Deadlocked (6 page)

“Get the fuck away from our truck,” said Laura as she appeared. She was brandishing the dropped pistol.

“You fucking crazy,” said Jay as he stood up. “You ain’t gonna shoot no one. Give the gun back to us men, cunt.”

Laura lowered the gun and shot him in the leg.

"Watch your mouth," she said as Jay squealed and fell into his friend’s arms. The thugs retreated to their truck while we loaded the girls into ours. Laura kept the gun pointed at them as we moved and I kissed her on the cheek before going to my side.

“Did you really get bit?” she asked.

“No, babe. That was bullshit.”

“Mother fucker,” said the chubby one.

Laura started to laugh. “You really are the best God damned salesman I’ve ever met.”

“Pays to be a liar, babe,” I said as I got in the truck. She handed me the gun when she got in and I reached out the window to point it at them. “Do yourself a favor and get some food from the cafeteria. There’s plenty there. And I left a bunch of supplies in the nurse's office you can use to patch up the gunshot.”

“I’m going to kill you two mother fuckers!” said Jay.

Laura started the truck. I leaned further out the window to say my goodbye. “Oh, and one last thing. Don’t ever threaten my family again.” I fired a shot into his tire. It exploded with a violent whine and hiss as the air escaped.

I accepted the idea that I might die that day, but it wouldn't be those two pieces of shit that finished me off.

CHAPTER SEVEN – A THUG'S LIFE

Laura drove the truck across the soccer field and back onto the street. I was pretty happy with the result of our confrontation and couldn’t stop from smiling as I did my best to reassure my daughters that I'd been lying about getting bit.

“Daddy’s a big fat liar, girls,” said Laura and we shared a laugh. Then she stiffened when she saw something in the rearview. “Oh shit.”

“What? What’s wrong?” I asked. I looked back to see what she was concerned about. The thugs had followed us. I saw their truck jump over the edge of the field and onto the road where their flat tire sparked against the blacktop.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” I said.

“I can’t drive too fast, Dave,” said Laura. “The girls aren’t buckled in. We can’t drive like crazy. I’m not going to be able to outrun them.”

“They’ve got a flat,” I said. “It’s not going to be easy for them to follow us. And I’ve got a gun, so if they get too close I can take a few shots at them.”

“I’m scared,” said Kim as she started to tremble.

I held her hand and kissed her on the forehead. “Sweetie, don’t worry. Mommy and I aren't going to let anything happen to you. We’re going to get to the boat and all go for a really fun ride out in the bay.”

“Dave, Dave, Dave,” said Laura. I looked up and saw an accident ahead that a few cars were stuck behind. There was no way for us to get around it. The roadway was limited to one lane and there were houses on either side.

“Go up on the lawns,” I said.

“There’re trees, Dave. There’s no room to drive around the accident.” She started to panic.

“Then stop and let me out,” I said.

“What? No. No way.”

“Stop the truck and let me out!” I had to yell to get her to stop now before she got too close to the rest of the stopped traffic or my plan wasn’t going to work. She slowed down and I opened my door before we came to a full stop. “When you hear me start shooting, drive the truck up onto that lawn. Okay?”

“Why?” she asked. “What are you doing?”

“Just do it, Laura. Trust me.”

I slammed the door shut and walked out into the middle of the road. I ran at the truck that bore down on my family. I ran as fast as I could with the gun pointed straight ahead. I could see the two thugs lower themselves down in their seats when they saw me point the gun at them. They were going to ram our truck, just as I expected.

I took a couple shots at them. I could only hope Laura had enough time to drive onto the lawn. My shots blew through their windshield and caused flowers of cracks to erupt around the bullet holes. My goal wasn’t to hit them, although I wouldn't care if I had. I just needed to force them to look away from the road. I dove to the side as their truck passed, but I fired another shot at the back of the window to keep them bent down.

The chubby one sped up, intent on ramming our truck as hard as he could, but Laura had done as I asked and pulled onto one of the lawns lining the road. They rammed the car that had been in front of
us,
a small sedan, and their truck skidded off to the left side.

Laura backed up and turned around. She drove over to me and I climbed in with a smile. “See, babe. When are you going to learn to trust me?”

“Since when are you an action hero?” she asked.

“Since today. About four hours ago.”

“Well stop it. It’s freaking me out.”

We took a different route through the neighborhood to avoid the crash, but it didn’t take us long to get down to the street that William’s salvage yard was on. I checked my watch as we pulled up to the gate. It was 1:58; 43 minutes had passed since I'd left. We were cutting it a little too close, but we made it none-the-less.< Fstru>Th/font>

“Look,” said Laura as she pointed down the street. There was a mob of people halfway down the block, past the entrance to the salvage yard.

“Are those zombies?” I asked.

“I think so.”

“Okay.” I tried to stay calm. “Just pull up to the gate slowly. I’ll get out and see if I can get William's attention without having to honk the horn. We don’t want to draw their attention.”

She pulled into the gravel driveway and stopped in front of the gate. I got out and climbed onto the hood to scan the yard. William was down by the dock, near the shrimp boat. I called out to him as quietly as I could manage. He heard me after a few calls and waved with an enormous smile.

I was about to jump down from the hood when I saw the thugs rounding the corner onto the street, right on our trail.

Laura heard the wrenching screech of their flat tire and she yelled for me to get back in the truck.

The zombie horde heard them as well. They bolted our way.

William unlatched the gate and started the arduous task of sliding it open. I grabbed it from my side and pushed as well, doubling the speed. We got it open enough for Laura to get the truck through and I jumped off the hood so that she could hurry. The truck tires struggled to catch hold in the gravel when she gunned it, spitting rocks up behind her as the vehicle inched forward.

