Deadly Night: Jenni and Katie's Untold Tale: A Short Story From the As The World Dies Universe (As The World Dies Untold Tales Book 4) Read Free Page B

over her. Dragging her rifle about, Katie ignored the panic clawing at her mind and raised the weapon.
    Aim to end the danger , her father’s voice whispered through her mind.
    Katie squeezed the trigger, the jolt of the weapon strangely familiar and comforting. The nearest zombie fell. The second was bending over her, and she shoved the end of the rifle into the underside of its chin and fired, turning her face away. The zombie collapsed to the street beside her. Katie snatched up the machete and clambered to her feet.
    Jenni’s hair was caught in the vice-like grip of the remaining zombie. She stabbed it viciously with the end of her crowbar. Unable to get a killing blow, she spun about, dragging the zombie with her, trying to knock it off balance. Tripping over its feet, the zombie hit the ground, nearly dragging Jenni on top of it. Katie ran up and killed it with a single shot.
    “Fuckin’ hell,” Jenni grunted, attempting to get her long hair out of the clutches of the dead creature.
    Katie studied the cab of the long haul truck. The windshield was gone, and blackness dwelled beyond the frame. The front of the rig was smeared in the dried viscera of dead zombies. The baby wasn’t as loud now, and Katie thought she heard additional sobbing issuing from inside. There were more zombies shambling toward them from the side street that led from the outskirts of town. The illumination from the flashlight only reached so far and created disturbing shadows along the abandoned fronts of the buildings.
    Finally, Jenni untangled her hair from the fingers of the corpse and kicked the dead zombie for good measure. She swiftly wrapped her hair around her fingers, knotted it, and left it as a messy bun at the back of her head. Her white tunic was splattered with blood and darker, meaty bits.
    “We got more zombies coming this way, Jenni,” Katie said, wiping off her machete on her jeans, then shoving it back in its sheath.
    Tossing the crowbar to the ground, Jenni pulled the Beretta from her waistband. “So we deal with them.”
    “We don’t have enough ammunition, and we can’t fight all of them by hand. We need to head to higher ground and hold on until the rest of our people arrive.”
    Katie scrambled onto the step under the passenger door of the semi-truck. The passenger door was locked. Using the mirrors and door handle as rungs, Katie managed to climb onto the hood. Jenni followed close behind.
    “Hello?” Katie called out, staring into the cab. In the moonlight, she saw that there was a curtain behind the empty seats. The floor was filled with food wrappers, drink bottles, and toy trucks. The air stank of vomit, urine, dirty diapers, and sweat. “We’re here to help you. Hello?”
    The curtain drew back in one corner, and the barrel of a weapon appeared.
    Katie froze just as Jenni clambered up behind her.
    “Who are you?” a woman’s voice asked, shaking with fear.
    “My name is Katie. The woman with me is Jenni,” Katie replied, her voice surprisingly calm despite her wildly beating heart. “We’re from a survivor encampment called the fort. It’s just a few blocks from here. You almost reached us.”
    “The fort?” The curtain drew back a little more. Katie barely caught the gleam of eyes in the gloom. “Like the military?”
    “A few of us are, but mostly just regular Texan folk.”
    “We’re not going to hurt you,” Jenni said adamantly. “We’re here to help you, and there are a lot of zombies coming.”
    “We’re waiting for Alan and Rob,” the woman said, clearly unsure and afraid. Her voice was trembling, and she coughed when she finished speaking.
    “Do you know what direction they went in?” Jenni asked, trading troubled glances with Katie.
    “Toward the gas station,” came the answer.
    Katie suppressed the urge to moan in frustration. The men had headed away from the fort and toward the more infected area of town. They clearly had not realized salvation had been close.
    “I’m