Mark Clodi - Undead Advantage, a Zombie Chronicles Novel

With a final gurgled the woman stopped breathing, Juan looked up and said, "Hank, she said her kids were still in her car, the black SUV, over there." Juan pointed at an overturned car, "She said to rescue her babies. Hank….she was bit." Standing up and backing off, he looked at Hank expectantly.

Hank stepped up and shot the woman without ceremony in the head, then walked over to the SUV. There was a man laying in front of the SUV, in a large pool of blood, his pants, a pair of clean blue jeans, were torn open, the belt loops all broken. 'Now I know where the belt on blondie's arm came from', thought Hank. The man's head had been smashed in, his chest had been punctured several times, it looked as if by fingers to Hank, and his entrails were pulled out and spread in a wide circle around his body.

Juan came around to one side of Hank, took the shot gun from him and reloaded it using the shells he had, then handed the gun back. Looking at the overturned SUV Hank commented, "Yeah sorry partner but I ain't up for much crawling around right now."

"Si." replied Juan, who got down on his hands and knees and peered into the car. It had been loaded with gear, suitcases, a cooler, bags of food, all of which was now lying on the ceiling. The back seat was empty, with seat belts hanging down. Maybe the woman had it wrong? Juan walked around the wreck peering in the windows, near the back he saw two kids hiding behind all the junk. The windows were not broken out, just cracked into a million pieces and held in place, just like safety glass is supposed to be. Juan came back around to the slightly swaying Hank and got down on his hands and knees and called into the car.

"Come here, it is alright, are you hurt? Are you hurt ninos?"

The sound of crying grew reached Hank's ears, but the kids did not appear. He started in after them pulling the luggage and food out of the way until he had the kids pressed up against the back window of the vehicle. "We are not gonna hurt you, okay? Okay? Come on we gotta get out of here. Your mom sent us to get you." The children were reluctant and it took several more minutes of coaxing to convince them to come out and go with this stranger. The younger of the two kids was a boy, he was maybe five or six, the girl was older, maybe eight. Both were bloodied and bruised, but did not look seriously hurt. They had light brown, sandy blond hair, he had green eyes like his mother, hers were blue, though pale, not dark. They were dressed in loose clothing, shorts and t-shirts, both had on tennis shoes and white socks. When the boy got to his feet outside of the car he spotted his father and started screaming. He then started to try and get around Juan to his dad, the girl just stood stock still in shock, not moving other than to put her hand up to her mouth, a second later she was leaning over and vomiting all over the road by the side of the SUV. When she lifted her head she saw caught sight of her mother's legs and started crying harder. Hank put his hand on the girl's shoulder and pulled her face away from the dead, she automatically reached around and hugged him tightly sending a stab of pain through Hank's back, he didn't let go.

"You got him Juan?"

Juan looked like he was losing control of the boy, who had somehow slipped around him and was on his hands and knees crawling towards his father's body. Juan was able to keep a grip on the boy's shorts and haul him in, though doing so just about pulled the little guy's pants off. This did give the boy pause for a moment and he stopped struggling long enough to try and pull up his pants, which is when Juan nabbed him by hugging his arms around the kid to keep him from getting away, "Si."

"Okay lets get the hell out of here!"

They moved back to the fiesta, where Kevin was now pointing the rifle back the way they had come, "He showed up, veered off to the right, behind all the cars, I'm not sure if he is gonna come over the top of them or is just messing with me."

Juan tried to put the boy in the car, but the kid would absolutely not stay in. Once he was put in the back seat on one side he slid over to the broken window on the other where he pulled himself out and was trying to run back to his parents before Hank quite realized what was happening. Juan yelled and intercepted him before he made it past the front of the car, picking him up and hurling him with some force upon the hood. "Stop it! Stop it nino! Now!"

The boy sobbed a bit and said, "You're not my dad! I don't have to listen to you!" and kicked ineffectively at Juan. Juan sighed, looked at Hank and then back at the kid. "Stop it or I will spank you. And it will hurt." The boy started crying then, all out wailing at the top of his lungs. Juan gathered him up and the boy clung to him like size small spandex on a size large ass. Getting the kid to let him go was the next problem. One Hank solved by telling the girl to get into the back seat, her brother was then able to grab onto her and they were all able to get back into the car and continue on again.

"Dave didn't show up? Maybe he lost interest?" remarked Hank after the boy's wailing had subsided to a dull roar.

"No, Hank, no. That malcreado is back there, or in front of us now, but he is around, I just know it." Watching for awhile Kevin eventually pointed back, "Yeah, that's him, he just came through the hole in the wreck pile we passed through, he is stopping to look it over now. Go Juan, maybe we can lose him!"

Juan pushed the pedal down, but the old fiesta did not go much faster, it was seriously damaged by the trip through the wrecks and it had not been in that good of shape to begin with. Every second it seemed like the little car was going to rattle apart. Fortunately the next exit was theirs, they arrived at it a couple of minutes later. After they exited Juan pulled up under the highway overpass where he let the car stop and idle quietly. A minute later they heard the motorcycle approach, then drive over them and onwards past them.

"It was that easy?" asked Hank, "Think we got lucky and gave him the slip?"

"Shh!" urged Kevin, both towards Hank and the kids. "I don't hear anything. You ready to go?"

"Si, let's wait a few minutes." replied Juan, so they sat for five minutes, attracting the attention of a slow zom, when it was about to touch the car Juan eased into gear and drove quietly off, going north on South Parker road. Coming out from under the highway they went about a half a mile before Kevin let out a long "Shit!"

"He was doubling back! Fuck! If we would either have gone sooner or waited another three minutes we would have slipped him! Dammit!"

"Couldn't have know Kevin, we couldn't have known.", Hank mumbled, he was feeling lightheaded and a bit groggy, almost faint he thought. He turned to Juan and tried to say, "I think I am going to faint."

Juan heard Hank mumble and then saw him sag over against the door, the shotgun stayed where Hank had it, propped up on the dash pointed out the front windshield. The windshield was not completely broken out, just shattered, so firing it like that would not have been a good idea, but this left the gun easily able to move towards either window.

The road was pretty clear so Juan put his foot down and tried to get more speed out of the car. Kevin glanced at Hank and said nothing. He did, however put his hand on the girl's head and rub her hair, trying to comfort her.

Soon enough Juan turned west onto east Bronco Parkway, the road was scenic and curvy, leading up to the Centennial Airport, it was also relatively clear, the fiesta got up to about thirty five miles per hour and finally the road turned into Peoria Street. After passing a few more store lights and navigating around a four car pileup, Juan saw a large red towel hanging out of the side of a car, the end rolled up into the window of the car. He sped up and tried to nurse the Fiesta to something higher than thirty five, it was no good though, another mile and they would be at the Mike's Club store, so the ambush had to be close by. Juan didn't see anyone, however when the motorcycle passed by the car with the towel a hail of gunfire erupted from the roofs of the buildings on the east side of the street. Juan wanted to slow down and watch, but his worry about Hank made him keep going, he knew his family and neighbors well and they would take care of that diablo who had been trailing them.