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  Bill joined him a moment later and pulled the door shut effortlessly, ripping the latch out of the drywall as he slammed it shut. There was nothing to hold the door shut with, so Bill pushed himself up against it while waiting for Javier and Stewart.

  When the other two arrived Bill said, "Okay, we can either leave the door and have zeds shambling up our asses or one of us can stay here and hold the fort. "

  "You're giving us a choice?" asked Stewart.

  "No, I am asking for input."

  "We all go." Stewart said, "These are shamblers and there is no guarantee we will be coming back this way."

  Bill nodded, "Okay. Max, sorry to put you on point twice in a row, but you know where they have Ruben upstairs and you'll know if there are any zeds waiting in the rooms to spring out at us. So I want you and Stewart to head upstairs. If you come to a room were anything but a shambler is hiding you stop and wait for us. If they start to move Ruben, you and Stewart go balls to the wall until you catch them. Understand?" Max nodded. "Javier and I will follow in ten."

  Max set off up the stairs, with Stewart close on his heels.

  They reached the second floor and Max had time to reflect how very long ten seconds could be in the middle of an adrenaline rush. Max knew the hallway was clear before he burst into it, about halfway down there was a super zombie off to one side. The zombie was hiding at the elevators, which bisected the hotel floor. It looked like a Jenner.

  "Jenner ahead, by the elevator." The zombie was back-lit by the light from the window at the other end of the hall.

  A gunshot rang out and the wallpaper six feet in front of Max spontaneously developed a long tear.

  "Armed Jenner!" Max corrected, blasting the corridor with his shotgun.

  "Armed Jenner? You can do better than that!" said Stewart, running by Max as the zombie ducked back into the elevator alcove to avoid the shotgun blast.

  Stewart fired her rifle as the zed tried to come back in for another shot. "How about Gunslinging Jenner?"

  "Too long, how about Jengun? Or Jenga? For short?"

  "Lame, no score for you. He ain't too good either, untrained, more like an amateur. Billy the Kid Jenner?" Stewart said.

  "Still too long." said Max firing again as he moved ahead of Stewart to the next set of doors. "Watch the hallway down there, it looks like Ruben is moving."

  "Okay, I'll watch for them, you got the Billy up there?"

  "No. Not 'Billy', Billy the kid was good, this guy sucks."

  "You know I can hear you!" called the zombie from the elevator.

  "Good!" shouted Stewart, "You can't hit the broad side of a barn!" She fired a shot at the zed as it, predictably, tried to come around the corner and prove her wrong. She winged it in the shoulder and sent its gun flying down the hallway to land on the carpet. "Sucker! Oldest trick in the book! Go Max!"

  Max took off for the elevator, calling back, "He still ain't a 'Billy'! Watch the hallway!" Max ran along the right side of the hall, giving Stewart a clear shot down the left side. A zombie head poked out of the doorway three quarters of the way to the far end. Stewart let loose with a three shot burst that caused the zed to pull back into the room. As he rounded the corner, shotgun at shoulder height, he was surprised to see the zombie cowering in the corner, hands raised in front of his face. Max's finger tightened on the trigger, then relaxed, he couldn't bear the idea of shooting a man who was defenseless in front of him.

  "Fuck!" he yelled trying to force himself to pull the trigger again.

  "Please don't! Just don't. I didn't, I didn't want to, I was. I was trying to miss. He made me, I would have just stayed at home, you know, not hurt any…"

  "Shut up!" Max yelled. He was fully inside the elevator alcove now and Stewart fired another burst behind him to keep the zombies holding Ruben pinned. In the dim light he could barely make out the zombie's features, he was an African American man, not too much older than Max.

  Stewart rushed by Max, heading down the hall, calling out, "Max! C'mon, shoot the Billy and let's go!" as she went by.

  Max said, "Sorry." and pulled the trigger, drowning out the man's plea for mercy. The shot severed one of the zed's hands at the wrist and took off the top left side of his head. As Max turned to go he saw that it wasn't dead, it was twitching. "Goddamned pain in the ass! He stepped forward and finished the zombie off with another shot, then reloaded his gun as Bill and Javier caught up to him.

