Pandora 2: Death is not an Option (25 page)

The two groups in Alligator Alley proper looked up at the added commotion. They could see that a car had just turned onto 75 and was coming straight ahead. It was about a half a mile away. They could see the zombies crowding the beginning of Route 75.

“That your friends?” Dill asked Tommy.

“I hope so,” he replied.

So far, they hadn’t found a vehicle that was drivable. Most were abandoned with their batteries dead. The vast majority of people who had tried to take this highway to the other side of the state had gotten out of their cars when they could no longer drive them and continued ahead on foot. That number inevitably included the already infected. The resulting increase of undead along Alligator Alley added to the mass confusion. The undead nearest the group could hear the music, although it was a couple of miles away, and started walking back the
way they had come. As each subsequent ghoul saw the others turn around, they did the same. Soon the entire contingent of undead along Alligator Alley was heading back toward the east coast again.

Mike looked back at Carol and Jamal. “We’re almost through,” he shouted.

Jack was hunched over the wheel, his teeth grinding in intense concentration. He knew they were about to break through the wall of zombies in front of them. What he didn’t know was that because of one flat tire and one completely bare rim driving over all the mangled corpses, they were already hydroplaning at top speed. Seeing a small car looming up ahead, Jack tried to steer around it. The wheel turned freely but no longer steered the vehicle.

“Oh my God,” he screamed, “the car won’t steer. I’ve lost control.”

Seconds later, the left bumper hit and glanced off the stalled car. This spun the taxi broadside. Now the right side of the vehicle was moving straight ahead like a battering ram. Both the front and rear passenger-side windows shattered as the car hurled itself into the massed bodies of the undead.

As the cab broadsided through, one zombie came through the shattered window and practically landed in Mike’s lap. Mike found himself face to face with a skinny, male zombie with white hair and no shirt. There were old wounds and festering sores on his rank body. Mike had pushed his bony face up against the splintered front windshield to keep its snapping jaws away from him. One of the zombie’s arms was pinned behind him because his shoulder dislocated as he was thrown through the window. Mike had the other arm pinned against the car’s side pillar.

The out-of-control hydroplaning car now started turning again. As it did a complete 360-degree turn, the white-haired zombie was jerked from Mike’s grasp, slamming his head on the top of the door and disappearing into the mayhem outside.

Bursting out of the pack of zombies, the vehicle was again on the asphalt. Because it was still traveling broadside, the drag of the two bare rims on the pavement flipped the taxi onto its roof. It continued down the road, sparks flying out like a welding torch. It veered right onto the shoulder berm, where it skidded through a sprawling mass of coccoloba shrubs that stopped it just short of landing in the Everglades marshes.

Linda was watching the entire thing take place with her hands over her mouth.

“Oh my God, oh my God,” she kept repeating, wide-eyed.

When the taxi crashed into and through the tropical bushes, Sean, Steve, Luke, Malik, and Manny ran down to the smoking, knocking taxicab. Steam was pouring out of the engine compartment, and the tires were still spinning.

Tommy, Dill, Regina, and Paul aimed their rifles and started shooting at any zombies that were close enough to become trouble.

The Stryker turned onto Route 75 and continued to smash through the growing mass of zombies. Kyle turned to look behind him, and his jaw dropped. The turnpike on both sides was covered with zombies as far as the eye could see. Eschewing protocol, Kyle yelled down to Kevin, “Step on it!”

There was only one speaker left on top of the Stryker. The falling zombies had torn the other two loose. One was completely gone, and the other was hanging over the side by its wires. Still, the two played their siren call to the undead.

Reaching the upside-down taxicab, Sean and Steve tried opening the doors. Three were crumpled shut, but they pried a rear door open. Malik and Regina dragged Carol out. She was dazed but conscious. Luke reached in for Mike. Hanging upside down in his seat, Mike had been knocked unconscious. When Carol was pulled out, they reached in and grabbed Jamal.

“I’m okay, I’m okay,” said the feisty soldier. “See to Jack.”

“I need some help here,” cried Luke.

Manny got down on his hands and knees and looked in. Mike was still buckled in.

“I’ll crawl in and unbuckle him,” Manny said, looking at Luke. “You make sure he doesn’t land on his head when the seatbelt disengages.”

Sean and Steve ran around to the driver’s side. Jack was already unbuckled but couldn’t squeeze out of his window. The roof had caved in more on his side, and the opening was too narrow.

“I can’t get out,” he called out to the two men.

Meanwhile, Malik and Jamal had Carol standing and handed her off to Max and Linda, who had just arrived. She was regaining her senses now and was able to walk up to the highway virtually unaided.

