Chapter Nine
“Sandy, shoot it.” I said, voice shaking. I stepped down hard and the car flew forwards.
“I can’t Alex.” She was shaking, I couldn’t see the tears but I could hear the sobs and it killed me inside to do it but I yelled at her.
“Sandy yes you can, you can because if you can’t we both die.” The fields on either side of us flew past with speed. I kept glancing at the speedo as we got faster and faster. Soon we were pushing 120mph and I didn’t know how much longer I could keep control along the winding road. Already a couple of times I had felt the car fighting back against my control.
Sandy fired, hitting the beast in the shoulder. It kept coming and was keeping pace with us.
“Come on baby.” I urged. “You’ve got this. You can do this Sandy. Aim, shoot.” Sandy took another deep breath then shot, hitting it right in its bulging forehead. The monster looked dazed and stumbled, gaining us maybe ten yards before it started to pursue us again. Sandy whimpered. “That’s ok sweetheart, again! Same spot as before, it’s skull has to break at some point. It has to!” I could hear the desperation in my own voice and when the creature reared its head back, letting out and almighty roar I felt panic consume me. “Again!” I screamed.
Sandy shot three more times in quick succession, one missed, hitting it in the chest but the other two found their mark and the creature fell, skidding fifteen feet before eventually coming to a stop.
“That was a Special?” I asked Sandy as I sat clutching the steering wheel. I’d stopped the car and wasn’t taking my eyes off the gorilla like zombie that lay dead on the tarmac.
“Yes. I got it though Alex. I got it and it’s dead.” She was still shaking, gun aimed at the Special’s forehead.
“You did babe, you did so good!” I swung the car round and drove full speed at the creature, smashing it’s skull to a pulp, just to be sure.
“I can hear them coming. It called them to us before I killed it.” Sandy said as she reloaded and laid out her bullets next to her, the unused crossbow on her other side.
“I’m going to give them chance to catch up. I want you to take down the fastest at the front of the group so I can drive kind of slow. Next chance I get I’ll pull into the fields and lead them back to town.”
“Ok.”
“Sandy, are you ok?”
“It was just scary, that’s all. I thought we was going to die and I didn’t want us to die, we only just met.”
“We’re not going to die, not today at least. I promise.” She turned and looked at me, smiling, I smiled back then looked back in my rear view mirror. “Do you think there’ll be any more mutated zombies?” I asked.
“Probably not. We’ve never heard of there being more than one in a town but most towns have them. Luke had to take one down all on his own in that town he cleared. Zak’s killed two but the second nearly bit him.”
“Any idea what makes them mutate?” Sandy shrugged.
“Brian said that it couldn’t be a blood type or there’d be more of them. Luke thinks that it might be something like the people having another illness before they get turned but no one knows for sure.”
The first Infected came round the bend and I set off slowly. “Not yet.” I told Sandy. We’d left all the regular zombies behind when we had to take on the special so I wanted to make sure they all caught back up. The town needed to be as empty as possible so that Zak and Kitty could make it to the hospital.
I hit the horn which urged on the first wave of infected, then smashed my foot on the accelerator. I signalled Sandy and she began to fire, almost every one of her bullets hit their mark and soon I was able to ease up and slow down. I spotted a weak point in the wooden fence that separated road from field. I swerved and broke through the rotting wood.
“They’re going to surround us.” Sandy warned me. I’d already thought about that. The way the road swerved as I drove straight through the fields the Infected would be able to climb over, or through the fence from in front of us, behind us and to our left. The forest sat to our right and now, town was dead ahead. I could only hope the car could plough through the mass of un dead.
“I know, I think we’ll be alright though.”
“I have another plan.”
“I’m not going to like it am I?” I sighed. Sandy shrugged.
“You don’t have to like it, you just have to agree to it.”
“Tell me.”
“Sun roof.” I groaned. Why did all her plans put her in danger? Those split second decisions I spoke about before? This was one of them. If I’d have let myself think it over for any length of time I’d have said no and we probably wouldn’t have made it.
“Do it.” The sun roof was electric which I saw as a good thing, it meant that if it had to be closed fast I could do it without having to even turn round. I only opened it half way, just enough for tiny little Sandy to stick her top half out. “Aim for the biggest and fastest.” I told her and she nodded, unable to talk because of the ammo lodged between her teeth.
I drove diagonally through the field then parallel to the forest, I wanted to keep the Infected as far away from town as possible till it was time to lead them back through, but by then Zak and Kitty should be long gone. I was thankful for the lack of rain, the ground was dry and compact, it meant we didn’t get stuck but the skid was a bitch.
“Watch it Alex you nearly flung me out!”
“I’m trying Sands! I can see fuck all out this window! How we doing for zombies?”
“They’re still a little way off, they’re all still after us.”
“Good. Just, tell me if I’m gunna hit something.”
“Alex I can see the town.” Sandy told me a few minutes later.
“Can you see anything?”
“No, we’re too far away. It looks quiet though.”
“Good.”
“Here we go.” Sandy called and I heard her gun go off. Before I knew what was happening Infected were coming straight at the car, through the cloud of dust that surrounded me. “Careful Alex, you’re turning towards the trees!” Sandy warned me. I couldn’t see a thing and decided it was time to speed up and try clear the dust cloud and get back to the road.
Five minutes later we were back on the road, heading towards town. I kept my ears open, searching for the car horn I should hear any second. A little further down the now almost deserted road we heard a car horn and a little way after that we came to Geoff. The only infected that were around were the half eaten ones, missing a leg and crawling pathetically.
“You didn’t stick to the plan.” I accused. He obviously hadn’t been drawing all that much attention to himself like he was supposed to, he should have his own mass of Walkers following him.
“Hey! I did stick to the plan. They were all around me then, suddenly they were more interested in something else. They all left after this huge zombie call sounded.”
“Oh. That was probably us, we had a mutated zombie on our tail. Sandy got him.”
“Well, at least we know they’ve got some kind of hierarchy then.” I nodded, storing the thought away for later reflection.
The Infected were in sight again so we closed our windows and made as much noise as possible, honking horns, revving engines and flashing lights. Sandy even shouted at them, calling them every bad word under the sun. She started to shoot and me and Geoff started to drive.
“Shout to Geoff, tell him we’re going to go in first, clear the way!” Sandy nodded and shouted the message to Geoff who nodded understanding and slowed down slightly.
I sped up, feeling a little guilty for my white lie. I didn’t just want to clear the way for Geoff, I wanted to check Zak and Kitty had made it out and if they needed any assistance. I didn’t trust Geoff completely and it was obvious he trusted me, that made me feel really bad. Now wasn’t the time to be lying to each other.
A/N Sorry it's been so long, I write a chapter then it feels like a few days later I go to write a new one and it's been freaking months!!! My bad, I'm sorry, I'll try be more consistant!!