The Zombie Plagues Dead Road: The Collected books. (137 page)

Billy picked up a canvas strap for the
machine gun, that allowed him to keep it suspended from one
shoulder, yet easily accessible to him if he needed it. The machine
pistols fit easily into leather shoulder holsters, and there were
more than enough in the shop for everyone. Billy debated briefly,
and then took one more of the machine pistols, along with one of
the leather holsters as well. He had a vague, uneasy feeling about
the weapons. He felt as if he had joined some weird sort of
commando outfit, instead of belonging to a group who had been
nothing more than average citizens just a few short weeks before.
He pushed the thought away, and after adjusting the leather
shoulder holster, slid the fully loaded machine pistol into it, and
fastened the small chrome push-catch across the blued steel grip of
the weapon.

They loaded all the gear into the back
of the Suburban, including every round of nine mm ammunition the
store had in stock, which, Billy thought, amounted to enough to
wage a small war with. After consulting the map, they set out once
more.

The shop had contained a great deal of
pre-packaged freeze dried foods, and that had also found its way
into the rear of the Suburban.

CHAPTER SEVEN

Billy and Beth

April 22nd

N
oon found them just outside of Owensboro, Kentucky. Route 60.
Billy hoped Route 60 would by-pass most of the moderately sized
city. Beth had studied the map, but couldn't tell for sure whether
it would. One thing's for sure, Billy thought, it's certainly less
traveled.

They had all noticed, and remarked on
the fact that there had been no appreciable stalled traffic at all,
and that had seemed good at first, until they had all begun to
notice that someone had been at work either towing the cars off the
roadway, or pushing them into the ditches along the side, where
they still sat.

“
It don't necessarily have
to be bad,” Delbert said from the back seat, “could be some good
folks.”

“
Yeah,” Beth agreed from
the front seat, “could be. But also might not be.”

They were less than a mile from the
city limits when they saw the road block.

Billy bought the truck to a screeching
halt, more than a half mile away at the crest of a slight rise,
nearly as soon as it had come into sight. They could see better
than a half dozen heavily armed men standing along the sides of two
Kentucky State Police cruisers, pulled crosswise nose to nose
blocking the road. The men had immediately snapped to attention
when they spotted the truck, and were now staring in their
direction. One of the men had quickly jumped into one of the patrol
cars, and Billy assumed, after seeing him speaking into a hand held
microphone, had probably radioed someone about them. Not good at
all, he thought.

“
Them's the same bastards
we saw the other day,” Delbert said, “see that red pickup off the
shoulder?”

Billy nodded his head.

“
They was driving that
truck, I recognize it, Billy. Was only two of 'em then, so I expect
they didn't want to mess with us. Looks like they found some
like-minded company though and that ain't good at all.”

Billy forced his heartbeat to slow down
so he could think clearly. At first he had been positive that the
men would get in the cars and come screaming down the road after
them. They hadn't, and in fact seemed to be just watching the
Suburban to see what they were going to do. “I'm open to
suggestions,” Billy said.

“
First thing,” Beth
replied, “is to get the hell off the road, if they did radio
someone they're probably on the way. I saw a dirt road that cuts
off to the right about a half mile back, might be smart for us to
get down it so we can think this thing out, before we're forced to
fight it out right here.”

“
That group could kill,”
Delbert said, “I saw the way they were looking at us, and
especially Peggy, we don't need to let them get the upper hand, and
right now we're on their terms. I expect they would just as soon
kill us... well most of us, and I hate to think what they'd do to
the girls.”

“
This is one girl they
don't want to screw with,” Beth said angrily.

“
How far?” Billy said as he
punched the gas and squeezed the wheel of the Suburban. He bounced
the truck down off the road, and the rear tires threw up rooster
tails of dirt and grass, as the truck slewed around, and came back
up onto the road. The tires spun momentarily dislodging the grass
and mud, then found their purchase and propelled them back down the
road, away from the road block. Behind them they could hear the low
pop of rifle fire from the direction of the road block.

“
Half mile, no more,” Beth
said.

They were no more than a hundred feet
down the road, when a blue Bronco appeared ahead of them moving
toward them. A blonde haired man leaned out the driver’s side
window holding what looked to be a sawed off shotgun.

“
Shit,” Billy muttered,
“Dell?”

“
Got it,” he heard from the
back seat. He heard the wind suddenly rushing into the truck's
interior and realized that Delbert had opened the window, just
before he heard the loud chattering of one of the machine
pistols.

The blonde haired man fired the shotgun
at the same time Delbert began to fire from the back seat. Billy
saw the flash from the gun, and heard a rattle from the front of
the Suburban that sounded like hundreds of stones hitting the front
bumper.

The machine pistol continued to chatter
from the back seat, and Billy watched as dozens of holes appeared
in the body of the blue Bronco, almost in a straight line along the
driver’s side. The front driver side tire blew out, and the truck
veered sharply toward their lane.

“
Hold on!” Billy yelled, as
he spun the wheel and they left the road. The truck bounced when it
left the road and entered the ditch, but Billy kept the truck under
control, and without letting up on the gas angled it back toward
the highway just as the Bronco began to flip into the ditch. A line
of trees flew by on the passenger side of the Suburban, scant
inches from the glass, and then the truck lurched once more, left
the ditch and rocketed back up onto the highway. The two trucks
missed by only inches, and Billy had found himself looking into the
lifeless eyes of the blonde haired man, hanging loosely out of the
window, for just an instant, before the truck was by him and
rolling into the ditch.

