… and why are you assuming anything?
As Leon took the corner of Ash and Third a little too quickly, the realization finally hit him that the station itself might be crawling with corpses. Every-thing was happening so fast, he just hadn't considered the possibility. He straightened out the car and let up on the gas, trying to come up with an alternate plan as calmly and rationally as he could. Maybe there was an organized defense at the station, but it wasn't easy to feel hopeful with the stink of decay so heavy in the air.
We have three-quarters of a tank, more than enough to make it over the mountains; we could be in Latham in less than an hour.
They could drive by the station and if it looked unfriendly, just get the hell out of town; sounded good to him. He started to tell Claire, see what she thought when the horrible smell of slaughter washed over him and something lunged out of the back seat. Claire screamed and the monster that had been in the squad car all along grasped Leon's shoulder with icy hands, its flyblown breath gusting into his face. It snatched at his right arm, pulling it toward its drool– slick teeth with inhuman strength. "No!" Leon shouted as the car veered wildly to the right, jumping the curb and sliding toward a brick building. The creature was unbalanced, losing some of its grip; Leon jerked the wheel but too late to avoid the wall completely. Metal shrieked and a brilliant flash of sparks illuminated the groping hands and leering, ghoulish grin of their passenger as the speed-ing car shot back out into the street. The dead thing swung its eager arms at Claire, and without thinking, Leon slammed on the gas and pulled a hard right. The car fishtailed, the back end crunching against a parked pickup truck in another burst of fiery sparks. The drooling corpse fell back into the padded seat but immediately pulled itself forward again, gnashing its teeth and clawing for the girl… The squad car sped down Third, Leon trying to control the wheel as he grabbed his weapon and half-turned, holding the Magnum by the barrel. He didn't think to take his foot off the gas, couldn't think of anything except that the zombie was about to sink its teeth into Claire's struggling shoulder. He brought the heavy weapon down and across its face, the butt sliding across flesh that peeled away in a thick flap. Blood gushed from the wound as the grips crushed into its nose, cartilage separating from bone with a wet crunch. Gurgling, the creature clutched at its bleeding head and Leon just had time to feel a second's triumph…… when Claire screamed, "Look out!" and Leon looked up to see that they were about to crash. Leon hit the zombie with his gun and Claire in– stinctively flinched from the splatter of blood, her horrified gaze finding that the street they were on was about to end.
"Look out!"
She caught just a glimpse of his white knuckles on the wheel, his clenched jaw…… and the car was spinning, screeching, buildings and streetlights flashing by so fast that all she saw was a blur, and then… BAM! There was an explosion of sound, of glass shattering and metal compressing as the cop car slammed into something solid, throwing Claire against her safety belt. The impact hurled the zombie forward at the same time, and Claire reflexively threw her arms up as the dead thing crashed through the windshield -
– and then everything was still. There was only the ticking of hot metal and the sound of her own heart thundering in her ears. Claire brought her arms down and saw that Leon had already recovered, was already staring at the bloody, broken mess sprawled across the hood, its head hanging mercifully out of sight. It wasn't moving.
"You okay?"
Claire turned and looked at Leon, suddenly having to fight off a semi-hysterical laughing fit. Raccoon had been taken over by the living dead and they'd just been in a serious car wreck because a corpse had been trying to eat them. All things considered, "okay" was not the first word to come to mind. At the sight of Leon's sincere and stricken expres-sion, the urge to freak out passed. He looked on the edge of a fit himself; allowing her devastated nerves free reign wouldn't help anything. "Still in one piece," she managed, and the young cop nodded, seeming relieved. Claire took a deep breath, feeling like it was the first she'd taken in hours, and looked around at where they'd ended up. Leon had managed a complete 180 at the very end of the street where it T-ed, the obviously totaled squad car facing back the way they'd come. There were no zombies in the immedi– ate vicinity, but Claire had the feeling that they wouldn't have long to find cover; from what she'd seen so far, most if not all of Raccoon had been affected by – by whatever it was that had happened. She held the handgun tightly, trying to get her tangled emotions under control. "We…" Leon started to say something and then stopped, his eyes widening as he stared at the rear– view mirror. Claire looked behind her… and for a second, could only think that at some point since she'd left the university, she'd been cursed.
Cursed. Somebody wants me dead, that's all there is to it.
A semi was barreling down the street, still several blocks away but close enough for them to see that it was out of control. The truck veered back and forth, smashing against a blue pickup parked on one side of the street and then plowing under a mailbox on the other. Claire realized with numb horror that it was a tanker – and from the way the haul was sliding dan– gerously at each frantic swerve, the driver had a full load. In the split-second that it took to digest that information, to pray that it wasn't gas or oil, the tanker had halved the distance between them. She could actually see the flames painted across the dark green cab, but even then it wasn't real until Leon broke their stunned silence. "… maniac's gonna ram us," he breathed, and then they were both stabbing at the seat-belt releases, Claire praying that the crash hadn't locked them somehow… The sound of the belts letting go were inaudible beneath the rising monolithic growl of the oncoming tanker and the echoing crunch of cars being side-swiped left and right. It would be on them in a heartbeat. "Run!" Leon shouted, and then she was pushing her way out of the squad car, cool air against her sweaty skin and the scream of the truck's engine blocking out everything else. She took three giant running leaps and then felt as much as heard the impact, the asphalt shaking be– neath her feet even as the crash of rending metal thundered behind her.
One more flying step, and…
KABOOM!… she was being pushed, shoved roughly off her feet by an incredible pressure wave of heat and sound. She managed to kick off against the ground as the tanker's explosion turned night to day in one brilliant instant. An awkward shoulder roll, grit biting into her heat-blasted skin, and she landed behind a parked car in a gasping heap. There was a brief, clattering rain of smoking debris, and Claire was on her feet, stumbling back into the street to search the towering flames for some sign of Leon. Her heart sank. The tanker, squad car, and what had once been a hardware store were all envel-oped in an inferno of chemical fire, the street com-pletely blocked by the mass of twisted, burning destruction.
"Claire…"
Leon's voice, muffled but audible through the wall of curling flame.
"Leon?" "I'm okay!" he shouted. "Head to the station, I'll meet you there!"
Claire hesitated for a second, staring down at the handgun she still held tightly in one shaky hand. She was afraid, scared of being alone in a city that had turned into a living graveyard, but it wasn't like there was much of a choice. Wishing that circum– stances were different was a waste of time.