  "Max?" Bill said, squinting in the poor light. "You okay?"

  "Yeah, peachy."

  "Guys! C'mon! I got them pinned!" yelled Stewart.

  The three caught up with Stewart, and Bill said, "Javier, you watch our backs, when those shamblers come up here you let us know, but don't shoot unless you have to."

  Stewart was outside of the hotel room, she had her rifle pointed inside and Max quickly peeked in from the other side of the doorway. In the main room there were two zombies and Ruben. Ruben was closest to the doorway and the two zombies were behind him, one had a knife at his throat, the other was standing there nervously, sucking its lips into his mouth, then pushing them out. As Max watched, it bit down and cut its lower lip free and sucked it into its mouth. Even as it chewed Max could see the outer lip stop bleeding. Faster than he would have thought possible, the lip that had been chewed off regrew.

  "That is fucking-a disgusting." Stewart said softly.

  "Yeah, Lips is an acquired taste." said the zombie holding the knife, "Even on a good day I can hardly stand to be around him." He shrugged his shoulders and continued, "And today is not a good day."

  Stewart turned her eyes towards the zombie with the knife, "I don't think he'd be that much better on a good day. So, you gonna drop that knife?"

  The zombie shook his head slightly, "No. You gonna drop that gun?"

  Stewart fired, the bullet caught the zombie low in its forehead, almost dead center between the eyes. It clenched once, but the knife dropped effortlessly from its hand as it toppled over. When it fell backward, Lips was exposed and Max took a shot at him, aiming high. Max's shot missed and the zombie threw itself backwards into the curtains and window, leaving Ruben behind. The window didn't break and the zombie flailed around, wound up in the curtains while Max and Stewart fired into it. Their shots blew out the window and after bumping into the sill, Lips fell out of sight, pulling the curtain rod with him.

  "Ruben! Are you okay?" Max said, going down to one knee and putting his hand out to steady him.

  "I'm fine, they didn't even scratch me. Did you get the bomb?"

  "We left it for now."

  Stewart went to the window and looked down at their truck. "It's still there. Hey, Javier? Those zeds coming at us yet?"

  From down the hall Javier called back, "No. How's Ruben?"

  "He says he's fine! We're getting him up and out of here now."

  Reuben stood up and ran a hand across his neck, then looked at it. "That could have been bad. If he had jerked back or something."

  "No, they don't. Haven't you noticed, a head shot drops them, it's like they don't have that last convulsive reaction like the living do. You weren't in any danger." said Stewart.

  "I hadn't noticed…"

  "Well don't worry about it gramps, you can't pick up everything. Besides…" a gunshot interrupted her as Javier fired. "Besides we didn't have all day to negotiate, we got zeds incoming."

  "Why the hell didn't they eat you Ruben?" asked Max, reloading his gun as he spoke.

  "I heard 'em talking, they said…"

  "Later, let's get out of her first. Max where are they?" interrupted Stewart.

  "Shamblers coming up the hallway, Lips is gone, he is running back to the other hotel, the others seem to be clearing out too."

  "Should we be worried about that?"

  Max nodded, "I am."

  "Fuck."

  "You all ready to go?" Bill called from the hall.

  "Yeah, we can go down the stairway at the other end of the hall, it's empty, then cut through the
building back to the lobby to get to the truck." Max said.

  "Okay, let's do it. Javier, you grab Ruben, Max and Stewart follow us, but stay closer than before." Bill led the way down with Javier sticking close to Ruben.

  "How come you paused with Billy back there?"

  "I don't know, he wasn't armed, he was just sitting there, cowering, begging me not to shoot him."

  "No mercy Max. No mercy. You forget why we are here?"

  "I know why I am here Stewart."

  "Good, I think your kids would appreciate that. Did you forget what the zombies have done to you? What they have taken from you? From everyone?"

  "No, I haven't forgotten."

  "Next time you better remember faster, if it helps you, think of your wife."

