Apocalypse Aftermath by David Rogers Read Free Book Online Page B

the accelerator.  The SUV rocked slowly as its wheels rolled over bodies.  She heard some faint thumping from below, which caused her to frown in puzzlement, but the SUV kept moving without a problem.  She curved slowly around to the right and finally got clear of the field of bodies.  The ride smoothed out, and she steadied their course up, headed north.
    The convoy was waiting right where they’d left it.  As they pulled up, she saw doors opening and people started emerging, guns in hand.  Not everyone, but enough to cover the convoy.  The hand appeared in front of the windshield again and knocked once.  She brought the SUV to a halt, looked around, then shifted into park and set the brake.  As the Eagle people stood watch, mostly eying the sides of the road, she felt the vehicle rocking and caught motion in the driver’s side mirror.  Then she turned her head and looked over her shoulder.
    Austin was climbing down, his weapon slung at his side.  He reached back up and helped a woman down.  It was the blonde, and she was definitely wearing a body armor vest.  And a pistol was holstered on her belt.  The blouse and slacks she wore beneath the armor looked fairly stylish, but were showing signs of considerable wear.  More than a little dirt, with the blouse especially looking like it had been in use for several days.
    She was shaking badly, and she was sobbing as she literally fell into Austin’s arms.  He steadied her and said something quietly that didn’t carry through the windows.  The woman nodded, but her crying continued.  Austin walked her a few steps away from the SUV and tentatively let go, letting his hands hover as if he expected her to collapse.  But she kept her feet, scrubbing at her face with the back of her hand as she looked around.
    The man sort of slid down the side of the SUV, stumbling when he hit the ground, but he didn’t fall.  He turned and helped the other woman, the brunette, down.  She used his hand for balance but hopped down mostly on her own.  She had a bright green neon and purple backpack on that was at odds with the black body armor and weapons.  A bulky gun that Jessica only recognized as some sort of shotgun – maybe – was in her hand, and she had a pair of pistols on her belt; one on the side and the other at the small of her back.
    “Are they okay?” Candice asked.
    “I think so.” Jessica answered as she looked around.  The area seemed clear, and there were a lot of people with eyes and guns watching, so she hit the buttons that lowered the window and unlocked the doors.  It hummed down to admit the blonde’s sobs as background for other voices.
    “—been stuck up there since just before dawn.” the brunette was saying to Austin.  “I thought for a minute you guys might keep going.”
    “Wouldn’t have been the first to turn around and ditch us.” the man said in a tone that was clearly trying for humor despite the stress in it.
    “How’d y’all end up stuck?” Austin asked.
    “My car ran out of gas a couple of miles up the road.” the man said, gesturing north.  “I forgot the gas gauge is broken.”  The brunette frowned at him, but only briefly before she turned and took several steps to the other woman.  The man kept talking as the brunette slung the shotgun behind her shoulder and wrapped her arms around the blonde in a hug.  “We were on foot headed south, and we tried to get around that in the trees.”  He gestured at the wreckage to the south.
    “Got cut off?” Austin asked.
    “Sure as shit did.” the man shrugged.  “We’d seen the zombies on the road, which was why we were out in the trees, but it turned out they were all over the place.  We tried to shoot our way through, but Darla was running low on ammo so we made a break for the wrecks and managed to climb up out of reach.  That’s basically it.”
    Jessica saw Tyler approaching on foot, his face wearing an expression Jessica instantly recognized as one