Page 188

She turned and ran. Pulling his gun from his holster, Bill was obviously in pain as he ran after her. Katarina ran as fast as she could on her banged up legs. Meanwhile, the freed family and the semi-truck driver moved with a swiftness that was terrifying. They weren’t runners, but they were fast enough.

Out of the corner of his eye, Bill saw something lurch up off the side of the road and reach for Katarina as she ran. Without a second thought, he tackled the thing. He crashed into the brush, the thing under him hissing and growling as it snapped its teeth at him.

Katarina started to turn, but Bill’s voice urged her keep running. She heard a gun shot and felt a sense of relief.

“Keep going,” Bill shouted.

The helicopter slowly descended in front of her like some great bird. She sucked air into her burning lungs through bruised lips and ran toward it.

“Keep running, honey!” Bill urged her, more gunshots sounding behind her.

The helicopter came down to hover over the road. Katarina forced her body to move those last few steps and she collapsed into Kevin’s arms. He swung her up into the safety of the bird. Turning around she saw that Bill was not running toward the helicopter, but firing into the quickly advancing crowd.

“Bill! Run! Bill!”

“He’s bit,” Kevin’s ragged voice said in her ear.

“No! No! Bill, run!”

Bill turned and smiled at her in that special way that made her heart beat faster. Giving a short wave with a badly mangled hand, he turned back to firing into the advancing horde of undead.

Katarina felt her heart lurch in her chest as she was pulled backwards from the door by gentle hands.

“No! No! We’re getting married! No!” She kicked and fought to get away, but Linda and Curtis held her firmly back from the door.

Ed moved to the doorway as the helicopter lifted up and took aim with his rifle.

“Ed, please, don’t! We’re getting married! Bill just fell! We had an accident! He’s not bit!”

The gun fired once.

Kevin and Ed both averted their eyes as Ed lowered the gun and the helicopter swung about.

“No,” Katarina said again weakly. “No! You don’t understand. We’re getting married. ”

4. Open Doorways

The sound of the helicopter’s enormous blades slicing at the sky filled her ears as Katarina lay sobbing on the floor beside Bette and Linda. The two women were trying to comfort her, but there was no comfort to be gained.

Her insides felt like they’d been torn out. Katarina felt like throwing herself from the helicopter and joining Bill.

Through her blurred vision, she could see Ed, Curtis and Kevin speaking.

Beyond them, in the cockpit, Greta was flying the huge beast, whisking them to safety. Another figure appeared, sliding out of the seat beside Greta. The big, lumbering form of Bill moved past the three men talking softly together and moved with absolutely no grace to where she lay.

Mesmerized by her fuzzy vision, she didn’t dare move or blink her eyes for fear of him vanishing.

Slowly, he knelt down next to her and took her hand gently in his. “I need you to know something before I go on, baby. ”

“Bill,” she whispered, more tears filling her vision.

He shifted his weight and sat next to her on the floor. “When Doreen died there was nothing I could do but watch that cancer eat her up from the inside out. I sat on the Internet at night looking for alternatives, trying to find that magic cure for her. She was a spry thing but the cancer was too mean, too fast. It ate her up and when she died, she was so sad she had lost that battle. She had been so determined to win. If I could have taken her place, I would have. I would have given my life to save her. ”

Katarina didn’t dare blink, but her eyes were so full of tears she could barely see him.

“Today, that thing came at you out of the brush and I didn’t think twice. I knew I could die right then and there, but I knew you would get away. I knew it! Don’t get me wrong, I tried hard not to get bit, but it got my hand pretty bad. I’d rather be going home with you than moving on. But I had a chance with you that I never had with Doreen. And I took it. And I’m glad for it. ”

“Bill,” she whispered again.