"So a suicide mission. I'll do it." said Dora.
Steve just looked at her, then his eyes slowly traveled down to Dora's belly, then back up to her eyes, they stared at each other, neither breaking away as he said in a gravelly voice, "Don't be ridiculous." His voice was still soft and rough.
"Steve." Dora said, with some warning in her voice.
"We don't know that it would do any good. Your speech aside our losses were closer to four humans to each super zombie. And you and Paige were really the only ones to do any killing, I don't think the others would do so well on their own."
"Willy, he shot a few too." put in Dora.
"Yeah. So. We don't have him any more either. I wanted to rest everyone up for about a half an hour. If no zombies show up anyway, if what Jake told us is true we only have about fifteen miles to go and," Steve gestured with his hands towards the highway ahead of them, where smoke was clearly visible, "that looks like fighting to me. So I think his word was good."
"So what do we do? Just bull straight ahead and hope for the best?" asked Leon.
Steve shrugged his shoulders, took a drink and said, "What choice do we have? I am hoping there are soldiers alive up there and that when they see us they push out to help us. I am not too keen to stay here and see what Tiller comes up with to stop us."
"I don't get why he cares." said Alex.
Dora looked back at the three vehicles sitting about a mile and a half south of them, "I don't think it is Tiller. Remember what Jake said? He had some control over the zombies he made and over weaker zombies in general? I think is happening to Tiller."
"What do you mean." asked Mary.
"I haven't mentioned how things went down with Andi, have I?" Dora shrugged, but kept watching the cars on the highway for any sign of movement, "She was angry, very angry at Jim Tiller, she mentioned something about not having to follow his orders, that she could do anything she wanted and no one would tell her what to do. I think, maybe, she or her sister created Jim and Waller before him. I think the girls are actually in control."
"That makes sense, unless food has gotten that scarce?" said Alex.
"I think Tiller would have moved on by now. It's our rotten luck the girls are the alpha zombies."
"Why?" asked Mary.
"Well Mary if you were a powerful undead six year old and some group of bad buys just killed your sister would you just walk away? I bet she is mad and is making all the other zombies come along with her, if we could take her out I think the others would go looking for easier victims."
"Maybe so." said Freddy speaking for the first time, "But that still doesn't help us up ahead. Do you think the army could pick up our radio signals?"
Steve shook his head wincing as the bandages around his neck shifted, "I doubt it. The radios only have a two mile range, and I doubt the army is monitoring that frequency anyway. I am not saying not to try, by all means yell your heads off that we are alive on every channel we have, I am just saying not to expect them to come rushing out to save us."
"Still," said Paige, "we should set a bunch of the kids up with radios on different channels and tell them to keep yelling for help as we get closer, someone may hear us and they may send the cavalry."
"Sure do it. Use kids in the front bus or maybe even put someone in with Bob in his truck."
Steve shook his head again, "I think we're not going to want any kids up front, remember we think we are going to be running into a horde up here, so there will be fighting. I want the kids as safe as possible, so we'll keep as many as we can in the second bus. You know as soon as we hit any kind of resistance those three," Steve pointed at the cars parked on the highway behind them, "are going to come right up on our asses and take another shot at us."
The council members all nodded agreement to this and Paige called out to everyone at the rest stop that they were leaving in fifteen minutes. The council meeting broke up and as they walked their separate ways to take care of eating and other business. Dora realized they hadn't decided much of anything at all.
"It looks like an all-out charge to the finish line then Paige." Dora said as the two walked over to their bus.
"Yeah, but is there a finish line to get to?"
Dora laughed, "Usually you're the optimist! I think we'll find something and I think we will end up a little safer. If not, then we turn around and head back to Doraville."
"Fuck that, I will just keep heading north. Canada has to be better off than we are."
"Traitor!" Dora said with a laugh, "Still, in case you don't make it, it has been fun." Dora held out her hand to Paige.
Paige became flustered and said, "Wh-what? In case I don't make it? Like you are a shoe-in or something?"
"Well if I were a betting woman, I think I stand the best chance."
Paige laughed, ignored Dora's outstretched hand and turned and walked to the bus. "Load up people! Iowa here we come!"
Behind her a small smile came to Dora's mouth and she checked the new shotgun she had for the fiftieth time then made sure she had her pockets overloaded with shells.
After everyone was loaded up again they took a quick head count and pulled out of the rest area. Behind them the three vehicles paced them, getting off to a belated start, and even further back Jake's caliber started up as the super zombie tailed the other three vehicles.
First contact came outside of Bethany, Becka was cruising along slowly when a group of three zombies leaped out at her from in front of a vehicle by the side of the road. Becka turned sharply into the median and sped up to get away as supporting shots rang out from the two pickups that were behind her by only about sixty feet. The three zombies all fell, two disabled and twitching, one with his head turned to mush by a well-aimed shotgun shell.
"First contact." radioed Bob from the truck.
Smoke was hanging in the air ahead, reducing vision to three hundred yards. Paige yelled out, "Dora! The three behind us are coming up fast!"
Gunfire erupted from Steve's pickup bed as the crew there started trying to fire at the zombies trailing them. They were too early yet and their shots had little effect. Steve was doing a good job of keeping his truck next to the other pickup, even though his seat was still loose and he had no windshield. The truck was mechanically sound even if the seating left a lot to be desired.
Paige thought she could see some sort of shimmering in the air around the truck, either debris or heat from the engine, she wasn't sure as she watched the lines in the air became more distinct. What she was seeing looked more like lines from a comic book, lines that would be drawn to indicate motion or action. These things, almost invisible lines, were colored. They seemed to be almost black where they touched objects in motion and then faded out to white and almost colorless the farther in front of the moving object that they went.
Many of the lines split apart into fragments of smaller strings. All of the lines coming from so many moving things were making a hazy cloud in front of anything that was moving. Combining the lines altogether made vision nearly impossible for Paige. It didn't help that they were starting to drive into the smoke of Bethany either. Paige waited patiently for a clear shot as the three zombie filled vehicles catch up to the trucks. The lines were getting in the way, she closed her eyes tightly, trying to clear them from her vision. When she opened her eyes again the lines were still there, even more pronounced than ever.
"Chris, do you see a bunch of lines all over everything?" asked Paige to the man riding in the tail gunner position with her.
Paige watched as the black and white lines arced from Chris's head, then his head turned and looked at her, matching up with the black lines perfectly, as the white lines faded away he said, "Lines? What are you talking about?"