  "Stewart! That is…"

  "Don't 'Stewart' me! The few seconds you spent dicking around could have gotten Ruben killed. Next time it could be me or Bill or any of us. Get your head on straight! They are not human, we can't just get along with them. We can't make peace! They eat us for fuck's sake!"

  "Alright. I got it. Lay off."

  "I'm not mad, so don't you be. I just want to help you out. Peace?"

  "Yeah, okay, peace. I still say he shouldn't be a 'Billy'."

  "Because he couldn't shoot for shit?" asked Stewart.

  "Yeah, the name doesn't do the original justice."

  "You know the names of any bad shots?"

  "No."

  "That's 'cause they were bad shots, they never got into the press, they got dead. Hm, what about 'Nancy'?"

  Max thought back to the super zombie who had pursued him so long ago back to his home in Denver, the zombie who had infected his wife, he shook his head, "I wouldn't want to honor her like that."

  They went down the stairs, still bantering quietly.

  "She was a bitch. I don't suppose 'bitch' would work?"

  "No, I've already got a patent on that one. You'll have to try harder. At least we have a name for zombies who are good with guns." said Max.

  "Yeah, 'Billy', though I hope we never have to use it. If we do it means someone has been shot."

  The group moved into the lobby of the hotel and looked out at their bullet ridden truck. Bill took the keys out of his pocket, "Think it will run?"

  Ruben shrugged, "Only one way to find out. At least the tires aren't blown out."

  "No windows though." said Max.

  "The weather is good, we'll be okay. Javier, why don't you drop and see if anything is leaking out of it?" asked Bill.

  Javier went to his hands and knees by the front door of the hotel and looked under the truck. He shook his head from there and said, "It looks okay Bill, I don't see anything dripping. The bomb is still there too, on the ground."

  "Our lucky day." muttered Ruben.

  "Yeah, next time old man, just leave it and fall back. We are the only ones with the codes to set it off, if we lose it we'd just have to figure something else out." Bill finished and they were started by a loud 'beep', coming from the backpack.

  They looked at each other and back at the pack, staying quiet. They heard a muffled sound, like someone speaking, after a few moments they heard another beep.

  "What the fuck is that?" asked Stewart.

  No one answered, because no one knew what to say.

  Chapter 16 — Katie

  The family was gone. All dead. The plan to clear the zombies at the front of the house had worked, with her almost silent gun Katie was able to cap a few of them from the front door. After the initial attack she taped a new bottle on the rifle, then sneaked around the house and shot the zombies from behind. They were easy marks, slow and pathetic, nothing like those she had dealt with in Chicago. The family had decided to stay the night in the house, Kent put Robert in a basement bedroom and the kids opted to sleep on the old couch down there as well. Katie had decided to sleep in the minivan in the garage. It went against her 'sleep below the level of the ground' instinct, but they hadn't seen any zombies after shooting those outside of the house.

  Sometime during the night Robert must have died, then came back and killed Kent. At least that was Katie's theory. Kent was supposed to be on watch and didn't wake anyone when Robert attacked him. Katie, in a sealed car in the garage hadn't heard anything, she woke up when the sun was just peeking above the horizon and knew something was wrong, she should have been woken earlier to take a turn on watch. Upon opening the door between the garage and the kitchen Katie heard a slow, shuffling sound. Flicking on her flashlight she saw that the kitchen floor was stained with blood and gore, someone had died there and they weren't clean about it.

  Jess came at Katie first, the girl was in rough shape, it looked like maybe she had been fed on by two zombies, she was missing a large part of her stomach, her bottom rib was bare and showed teeth marks from some viscous biting. The girl was slow too, to get a clean shot Katie had to step towards her and fire. The noise of the rifle thundered through the house and brought the other three out of the basement in short order. Katie shot Bobby before he reached the top of the stairs, then shot Kent as he came into the kitchen.

  Robert was faster and warier than the others, but then he had died first and probably had the most food of all of them. More food meant he was a smarter, faster zombie. He stood on the steps just out of sight and called up to Katie, "I don't want you. I hate you for what you did, but I won't bother you."

