Mark Clodi - Undead Advantage, a Zombie Chronicles Novel

"Mire Hank", said Juan pointing.

"Yeah I see, I guess we just missed them, looks like they were heading into Denver though, not out. National guard do you think?"

"Si, I think so."

Juan, like most people, knew someone in the National Guard, someone who had been over seas, and had been a veteran. Someone who told stories of the war and the body bags seen up close and personal instead of the sterile coffins filmed by the media coming out of the back of a plane somewhere.

"None of them are moving around, that many dead someone would have turned, right?"

"Si, that means they know, a cap in the head to finish it. That is good. Hard to do to friend." replied Juan, looking at Hank.

"You mean those are from the army?" asked Kevin pointing his gun at the bags along the side of the road.

"Si, probably, my cousin described them to me like that along the side of the road sometimes, when they were laid out waiting to be picked up after the fighting stopped."

"And they ain't moving, which means the guard knows how to put the zombies down." added Hank.

"It looks like they came right up the highway, did they block off access to the four seventy exit?" asked Hank.

"No, I do not think so amigo, not on purpose anyway. I think I can get us by." Juan steered the car over the highway overpass and onto east bound four seventy, as they started down the ramp onto the highway proper Hank could see a bit of a blockade ahead, he motioned to the right and Juan nodded, "I see, over that way, but does it go all the way through this shit pile?"

"Well my angle is a little better, I think so, a lot of crap on the road though." That is when they heard the screaming, coming from within the pile up or somewhere on the other side. Two cars were actually on top of a truck and a new Volkswagen, obscuring sight around the barrier completely. Juan put the fiesta in gear and crept the car forward, the wreck looked about three car lengths long and Juan edged their car closer and closer to the side of the road from the shoulder until it was obvious that they were going to hit the cars and guardrail before making it through, then he gunned it. The fiesta was too wide by a couple of inches and the screaming metal and grinding made Hank think Juan had lost his mind, "Juan, what the hell are you doing?" he yelled. Then they were through, the car started shaking a bit and the ride was rougher, but they had made it through.

Hank turned to Juan to say good job when he saw the woman running towards them, pursued by some fast zombies, the woman was blond haired, with dark green eyes and maybe thirty years old, she had long white legs that ended in running shoes, around her waist were the remains of a pair of jogging pants which were ripped and trailing behind her in a pink flutter. Under that she had on a black thong and Hank blushed to notice she was shaved 'down there' too. Up top was no less impressive for all the clothing that covered it, there was plenty of blood and bite marks on her shoulders and one of her arms ended in a jagged, bleeding stump just above her elbow. Above that wound was a belt of some sort, which had been cinched tight to stop the bleeding. The arm amputation looked recent and mechanical, not result of…feeding. Her hair highlighted her green eyes, which Hank found more attractive than the traditional blond-blue eye combination.

The three fast zombies behind her pulled up short at the sight of Hank and Kevin's guns aimed in their general direction, but the quickest one snagged blondie and ducked with her behind a car. The woman was screaming for a second, "Help me! They got Fritz, they got Fritz! Help me! Oh God they bit me! They want to rape me! Help me, hel.." and her voice was muffled into silence, though not one of the three men believed she had been killed. A new voice came out from behind another car, this one in front of Juan by a good ways, "Drive on. Just leave, you don't have to die too. We are not that hungry."

"Shit!", whispered Hank.

In the back seat Kevin was sobbing, "Its her man! Its her the woman with the kids I saw on interstate seventy! It looks like her!"

"It ain't her." whispered Hank at Kevin, "Kevin, listen to me, it is not her! You said that woman on seventy had blue eyes, this woman's eyes were green, this is not her!"

"What? Are you sure? I didn't get a clear shot of her face, maybe you were wrong? Are you sure Hank?"

"Yeah I am sure Kevin. You know Juan, she is already dead, she got bit, I saw it, you saw it. No reason to stop here and try and save her is there?"

"No Hank."

Juan shifted the car into neutral and put on the parking brake. Hank and Juan got out of the car at the same time. Looking around Juan grabbed up a tire iron off the highway from among the debris and they started creeping towards the car where they had last seen the woman.

"Kevin stay in the car and cover us, okay?" called Hank over his shoulder.

Hank heard the car door shut behind him, glancing back he saw Kevin was already out of the car bracing his rifle, covering the area where they had heard the voice come from.

"Or shit, you can do it your way." Hank said under his breath.

The voice called out again, "You don't want to do this. I can smell your blood, you don't know what it means to me."

"Just let her go and we will go, find someone else and let her go!" Hank replied.

They heard a whimper from in front of them and they approached the car from two different sides, Juan going around back, Hank passing the front bumper. The zombie was feeding on the woman, he was laying on top of her, as if raping her and Hank stood for second watching as the thing's groin moved up and down in awkward thrusts, all the while his mouth worked at her bloody shoulder and part of her neck. One of its hands was covering her mouth, the other was holding her good arm down tight against the ground. Then the tire iron came down on the back of the things head with a resounding thunk. And the zombie was just another body. Looking closer Hank was not so sure that the goddamn thing had not been raping her. What the hell was going on? Juan seeing the same thing hit the body several more times, then bent over to continue to strike it, which allowed Hank to see one of the fast zombies running up behind him. When he pointed the shotgun at Juan, Juan saw him and immediately went prone. Hank's shot rang out and the other zombie staggered under the blow. In the back of his mind Hank heard Kevin firing as well, he lined up another shot, which hit the zombie square in the face, just about decapitating it, it might still be alive, but Hank thought it would be down for awhile. Turning he saw the other zombie was laying on the ground about 2 feet behind him, trying to move, but twitching uncontrollably. Hank stepped up and put a shell through its head at an angle. "That all of them!?" Hank yelled to Kevin.

"I dunno, did you save the woman?", he yelled back.

"I dunno, Juan?"

Juan was on the ground next to the woman's head she was talking to him very softly as he held his brown hands over the wounds on her neck, trying to keep her from bleeding to death. It was a lost cause, Hank could see that. However he bent down and pulled the corpse off of her and kicked it aside. Looking up he shook his head from side to side at Kevin. Hank saw the woman's face more clearly it was wounded and blood splattered, but not the woman Kevin had described from his earlier encounter, her eyes were most definitely green.

"Did you save the woman?" Kevin yelled loudly.

"Shit Kevin she is not the woman you saw, this ain't her!" Hank called back.

"How do you know? I am the only one who saw the other woman?"

"Kevin, you said your blond had blue eyes, this one has green eyes, this isn't her!"

Kevin gulped and then nodded at Hank, turning his attention back to scanning the area and silently fuming.