Free Winchester Undead (Book 2): Winchester: Prey by Dave Lund

familiar with the surface streets in El Paso, although they knew the basic layout of the highways. The only way they really knew how to get to Fort Bliss was right through the heart of the city and into one of the main gates. Odin stood in the bed of the truck, leaning on the roof of the cab with his rifle, dropping the undead that posed an immediate threat to his teammates. Apollo attempted to help Chivo navigate while leaning out of the passenger’s side window, firing his rifle.
    Ten minutes later Apollo was out of ammo for his M4 and began pulling loaded magazines from the pouches on Chivo’s armor carrier. Chivo took the exit ramp for Patriot Freeway, swerving around more abandoned vehicles on the flyover. As they approached the zoo, Odin banged on the roof of the cab and yelled “Stop the truck!”
    Chivo slammed on the brakes and the truck slid to a stop.
    “What the hell, Odin?”
    “Look on the other side of the highway, up on the top of the sign.” Odin pointed even though his teammates in the truck couldn’t see him. Standing on the supports of the exit signs spanning the highway was a woman waving both arms above her head. A low guardrail and a small chain-link fence separated the other side of the highway, so the closest Chivo could get the truck was next to the base of the sign between the lanes. Below the woman two dozen rotting corpses stood reaching towards her, moaning, their hands grasping the air above their heads, trying to reach their prey.
    Odin shouldered his rifle and began thinning the swarm of undead. Apollo left his rifle in the truck, climbed out and drew the pistol holstered on his right thigh. Walking quickly around the front of the truck, his feet rolling heel to toe, the muzzle of the raised pistol glided perfectly flat through the air as the slide rocked back with each fired round. One by one each of the staggering undead fell to the pavement, spattered with skull fragments and rotted black brain matter.
    Reaching the base of the sign, Apollo called up to the woman. “Are you OK?”
    “Yes,” she responded weakly.
    “Are you bit?”
    “No.”
    “Can you climb down?”
    “I don’t think I can.”
    Chivo stood at the front of the still-running truck, scanning outward for any new threats, and saw a white panel van about ten yards away with “Garcia’s Painting” on the side.
    “Apollo, hang on for a sec.”
    Odin looked to where Chivo gestured and ran to the van to help retrieve the ladders bungeed to its roof. They brought back the longest extension ladder to the base of the sign and extended the ladder as far as it would go.
    “Can you get to the ladder and climb down now?”
    “I’ll try.”
    The woman visibly shook while climbing through the middle of the big metal span, carefully stepping on each metal brace. Reaching the ladder, she climbed over the edge and slowly climbed down one rung at a time. Once on the pavement, she collapsed. Apollo carried her back to the old Ford, Chivo picking off the curious undead that were shambling towards the truck.
    Odin climbed into the bed of the truck while Apollo set the young woman on the bench seat of the cab beside Chivo and climbed in behind her. Her face was badly sunburned, her lips cracked and her hair matted. She looked severely dehydrated. Chivo put the truck in drive and continued towards Fort Bliss.
    “My name is Tyrone but everyone calls me Apollo. That’s Chivo and behind us is Odin.”
    Weakly she nodded and said, “I’m Lindsey.”
    “How long have you been stuck up there, Lindsey?”
    “Nineteen days.”
    Apollo looked at her with disbelief. “Did you have any food or water?”
    “No. I had a few Powerbars, but those only lasted four days. Each morning I scrubbed the frost off the metal for water.”
    “How did you end up on the sign?”
    “My scooter ran out of gas and I was chased up there by those things.”
    Apollo reached into the cargo pocket on his filthy pants and retrieved a mashed Snickers bar.