The thugs bore down on us in their smashed truck. I moved back onto the road. I hoped it was
me
they were set on running down and not my girls. I was right, and they adjusted their trajectory to collide with me in the middle of the street.

I raised my gun and aimed at the windshield that had been partially kicked out. I could see the chubby fucker driving and he stared me down, daring me to shoot him. He must have learned his lesson about taking his eyes off the road from our last encounter. All the while, the zombie horde charged at my back.

I watched out of the corner of my eye as Laura got the truck into the salvage yard. As soon as she was in I put the gun down and ran toward the entrance. The thugs turned to the right to hit me, but their flat tire made it hard for the truck to respond, otherwise they would have certainly run me down. Instead, they clipped me as I dove away. The edge of their truck crashed into my hip and spun me in the air before I collided with the gravel driveway.

Their truck jumped the curb and plummeted into William's fence. The front end broke through a portion of it and left their truck balanced on a cracked post. The zombie horde surged over the truck as the two thugs tried to get out. The screams of the driver were horrific, and the other man, the one Laura shot in the leg, fell out of the truck and looked at me as he crawled my way. I was looking in his eyes when the zombies overtook him. He wailed as they bit into his flesh.

I aimed the gun at Jay's head and took the shot. I couldn’t Fabou="T watch another person get eaten alive, even if they deserved it. No one should die that way.

CHAPTER EIGHT – A FATHER’S RESPONSIBILITY

My gunshot alerted the zombies to my presence and they turned their attention to me. I tried to shoot them, but the gun was out of bullets. I'd made it all this way and was going to die right at the end.

A zombie ran at
me and skid
on his knees when he hit the gravel. His arms reached out and his mouth gaped wide in anticipation of my flesh.

An oar swished through the air above my head and caught the zombie in the face. The monster’s head flipped through the air behind it and I heard Billy scream in triumph.

“Woo hoo!”

“Didja see that one, Dave?” asked William. “Told ya he was a natural.”

That morning, if someone asked me if it was possible to knock a person's head off with an oar, I would've laughed at the thought. By that afternoon I would have been
proven
wrong as I watched a zombie’s head fly through the blue, cloudless sky and bounce off the top of the thug’s truck. William gathered me up in his arms and pulled me to my feet. “Can you walk?”

“I think so.”

Billy closed the gate after knocking down a few more zombies. He was a lot stronger than his father or me and had no trouble sliding the massive gate shut.

“Billy, come on. Everyone get on the boat," said William.

Laura and the girls had grabbed as many bags as they could and dragged them down to The Casper. The dock stretched out into the water about thirty feet, which would give us a good place to defend ourselves against the coming horde if we had to.
 
Kim put on the My Little Pony backpack filled with medical supplies and pulled a bag full of canned fruit along the dock behind her. Annie was too small to help out much, but she proudly hoisted a bag with two loaves of bread in it. She turned to smile at me and then dropped the loaves to wave.

I waved back and she blew me a kiss. She picked the loaves back up and ran to catch up with her sister. Laura looked over her shoulder to see where I was. She cried out in panic for me to watch out as she tossed her bags into the boat.

I looked back up the hill and saw what she was yelling about. Four zombies had crawled through the break in the fence that the thugs made when they crashed their truck.

“Get to the boat,” Willia Fup, ieight="0"m said as he let me go.

William and his son stood defiantly before the approaching zombies. Billy looked like he was facing down a major league pitcher as he stood there, holding his oar an inch over his shoulder in a stance he must have practiced a thousand times. William picked up a short piece of rebar and looked like an officer carrying a baton, ready to face off against a riot.

The zombies rushed down the hill. They moaned and growled with hunger and were met with swift strikes by the father and son team. I moved forward to help, but William chastised me.

“Get on the fucking boat you dumbass,” he said.

I wordlessly complied and limped down the dock. I heard William speak to his son and realized he'd been yelling at him, not me.

“I said get on the God damned boat, Billy.”

“Me? What the…” Billy stammered as he fought along side his dad.

“Get your ass on that boat.”

“What about you?” asked
Billy.

“I’ll be there in a minute. You get that boat started and get these people out of here.”

“God damn it, Dad. You’d better make it onto that fucking boat.”

They bashed in the zombies' skulls as they yelled at each other. I struggled to get down the dock and Billy ran up behind me to help.

“I love you,” said William.

As Billy grabbed my arm and wrapped it over his shoulder I saw that he was crying. At that moment I understood what was happening. William wasn’t getting on the boat.

“What’s he doing?” I asked.

Billy shook his head and growled when he answered, “Trying to be a hero. The boat has to be running to move. We're sitting ducks if I can't get the engine started.”

I looked back as we got onto the boat and saw William had positioned himself at the base of the dock.
 
At the top of the hill, the fence shook as more zombies climbed through the hole left by the thug’s truck. Five, six, seven, then ten, then fifteen zombies crawled through. William stood stoically at the base of the dock, his rebar held
high,
ready to do everything he could to make sure his son survived.

Billy ran to the cabin at the front of the boat and tried to get the engine to turn over. He yelled at the machine and kicked at it as he struggled to get it going.

I tried to push the boat away from the dock, but I didn’t have the strength. Laura ran over to help, but we couldn't get the vessel to budge.

“The boat’s too damn heavy to push off without the motor going,” said B Nfontface="Tiilly as he watched from inside the boat's cabin. “That’s why Dad’s up there.”