He had no idea where he was supposed to end up, so he turned to the east. He was pretty sure wherever he needed to be was east of here. He drove on for a little while keeping to a sensible, low speed on the side streets and pointing the car towards the ever darkening sky to the east.
'Right, then the next left.'
Ruben did as instructed, muttering a brief prayer as he did so. Up ahead was a Wal-mart. It looked looted and dark.
'Pull into the drive of the yellow house on the corner. It's empty, go inside. Open the garage door manually, put the car in the garage.'
'Well, this is new.' Ruben thought. He found himself to be a little let down at the idea of leaving the car, it had been a smooth ride. Once he was through parking and had the garage door down again he stood in the house, looking around the open kitchen dining room and wondering what he was supposed to do next.
There were some maps on the island, he shuffled through them and spotted one that had been written on with a blue pen. He brought the map over to the front window so he could look out at the street sign; sure enough there was a trail from this house that ended in a circled block some distance away. "How many blocks in a mile?" he asked out loud while counting the streets between where he was and the circle on the map. "Twenty blocks, that's gotta only be a mile or so."
The Lord worked in mysterious ways and Ruben didn't want to take advantage of his angels to ask questions when he could figure out the answers for himself. They had brought him here to find the map; he could take it from here. He examined the map closely, memorizing the street names and details before folding it carefully and tucking it into the deep pockets of his pants. Ruben picked up the pack with his bomb and started walking.
Chapter 37 — Max
Pain. Max's life had devolved to a single, black and red existence of pain. When the car careened over the open space where the road should have been Max had just about wet his pants. Somewhere in the split second before the impact he made the decision to be found dead and dry, instead of with urine soaked pants. Only he didn't die. Beside him Stewart moaned and flailed about with her hands.
'I'm stuck.' Max tried to pull himself free from the wreckage. He was strapped in and upside down, the airbag had deployed into his face and blood was dripping down onto the ceiling of the car. As he fumbled with his seat belt he could hear yelling from somewhere nearby. 'Oh, thank God, Bill must have stopped in time and he is coming to help us.'
Two gunshots sounded in close succession followed by another yell. Max finally hit the release on his seat belt and tumbled to the ceiling of the car. 'I don't think anything is broken. That's a fucking miracle.' The top of the car had been squashed in the impact and Max could barely stay on his hands and knees as he tried to reach Stewart. Finally, he hit the button and she dropped heavily into his arms. Her eyes fluttered and she reached for him awkwardly with one arm. Her hand was hanging limply and it looked like she had an extra joint between the elbow and wrist.
"Max." Stewart said.
"I got ya. Just hang on a second and let me pull you out of here."
"Max. Listen to me. Pull my arm straight."
"What?"
"You gotta pull my arm straight, I can feel my body trying to fix it, but like that other zombie, I think it might heal bad unless you get it straight."
Max looked at Stewart, she hadn't fared any better in the accident than he had, her nose was bloody and she was sporting two rapidly blackening eyes. Keeping his eyes on her, Max gave her arm a sudden jerk.
"Fuck! You coulda pulled it slowly, it's not like it was dislocated!" Stewart said, falling back and cradling one arm with the other.
"Sorry, Jane! I thought…" Max stopped and his body jerked convulsively.
Stewart looked up at him for a moment before he fell over her legs, unconscious. Behind him was a dark haired man in a police uniform, the prongs from a Taser still in his hand, with wires leading to a spot on Max's leg.
"Fuck me."
"No, not unless we're told to. And you wouldn't like that." The man grabbed Max by both of his legs and pulled him from the vehicle. Stewart saw the legs of several men standing outside the car, the men pulled both of Max's hands behind him and double handcuffed them together.
Looking around frantically Stewart saw her gun had been thrown from the vehicle, but her machete had fallen to the ceiling from where she had stashed it in the door.
Outside the car Max was coming around, he was face first in the rubble of the collapsed highway bridge. A moment of struggling and he realized that his hands were cuffed behind his back. There was a group of zombies in uniforms with guns milling about and Max saw two trucks on the street just clear of the rubble. This was all he noticed before Stewart flew out of the car in front of him, machete in hand. The zombie closest to the car had his head sliced horizontally in two just above the bridge of his nose before he even knew what hit him. Stewart vaulted off another gun toting zombie and into a third before the gunfire started.
Max rolled to his back and struggled to sit up, that's when he noticed that Bill and Javier were trussed up not too far away from him. There were two zombies standing above him, one had a length of rope in his hands, obviously getting ready to truss Max up like his friends, in addition to the handcuffs. Max kicked the other man in the knee, buckling it and causing him to drop the Taser he was reloading.
Stewart was unable to get in another killing blow on the remaining half dozen zombies, now that they knew she was there they were reacting quickly. She pushed her machete through the torso of one of them and twisted it as she pulled it out in an effort to slow him down. The zombie standing next to him brought his shotgun up and pointed it in her direction, Stewart was still moving, but it was the zombie dressed as a police officer who knocked the gun sideways and spoiled the shot.
"No guns!" the officer barked, he was limping away from Max and his crew, hearing that order, switched to short clubs. The officer continued to back away and inserted a fresh cartridge into the Taser.
Stewart was fast enough to trade blows with two of the zombies and still get in a few licks of her own, but when the third, a massive man wearing army fatigues stepped up she knew she was in trouble. 'This guy is huge…and as fast as me!' Stewart backed off, looking for a way out. She still hurt, her arm was not fully healed and she was fighting five zombies with Billy clubs. Casting a quick glance behind her she considered flight. The zombie with the Taser didn't try and shoot her with it, instead he shot Max again, sending him into convulsions on the ground. The officer then drew his handgun and stepped over to Bill and Javier.
The army zombie came forward fast and low, swinging to take out Stewart's legs while one of his buddies aimed high. Stewart leaped sideways and lashed out with her weapon, it hit the muscle bound army man mid-chest. There was a loud tearing sound and the blade rebounded from the body armor he was wearing beneath his jacket. Stewart made a clumsily landing and backed another two steps away from the army guy and his buddy. Behind those two the other zombies were fumbling with their belts, it looked like they had Tasers as well.
'I'm not sure how that would affect me, but they have to hit me first.' Stewart thought.