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“You have no idea, mijita,” Innocente said sadly.

Jeff began to walk along the front of the motel toward the rural road that cut through the town. Sergio followed and touched Samantha's shoulder as he passed her. She gave him a faint smile.

“There's a Lexus down the road,” Jeff said, and started toward it.

“Stay here,” he said to Samantha and his grandmother.

He hurried to catch up with Jeff before they could protest him bossing them. Despite the vampire hunter's funky looking mechanical leg, he was fast on his feet. Sergio struggled to keep up.

A navy Lexus RX was pulled over into the trees near the hotel and Jeff motioned for Sergio to be cautious. Keeping an eye out for any trouble, they both crept up to the vehicle and peered inside.

“Oh, crap,” Sergio said softly when he saw the body of a young woman. Her blond hair was over her face, but she was obviously dead. Her head was completely twisted around on her shoulders. Her body was stuffed down behind the passenger seat.

“Window's shot out,” Jeff said, and pointed to the broken windshield.

“Whoa. ” Sergio looked around nervously. His heart was beating even harder than before. He glanced back to where his grandmother and the blond woman were standing at the edge of the gas station's parking lot staring toward them. It was getting serious fast.

Samantha began to motion with one hand and he was relieved she was smart enough not to call out. He had trouble figuring out what she was trying to tell them in pantomime, but Jeff seemed to catch it.

“It's Cian's,” he said softly to Sergio. “She says it's Cian's. ”

They both looked toward the ascending sun that was slowly pushing back the gray remains of the night. The sound of shattering glass came from nearby and the men ducked down behind the truck. Sergio signaled for his grandmother and Samantha to get out of sight and the women darted off to hide behind a sign. There was nothing they could do about the truck parked across from the gas station.

Looking under the truck, Sergio watched three figures walk through the overgrown foliage to the vehicle he was hiding behind. One of the three was wearing high heels and the other two were wearing battered sneakers. Sergio smelled the stink of death on them and crouched down further. The dead gathered on the other side of the Lexus and opened up the back door. He could hear them moving about, but none of them said a word. He realized they were removing the dead body from the truck.

Well, that was what he thought until he heard a terrible cracking noise, then saw another set of feet join the other three.

Jeff looked sharply toward Sergio and Sergio slowly shrugged, not sure what to think. Together they crept along the edge of the vehicle and watched as the four figures now walked away from the motel into the trees and toward a vast open field beyond the “Y” intersection where the motel was huddled in the darkness of the trees.

“Follow them,” Sergio barely whispered.

Jeff nodded.

Sergio looked back toward the blond girl walking along with the other three corpses. Her head bobbed strangely on her shoulders, but she was up and walking.

The walking dead.

Kind of like a Romero zombie film.

Totally creepy.

Jeff turned and motioned to the two women to hang back then motioned to Sergio to join them.

He was reluctant to leave Jeff, but he realized they would need more weapons and the truck. He'd give it a few minutes, then bring the truck up the road. Sweating profusely despite the coolness of the morning, Sergio ducked down and rushed back to his grandmother and Samantha.

***

Jeff crept after the dead making sure to keep his head down as much as possible. When he entered the field of overgrown grass, he practically crawled as he paced along behind the four animated corpses. Casting his eyes toward the horizon, he could see the sun was now further up and yet The Summoner's servants continued to walk. This did not bode well for them. It meant The Summoner was awake in the motel behind him.

The four dead were heading toward a distant building that was hidden behind a thicket of trees and not visible from the road that slowly curved away into the Hill Country. A few wild peach trees were adorned with brilliant purple and lavender flowers near it and Jeff could now see it had once been a large farmhouse. Crouching down, he watched the four creatures draw close to the house, one of them stumbling over a fallen fence. Slowly, they maneuvered through the overgrown yard and up into the abandoned house.

Wiping the sweat off his brow, he considered his options and just decided to wait. After around five minutes, the four dead people reappeared and took up positions around the house. It was now obvious they were either guarding or watching the house.

Ducking down, he moved back toward the road until he was back a safe distance, then he ran back to the truck that was now idling near a burned out building away from the motel.

Hurrying around to the driver's side, he gestured for Sergio to lower the window.

“What's up?”