Free Until the End of the World (Book 3): All the Stars in the Sky by Sarah Lyons Fleming Page B

his face a hole where hands or teeth cut through to brain. Only his pants and the long dark hair make him identifiable. I send this morning’s oatmeal back down with a forceful swallow.
    We wait until Lexers pound on the RV, but Tony doesn’t emerge. The ones from the supermarket have reached the road. They only need two minutes to reach us. Three if we’re lucky.
    Shawn races into the living area from his vantage point at the bedroom window. “More pods coming. Are the truck keys in the ignition?”
    Zeke nods. I join Jamie at the door and hear Bits sob, but I can’t think about that right now. Whoever does this has to be fast, and the loads of stupid things I did this summer have made me faster and stronger than ever. I pull out my axe and ignore the sweat dripping down my back.
    “We’ll get the pump,” I say, and point to Peter and Nelly.
    Shawn looks to Jamie. “We’ll get the battery.”
    “Let us out behind the pickup,” Nelly calls. “Try to block the ones from the street.”
    Kyle swings around the pickup, where we jump out and keep low while he pulls to the pumps. Between Margaret’s calling and Barnaby’s howls, the Lexers are focused on the RV.
    The zombie in the tubing drags itself forward at our approach. I kneel to unwrap its limbs after Nelly’s machete goes through its head. There’s no slack where the rubber wraps around his ankle, and the remainder is trapped under his torso. The pickup’s hood slams and Jamie’s boots pound past. I don’t look up; they’ll tell me when I need to run. The dead Lexer wears a heavy boot, the knotted lace locked with dried mud. I’ll never get the loop wide enough to fit over it. The sound of blades hitting flesh and the meaty thud of bodies hitting the ground nearby tells me that we’ve become more interesting than the RV. There’s no time—this foot has to go. I lift my axe and bring it down on the Lexer’s shin with a crunch. Nelly’s machete follows my axe, and he flings the severed foot away while I slip the hose free.
    “Done!” Nelly calls.
    He tosses the pump in the truck bed and jumps in. I use the tire to launch myself after him. Jamie heads for the passenger door and Peter lands beside me just as the few coming our way hit the truck. But that’s not all that’s coming our way—all the Lexers from the supermarket plus two more pods are closing in—close to a thousand altogether. The RV moves across the grass to the street. Shawn bumps over a body and races after it.
    I look down to see the pump inching toward the tailgate. The end of the hose in the ground tank has threaded itself under Mike’s body as we passed. All of this, and we’re going to lose it anyway. I dive and clutch it to my chest, feet braced against the tailgate, as Mike moves an inch, a foot, and then rolls to the side. The hose whips out of the hole, throwing up droplets of gasoline.
    We roll behind the RV, passing stores that must have something in the way of food inside. They might be the only places between here and Alaska that do, and a thousand reasons why they’re untouched follow us down the road.
    Jamie knocks on the back window and gives us a thumbs up. Nelly returns the gesture and leans against the metal. His cheeks are two spots of pink from exertion. I offer a weak smile and force my fingers to release the pump. There’s a momentary high when you’ve survived something so risky, but I’ve had enough of that high to last several lifetimes.
    Peter puts an arm around my shoulders and I close my eyes while we leave Winnipeg. I’m tired, too tired to look back to where we just left one person dead and two a mystery. We’re down to seventeen, and I don’t think the Lexers are finished with us yet.

CHAPTER 15
    Someone—or someones —has beaten us to every gas station two hours northwest of Winnipeg. There’s no dearth of stations along the two-lane roads we travel, but they’re empty of food, empty of fuel and, thankfully, fairly empty of zombies.