The pickup truck’s engine screamed as we fishtailed onto Highway 22, dead leaves and abandoned cars blurring past. Mara kept her pistol trained on the rear window, where silhouettes still lurched after us. My knuckles whitened on the steering wheel.
"Checkpoint’s 20 miles northeast," I said, swerving around an overturned ambulance. "If the military’s still there."
Mara ejected her spent magazine. "If they’re not, we’re just driving into another grave."
A guttural moan cut through the engine noise.
Ambush Ahead.
Three figures staggered onto the road—not slow biters, but runners. Their milky eyes locked onto us. I slammed the gas, but the closest lunged, cracking the windshield with its skull. Mara fired. The shot echoed as the runner collapsed, but the other two clawed at the doors.
"Jake—left side!"
I jerked the wheel. The truck clipped one runner, sending it spinning into the ditch. The other clung to the passenger mirror, teeth snapping. Mara braced her boot against the door and kicked. The creature tumbled under our wheels with a sickening crunch.
Silence!!
For three breaths, only the engine hummed. Then the fuel light flickered on.
Mara cursed. "We’re not making Redfield."
I spotted a sign: *Black River Rest Stop - 1 Mile.* "We hole up there. Find another car."
The Rest Stop Massacre
The parking lot was a graveyard of vehicles. A military convoy—abandoned. My hope surged until we saw the bullet holes in the Humvees. The soldiers’ corpses were eaten, not turned.
"They shot their own," Mara whispered.
A radio crackled inside one truck. Static, then a voice: "—any survivors, fall back to Sector 7—"
Gunfire erupted behind us.
A dozen biters spilled from the tree line, drawn by the noise. We dove into the Humvee as rotting hands slapped the windows. Mara frantically twisted the ignition. Nothing.
"Keys are gone!"
The glass cracked. I grabbed an abandoned M16 from the floor. "Then we hold here."
Mara racked the slide on her pistol. "Last stand?"
I aimed at the closest biter. "Hell of a story to tell in Sector 7."
The first shot rang out.
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