The Regulators - 02 by Michael Clary Read Free Book Online Page B

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to one of those things. Its eyes had gone a milky white. It was missing most of
its nose and part of its lips. The teeth were a scum colored brown and its hair
was a mass of dirt and tangles.
    I hit the lever just as its hand smashed into the
windshield.
    I shouldn’t have hesitated.
    The face in the windshield wasn’t the only zombie that
charged us. It was just the only one I noticed in that brief second. It turns
out that all of them did and if I had been a second later on hitting that
lever, well, it would have been a pretty crappy evening.
    I was able to hit the lever in time though, and believe me,
it was just in time. The armored top of the vehicle shot up through a bunch of
different slots at what seemed like warp speed. The pieces clicked, snapped,
and slammed together so fast it actually took the head off of one of the
shamblers just as it leaned forward to take a chomp out of Kingsley.
    We were enclosed in an armored vehicle courtesy of some
military genius that figured an armored transformer-like top would probably come
in handy some day. I was gonna kiss that guy if I ever figured out who the
designer was.
    Georgie was still screaming.
    Kingsley was cussing up a storm.
    Javie was still frozen stiff.
    The inside of the Jeep was covered in gore. Apparently, some
other zombies also lost some limbs.
    Georgie was still screaming.
    With a smile on my face, I got to do something that I’ve
wanted to do many times since meeting Georgie; I bitch-slapped him. His scream
stopped immediately.
    “Everybody calm down,” I said. “We’re safe in here.”
    Georgie was quietly hyperventilating, and Kingsley had
stopped cursing. There was no change from Javie, though. He was still staring
out the window. All of the zombies were pounding away and scratching at the
Jeep in an effort to get to us. It was pretty loud.
    “Georgie,” I said. “I need to switch seats with you. I’m
going to get us out of here.”
    In acknowledgement that he actually heard me, Georgie bobbed
his head up and down. We both moved by each other at the same time. It
shouldn’t have been easy because Jeeps aren’t exactly roomy, but we were both
covered in slime and chunks which acted as a sort of lubricant and we just
kinda slid into our new seats.
    Right then Javie came out of his stupor.
    “MOTHER FUCKER!” he shouted.
    It was unfortunate he chose to shout because it made the
zombies begin attacking the vehicle in a renewed frenzy and the Jeep began to
rock back and forth with their onslaught. At some point, I actually froze for a
second. I’m not sure if it was Javie’s exclamation that did it to me or when we
ended up on only two wheels.
    Regardless, I felt it was prudent to get our asses out of
dodge. I cranked the starter. I can’t even remember when the Jeep had stalled
out. The engine roared to life as I revved it up. I slammed the shifter in reverse
and punched the accelerator.
    I heard the nasty thumps and crunches as I backed up into
the mass of undead behind the vehicle. When I had created just a little bit of
space, I slammed the shifter into first and punched through the mass in front.
    The Jeep bounced up and down as zombies were pulled under
the heavy duty front bumper. Yet still more shamblers pounded on our doors and
windows. I couldn’t even tell where I was going; the mass was that thick. I
suddenly jerked the wheel to the left and punched it once again. A few more
bumps and slams and suddenly, we were free. The way ahead of us was clear.
Behind us was pretty much a hornets’ nest, but we had a way out and believe you
me I took it.
    It didn’t take very long to lose our new friends. I took the
first road I could find that led away from Mesa, and we soon lost our tail in
the maze of suburbia. We were all glad to be out of danger because the inside
of the Jeep really reeked with all those nasty zombie bits.
    I pushed the lever to put the top back in its original
position, and we all breathed deeply of the cold night