The ground inclined as they rounded the corner to the second floor. Lindsay slowed as they reached the incline.
“Run, Linds! Don’t stop!” Cage shouted.
“I am!”
Rachel was breathing heavily next to him. “We’re almost there,” Cage said.
“None of these cars are big enough to fit all of us!” Nicky said.
“Go up another floor.” Adam had Morgan on his back and was in a full sprint.
The group turned the corner. The incline grew as they raced to the next floor. The quick zombies were gaining ground.
“There!” Rachel screamed. “That red Traverse! That one! We can all fit in there!”
Rachel pointed at a red Chevrolet Traverse parked at the top of the slope. The large SUV had third row seating.
Adam headed for the Traverse. “Go, Nicky!”
Cage turned to Rachel. “Are you ready?”
Rachel was breathing heavy, but she nodded. They abruptly stopped in the middle of the concrete incline. The six zombies behind them almost smashed into them. Cage shoved the lead zombie, ducking away from the slash of its curled fingernails. Adam smashed his pipe against the zombie’s head.
Rachel’s aluminum bat clattered to the ground.
“Shit! I lost my bat!” Rachel pulled out her hunting knife.
The baseball bat rolled down the incline. Cage’s tire iron connected with a zombie’s ear. Something moved to his left.
Finn.
The boy sprinted past the fight and chased after Rachel’s bat rolling down the incline. Rachel leaned over a dead zombie, trying to dislodge her knife from its skull. A deadhead, dressed in a torn suit, reached at her from behind. Cage whacked the zombie in the side of the head.
“Can Nicky hotwire the car or what?” Cage took out a zombie in a gray hoodie.
“He’s inside,” Lindsay said. “Fiddling with the wires under the steering wheel.”
Rachel dislodged the knife from the zombie’s skull and rammed it upward into the jaw of the final zombie. The momentum toppled her onto the crumpling body.
Cage helped Rachel back on her feet. “Are you all right?”
She nodded, out of breath. “Every muscle in my body hurts.”
Finn trotted over and handed Rachel the baseball bat, like a golden retriever bringing back a tennis ball. “Here you go, Rachel.”
“Thank you, Finn.”
Cage walked to the Traverse. “How’s it coming, Nicky?”
“These newer vehicles are harder to jump,” Nicky said. “But I think I can get it. I need a few minutes.”
“Did you hear that?” Morgan’s long braid fell to the side as she tilted her head to listen.
Rachel frowned. “Unfortunately, I did.”
The muffled noise that Cage had refused to acknowledge sliced through his ears. He sighed. “It’s the rest of the zombies from the stadium hallway, isn’t it?”
Rachel jogged to the cement half wall and checked the garage floor below. “The slowpokes have finally caught up with us.”
“How many?” Cage asked.
“Only a small army.”
Chapter Twenty-One
Cage opened the Traverse’s back hatch door and threw his bag inside. “Lindsay, get the kids in the car. Be ready to go as soon as Nicky starts the engine. It’s going to be tricky getting out of here.”
“You don’t have to tell me twice.” Lindsay whistled at Finn, who stood beside Rachel. “Finn, get in.”
“How much time do we have?” Adam asked Rachel.
“They’re shuffling up the incline on the floor below us,” Rachel said. “Maybe three minutes.”
Nicky’s long legs stuck out from the driver’s seat. A host of wires protruded from the dashboard beneath the steering wheel.
Adam tapped the side of the Traverse. “How much longer, Nicky?”
“Hmm, maybe like five minutes.”
Cage leaned against the SUV. “We only have three.”
“Three?” Nicky poked his head out. “What do you mean three? That’s such a random number.”
Adam pointed behind them. “We have company.”
Nicky cursed and ducked his head under the steering wheel.
“We can’t fight them. There are too many,” Rachel said to Finn. “Please get inside the car, so we’ll be ready to go.”
“But I want to help,” Finn said.
“Will you sit with Morgan? I think she’s scared.”
“Okay.” Finn nodded and hopped inside the car.
Rachel moved to the center of the inclined road with Cage. The growling was getting louder. Silhouettes of the horde played against the cement wall as they turned the corner.
