here.”
“I’m sorry. I must have been out of it. I don’t remember a thing.”
“You woke up twice. You talked to me both times. You don’t remember any of that?”
“No. I guess that explains why I feel like shit this morning. What did we talk about?”
“Nothing really. You were having bad dreams.”
“Did I tell you about them?”
I decided it was best not to go into too much detail. “Just your basic zombie attack bullshit.”
“Isn’t it bad enough we have to live with them while we’re awake,” Cindy said. “I have nightmares every night about them. I’m getting chased most of the time. You know, the fast ones. They’re behind me in an open field most of the time, it seems like I’m running forever and I can’t seem to get away from them.”
“As long as they don’t catch you baby, that’s all that matters,” Al said, turning around and grabbing Cindy around the waist.
“I don’t think they’re trying to grab my ass.”
“Well I am!”
“How about you guys get breakfast going? Gina and I will clean up.”
“You got a deal,” Al said. “Powdered eggs it is.”
I could hear Cindy complaining as they walked away. Not about making breakfast but about the powdered eggs. They were filling but tasted like shit. Gina and I climbed into the back of the truck and put our sleeping gear away. After breakfast we stowed the mess in the back of the U-Haul and drove down to the creek to clean the dishes. There was no reason to waste our large but limited supply of bottled water on cleaning dishes if we didn’t have to. Even though it was starting to get cold out we also took the opportunity to wash our dirty clothes in the creek. Due to our group decision for a fair distribution of all duties Al and I were saddle with laundry detail while the girls took guard duty. Al bitched the entire time; it was all for show. One thing you could always count on from Al, lots of complaints about doing ‘women’s work’, even though ‘fair distribution of labor’ had been his idea in the first place.
The first shot rang out when we were about halfway done washing the clothes. Al and I dropped what we were doing and ran to our rifles. We both knew it had to be bad if the girls were using their rifles instead of their swords. Gina and Cindy were in front of the trucks firing up the road. Coming at them were dozens of zombies.
“Get in the truck,” Al shouted.
Cindy listened but kept firing up the road as she made her way to the passenger door of the Ford. Gina held her ground and continued firing into the horde. What originally appeared to be dozens of zombies quickly turned into hundreds. Al climbed back out of the truck and ran forward in an effort to help Gina. I worked my way toward Cindy on the passenger side of the Ford. She now had the door open but was still firing into the horde.
I placed a hand on Cindy’s back and shouted. “Get in and slide across. Get it started. There are too many of them. We need to get the hell out of here.”
Cindy didn’t hesitate. She threw her rifle in and slid across the seat. Al glanced back as the engine roared to life. I stood at the open door firing to the front. Cindy rolled down her window and started yelling for Al to get in the truck. He was trying to get Gina to break off but she was having none of it. I worked my way to the front of the truck and pushed the barrel of Gina’s rifle down.
“Get to the U-Haul. Al go with her,” I shouted.