Zompoc Survivor: Exodus by Ben S Reeder Read Free Book Online Page A

most of the thirty rounds in the fresh magazine count, assuming I could hold the rifle steady enough.
    Screams came from the apartment complex to my right, accompanied by heavy pounding and the occasional breaking of glass. Movement in the distance behind us caught my eye, but whoever it was never emerged into the light. As Porsche made the turn into the parking lot of the Goodwill Thrift store, I caught a brief glimpse of someone running through the apartment complex as they passed between two buildings. Seconds later, a group of figures sprinted across the same narrow opening. My gut clenched when I heard the screams start a few seconds after that.
    I forced myself to turn my attention back to the road as we emerged from between the thrift store and an upscale restaurant. On the far side of the road from us, a line of cars was backed up all the way to the next stop light and beyond. Porsche uttered some choice curse words as I knelt down to look in the rear window.
    “We’re stuck here,” she hissed as she pulled through the parking lot and turned the truck’s dented nose into the parking lot’s sloped exit. I watched as more and more cars joined the line, then looked back over my shoulder toward the apartment complex.
    “Wait for it,” I said softly.
    “Wait for what?” she asked. To her credit, I saw her flex her hands on the steering wheel.
    “Chaos,” I said slowly. “Somewhere along this line, some intellectual giant is going to figure out that things will go faster if…” I paused, and my faith in humanity was vindicated by the strident blaring of a car horn. More horns joined in the chorus, and I closed my eyes as a chorus of shrieks rose from behind us.
    “Oh, no,” Porsche said quietly.
    “Someone’s going to bolt, and that’ll give us a gap,” I said as I grabbed the M4 and looked left and right. Figures emerged from the shopping center to our right and charged the waiting cars. More screams erupted down the street as we watched the infected drag people out of their cars and fall on them in the road. I heard gunshots from my right, then the sound I’d been hoping for ripped the night open to my left: the sound of a revving engine and breaking glass. Two car-lengths to our left, a bright yellow Hummer H2 in the right hand lane was shoving a Hyundai Sonata out its way. The smaller car was no match for the massive SUV, and it slid into the middle of the road with a grinding of metal as the Hummer did a U turn and headed back west.
    “Go! GO!” I yelled even as Porsche burned rubber out of the parking lot. The truck bounced onto the road, then I was flung against the right side of the bed as she slewed to the left. My back and left shoulder took the impact as my legs flew into the air. Desperately, I grabbed the window frame with my right hand and pulled myself up so I could see where we were going. My first thought was that ignorance had been bliss as we bounced over the curb. Ahead of us was the side of a house.
    “Right!” I yelled frantically. “Go right!” Porsche yanked the wheel to the right, and her truck chewed up someone’s back lawn as we skidded through something that got us pointed at the gap in the chain-link fence surrounding a playground. Calling it a turn would have been generous. She hit the gas again and we sent a gout of dirt up behind us for a second, then I was pointing to her left.
    “There! Behind the school. Cut across the field there. Then go right. That’ll bring you out on Kimbrough,” I explained. Without waiting for an acknowledgement, I turned and looked over my shoulder. Sure enough, we were being chased. I couldn’t tell how many, but the shrieks that were reaching my ears told me that it was too goddamn many. We opened up the distance between our pursuers and our tender behinds as Porsche crossed the playground, but they gained some of it back when she slowed down to make the turn to our right. Chain-link fence blurred by on either side as she poured on