“Idiot! I don’t need saving! Just let me stand and fight with you guys.”
“Get in or I’ll put you in,” I said as I towered over her.
The machine gunner opened up again and dropped at least a half dozen.
“I’m staying!” She pushed against my damaged chest.
“Anna, please. Get in. We’re all getting out of here,” I said.
She looked me up and down and then nodded and crawled in.
“Better than being tossed to the dead,” I said. Thoughts of Anna backing up Lee made me second-guess my actions. Maybe I should have tossed her to the horde.
The back was stuffed and there was no way for me and Joel to squeeze in. Joel winked at me through the opening and then slammed the door shut. He came around the side of the transport firing.
I closed the door and joined him.
“Hold on, gents!” The machine gunner roared and pointed at the back of the HUMVEE.
A whole world of hurt ran at us. The dead were here and we were screwed.
Joel was the first to make the leap. He got on the back of the transport and shimmied up the angled back until the gunner helped him. Then he hung onto the plates on the side of the gun.
The HUMVEE lurched into motion with me standing in the middle of the zombie fucking apocalypse holding my dick.
“Wait for me!” I yelled and leapt.
I missed.
The first Z came at me so I clothes-lined the asshole. A shot and something buzzed past my neck. I looked over my shoulder and there was Joel Kelly, holding onto the back of a giant machine gun while he somehow pulled his side arm and shot a dead fuck through the head.
This guy should be in a video game.
I hauled ass, jumped for the back and started to slide back off. Joel dropped his gun, grabbed the machine gun mount with both hands and stuck his boot right next to my face. I grabbed hold and tried to haul myself up but a Z got my leg.
I kicked back a few times and got him in the face. Bone crunched as his nose was crushed but I didn’t have time to gloat because the truck lurched into motion and I had to hold onto Joel Kelly’s leg for dear life.
I crawled up the back of the HUMVEE until I was able to reach the gunner. Him and Joel reached out and pulled me the rest of the way then I was clutching the back of the gun mount.
“Haul ass!” The gunner pounded the top of the truck.
We broke across a parking lot, ran over a tent, hit the side of the building and that almost knocked me clear but I had a death grip.
Then we were past the little base and behind the line of trucks.
“Next stop, L A.” The gunner grinned.
“Great. I need some new underwear,” I said over the roaring wind.
The gunner smiled again and patted my shoulder. He ducked back into the vehicle for a minute.
“Joel, man. I owe you.”
“Yeah you do. Dumb squid.”
“Words hurt,” I said. “Especially from a dumb jarhead.”
“Don’t get all mushy on me. Christ. I’ve had enough of this day and if you start bawling I’m going to have the gunner shoot me in the fucking head.”
“Okay man, I won’t, but I want to tell you something.”
“I ain’t marrying you.”
“Thank the fuck Christ.” We hit a bump and I came down on my sore chest again. After an epic swearing session I got my breath back.
“Gonna make it?”
“As long as you got my back I think I’ll be okay. You’re like a brother, Joel. Nah. You are my brother.” I said it and meant it. We’d seen a lot of shit over the last few weeks but one thing hadn’t changed. One thing had been there to help me survive and cope with this new world and that was Marine Sergeant Joel “Cruze” Kelly.
“Know something?” Joel asked.
We bounced up the road, slowed at a cross street, and then maneuvered around a wreck.
“Huh?” I asked, expecting some kind of brotherhood of war speech.
“I’m glad we’re moving. I just farted and it’s a reeker. Sorry about that.” He looked at me with a smirk. “Brother.”
I couldn’t help it. I laughed until tears streamed down my face.
“Can you guys drive faster? Something died back here!” I roared at the driver.
“Sure, man.” The driver called back.
“I can’t hang on that long.”
“Hitchhikers take what they can get.” He laughed from inside.
“I hope he’s kidding.” I said to the gunner.
He didn’t answer, just looked up.
Overhead, a helicopter roared away from the base and headed north. If Lee was on it I wished him well, because when I found him again he’d answer questions with my size fourteen boot up his ass.
This is Machinist Mate First Class Jackson Creed and I am still alive.
Beyond the Barriers Sample
When the dead rise, Ex-Special Forces soldier Erik Tragger flees to the mountains to wait out the end of the world. Cut off from civilization for months, he returns to find cities ruined and ruled by the walking dead.
Tragger reluctantly joins a group of survivors with a plan: flee to Portland where humanity is carving out a stronghold. But along the way they face opposition at every turn—the dead, rogue military forces, looters… and a new enemy more dangerous than any they have yet encountered.
Among the stumbling, mindless zombies walk the ghouls. The ghouls are living dead creatures that not only strategize and plan, but also possess the ability to guide their shambling brothers.
With weapons and supplies dwindling, Erik and his companions will faceoff against millions of the dead who have but one goaclass="underline" complete eradication of the last of the living.
SAMPLE
By
Timothy W. Long
PART ONE
I had been watching the news compulsively for three or four days before it happened. I watched the stupid television so much that it put me off shopping until it was almost too late.
It was the weekend, and I called in sick on Friday so I could stay home and follow the developing madness on the TV. The media made a point of saying that people weren’t going to work. I was one of them, content to be somewhere safe while civilization fell apart.
I was low on goods, like fresh meat and vegetables. The bottom drawer in my freezer was filled with crumbs from some chicken crap that spilled out a few months ago. Smelled too. That freezer burn reek that never really goes away no matter how many times you clean the damn thing.
I dug out a half pound of ground chuck and tossed it in the microwave to defrost. Half an hour later, I remembered it was done, and formed a half-ass hamburger out of the meat and fried it in butter. An egg and ketchup went on top. Bon appetite. Enjoy the food, because it may be your last meal, was my only thought as I ate like an automaton.
I could have become a survival nut—boarded up the place, set up guns by each window on the second floor. That way, if one of those things, or my ex-wife’s boyfriend, showed up, I could blow their heads off. That would be a fine sight. Allison returns to beg for help from her former military husband, and I start taking pot shots at them. Maybe I could grow a long scraggly beard and run around in my underwear, shouting about the end of the world. Now that would be a funny sight. Sure to keep the scavengers away for a few days.