  Katie didn't say anything, the idea of talking to him was repugnant to her, he had just eaten the ones he loved and was mad that she had killed them. 'What a douche bag.'

  "I get it now. I understand what happened." Robert said.

  Silently moving to the top of the stairs Katie aimed at the man's head, he didn't shy away from her.

  "I don't think you understand, do you?"

  Katie pulled the trigger and blew out Robert's left eye, he fell backward down the stairs and lay silently. 'Huh, I was aiming for the bridge of the nose. I better sight in this gun in today.' She added it to her list of things to do, turned and packed the things she wanted to take with her. Her shotgun was already in the van, in fact most of her stuff was in the van. Katie looked around the kitchen and debated going into the basement to look over the group's other equipment. 'Two guns are enough. Fuck it, I'm outta here.' Katie entered the garage and pulled the emergency release for the garage door, then hefted it up so she could pull the van out.

  'I don't even know where I am going. South, but where and why?' Her mom had moved to Florida, but Katie hadn't seen the woman in two years and had never visited her there. Getting behind the wheel of the car she pulled out carefully and nodded in satisfaction at the almost full tank of gas she had to travel on. She didn't have any trouble getting back to the highway and after debating one last time she headed south, 'Where the hell else do I have to go? Mom will sure be surprised. If she's alive.'

  The day went by quickly, she made excellent time and left Illinois by the time the sun was setting that evening. She had been forced to detour around several of the larger wrecks and there were only a few sections of highway she could drive over forty five miles an hour, but in general she was surprised at how well things went. She didn't see many zombies at all, not even in the larger towns and cities she passed through. 'It's like they all left. Maybe they headed for greener pastures?'

  She had stayed on highway fifty seven until she was almost out of Illinois, then turned off on highway twenty four, which she thought should take her almost the rest of the way to the coast. She had stopped twice for fuel, the first time she had been lucky, the power was still on and she was able to figure out how to get the gas pumps switched on to fuel up. She had also found an empty gas can behind the counter of the convenience store and filled that up as well. The second refueling had been on the highway, next to two sedans that were pulled just off the road. One of them had a tube with a manual pump stuck into its gas tank, there was another two and a half gallon can there too, filled up, but just sitting there. Katie didn't see anyone clo
se by and stood there for a minute, looking into the heavy brush by the side of the road, wondering if it was some sort of ambush.

  Cautiously she had gotten out of the van and examined the pump and can. It looked simple enough and Katie dumped the fuel from both cans into the van's gas tank, then pumped the rest of the fuel out of the red sedan to fill the cans again. She repeated this a few times until the van was full again and both the gas cans were filled as well. Then she threaded the hose out of the sedan and stowed it in her van.

  As night fell she left Kentucky and passed into Tennessee, she wasn't feeling drowsy, but didn't want to travel at night either. The thought of finding a house or hotel to spend the night in didn't appeal to her, so she decided to pull over into a rest stop instead. The rest stop was completely empty, not a single car in the lot.

  'And fuck if mine will be the only one either!' Kate thought, driving the van up onto the sidewalk. There was a central building that advertised vending machines and bathrooms, and behind that there were a series of sidewalks and picnic tables, as well as several play areas for kids. Katie pulled the van around to the back of the building and parked it with the passenger's side inches away from the stone wall. Satisfied that she was as hidden as she could be she pulled out her flashlight and shotgun and went in to use the bathroom.

  The building was not locked and appeared to be empty. The lobby was simple and open, with an information desk and a huge map of the state hanging on the wall, which included a 'you are here' pin along the highway to indicate where the rest stop was. The vending machines were across from the lobby desk and doors to either side of the desk led to the bathrooms. Katie entered the women's room and shined her light around looking for threats. 'It's cleaner than the one in Chicago, but doesn't have a shower.' It was also empty. Katie was surprised to find that the water was still on too. Before heading back to the van she used half the paper towels to clean herself up, and then looked herself over in the mirror.