"Maybe Juan, maybe. Say you think your wife has her phone on? Maybe we could call her now and see if the boys could set something up for us? We ride through and they jump him after we pass?"
"Better Hank, that is better. I'll see okay?" Juan pulled out his phone and dialed his own cell phone number, which his wife had, after a tense moment where Juan was worried that his wife would not pick up she answered, "Hola?"
A quick conversation in Spanish followed, first Juan had to assure her that he was okay. Then Nanci had to talk to Hank, and Hank had to reassure her that Juan was okay and that Hank was okay and that the guy they were with was okay. Then Nanci wanted to talk to Kevin herself, but Hank killed that by telling her, in Spanish, that Kevin didn't speak any Spanish, as Kevin didn't object Hank figured he was right, he asked if Ramon was around and after a few more minutes of her calling out the news to everyone that Hank and Juan were alone and okay she put Ramon on.
"Kevin keep watch on mister Dave there, okay, this might take a minute or five."
After that he turned to Juan and said, "Hey switch me buddy, my back is kinda aching and this clutch is killing me." Then he hopped out of the car, leaving Juan staring at the deep red crimson stains on the seat that Hank had left behind.
Hank walked around the car and Juan reluctantly hopped out, stopping Hank with a held up hand, he motioned him to turn around and when he did he peeled up Hank's shirt and took a look. The left side of Hank's back was smashed and bloodied, his ribs looked broken. Hank, talking with Ramon, turned around and looked at him, Juan's pale face told the whole story, putting his hand on the receiver he asked, "That bad?" to which Juan could only nod. "We gotta get moving then? Help me down?" Seeing the seat he said, "Aw shit Juan I am sorry amigo, sorry about the seat. Sorry for letting that asshole jump me. Damn."
Juan hurried around the car and hopped into the driver's seat with barely a glance at the gore as he settled into it. After awhile Hank got off the phone and told Juan, "Okay here is what we are going to do, we take interstate twenty five down to where it meets highway four seventy east and loop over to South Parker road, then we take that up to the Broncos Parkway and up to Peoria, the boys are going to give Dave a little surprise, they will be ready in twenty minutes tops and will duct tape a towel to a car about two blocks from where the ambush is, they say to keep heading straight up the street from there and hit the gas to make Dave go faster to keep up, maybe he won't notice them then. Oh, the doc and his nurse arrived with all our other guns and supplies yesterday too. Nanci threw a fit when we didn't come home. Why didn't we call her last night amigo? She is gonna be pissed when she realizes we had the phones then, and she'll figure it out too boss."
Juan grinned and shook his head, "So? If we come home we come home, she can be mad all she wants then, so long as we make it okay. I am glad the doctor made it." Switching to Spanish Juan continued, "I don't think Kevin saw, but you are bleeding real bad Hank, you need the doctor."
Hank merely nodded and if Kevin noticed the exchange he didn't say anything. Pulling the shotgun up into position Hank said, "Say Juan pass me a couple shells would ya? Just in case I run out?"
Silently Juan passed over half the unloaded shells. The highway was not cleared, but it was passable, something had been through here clearing the way, anywhere that a the cars would have made a solid block and prevented them from passing through had been opened forcibly, and there were no zombies on the road, only corpses.
Coming up to the intersection of the two major highways, twenty five and four seventy, they noticed a huge pile of cars. Along the side of the road there were bodies lined up, or what looked like bodies anyway, they were all in body-bags. Military body bags.
"Mire Hank", said Juan pointing.
"Yeah I see, I guess we just missed them, looks like they were heading into Denver though, not out. National guard do you think?"
"Si, I think so."
Juan, like most people, knew someone in the National Guard, someone who had been over seas, and had been a veteran. Someone who told stories of the war and the body bags seen up close and personal instead of the sterile coffins filmed by the media coming out of the back of a plane somewhere.
"None of them are moving around, that many dead someone would have turned, right?"
"Si, that means they know, a cap in the head to finish it. That is good. Hard to do to friend." replied Juan, looking at Hank.
"You mean those are from the army?" asked Kevin pointing his gun at the bags along the side of the road.
"Si, probably, my cousin described them to me like that along the side of the road sometimes, when they were laid out waiting to be picked up after the fighting stopped."
"And they ain't moving, which means the guard knows how to put the zombies down." added Hank.
"It looks like they came right up the highway, did they block off access to the four seventy exit?" asked Hank.
"No, I do not think so amigo, not on purpose anyway. I think I can get us by." Juan steered the car over the highway overpass and onto east bound four seventy, as they started down the ramp onto the highway proper Hank could see a bit of a blockade ahead, he motioned to the right and Juan nodded, "I see, over that way, but does it go all the way through this shit pile?"
"Well my angle is a little better, I think so, a lot of crap on the road though." That is when they heard the screaming, coming from within the pile up or somewhere on the other side. Two cars were actually on top of a truck and a new Volkswagen, obscuring sight around the barrier completely. Juan put the fiesta in gear and crept the car forward, the wreck looked about three car lengths long and Juan edged their car closer and closer to the side of the road from the shoulder until it was obvious that they were going to hit the cars and guardrail before making it through, then he gunned it. The fiesta was too wide by a couple of inches and the screaming metal and grinding made Hank think Juan had lost his mind, "Juan, what the hell are you doing?" he yelled. Then they were through, the car started shaking a bit and the ride was rougher, but they had made it through.
Hank turned to Juan to say good job when he saw the woman running towards them, pursued by some fast zombies, the woman was blond haired, with dark green eyes and maybe thirty years old, she had long white legs that ended in running shoes, around her waist were the remains of a pair of jogging pants which were ripped and trailing behind her in a pink flutter. Under that she had on a black thong and Hank blushed to notice she was shaved 'down there' too. Up top was no less impressive for all the clothing that covered it, there was plenty of blood and bite marks on her shoulders and one of her arms ended in a jagged, bleeding stump just above her elbow. Above that wound was a belt of some sort, which had been cinched tight to stop the bleeding. The arm amputation looked recent and mechanical, not result of…feeding. Her hair highlighted her green eyes, which Hank found more attractive than the traditional blond-blue eye combination.
The three fast zombies behind her pulled up short at the sight of Hank and Kevin's guns aimed in their general direction, but the quickest one snagged blondie and ducked with her behind a car. The woman was screaming for a second, "Help me! They got Fritz, they got Fritz! Help me! Oh God they bit me! They want to rape me! Help me, hel.." and her voice was muffled into silence, though not one of the three men believed she had been killed. A new voice came out from behind another car, this one in front of Juan by a good ways, "Drive on. Just leave, you don't have to die too. We are not that hungry."
"Shit!", whispered Hank.
In the back seat Kevin was sobbing, "Its her man! Its her the woman with the kids I saw on interstate seventy! It looks like her!"