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

the road. He dropped into second and goosed it, got the back end broke loose in the sand and cut the wheel. He was still sliding but at least he was in control. The rear guard just missed the steel poles as he gave a little more gas and aimed back towards the road. He realized now why Casey had taken the left. He had to circle around and he’d probably stayed on the blacktop rather than chance getting stuck or hitting something hidden in the sand. Gunny had barely slowed and aside from bashing up his car a little more, he was fine. He had just shaved a few minutes of Casey’s lead away. Gunny popped it into third as he flew back on the asphalt and nailed it. The front end lifted on its springs and he hit fourth, back up to speed and seeing the Mustang’s tail lights clearly now as they flared bright again. They were screaming into the outskirts of Tuba City at nearly triple the posted speed limit. More cars were stopped at odd angles and abandoned, doors still ajar. Some held slow thrashing zombies locked in place by seat belts. The end had happened fast here, just like every where else.

Early morning sausage and eggs.

Breakfast burritos and crispy bacon.

The Denny’s, or the restaurant in the travel center, had probably started it. With the first deliveries of fresh meat in days, hungry customers lined up to get their morning started.

Sickness then change.

The raging undead ran people down with inhuman speed and strength. They smashed through windows in houses, they attacked anything that moved, cars crashed to avoid the bloody, screaming madmen in the streets. Within hours the sleepy little town was dead and starting the slow process of dying, baking under the summer sun.

Lucinda turned back around in her seat and faced front.

“I didn’t see any lights anywhere.” she said. “If they chasing, they too far back. We made it, Casey. We safe.”

He loosened his grip on the wheel and eased up a little on the gas. Not much, just a little. Someone could still be coming and there were only three ways he could have gone. They might have more than three cars chasing him. They might still be able to follow. He had to put four or five more turns on different roads between him and any pursuers before he would really relax but he breathed a little easier. You could see for miles on the flat desert roads, they would have seen if anyone was close.

“Where we going?” she asked “Do you even know?”

Casey didn’t like her attitude. He’d just lost everything he’d built. Everything that had taken him nearly a year to achieve was gone in a single hour. His perfect plan. His mighty army. Crushed by a bunch of savages with bows and arrows and a handful of muzzle loaders. Destroyed by that asshole Gunny and that even bigger asshole Griz. He had rocket launchers and machine guns and they’d never even had a chance to use them.

“You shouldn’t have kept sending them forward. You know’d they was high as shit. You know’d they do whatever you said, regardless of the consequences. My life for yours.” she snorted in derision.

Casey could tell she was just getting started, working her way into one of her high handed tantrums.

“Who started that dumb shit anyway? They just threw away they lives for no reason.” she shook her head in contempt. “And you keep on a sending them into the meat grinder. You down at the bottom blind as shit and keep sending them in to die.”

“SHUT UP!” Casey roared. “Don’t push me, woman! Now ain’t the time!”

“Or what?” she asked “You think you gone smack me around like one of yo little ho’s? Nuh uh, sugar. You ain’t touching Lucinda. I think I’m just about shut of you. You too damn dumb to teach anything although Lord knows I tried. You too dumb to know it wasn’t you that built that army. I did. Me and Edmunds had plans and we shoulda just killed you months ago. You ruined everything with your macho bull shit.”

“My life for yours.” she said again in disgust. “You a coward, any one of them worth hella more than you. You just got lucky one time. Everything else was smoke and mirrors.”

Casey was so angry he couldn’t think. So mad he could barely see. This uppity bitch couldn’t talk to him like that. He’d put her in her place. He should just haul off and smack the crap out of her. But she always carried that knife, she might stab him. He should stop and toss her ass out. But what if she managed to get behind the wheel and left him behind? His eye hurt like a mad bastard where that cheating sumbitch Gunny had dug his thumb in it. In the end he said nothing. Did nothing except stare down the path of his headlights with his one good eye. He gripped the wheel so hard his hands shook and his Billy goat beard quivered with his impotent rage.

“That’s right.” she continued. “You just sit there and drive. Lucinda will figure something out but things is gone be different. We ain’t doing things your way no more. We doing them my way.”

She was starting to twoof. To feel the withdrawals, the need for adrenochrome. She hadn’t had any for nearly a week. She and Edmunds had something special planned that night, a tasty young hotdog with a little pizza for dessert. They’d been grooming them for weeks, treating them kind, showering them with love and presents. That way, when they turned on them, began their rituals of terror and pain, they would produce the absolute best high she’d ever experienced. The adrenalized blood would be off-the-charts enriched since the torture would be coming from someone they trusted. Edmunds had promised it would blow her mind. But now Edmunds was dead, her chest blown open