Chapter 6

Something cold grabbed at her hands. Marla opened her eyes and screamed. One of the zombies was inside the car with her, another pounded on the windshield. She was also dangling sideways, held in place by the seatbelt. The one in the car snarled when she pulled her hands away and tried to squeeze farther into the car. She fumbled the pistol out. The extra magazines and her cell phone fell to the ground. The passenger side window had shattered in the crash, the car tilted crazily, leaned up against the cab of the semi. A breath in, half a breath out, aim ... and she put a bullet through its skull.

The one at the window went crazy, pounding against the starred glass. She aimed at it, but didn't fire. It looked like the windshield would hold for now, only one at a time could reach, but there were others waiting to take its place. The car shook from more blows, there were others at the back window. The sun was going down, and she was already getting cold.

She wrapped one leg around the steering column, then hit the release button on her seatbelt. Crouching on the asphalt, she picked up her things and climbed up to look out. There were at least thirty zombies gathered around. They went crazy when they saw her and tried to climb the bottom of the car to reach her. A shot drew her attention.

A helmeted figure in camouflage ran across the street, followed by a few of the dead. He carried an M-16. She yelled as loud as she could "Help! Help Me!" and shot one of the zombies. She waved franticly and he turned towards her. Her foot slipped and she fell down onto the road. Cold fingers slid over her as one of them tried to grab her feet.

She heard three quick shots, and seconds later, another. She scrambled back up, away from the cold dead fingers. The soldier walked slowly to the other side of the street stopping every two or three steps to fire. After every second shot, he looked behind him. Most of the ones around the car went after him instead.

He wouldn't have time to shoot them all. She shot the nearest in the back of the head and most of them turned around again. The soldier stopped and fired twice from the same position. "Get on top of the truck."

Instead she shot the one pounding on the windshield and the one behind that. Then she tried to climb out. She couldn't do it with the pistol in her hand. She shot another one, drawing them back towards her, then waited until he backed up a few steps and fired. She tucked the Luger away and tried again.

Between the hand cuffs and the steering wheel she couldn't climb out the window. She might make it out the other one, but there were still some under the car. She yelled across to him, timing it for between shots. "I'm stuck."

He said something she couldn't hear, then sprinted to the sidewalk. He shifted his aim away from the ones closest to him. The rifle barked again and again, then stopped. Eight more of them went down. The soldier ran back across the street, ducked into the gap between the vehicles and used the front wheel of the big rig to climb up on its hood. He swapped magazines and fired deliberately until they were all down except the ones under the car.

He stepped across, one foot on the door of the patrol car, grabbed her wrist and lifted her out. He looked at her, eyes wide, then dragged her across the gap and pushed her on top of the cab. Scrambling up after her, he slung the M-16, jumped across to the trailer, and put out his hands. "Come on, there are enough coming to tip this over, we have to move."

She jumped but didn't quite make it, barking her shins on the metal edge. He hauled her up and half carried her to the rear. The back of the trailer nearly touched a concrete awning. He hurried her onto it, then broke out a window with the butt of his rifle.

He opened the blinds with one hand. "Looks clear, I'll be right back." He knocked the rest of the glass out of the frame and climbed inside. Marla looked out over the street, hundreds of them shuffled towards her, coming from both directions, drawn by the gunfire. The blue van was down there, it had rammed into the trailer. Someone might be alive down there, she didn't care about the gang bangers, but they could have taken other women. Josito had admitted she wasn't the only one.

Her thoughts were interrupted by the soldier's return. "I'll help you up." He stuck out his hands and helped her in. The rough concrete blocks scraped her breasts and stomach.

He helped her onto a couch, then pushed a desk against the door. The office had posters about credit repair and automatic bill payments on the walls. He tried the lights, but they didn't work, so he opened the blinds at an angle so the fading sunlight could come into the room, but anyone on the street couldn't see in. He dropped his pack on the floor and sank into a chair. He gently put his helmet on the ground after detaching a headset from it. His dark hair was cut short, sticking up just a little on the top.

He keyed the mike. "Sierra-Sierra-Two-Six, this is Sierra-Sierra-Two-Three." He waited a while and tried again. Someone answered on the third try, Marla hear the squelch break, but couldn't make out the words. She looked him over. Young, probably younger than her, but not by much. He was big and strong, and not too out of breath. He checked his ammo pouches and as he did, she got a good look at his nametag. 'Eckert'. "Two-Six, I have forty-seven, I say again four seven rounds, One day food, two days water. I am in a secure location with one civilian. Pickup risk will be minimal if we use your vehicle, and a diversionary one." He nodded, but a frown creased his brow. "Rodger, I understand six-zero mikes."

He flipped the radio off, stood up and looked at her. "What's your name?"

She cringed at the echo of what had happened before. She looked down, afraid. "Marla."

"Marla, you need to stand up, just for a minute, can you do that? I'm Jim Eckert."

He reach out to help her up and she nodded reluctantly. He walked around her, looking closely at every inch of her body. She could have shot him before, but it was too late now. She was at his mercy. She blushed with shame, it was worse because a part of her was enjoying his inspection. To cover it, she snarled at him. "Taking a good look?"