“Seems like you have a shadow,” Cage said.
“A shadow?”
“Finn.”
“Oh,” Rachel smiled. “He’s a good kid, but we’ll have to keep an eye on him. He keeps throwing himself in the middle of danger.”
“Just like someone else I know.”
“Was that a compliment or an insult?”
Cage laughed. “That was a fact.”
The first wave of zombies rounded the corner. The monotonous groans quickly changed to savage growls as ice blue eyes landed on them.
Cage turned to Adam. “How much longer?”
“Nicky,” Adam asked. “Are you done?”
“I thought we established that I don’t like pressure!”
“If you don’t hurry up,” Rachel said. “You won’t have the chance to like or dislike pressure, because you’ll be dead. We have less than one minute before they reach us.”
“How many are there?” Adam looked down the incline. “Holy shit.”
“That didn’t sound good,” Nicky said.
The first wave was thirty yards away, but more zombies were coming around the corner. Cage tried to count heads, but there were too many. Two hundred? Three hundred? He couldn’t be sure because he didn’t know how many were still on the floor below.
The moans weren’t as loud as the dorm or the stadium hallway, because the garage was partially open and the sound escaped in the wind, but the collective growl was enough to scare anyone.
“Nicky!” Cage slammed shut the Traverse’s back hatch.
“What do you think?” Rachel asked Adam. “Should we try to slow them down?”
Adam shook his head. “We don’t have the advantage of the narrow hallway like we did in the stadium. Once they’re close, they’ll swarm us from all sides. There’s too many of them.”
“Should we dump the car and run?” Cage ignored Adam and looked at Rachel.
“Then what?” Adam asked. “We’ll just be stuck on the fourth floor as opposed to the second. No, give him a minute. Let’s have faith in Nicky.”
“I’m not sure we have a minute,” Rachel said.
Cage ran to the Traverse. “Nicky, can you start this car or not? Because if you can’t, we need to make a run for it. Now.”
Nicky popped his head out from under the steering wheel. “Stop. Pressuring.” He blew a piece of shaggy hair out of his eye. “Me.” He struck two wires together and the engine rumbled to life.
“Yes!” Lindsay shouted.
A maniacal smile claimed Nicky’s face. “Oh yeah! I’m the man! Get inside! Let’s blow this popsicle stand!”
“He’s got it!” Cage yelled at Rachel and Adam.
They climbed into the SUV.
“Can you even drive with your arm?” Rachel asked.
“We’re about to find out.” Nicky threw it in reverse, just as the doors slammed shut. A sea of blue-eyed faces filled the windows.
“Oh God,” Lindsay said.
Nicky slammed his foot on the gas and they peeled out of the parking spot. The car flew backward as the first hand slammed against the side of the Traverse. Nicky backed the car around the corner and up the ramp to the third floor.
“What are you doing?” Adam asked from the passenger seat.
“We need momentum.” Nicky
stopped the SUV on the third floor incline. The zombies were out of sight again.
Cage leaned forward. “It’s going to be like hitting a wall.”
“Then you better buckle your seat belts.” Nicky strapped himself in. “Is everyone ready?”
Cage looked behind him. Rachel, Morgan and Finn were buckled in their seats. Lindsay was beside Cage, already strapped in, with her knees to her chest and her eyes covered. Cage patted her on the arm. “It’s going to be okay, Lindsay.”
She shook her head and didn’t remove her hands from her face.
Cage hit the back of Nicky’s seat. “We’re ready.”
Nicky revved the engine. “Hold on, it’s going to get bumpy!”
The tires screeched. Smoke from the rubber floated in the air behind them. Nicky took the corner at thirty miles per hour. Around the bend, the zombies filled the entire floor.
Adam put his hand on Nicky’s arm. “No, it’s too fast! You’ll set the airbags off with the first impact. We have to wade through.”
Nicky shook his head. “You know what happens when you wade through water. You slip and fall in.”
“We won’t survive if you ram us,” Adam said quietly. “Trust me.”
