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His grizzled face looked pissed beneath his battered hat. Jenni pushed the button for the window and it slid down. “What do you think, Ed?”

“Got at least three dozen down there trying to get to those folks. I figure we can either drive close enough to try to get them to come to us, then flatten them. Or we can open fire and risk hitting the people. ”

“They won’t draw off if they’ve got fresh food in front of them,” Jenni reminded him. “What if we get close enough to thin out the outer edge with the guns, then go in and clear out the rest with machetes, spears and my trusty ax?”

Curtis walked up next to the vehicles, his weapon out. ” His truck was idling behind Ed’s. “We need to hurry whatever the hell we’re doing. It’s getting bad down there. ”

The zombies were so anxious to get to the people on top of the van, they were beginning to rock the vehicle. Someone on top was trying to stand to wave down the caravan and Jenni gasped as he tumbled off into the zombies. His screams tore through the cold air, then broke off abruptly.

The zombies were moaning with delight as they swarmed him.

“We gotta move now!” Jenni shoved her door open, nearly ramming it into Curtis. Yanking her ax out of the truck, she motioned with it for Felix and Katarina to follow her. Shoving the ax into the specially made sheath on her back, she slammed the door shut with her hip. Determined to bust some zombie heads, she headed down the hill.

“We don’t have a plan, Jenni!” Ed shouted after her.

Jenni stalked toward the undead swarm. “Kill the fuckers! That’s the plan!”

3. Sentries of the Dead

The zombie slammed its mangled hand against the fort wall again, growling with what sounded like frustration.

Katie looked down at it from her sentry post, her blond curls flowing in the wind. Rubbing her cold, reddened hands together, she studied the creature’s distorted features. Most of its flesh had torn off and one eyeball rolled up toward her in a gouged socket. How it could see her, she could not imagine, but it howled even more desperately as it caught sight of her.

It had no lips, so its bloodied, decaying teeth looked hideously large as they chomped together hungrily.

“I can’t even tell if you’re a boy or a girl,” Katie muttered, blowing on her fingers to warm them.

“So gross,” Stacey remarked, peering over the edge of the wall. The slim, young woman leaned her elbows on the cold, cement bricks and stared at the zombie. “I think it’s a boy. ”

“That one patch of hair on the back of its head is kinda long,” Katie pointed out.

“Yeah, but lots of redneck boys have long ponytails. Trust me. There were a lot of guys back in my old town with ponytails longer than mine. ” Stacey reached behind her head to tug on her short braid. She looked far healthier than she had when first rescued. She had been terribly thin, her shoulder blades and collar bone sticking out of her tanned skin in sharp angles. Now she was fit and muscular and recently, the former coach had started sports activities in the fort to keep people fit.

“Clothes are kinda on the neutral side. Yellow shirt, I think. ”

“Could have started out white. ”

“Maybe. ” Katie tilted her head as she studied the creature. “I think it’s a girl. Still ugly as sin. ”

“Uglier. Guess we should put it down. ”

“Yep,” Katie agreed.

Now that her hands weren’t cramped from the cold and the bloat from her pregnancy, she reached out for the huge crossbow that was rigged up on a sliding track. It was one of Jason’s creations and it made killing the zombies up against the walls a lot easier. Using the mirrors attached to the contraption, she adjusted the crossbow using a lever to get it into the accurate position.

“I’m not saying I miss the big crowds of them, but lone zombies just seem so sad,” Stacey decided.

“Until they try to eat you,” Katie reminded her.

“Well, there is that. ” Stacey watched Katie carefully aim. “Jason is like a genius, huh?”

“Jenni says that he’s always been one of those kids tinkering with stuff.

She said he once took apart his Xbox, put it back together and it still worked. I don’t think she’s surprised at some of the things he’s come up with lately. But I’m pretty stunned. For a teenager, he’s pretty amazing. ”

Katie checked her mirrors and saw that she had the zombie perfectly lined up. She squeezed the trigger.

The bolt slammed into the top of the zombie’s head and it fell backwards onto the street, limbs askew. Later, a cleanup crew would remove the body and toss it into the landfill on the outskirts of town.