The Farm - 05 Read Online Free PDF Page B

immediately. “Klein, you heard the captain, shit sack! Get on your weapon and secure your lane of fire!” he shouted over his shoulder.
    Klein rose and started firing as well from his position at the SUV’s rear, drilling a zombie right through the head at fifty yards away. He shifted to another target, fired, missed, fire again. From the corner of her eye, Biggs saw it go down, but she cringed at the miss. Then the boy was in the window, looking out at her with wide eyes, flinching at the sound of the gunfire. Biggs reached for him, grabbed him under the armpits, and hauled him out. She pushed him against the SUV, then turned back to the window as the girl pushed one of the ammo cans out. Biggs took it and tossed it to the ground. A backpack came out next; she tossed it to the ground as well, and it bounced to a halt next to the frightened boy. Then the girl came through, moving clumsily, the long AR catching on the window frame. She looked around wildly when she heard the moans of the converging dead over the raucous gunfire.
    “What’s in the bag?” Biggs asked as she helped the girl down.
    “It’s one of daddy’s BOBs,” she said, even though that really wasn’t much of an answer. Just the same, Biggs knew BOB was the prepper acronym for bug-out bag, and she had no doubt the now-dead Marine had stuffed it full of goodies.
    “Good thinking,” Biggs said. She turned back to the Suburban and yanked open the rear door on the driver’s side. She tossed the pack in, then shepherded the boy and girl into the vehicle. She then pulled open the driver’s door and slid behind the wheel just as Powers ran out of ammo. As she fumbled with the ignition key, Biggs looked at him through the windshield; his fighting position was right across the hood from where she sat. It took him only seconds to swap magazines, but in that time, the dead lurched even closer, until they were only twenty feet away. They were almost at the fence by the time he was back in action, and he wasted no time blasting away at the corpses that eagerly shambled forward, even if it meant their doom.
    Biggs shoved the key into the ignition and twisted. The big SUV’s engine roared to life, rumbling smoothly beneath its somewhat rusty hood.
    “Mount up!” she shouted, then pulled her door closed.
    Powers shifted position, preparing to draw back, still fighting. In the sideview mirror, Biggs caught a glimpse of Klein turning toward the idling SUV, the dead stumbling over the corpses of their slain brethren. As he started for the vehicle, one of the more active zombies lunged forward. It grabbed a hold of his MOLLE pack, slowing him just enough for another to reach across the short fence and grab his arm. Klein twisted and writhed, firing at the zombies as best as he could, but it was no good. The angle was all wrong, and Klein just couldn’t get enough coverage with his rifle at such close range.
    “Powers!” Biggs shouted.
    It was too late. With a muted crack , the rear of the wooden pen imploded beneath the surging weight of the zombies. Powers turned, probably sensing the incursion more than anything else—certainly, Biggs knew he wouldn’t have been able to hear the pen’s fence breaking over the noise of his own gunfire. Biggs looked in the mirror again, and saw Klein was already down on the ground, covered by a mound of flailing bodies. Powers fired into the mass, but it was a lost cause.
    Klein was suffering a horrible death, still screaming beneath the undulating pile of the dead.
    More hands reached for Powers, and he ripped open the front passenger door as Biggs dropped the transmission into gear.
    “Go!” Powers shouted as he leaped into the vehicle’s cabin. “Jesus, Captain, fucking go! ”
    Biggs stomped on the accelerator, and the Suburban lurched forward. The door slammed shut on its own accord as Powers thrashed about, stretched across the seat and the center console, his helmeted head butting against her side. The dead