Zombie Road: The Second Omnibus | Books 4-6 | Jessie+Scarlet Simpson, A. (pride and prejudice read txt) 📖

The men looked in all directions but the warriors dressed in black had disappeared. The fastest of the undead started clawing at the metal and trying to climb for the fresh meat as they buttoned back up, pulling the hatches closed behind them.

“Forget about them, they’ve run off. Take out this horde.” the track commander said and they concentrated on running them down and blowing them up. The driver aimed for the center of the pack as the gunner spun the turret back around to open up on the thousands stumbling towards them. They felt the Bradley shudder and lurch to the left at the same time they heard boots stomping around above them.

“Go!” The TC yelled. “They’re on top, knock them off!”

“I can’t!” the driver answered, “I think we threw a track.”

“What the?” the TC started to say as his periscopes went black. “They’re blinding us! Spin the turret, knock those bastards off!”

The Anubis warriors held on easily, their lightning fast reflexes shifting their balance and keeping their cans of spray paint aimed at the portals. They snapped off the antennas and jammed them into the hasps that soldiers used to padlock the hatches closed. Within minutes, they had disabled the Bradley with a wrecking bar pulled from its straps on the fender. One of the men had shoved it into the sprocket and popped the track off. The Bradley was blinded, couldn’t call for help and was unable to move. They couldn’t fight and they couldn’t flee. The undead started piling on, scratching at the steel, trying to get at what was inside as the men sat helpless a mile from town. Tombstones indestructible weapon, its great equalizer, had been taken out of the equation before the battle had even started.

The men in black hopped down and went back to the truck, walking slowly among the dead, careful not to make any sudden moves or act too human. They were pleased with themselves. Commander Ricketts had been right. A multi-million dollar killing machine could be completely disabled with boldness and a can of spray paint. The thousands were massing around the Bradley, burying it in rotting flesh. The four men picked the truck up to get it out of the creek, their strength and speed unmatched by any normal human. One of them tore the fender off where it was crumpled against the tire as another bent the bumper back into shape with his bare hands. The rest of their soldiers, the uninitiated ones who hadn’t been given the serum, were miles behind the horde. They were to wait until the battle was over, the might of Anubis had been proven once again, then they could rush forward and occupy the town. They would force the survivors to comply or die.

The truck started easily enough and they drove through the brush to get around the crowd who were still gathering at the Bradley. Once they were back on the road, one of the men opened a thermos of fresh blood and sprinkled it on the tailgate. Heads turned. Black, undead eyes saw the truck and started towards it, abandoning the Bradley. Rotting noses smelled the blood and dusty throats started keening in hunger.

“We’re back on schedule.” the captain said with a glance at his watch. “That only cost us a few minutes and that was the best they had. We’ll have this town by sundown.”

The stone-faced men nodded as he started the final preparations. It was their destiny. The Lord of the Underworld had told them nothing would stand in their way. The towns were theirs by divine right. The truck rolled along with the thousands stumbling along behind it as he hooked the straps to the steering wheel to keep it in a straight line and adjusted the pole on the accelerator to keep it at the right speed. They knew about the snipers on the wall. As soon as they were in range, they would step out and let the truck keep going. Keep leading the horde to the town.

Gage showed them how to get into the bell tower. He and Lizzie had already been exploring up the rickety staircase days ago. They watched with a telescope as the different slow-moving clouds of dust far off on the horizon came closer and closer until there was only one cloud and it surrounded the whole town. If they listened closely, they could hear the moans of ten thousand undead and the shuffling of twenty thousand feet through the crops and high desert. The cattle ran from them but the zombies ignored them. They had no interest in animal blood, only human. Only human blood could satisfy their insatiable lust to bite. To spread the disease. To reproduce and populate the world with them and only them. It was the base command, the only command, in the virus that had been unleashed on the world.

Jim still had his handheld and they listened to the various scouts checking in and being ordered back to base. They all gave the same reports. The black-clad men were leading the slow charge but once the zombies caught scent of the town, they blended back in to the mob and disappeared. It was like they knew there would be snipers looking for them.

“This don’t look good.” Tony said and gave up the telescope with a nudge from Lizzie. “Not good at all.”

“Nobody can raise the Bradley, either.” Jimmy said and they all wondered how that could be. They heard the machine guns a few minutes ago but now there was nothing. They couldn’t have been overrun, there was no way the dead could break into it.

“Unless they left the hatches open a little too long.” Gage said. “and a fast one jumped up and got them.”

They didn’t have answers. No one did.

On the backside of the town, they could hear shots starting to come from the wall. The closest of