Voodoo Plague - 01 by Dirk Patton Read Free Book Online Page B

word and she
grabbed my right arm hard enough to hurt.
    “Wait,” I said,
and kept my concentration on the mirror.
    The infected in
front of us had just reached the push bar when I floored the accelerator and
stood on the brake pedal.  Diesels aren’t known for neck snapping acceleration
and I needed a sudden surge forward for what I wanted to do.  The big engine
quickly built to a roar and as the rear tires started to break lose I let off the
brake and kept my right foot hard down on the throttle.
    The truck shot
forward, battering the male in front out of the way, but the best reward was
watching the two females in the rear tumble backwards out of the bed of the
truck.  I had timed it perfectly and as they were standing up the sudden
acceleration was like pulling a rug out from under their feet.  In the mirror I
could see them both hit the pavement, tumble, then gather themselves and start
pursuing us.  Not only were they more agile than the males, they were faster
too, moving at least as fast as a quick jogging pace.  Nothing short of a flat
out run was going to out distance them.
    We were finally
free of all of our riders except for the male that stubbornly hung from the
passenger mirror.  Rachel shied away from the passenger side of the truck,
pushing against me as he started trying to break the glass with his head
again.  Ahead of us an abandoned delivery truck for the Atlanta Journal
Constitution sat half in the traffic lane.  I steered for it at 50 mph and lined
us up to drive right down its side with no clearance. 
    The infected was
still holding on when we reached the abandoned truck, and I steered us to
neatly peel him off the side of the truck.  There was a thud and a splash of
blood onto the side window then he was gone.  I had managed to not lose the
passenger side mirror in the maneuver and looking in it I could see him lying
in an unmoving heap in the road behind us.  His head must have hit the back of
the parked truck at speed and judging by the amount of blood on our window it
had pretty much disintegrated like an overripe watermelon. 
    I steered us
back to the middle of the road and reduced speed, making sure I would have
enough reaction time in case we needed to avoid an unseen obstacle.  Rachel
leaned over to the side window and peered out to make sure we didn’t have any
other riders.  My side was clear and when she sat back she looked at me and
smiled.
    “That was pretty
quick thinking,” she said.
    I smiled back,
hands shaking and stomach fluttering from the adrenaline that was still pumping
through my system.
    I said, “Climb
into the back seat and make sure the bed is clear.  I don’t see anything in the
mirror, but all I can see of the bed is the last couple of feet and the inside
of the tailgate.”
    “All clear,” she said a moment
later, crawling back into the front seat and resuming her position, pressing
against me.  I didn’t complain and I didn’t read anything in to it.  I had even
stopped noticing she was basically naked.  I was freaked out.  She had to be at
least as scared as I was.  Physical contact with another human was still part
of our animal instinct, and there was absolutely nothing erotic or sexual about
it.
     
     
     
     
     
     

8
     
     
    The big Ford’s
air conditioning worked well and within a few minutes we were both shivering
from the cold air blasting out of the dash vents, but neither of us wanted to
turn it off or down.  We were dehydrated, hungry and exhausted.  Adrenaline was
keeping us going, but I knew we’d crash and burn as soon as it bled off.
    As I piloted the
truck down the road, slowing frequently to avoid wrecked and abandoned
vehicles, infected continually appeared and shuffled towards us.  It quickly
became apparent that the rattle of the heavy duty diesel engine announced our
presence and provoked a Pavlovian response from them.  More often than I liked an
infected appeared from behind an empty vehicle and stepped