Billy brought the Suburban back up onto
the road, and floored it. When he came to the dirt road he almost
blew right by it, but managed to slow enough to slide into the
entrance somewhat under control. He barreled through the first
curve at better than fifty miles an hour. Once he was around it,
and hidden from the road, he slowed down. He rounded two more
curves before he stopped the truck, and turned around facing back
toward the main road. Thick choking dust from the dirt road rafted
up into the air. No way are they going to sneak up on me, he
thought, as he watched the road and strained his ears to listen. A
few seconds later he heard the high whine of a vehicle on the
highway, but it didn't slow down, and the high pitched whine of the
motor dwindled away to silence in a few seconds as it continued
onward, apparently, Billy thought, looking for them.

“
Must not have seen the
dust we kicked up,” John said.

“
Or pretended not to see
it,” Beth said, as she spoke they heard a muffled explosion in the
distance.

“
Think that was that
Bronco?” Peggy asked.

“
Could've been, probably
was in fact,” Delbert said, “hope so anyhow.”

Beth was studying the map once more.
“It's a good thing we didn't break off to the left,” she
said.

“
Why?” Billy
asked.

“
River,” she stated calmly,
“about a mile or so in the opposite direction, we would have been
trapped if we'd gone that way. It looks like we got open land ahead
here. At least it looks that way, it's hard to tell.”

Billy looked back along the dirt road.
Thick dust still hung above it. “There's no way they missed us,” he
said, “unless they're blind. They had to see that dust hanging in
the air, and if we keep going we're going to kick up even more, and
they'll be able to follow it right to us.”

“
I think you're right, but
what the hell else can we do?” Delbert asked.

“
Turn around and go back,”
Billy said. He held up his hand to silence the outburst that
erupted at the suggestion. “Listen; if we sit here they're going to
come back, probably with more men. If we head back to the road
block now we have the advantage. I would bet the sound we heard of
a passing car was one of the police cruisers. If so that leaves
only one, and fewer men to contend with back there, if we wait the
odds will only get worse. See?”

“
He's right, I think,” Beth
said, “I don't want to die any more than any of us do. Sitting here
isn't going to help us at all, going back before they have a chance
to regroup might.”

“
Only thing to do,” Delbert
sighed from the back seat, “if I gotta die, I'd rather die fighting
than get trapped and slaughtered like an animal... There's just no
place we can go down here.”

“
So?” Billy
asked.

“
We go back,” Peggy said
decisively. John grunted a short “Yeah” which they could all tell
he was not enthusiastic about.

Billy dropped the Suburban back into
drive and they began to move down the dirt road, gaining momentum
as they neared the highway. Billy slowed to turn onto the highway
after looking in both directions and seeing nothing. Ahead,
approximately where the Bronco had wrecked, they could see greasy
black smoke billowing into the hot still air.

“
Could be some of 'em there
too,” Delbert said, as he stared toward the greasy smoke in the
distance. “If so, I'll be ready for 'em.” Billy nodded his head,
and brought the truck up to speed slowly to hide the whine of the
motor, which would hopefully allow them to take the road block, or
whoever might be at the Bronco, by surprise.

As they neared the burning Bronco Billy
could see one of the patrol cars off to the side of the road, along
with the red pickup that Delbert had pointed out to them. "Looks
like it," Billy said calmly, as he leaned back into the seat to
give Beth a clear shot through the driver’s side window.

The young blonde haired kid from the
Bronco was lifeless on the side of the road along with two other
crumpled forms that Billy assumed must have also been in the truck.
A small group of three men stood over the bodies. They heard the
approaching truck and suddenly jumped for cover as Billy roared by.
Beth's pistol chattered briefly, directly in front of his face, and
the tires of the red pickup exploded with a loud popping noise.
Billy pressed the gas pedal as close to the floor as it would go as
they passed, and almost simultaneously heard the sound of breaking
glass from the rear of the truck, along with a steady, plunk,
plunk, plunk, as bullets slammed into the rear of the fleeing
Suburban. A sudden cry of pain came from the rear a split second
later, as several small crystals of glass flew forward striking the
dashboard, and the back of Billy's head.

“
What happened?” he
shouted. “You guy's okay?”

“
Got John,” Delbert shouted
back, “it don't look good, Billy.”

“
Shit,” Billy muttered, as
he tried to press the gas pedal further into the floorboard.
“Shit.”

The intersection, where the road block
had been, appeared in front of them a few seconds later. Whatever
had gone by them on the highway had not been the second patrol car.
It still sat across the road, blocking the right hand lane. The
left hand lane was blocked by four men, who were not armed with
shotguns, Billy noticed as they neared, but some sort of machine
pistols similar to the ones they themselves carried. He was just
about to slam on the brakes and try to turn around once more, when
a quick glance in the mirror showed the other patrol car coming up
behind them. Its blue bubble light pulsing as it came. What the
hell, Billy thought these guy's must think they're playing some
sort of fucking game with us. Aloud he said. “We're screwed they're
in front of us and behind us... To hell with it, we're going
through. Hold on.”

Peggy pushed John aside, and took his
place at the rear passenger side window. She leaned out facing
back, and began firing at the closing patrol car, as Beth leaned
out and began to fire at the four men blocking the left hand side
of the road. Delbert was aiming at the four men as well from his
side of the truck. Two of the four dropped immediately, but the
other two were returning fire even as they ran for the cover of the
patrol car, and Billy could feel, as well as hear, the bullets
slamming into the Suburban, both front and rear.

The patrol car behind them suddenly
swerved and then flipped, and Peggy let out a scream of triumph as
she turned back to the front, knelt on the rear seat, and began to
fire over Beth's head at the other patrol car. The side of the car
began to take on a chewed-appearance within seconds, as all three
machine pistols were trained on it. Still, the men behind it
returned fire.