trailed behind her. She leaned the rifle up against the wall next to the front door and burst outside at a jog, shotgun held at waist level. The zombie was now behind the back end of the vehicle and had a pistol in his hand pointed at the second story of the house, he shifted his aim slightly and popped off three bullets in quick succession.
Katie continued forward and fired a round from the shotgun shattering the side and rear windows of the SUV and tossing the zombie backward onto his back. The man's pistol went flying and skidded down the slight incline of the driveway to land in the gutter next to the street.
Katie ran up and fired again, striking the man just below the knee, which twisted his body sideways, leaving his lower leg bent at an unnatural angle. She stood over the suited man with her shotgun aimed at his head. He was on his stomach and used his arms to push himself up and roll onto his back.
'The ghost.' He murmured.
'What's that?'
'You're the ghost Sentry was talking about. The one we can't see.'
'I have no idea what you are saying. You're making noise, but not making sense.' Katie said.
The zombie was in bad shape; the bullet that had hit him in the side of the head had deflected forward and taken out one of his eyes and most of his nose. When he spoke it was with a nasally, wet quality.
'He said there was something here. He thought it was one of his first children or maybe…'
'Maybe what?'
The zombie didn't reply, as Katie watched his face was pulling itself together, mending in front of her. He tried to maneuver so his leg was more correctly aligned, but Katie shook her head 'no' and kicked his limb to a ninety degree angle.
'No way mister, I don't need you fully healthy so you can jump me, so leave it!'
The zombie grimaced, 'But it will heal that way, sideways and I'll have to have it broken again to set up right…'
'Trust me you aren't going to live long enough to worry about it.' Katie raised the shotgun to her shoulder and aimed it at the suit on the ground.
'Wait!' the zombie's eye went opaque and his face started to glow softly in the dusky twilight.
Katie jumped back, startled by the apparition before her. 'What the fuck!'
'This is interesting…' Randy said, walking forward.
The suit glanced around, as if seeing things for the first time, his eyes settled on Randy for a moment before shifting ever so slightly to Katie.
'Who are you?' The suits voice had changed, it was slightly higher pitched. Katie felt a pressure on her mind, as if something were trying to squeeze the information out of her head.
She backed up and shook her head, 'No.'
'Who are you? You will tell me who you are!' The pressure on Katie's head intensified.
'Kill him!' Randy screamed, grabbing at his own head with his hands.
The zombie's face turned to Randy, 'Who are you!'
As the zombie's gaze left Katie, so did the pressure that was trying to break into her brain, seizing control she pulled the trigger of the shotgun, the shell caught the suit on the side of the suit's head.
'No!' he screamed, grabbing again at the side of his head, the glowing increased and Katie fired again before the zombie could regain its bearings. The second shot hit it square in the face, but didn't do nearly the damage that Katie felt a shotgun should do as such close range.
With the glow intensifying on the ground, the zombie's face started pulling together with startling speed, all the while the thing's shriek intensified, growing to the volume of a train whistle. Katie fired twice more in rapid succession before the firing pin came down on an empty chamber. The glowing had not stopped, but the screaming had. Katie quickly reloaded five shells into the gun and shot the thing in the head five more times, by the time she was finished what was left resembled a bowl full of ground meat that someone had mixed with short, black hair.
'Holy fuck. What was that?' Katie asked Randy, who was still standing beside her.
'He saw me.'
'What?'
'How could he see me? I'm you, remember, not really me. That's what I've been assuming all this time. How could he see me Katie?'
Katie looked at her partner, 'Well, maybe you aren't as dead as you thought?'
Chapter 32 — Ruben
'Where am I?' came the voice from the back seat, startling Ruben. He was in the driver's seat, trying not to doze off or let his mind wander, things happened when his mind wandered and it was a struggle to keep control. In the passenger seat beside him Stewart snorted softly in her sleep. The two cars were parked side by side in a rest area and Ruben was on watch in one car. Javier had been comatose in the backseat for the better part of eighteen hours.
'Javier? Kid? Are you awake?' Ruben asked softly, leaning forward and then half turning to look at the young man in the darkness. According to Ruben's watch it was two in the morning, though his watch was set according to a different time zone, so who knew what time it was here.
'Ruben? That you? What happened?' Javier's voice sounded different, like that of a kid, Ruben realized.
'You got into an accident; you were thrown through the windshield and ended up in the other guy's car. You don't remember?'
'I remember firing at some idiots in a crossover vehicle, then…' Javier paused, thinking, 'Well not much after that; sounds mostly; breaking glass and stuff. Then darkness.'
'Well, then you didn't miss much.' Ruben said with relief. He had been worried about brain damage or other trauma. 'How are you feeling?'
'Good. Better than good, really. I mean I feel really, really…hungry!' Javier said, 'Man am I hungry!'
'We got our packs in the trunk.'
'That you Javier?' asked Stewart groggily.
'Yeah.'
'Welcome back to the land of the living, such as it is. You okay?'
'Yeah, fine. Just hungry.' Javier said again.
'Cool. I'm going back to sleep.'
'C'mon, let's get out and see what we can rustle up for you to eat.' Ruben opened his door, which caused Stewart to grumble about the light, but she burrowed down into her fatigues and draped her arm over her face to block it out.
When Bill saw Javier and Ruben get out of their vehicle he opened his door and went to meet them, leaving Max asleep in the back seat. Javier repeated for the third time that he was fine and just hungry as Bill tossed the same questions at him as the others.
Javier tore into his pack and gabbed several of the plastic bagged military rations that had been sent with them. None of them thought they were too bad, not at first, but after a few days of the military food they had
