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Lloyd staggered to his feet and looked toward her and the boys. With an unholy screech, he began to race toward them, his hands outstretched.

Jenni screamed again and began to run down the street as fast as she could.

Benji clung to her as Mikey ran beside her. She could already feel her body tiring and her lungs burning. Benji felt so heavy in her arms and Mikey held onto her robe as they ran. Her bare feet slapping hard against the pavement, Jenni ran for her life and those of her children. She could hear Lloyd behind her, gaining on them, his terrible screech filling the morning air.

“Mommy! Mommy!” Benji was moaning and she felt his bladder release as warm urine poured down her leg.

“Katie! Hurry! Katie!” Jenni kept screaming, her body tired and sore.

Then the doors of the houses began to fly open. Mutilated, bloody figures began to race into the street toward them, screeching their death cries, hands flung out before them.

“Mommy! Mommy!” Mikey and Benji’s voice chorused in terror.

“Run! Run!”

Ahead, the street was beginning to fill with the hungry undead. All of them were racing toward her and her children. Their horrible, bloody mouths were opening wide, waiting to feast on them.

“Katie! Katie!” Jenni sobbed as her leaden legs weakened even more.

“Katie, please!”

She ran as the undead began to close in around her.

2. Hitchhikers of the Living Dead

“Katie!” Jenni awoke with a start, banging her head against the passenger side window of the truck. “Ouch! Dammit!” She gripped her head with one hand and forced the nightmare back from her waking thoughts.

Looking up, she gasped.

A badly mauled zombie face was pressed against the window, its tongue licking desperately against the glass where her head had rested a few seconds before.

Drawing sharply back from the window, she fumbled for her gun. The zombie slammed its mangled hand against the window, moaning.

“Fuck,” she muttered. She still felt groggy from sleeping.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Katarina moving around the front of the parked truck, her pistol out. “I got him, Jenni,” she called out.

The zombie, hearing Katarina’s voice, turned away from the window and howled. The homely redhead aimed and fired one shot. The zombie’s head burst, its body collapsing onto the road.

“Thanks!” Jenni called out, rubbing her eyes, trying to wake up all the way. She had fallen asleep on the way back from a scavenging run. It had been very successful. There had been no loss of life and they were returning with a lot of supplies that were needed to make it through to the Spring.

Katarina climbed back into the truck, slid behind the steering wheel, and slammed the door. She let out a sigh. “Felix would have to pee where there are zombies around. ”

“Couldn’t hold it, huh?

“No. He said he was going to explode. I told him to hang it out the window. He laughed. ” Katarina frowned. “I was serious. ”

“Boys are dumb. Where is he?” Jenni glanced through the bloodsplattered window at the side mirror and saw Felix’s reflection. He was just zipping up and another zombie lay dead not too far from him.

“He better finish the hell up so we can get home. This latest cold front sucks. ” Katarina rubbed her hands over the steering wheel, her knuckles bright red from the cold. “I want some nice hot coffee. ”

Winter was hitting hard in Texas and it was one of the worst ones in years. Snow had fallen already three times, and Ed was muttering about ice storms. They were barely a week into January, and already Jenni was sick of the new year. It was so damn cold.

“That sounds so good. And a nice warm bed with a nice warm Juan in it. ”

Jenni grinned.

Katarina blushed almost the color of her hair.