Nicky sighed and took his foot off the gas. “You better be right, Firefighter.”
The Traverse met the first line of zombies. Morgan and Lindsay screamed. Dirty hands pounded against the windows. The SUV met resistance, but it kept moving. Rachel had her arm around Morgan. Finn’s eyes were stuck on the windows.
“Stay away from the glass, Finn,” Cage said.
Rachel pulled the boy close to her and Morgan. The inside of the Traverse grew dark as the zombies surrounded the SUV. It reminded Cage of when you went through the car wash and the giant sponges rolled over the car.
“Do you think the glass is strong enough?” Rachel asked.
“We’re about to find out,” Adam said.
The growling and pounding were now accompanied by the slight rocking of the SUV. Fists and bloody palms smacked against the glass.
Something cracked.
Cage whirled around in his seat. A fissure spread across the back hatch window. Hands and fists pounded against the glass. The crack spiderwebbed.
“We have a problem back here,” Cage said.
“Dude, can I go faster?” Nicky turned the corner.
“Yeah, go! Go!”
Nicky stepped on the gas and the SUV lurched forward. The deadheads pounded and slapped their hands against the car. The Traverse rocked back and forth as Nicky plowed down rows and rows of zombies. It felt like the SUV was driving over an endless row of speed bumps.
Hands hammered the windows.
Crack.
The fissures spread across the glass until Cage could no longer see the zombie faces pressed against it.
Crack.
“Go, Nicky!” Cage reached over the seat. “Rachel, give me Morgan!”
Rachel shoved her sister into Cage’s arms. He placed Morgan beside Lindsay. Rachel grabbed Finn and lifted him over.
The SUV lurched as Nicky picked up speed. “We’re almost out of here! Hold on!”
Crack.
Finn fell in the seat beside Cage. A lone dirty fist pounded through the back hatch window, becoming stuck in the fissured glass.
Lindsay screamed.
Bloody fingers wiggled and pushed through the fist-size hole. Cage hopped the seat and kneeled beside Rachel. She reached for the cracked glass, extending the hunting knife.
“What are you doing?”
“I’m going to saw off his hand before he brings the whole window down.” Rachel leaned forward. The blade of her knife almost touched the zombie’s fingers.
“No, get back! It’s going to break!” Cage grabbed Rachel by the waist, trying to pull her back into the seat.
Crack. Crack.
The zombie’s hand pushed forward and, with it, the entire window shattered. Arms and snarling jaws breached the back hatch. Morgan screamed.
Hands grabbed Rachel and pulled her through the broken opening.
Chapter Twenty-Two
“Rachel!” Adam cursed.
Adam crawled over Lindsay and fell beside Cage, who held Rachel by the legs. Three different zombies had Rachel — one held her securely by the wrist. Rachel stabbed at it with her free hand, but two other zombies had fistfuls of her hair.
“Give me your knife!” Adam leaned over Rachel and tried to peel the knife from her hand. “Give it to me!”
“I’m losing my grip!” Cage screamed.
“Don’t you let go of her!” Adam yelled at Cage.
“Hold on!” Nicky called from the driver’s seat. “We’re almost out of here!”
Lindsay and Morgan were competing for who could scream the loudest. Finn appeared by Adam’s side and jabbed at zombies with his pipe.
Rachel cried out as the creatures yanked her hair.
Cage propped his feet against the back seat for more leverage. His grip on Rachel’s legs was slipping. Adam leaned over Rachel, the weight of his entire body on top of her, but he had to get the knife. “Rachel! The knife! Dammit — give me the knife!”
Rachel cried out and blindly stuck the knife behind her, slicing the air and almost taking off Adam’s ear. He grabbed the handle and leaned further, crushing Rachel beneath him.
“Don’t let go of her, Cage!” Adam scooted further, feeling his own momentum slide forward. He grabbed Rachel’s head and ran the blade over a chunk of long blond hair until her head was free.
Rachel started to pull back, but Adam stopped her. He wrapped his arm around her waist. “Don’t pull your arm,” he whispered breathlessly in her ear. “It’ll scratch you.”
