The Virus Within: The Unranked (Book 4)

Ch. 28: Welcome To Spokane

He shoved a bus through a chain-link fence, and the bumper crumpled as it hit the side of a building. The leaning brick wall groaned and began shifting forward.

"Look out!" I shouted as I quickly reversed the truck, although Daniel was already dodging out of the way as mortar and pieces of brick began raining down. With the heavy whoomp of brick hitting pavement, the building settled amidst a huge plume of dust.

I eyed up the fifteen-foot-tall pile of brick, wood, and twisted metal spread across the road. "Let me guess, we're taking a different route?"

"Preferably," he replied, too used to Nicky to pay any heed to my smart-aleck comment. "If we find enough supplies, we'll have to make several trips, and it'll be easier if we get the truck closer."

I reversed the truck back to the last intersection, only scraping the paint a few times. Daniel winced each time the metal squealed at the slow impact, but with my reversing skills and the narrow path, he was lucky I wasn't playing bumper cars with every vehicle I passed. Even the Runner got out of my way.

Daniel headed down another road and moved a van out of the way, letting me drive past. The Runner ran after us and tried to climb into the back of the truck again. I ignored him since there were at least a hundred regular zombies already navigating around the vehicles in an attempt to follow us.

Not many were around the truck yet, but I could see more were ahead and coming down the side streets. Many houses and stores flanking this road had fences, and quite a few had zombies pressed against them. At least they weren't about to join the ones closing in around me.

As we drove deeper into the city, more zombies discovered our presence and surrounded the truck. Before too long, the horde became more of a roadblock than the vehicles Daniel was pushing out of the way.

There was just something wrong about driving over a zombie, especially since they ended up under the tires and I didn't feel like having their blood splattering against the truck. I edged forward slowly, letting them part and come around the sides, but there were dozens more behind them, forming an endless roadblock.

Daniel noticed I was falling behind and looked back, tilting his head for a moment. He gave a pointed stare to the side and gave a sharp hunting growl. The sound caught the attention of most of the zombies, at least the ones who'd discovered the truck wasn't edible, and they turned to face him.

Daniel sank into a crouch and stalked behind a transit bus to the side. Most of the zombies decided to join the hunt—or at least scavenge some leftovers—and began heading to where he had disappeared. The same Runner that had been chasing us the entire time remained in the back of the truck, not willing to follow the Terror in case he got more flying lessons.

I eased the truck through the remaining zombies and soon caught up to where Daniel had stopped his road-clearing efforts. He must not have been thinking, because one rusted-out truck stood between me and at least a couple hundred feet of open pavement.

The thudding of feet on hollow metal had me turning my head as Daniel ran along the top of the bus to evade the zombies he'd lured away. Without slowing, he jumped down and ran toward the rusty truck blocking my path. With a powerful kick that pretty much destroyed the door, he knocked the obstacle well to the side.

I accelerated through the opening, although I had to slow down since my delay had let more zombies close in. Daniel ran to the next vehicle blockade, leaving me to swerve around them and listen to the Runner in the back fall over onto the mattress. In the mirrors, all the zombies Daniel had lured away were once more in pursuit.

Another Runner finally caught up, and I growled at it, echoed by the hitchhiker in the back. The new arrival didn't appreciate our welcome and tried to First Strike the one in the back. Since I didn't bother slowing down to let them have their spat, the hitchhiker missed. Still, his nails came close enough to make the other one back up.

I turned the wheel to veer around more zombies, sending the hitchhiker falling backward onto the mattress once more. Daniel pushed a bus out of the way, revealing a massive sinkhole ahead that spanned the entire street.

I stopped the truck beside him, asking, "Do we detour or go on foot?"

He glanced back at the zombies streaming after us. There had to be close to a thousand of them, if not more. There was no way we'd be able to return to the previous intersection until they cleared out. I considered that as my answer and got out of the truck.

As I closed the door, the Runner in the back looked up, chewing on a packet of dried jerky that must have come out of the corner I'd hidden it in.

I crossed my arms as I regarded the pesky thing that had accompanied us our entire trip through the city. "What? Are you going to guard the truck for us?" When he gave me a blank stare with the wrapper still in his mouth, I shook my head. "You know what? You sit right there until we come back."

I started walking away, leaving Daniel to turn the air valves on the wood gas canister, but his disbelieving stare had me quickly turning around to see the zombie awkwardly settling down on the mattress, still chewing on the plastic wrapper.