I won't look out for everyone else too.”
“Stewart?”
“What Max?”
“I think there are some zombies in town.” Max pointed down a side street away from the main county road where the grocery store was located, “Over that way.”
“That is a bit west.” she ventured.
“Yeah, but what brings a group of zombies into town?”
She thought a moment, then said, “Humans.”
“Should we go check it out?”
“It could be a trap set by those we met earlier.”
“Or it could be a different group.”
“It won't hurt to run by there real quick, how far away?”
“Maybe a half mile.”
“So? Not even out of town, I will go get Tom, you fill Amelia in.”
Max walked over to where Amelia was sitting in the idling van with the window rolled up to protect against the morning chill, he knocked on it and she hit the button to roll it down, “Yeah?”
“I think there are some zombies over that way. We are going to swing by and check it out before we leave town, just in case there are survivors.”
Amelia nodded.
Tom and Stewart came out of the back doors of the store. Tom was carrying a couple of plastic bags which he deposited into the van while Stewart loaded yet another can of diesel fuel up onto the tow truck.
“Max you lead us off in the truck, I will be next in the cruiser and Amelia will be tail end Charlie.” Stewart said.
Max hopped into the wrecking truck, which had a few more knobs and buttons than the average vehicle, but was still an automatic and easy enough to get moving. Nick sat in the passenger's seat, his door was locked and he had a short barreled shotgun he could fire if he needed to. Max shut the door and said, “How're you doing big guy? You tired?”
“No, not that bad. I don't need that much sleep dad. Once I am up I am up.”
“Up and grumpy, yeah, but up.” Max teased, tousling his son's hair. “We are going to check out this road here, I think there might be some zombies up ahead, and maybe some people too.”
“Okay.” said the boy sitting up more straight and peering ahead into the darkness.
Max drove slowly down the street, he did not have his head lights on, but the parking lights cast enough light for him to see ahead a little way and at the speed he was going he didn't think he would have a problem seeing a wreck. It was still dark and gloomy out, which gave the zombies an advantage; darkness didn't seem to bother them in the least.
“Stop! Dad stop!”
“You see one?” Max asked, wondering why he couldn't sense the thing.
“Yeah, right ahead.”
Max slowed the truck, edging it towards one side of the street so Stewart could pull up alongside of him. As he stopped a man stumbled up to the side of his door. The man was clearly dead, his right shoulder was oddly shaped and the cruiser's running lights revealed bone sticking through black colored flesh.
“Shit!” Max swung his truck door open and bashed the tall zombie to the ground as the cruiser pulled to a stop. Getting out Max grabbed his baseball bat and slammed the driver's door shut, “Stay in the truck Nick!”
Taking a step forward Max brought his bat down on the zombie's head while Stewart hopped out of her car and circled around behind it to join him.
“He the only one Max?” she asked.
“I don't know. I lost it, I had it for a minute, but I didn't sense this one coming. I don't know where they are.”
“Fucking useful talent. Well, better sometimes than never I suppose. There!” she gestured with her gun at another zombie coming into the small circle of light, “I will point them out while you bash them.”
This worked out well and Max managed to kill several more slow zombies that Stewart pointed at coming out of the gloom. Then she hopped into the police cruiser and used the spotlight to scan the area. She highlighted about a dozen zombies mobbing one house. They had gotten through the front door, but several were gathered along one side of the building at a small basement window, those zombies were on their hands and knees trying to break through the window. Stewart got out of the car and balanced the spotlight on the hood, pointing it at the group by the side of the house. The spotlight was not mounted to the car, but plugged into the car's power supply to be used as needed. Max stepped up to the zombies and started killing them one by one, they were too stupid and slow to realize the real danger, and another source of food, was behind them.
Stewart fired her shotgun, which startled Max so that he missed his next swing on the second to last zombie that was trying to crawl through the window.
“Fuck!” he swore softly, “Super zombie?”
“Crawling right up on our asses too. Watch it!” Stewart yelled as one of the two 'slow' zombies bounced up in front of Max.
Max swung at the zombie, who grinned and caught the baseball bat with one hand. Kicking the thing in the balls didn't do much good, but it did force it back over the slower zombie on the ground, causing them both to go down in a heap. The faster zombie spun away like lightening and Stewart's shotgun blast hit the other one in the stomach.
“Shit. He is fast!” Stewart said tracking the thing as it spun and evaded her. The zombie threw the baseball bat at the officer and Max's hand reached out and caught it while Stewart raised her shotgun defensively. “Nice Max!”
Looking at the zombie, which was still bouncing around in the vegetation between the houses Max decided he had enough time to bring a blow down on the other zombie who was at his feet. The zombie's head crunched like an eggshell, adding yet another dent to Max's bat. Stewart's shotgun roared again and the fast zombie went down on its back.
“Watch him Max, that wasn't a clean shot!”
Approaching the still twitching zombie Max watched for some sort of deception. He took the last three steps running and leaped over the form on the ground, thinking to circumvent any treachery from the zed. The thing had been faking, but only a little bit, one bloody pale arm reached up to try and grab Max as he flew over. The hand missed and when Max landed he brought his bat down square on the zombie's nose. This was not a death blow either and Max had to hit it three more times until he felt sure that it was dead permanently.
“What the fuck was that? I mean, why didn't you just use your shotgun or pistol?”
Max shrugged, “I don't know. I guess I was saving a bullet.”
“Well next time; don't. We don't need any heroes. You got kids to take care of for Christssake.”
“Yeah, okay. Like I said Stewart I don't know why I did that. I didn't think.”
The woman nodded in the dim light and called to Tom, “Did our fire draw more?”
“Not yet.” he yelled back, “but I can't see that far, so whatever you are going to do, do it quick.”
Turning back to Max, she asked, “Check the house?”
He nodded, “The zeds were here for a reason.” Bending down he called through the window, “Hello? Any living people down there?”
“You sense any dead there?”
Max looked up at Stewart from the ground near the window, he wrinkled his forehead intently, “No. Nothing. I don't sense…wait, it is like, like there are a lot of them…not hear, but over there.” Max pointed west, and a bit back towards the interstate. “It is like there are so many of them there I can't get a reading on what is here.”
“Should we go take a look?”
“I am not too keen on that. If I am right there are a lot of zombies coming our way.”
“Well there is nothing here…” Stewart was interrupted by a cry from the basement.
“We are here! You aren't the bad guys are you?”
Stewart rolled her eyes, the voice was clearly that of a child. She mouthed the words, 'Just what we fucking need!' to Max who grinned and answered the voice, “We just killed the bad guys, who is down there?”