She nodded frantically. She moved her free hand over Adam’s hand gripped around her waist. She slid her fingers between his.
The zombie’s hand was clenched around her wrist. Luckily, the monster didn’t have long nails. Only its finger pads were squeezing her. Adam tried to ease the zombie’s fingers from her wrist, but they wouldn’t budge. He snapped a finger back, half expecting to hear a howl of pain, but of course the zombie didn’t react.
Another hand reached for them, but Finn swatted it back with the pipe. Giving that kid a weapon was the smartest thing Adam had done in days. He snapped another finger back and then another until Rachel eased her wrist out of the zombie’s grasp.
Adam collected Rachel in his arms and she tumbled on top of him, knocking them onto the seat. “Thank you,” she said, panting. She pressed her cheek against his chest, trying to slow her breathing.
“Welcome.” His heart thumped. He still had one arm wrapped around her waist. The other hand was tangled in her hair, cradling her head against his body. He didn’t want to let go. He’d almost lost her.
Cage grabbed Rachel’s arm and yanked her off Adam. “Did it scratch you?”
Rachel pulled herself up. “No, I’m okay.”
Adam sat up. Instead of thanking him for saving Rachel’s life, Cage glared at him. Whatever. Adam searched the floor for his tire iron. He had to help Finn fight off the zombies trying to crawl through the window.
“Hold on!” Nicky drove the SUV down the incline. A ray of light fell over them as the SUV slammed through the gate and out of the parking garage.
Adam rammed his pipe into the head of the last two zombies holding onto the Traverse. The zombies rolled to the pavement as they sped away from the garage.
“Is everybody okay?” Nicky glanced in the rearview mirror.
“Please get us out of this city,” Lindsay said.
Adam watched as the two zombies rolled across the pavement. Once they stopped rolling they staggered to their uncoordinated feet and resumed their chase after the Traverse.
~ ~ ~
Rachel slumped in the seat. Cage inspected her wrist for scratches, but she knew she was okay.
Adam stared out the broken back window. She nudged him in the ribs. “Quick thinking,” she said to Adam. “Thank you
.”
Rachel ran her hand through her hair finding the chunk that Adam had sliced off. The piece fell to her shoulders, much shorter than the rest, but Rachel hardly cared. That had been a close call. She was lucky the zombie didn’t run its nails over her skin.
Rachel sat up and looked for Morgan. “Are you okay?”
Morgan’s face was tearstained, but she nodded.
Adam and Finn climbed back over the seat and Morgan hopped in the back with Rachel. Morgan wrapped her arms around Rachel’s neck and started sobbing.
“It’s okay,” Rachel soothed. “It’s all over. I still haven’t thanked you for saving me in the hallway back there.” Rachel wiped her tears. “That was very brave of you to attack that zombie.”
She wrapped her arms around Rachel. “I can’t lose you.”
“Don’t worry, I’m not going anywhere.”
Cage leaned his head against the seat with his eyes closed. “I’m not sure if my heart can take all of this action.” He opened one hazel eye and threw her a lazy smile.
“I just want out of this city,” Rachel said.
“Here, here.” Nicky turned the corner and unleashed a groan.
Rachel closed her eyes, waiting for the news.
“We have a problem,” Nicky said. “Again.”
“A problem?” Lindsay squeaked. “That’s all we ever have! When do we not have a problem? What is it this time? Oh, no.”
Rachel inhaled deeply. Her heart was still pounding and her head ached from the zombies yanking her hair by the roots. She squeezed her eyes shut, wanting to disappear.
“Shit!” Adam said. “Turn there.”
Gunfire crackled in the air. Rachel opened her eyes.
“It’s that gang,” Cage said. “They’re following us.”
Rachel looked out the broken window. A beat-up white van was following them. Two people were inside — from what Rachel could see — and the passenger was leaning out the window shooting at the Traverse like he was in an action movie.
Rachel pushed Morgan’s head down. “Get on the floor!”
Nicky swerved in and around abandoned vehicles. “Where’s the interstate?”
“Take a right at the light!” Adam rolled down his window and hoisted half of his body outside.