"We left it for now."
Stewart went to the window and looked down at their truck. "It's still there. Hey, Javier? Those zeds coming at us yet?"
From down the hall Javier called back, "No. How's Ruben?"
"He says he's fine! We're getting him up and out of here now."
Reuben stood up and ran a hand across his neck, then looked at it. "That could have been bad. If he had jerked back or something."
"No, they don't. Haven't you noticed, a head shot drops them, it's like they don't have that last convulsive reaction like the living do. You weren't in any danger." said Stewart.
"I hadn't noticed…"
"Well don't worry about it gramps, you can't pick up everything. Besides…" a gunshot interrupted her as Javier fired. "Besides we didn't have all day to negotiate, we got zeds incoming."
"Why the hell didn't they eat you Ruben?" asked Max, reloading his gun as he spoke.
"I heard 'em talking, they said…"
"Later, let's get out of her first. Max where are they?" interrupted Stewart.
"Shamblers coming up the hallway, Lips is gone, he is running back to the other hotel, the others seem to be clearing out too."
"Should we be worried about that?"
Max nodded, "I am."
"Fuck."
"You all ready to go?" Bill called from the hall.
"Yeah, we can go down the stairway at the other end of the hall, it's empty, then cut through the building back to the lobby to get to the truck." Max said.
"Okay, let's do it. Javier, you grab Ruben, Max and Stewart follow us, but stay closer than before." Bill led the way down with Javier sticking close to Ruben.
"How come you paused with Billy back there?"
"I don't know, he wasn't armed, he was just sitting there, cowering, begging me not to shoot him."
"No mercy Max. No mercy. You forget why we are here?"
"I know why I am here Stewart."
"Good, I think your kids would appreciate that. Did you forget what the zombies have done to you? What they have taken from you? From everyone?"
"No, I haven't forgotten."
"Next time you better remember faster, if it helps you, think of your wife."
"Stewart! That is…"
"Don't 'Stewart' me! The few seconds you spent dicking around could have gotten Ruben killed. Next time it could be me or Bill or any of us. Get your head on straight! They are not human, we can't just get along with them. We can't make peace! They eat us for fuck's sake!"
"Alright. I got it. Lay off."
"I'm not mad, so don't you be. I just want to help you out. Peace?"
"Yeah, okay, peace. I still say he shouldn't be a 'Billy'."
"Because he couldn't shoot for shit?" asked Stewart.
"Yeah, the name doesn't do the original justice."
"You know the names of any bad shots?"
"No."
"That's 'cause they were bad shots, they never got into the press, they got dead. Hm, what about 'Nancy'?"
Max thought back to the super zombie who had pursued him so long ago back to his home in Denver, the zombie who had infected his wife, he shook his head, "I wouldn't want to honor her like that."
They went down the stairs, still bantering quietly.
"She was a bitch. I don't suppose 'bitch' would work?"
"No, I've already got a patent on that one. You'll have to try harder. At least we have a name for zombies who are good with guns." said Max.
"Yeah, 'Billy', though I hope we never have to use it. If we do it means someone has been shot."
The group moved into the lobby of the hotel and looked out at their bullet ridden truck. Bill took the keys out of his pocket, "Think it will run?"
Ruben shrugged, "Only one way to find out. At least the tires aren't blown out."
"No windows though." said Max.
"The weather is good, we'll be okay. Javier, why don't you drop and see if anything is leaking out of it?" asked Bill.
Javier went to his hands and knees by the front door of the hotel and looked under the truck. He shook his head from there and said, "It looks okay Bill, I don't see anything dripping. The bomb is still there too, on the ground."
"Our lucky day." muttered Ruben.
"Yeah, next time old man, just leave it and fall back. We are the only ones with the codes to set it off, if we lose it we'd just have to figure something else out." Bill finished and they were started by a loud 'beep', coming from the backpack.
They looked at each other and back at the pack, staying quiet. They heard a muffled sound, like someone speaking, after a few moments they heard another beep.
"What the fuck is that?" asked Stewart.
No one answered, because no one knew what to say.
Chapter 16 — Katie
The family was gone. All dead. The plan to clear the zombies at the front of the house had worked, with her almost silent gun Katie was able to cap a few of them from the front door. After the initial attack she taped a new bottle on the rifle, then sneaked around the house and shot the zombies from behind. They were easy marks, slow and pathetic, nothing like those she had dealt with in Chicago. The family had decided to stay the night in the house, Kent put Robert in a basement bedroom and the kids opted to sleep on the old couch down there as well. Katie had decided to sleep in the minivan in the garage. It went against her 'sleep below the level of the ground' instinct, but they hadn't seen any zombies after shooting those outside of the house.
Sometime during the night Robert must have died, then came back and killed Kent. At least that was Katie's theory. Kent was supposed to be on watch and didn't wake anyone when Robert attacked him. Katie, in a sealed car in the garage hadn't heard anything, she woke up when the sun was just peeking above the horizon and knew something was wrong, she should have been woken earlier to take a turn on watch. Upon opening the door between the garage and the kitchen Katie heard a slow, shuffling sound. Flicking on her flashlight she saw that the kitchen floor was stained with blood and gore, someone had died there and they weren't clean about it.
Jess came at Katie first, the girl was in rough shape, it looked like maybe she had been fed on by two zombies, she was missing a large part of her stomach, her bottom rib was bare and showed teeth marks from some viscous biting. The girl was slow too, to get a clean shot Katie had to step towards her and fire. The noise of the rifle thundered through the house and brought the other three out of the basement in short order. Katie shot Bobby before he reached the top of the stairs, then shot Kent as he came into the kitchen.
Robert was faster and warier than the others, but then he had died first and probably had the most food of all of them. More food meant he was a smarter, faster zombie. He stood on the steps just out of sight and called up to Katie, "I don't want you. I hate you for what you did, but I won't bother you."
Katie didn't say anything, the idea of talking to him was repugnant to her, he had just eaten the ones he loved and was mad that she had killed them. 'What a douche bag.'
"I get it now. I understand what happened." Robert said.
Silently moving to the top of the stairs Katie aimed at the man's head, he didn't shy away from her.
"I don't think you understand, do you?"
Katie pulled the trigger and blew out Robert's left eye, he fell backward down the stairs and lay silently. 'Huh, I was aiming for the bridge of the nose. I better sight in this gun in today.' She added it to her list of things to do, turned and packed the things she wanted to take with her. Her shotgun was already in the van, in fact most of her stuff was in the van. Katie looked around the kitchen and debated going into the basement to look over the group's other equipment. 'Two guns are enough. Fuck it, I'm outta here.' Katie entered the garage and pulled the emergency release for the garage door, then hefted it up so she could pull the van out.