Manny was struggling to unlatch Mike’s seatbelt. It was stuck and wouldn’t budge. Reaching down to his waist, he drew his knife and grabbed the offending strap. As he cut through the nylon, Mike’s unconscious body was finally released. Luke and Manny guided him down. When he was lying on the top cloth of the roof, they grabbed him and hauled him out. Malik ran up, knelt down, and felt his neck.

“It’s okay,” he said.

The three men gently picked him up and carried him up to the road.

Steve stood up and said to Jack, “Cover your face.” Stripping his shirt off and wrapping his hands with it, he grabbed the sagging sheet of crumpled safety glass and started pulling the front windshield off.

As Sean took a step back, he heard the coccoloba bushes rattle. Spinning around, he saw a zombie step out of the shrubs. The plants were six feet high and had hidden the zombie from them. Sean reached down and drew his machete. Freeing himself from the bushes, the zombie started toward Sean. Its milky eyes never left Sean’s face. Opening its mouth, it hissed at him. Black blood hung in long runnels down his chin. As he started raising his bloody hands, Sean took three quick steps toward him and swung the machete, two-handed, with all his might. The gleaming, silver blade swung in an arc and connected with the side of the zombie’s neck. With one mighty sweep, the ghoul’s head was separated from his body, and the decapitated creature collapsed in a heap. Looking out into the swampland, he saw two other zombies headed their way. Sean guessed that they must have chased some of the fleeing refugees into the Everglades. The ruckus of the crashing car drew them back.

Two ghouls were chest deep in the murky waters. They both had their hands up and were already reaching for their prey. Sean started
to walk down to the water’s edge, but one of the zombies disappeared under the surface. The other one didn’t notice and kept right on wading toward shore. It was then that Sean noticed what looked like a couple of logs floating toward the struggling zombie. Suddenly, the two “logs” disappeared beneath the surface, and moments later, with a huge splash, the second zombie disappeared beneath the surface. The water was roiling. At first, the zombie’s head and one arm shot out of the water and back under again. Then a huge, bumpy black tail broke the surface and, slapping the water, disappeared. Ripples spread out across the surface. There was no more movement.

‘Gators
, Sean thought.

Turning and climbing back to the car, he saw Steve pull Jack out from the now-empty hole where the windshield once was. Jack stood up and brushed himself off. Looking at his rescuer he said, “Thanks, uh…”

Sticking his hand out, the man said, “Steve,” with a smile. As they shook, Sean came up and gave Jack a great big hug.

“Jack,” he said, “oh man, I was so worried.” Sean looked back up the highway and saw Jamal, Carol, and, a now-conscious Michael being cared for.

“Where’s the rest?” he asked, puzzled.

Jack looked at him and just shook his head.

“Dead?” Sean spoke in a whisper.

“Yes,” Jack said.

“But…what about…Oh my God, Jack. Sue?” gasped Sean. Jack just nodded. “Oh, Mother of God,” cried Sean. “Poor Mike. He
must be devastated. How did it happen? How did the zombies get her?”

“It wasn’t the zombies,” Jack said angrily. “It was Carlos.”

Sean just looked at him, confused. “Carlos? Carlos killed her?”

“Yes, he did,” said Jack. “And Travis, and probably Hector too.”

“Whaaat?”

Shaking his head, Jack said disgustedly, “Turns out he was probably some kind of a psycho serial killer. You should’ve seen what he did to poor Sue. It was positively inhuman. I wouldn’t doubt that he was probably one of Bouchard’s men and pulled the wool over our eyes.”

Sean was shaking his head, absolutely dumbfounded.

“Hey,” called Dill from the highway. “We have to move.”

Just then, there was a roar as the Stryker burst through the oncoming mass of zombies. Music still blaring, it drove up to the group on the highway, which were just staring up at the hulking, armored carrier. Kyle leaned down from the top of the olive-drab vehicle. “Do you have transportation?” he yelled down to them, trying to be heard over the death-metal din.

“Not for everyone,” Tommy yelled back.

“Tell the rest to haul ass and hop aboard the Stryker,” yelled Kyle. “We have to get the hell out of here mucho pronto.”

The group quickly divided, with some going in the SUV and the rest climbing aboard the armored Stryker. After everyone was helped
aboard, the large vehicle surged forward with everybody hanging on for dear life. Right as the zombies reached the SUV and started to pound on the metal and glass, it started up and took off down the highway, following the armored vehicle headed due west.

The two vehicles drove on for another five miles. At last, the Stryker slowed and then stopped on a clear piece of highway. The SUV pulled up behind it. As the six people in the SUV emerged and walked up to the sound truck, Sgt. O’Rourke popped his head out of the top.