Mark Clodi - About a Woman, a Zombie Chronicles Novel

"We all wanna be heroes. Besides I am thinking of another angle to get what I need, one that would make everyone happy."

Becka's eyes widened, "You….you never planned to collect from us?"

Jake shook his head, "A contract like that? I might get some pints out of it, but I doubt I would get them all, except maybe one at a time from Dora."

"So why did you make the deal?"

"You think they would have taken my help without a deal? Just on my word? Darling, I'm not human anymore, they wouldn't have trusted me further than they could see me. Greed, well everyone understands that."

"You would have given us the buses?"

"I did give you the buses. C'mon we gotta get going, not stand here jawing all day."

"I needed a rest."

"You got any food? You better have a bite of it if you do."

"Sure," said Becka, reaching for her backpack, it wasn't there, she had moved it into Dora's suburban. "Uh, fuck." she cursed weakly.

"No food, huh? We'll make a quick trip by a gas station and grab some energy bars and a drink. Amazing how five minutes of heavy fighting makes you need energy and something to drink."

"It's not just that, all my ammunition is in it too."

"Did it fall off when you were playing Evel Knievel up there on the road?" seeing that Becka didn't know who he was talking about he added, "When you jumped over the railing?"

"No, I tossed it into Dora's car. I'm lucky I grabbed my shotgun when I jumped back out for the bike. I only have five shots for it. I'm screwed."

Jake stepped around to her and hugged her by the shoulders, his hug was a little stiff and very short, "Darling you don't need a gun, you have me. What's your name anyway?"

Dora hit the gas the suburban responded sluggishly, somewhere along the way all of the windows on the driver's side had been broken out, probably when she side swiped the Caliber. They came up to and passed the wreckage of the Probe and Toyota, both looked like they had rolled over and over again in the median. The zombies looked up briefly as she roared passed them, Dora took one hand off of the steering wheel to flip them the bird as she passed, screaming out "Losers!"

A couple responded with inaccurate rifle fire which made Dora laugh. She had no trouble catching up to the other vehicles, they were heading straight back towards her, with the Caliber in the lead, gaining speed as they came. An old Ford Ranger with an extended cab was on the other side of the Caliber and inside Dora finally saw one of the twins she had been keeping an eye out for. She barely had time to notice the girl in the oncoming car, "Hey do you think they are actually going to ram us?"

"Yeah, take the exit!" screamed Willy, firing at the vehicles while leaning out of the open passenger window. Through some sort of miracle the front window was still mostly intact and blocking the worst of the wind, the worst that had happened was that the antenna had been torn off of the hood. Dora cut right and zoomed down the exit at forty miles an hour, which turned out to be a problem as there was a solid line of abandoned vehicles in front of her and a variety of shamblers among them.

"Oh fuck me!" She screamed as she forced the suburban up onto the raised curb and through a chain link fence, the street in front of the cars was clear and after crashing through an electric box of some sort Dora bounced out onto it and across the intersection to the awaiting on ramp. There was a wreck there as well, but the shoulder was clear and she had no problem getting back on the highway from there. Willy scrambled over his seat and past the two sitting in the second row to take up a position in the back with his gun, somehow he was reloading as he went. "Beth! Cliff! You have to do more than sit there with your goddamned thumbs up your asses! The shotguns are more effective if you point them at the bad guys and pull the trigger!" yelled Dora. Both of them complied, pointing their guns backwards.

The walkie-talkie came alive from where it had fallen on the floor by Dora's feet, "…are you at? D-! Are you okay?"

Dora fumbled around with her hand on the ground, trying to get the radio, it eluded her, "Dora! Answer us please." then nothing for a moment, before, "Alright Ken, slow it down, we have to wait."

"Not for one person, you know we can't." came Ken's reply.

"Oh, I'm feeling the love." Dora muttered to herself still fumbling for the radio. She finally grasped it when all three shotguns fired simultaneously in the back of her vehicle. The noise shocked her and the radio slipped out of her hand into the passenger's side of the floor. "Fuck!"

"You will slow down now! I am not saying stop but we are not leaving Dora!" came Steve's voice.

"They're gonna hit us!" yelled Willy, a moment before the suburban was smashed into from behind.

Forgetting about the radio Dora fought to control the suburban, it twisted sideways and came close to rolling, but Dora was able to straighten it out and regain control.

"They're on us! Two of them, fire at the roof! They're on the roof!" said Willy, he aimed his shotgun and started firing holes into the roof.

Looking in the rear view mirror Dora saw the three vehicles had backed off a little, they were trailing behind her by a hundred feet, for the moment it didn't look like they were trying to ram. When the next shotgun blast went off Dora jerked the suburban sideways into a hard swerve, she was rewarded when she saw a slender male zombie fly off the side of the vehicle onto the ground. The zed had barely begun to roll when Willy's shotgun blasted it in the head.

"Holy fuck!" screamed Dora, as a pair of slender white legs appeared from the top of her car and landed on the hood in front of her. The little girl was wearing a white dress with dirt along the edges, sewn into the hem were small red teddy bears. The girl's legs were on the hood in front of the shaft from the steering wheel and her body was arched over the windscreen. Dora heard a tearing sound and saw the girl's hands wrinkle the steel of the roof near the top of the windshield like it was tin foil.

Slamming on the brakes did not dislodge the girl, and caused Beth to fire her shotgun through the back of the passenger's seat into the dash. The glove box was blasted open and batteries, bandages and napkins exploded into the front of the car as if hit by a tornado. Dora hit the gas but still the little girl on her hood still did not fly off. The girl's body leaned back, forcing her butt out towards the front of the vehicle as she looked inside. Dora locked eyes with the girl and they both smiled at the same time.

"I am totally going to kill your little girl ass." Dora promised.

Above the roar of the suburban's engine Dora heard the girl giggled and said, "Jim Tiller says 'Andi that Dora is a potty mouth, you stay away from her!'"

"Andi is it? How do you know I'm Dora?"

"Everybody knows Dora!" then Andi took one hand off of the roof of the suburban and drove it through the window towards Dora. Her arm was not long enough to reach the woman behind the wheel and the girl tried to pull it back through the window, which had shattered but not broken out around her wrist. Dora reacted quickly reaching forward with one hand to snap the arm sideways and pin it in place to the metal support on the side of the windscreen. Andi was barely visible through the cracked windshield as she drove her other fist next to her first arm and reached for Dora. The girl was very strong, but for all of her efforts she could not get any leverage on the hood of the car to pull her pinned arm away from where it was being held.

"Shotgun! I need a shotgun here, I can't hold her for long!"

"Duck sideways!" Cliff yelled and Dora leaned towards the driver's side window. Cliff fired his gun through the windshield dead center between the little girl's fists. Dora felt the girl's arm go limp for half a second before both started moving frantically again. As she started to sit up in the driver's seat again another shotgun blast roared out, jerking Dora's head forward and striking the little white arm where it was held pinned against the glass. Dora had a solid hold on the girl's hand and she came away with it as it was severed mid wrist by the shotgun blast. The inside of the window was a bloody, cracked mess that Dora could hardly see out of. The wonder twin pulled her remaining arm back outside, screaming all the while.