Free The Fall (Book 5): Exodus in Black by Joshua Guess Page B

sleeping bag.”
    “I’m good,” she said, settling against a truck fender with her eyes glued to the northeast. “I’ll keep an eye out.”
    He nodded and climbed up on the hood of the derelict vehicle. “Why do this? We could have just gone inside. It’s not like they could get through the door.”
    “I know that. It was just logical. This swarm was probably nudged toward us by the Rebound soldiers, right? We almost never see clusters of zombies around here anymore. Probably been following the trail for days or weeks. So I figured there might be even more coming we don’t know about. Swarms can get pretty big and strung out over miles.”
    “Ah,” Kell said, his eyes lighting up. “You didn’t want to trap us inside with no easy way to get to the cars. Now we can at least hold them off long enough to load up and escape.”
    She gave him a lazy grin. “Nailed it.”
    He was right, but not completely. Emily had no desire to leave people behind, no wish to see anyone hurt or carry the guilt on her conscience, but that hadn’t been her primary driver. She wanted the buffer zone for a safe escape, just not for everyone. If it came to a situation where it looked like they might be overwhelmed, getting him out was the priority.
    Not that she’d tell him that. God knew the man couldn’t help getting all noble. Still, she’d fight like hell before taking a drastic measure like leaving everyone else behind to die. She knew that as clearly as she knew that faced with the choice, she absolutely could live with the guilt of making the call to flee.

Kell
     
     
     
    The rough wall of cars might have had a narrow gap in it to let zombies in one by one if Kell and Emily hadn’t learned the hard way that giving the enemy an advantage, even if might give you one too, was stupid. Instead the cars formed a closed loop, which would hold off the dead while also allowing the defenders to attack.
    When they came, it wasn’t a surprise. Though the surrounding area was grassy and more hardy than the dusty plains outside it, the overgrowth made sneaking up impossible. The sound of feet crunching through knee-high grass and snapping wind-broken branches preceded the swarm by a fair margin.
    “Keep in your triads,” Kell said in a deep, booming voice meant to carry over the ruckus. It came out louder and more fierce than intended, but that was fine. If he seemed confident and aggressive, it might help someone else find some confidence of their own.
    He turned to his own team. One was Kelsey, the other a younger man Kell didn’t know well at all named Juan. “I have the longest arms, so let me stay in front. Step in if I get mobbed, and always speak up with what side you’re on so I don’t accidentally hit you. No heroics. Just work together and we’ll be fine.”
    Kelsey nodded, perhaps a little nervously, but the young woman was seasoned enough to not let the fear rule her. Juan grinned.
    “Just try not to put one of those big elbows in my face, okay? I’m too pretty.”
    “Yes, you’re gorgeous,” Kell said. “Don’t get cocky. Your face isn’t going to stop a zombie unless it’s as a snack.”
    Shapes emerged through the trees as the sounds of approach reached a crescendo.
    “Here we go!” Kell boomed over his shoulder.
    He moved toward his assigned stretch of barrier. There weren’t enough people to allow everyone to remain static, so each triad covered a given length of the makeshift wall. Kell was happy to do it. While Emily was better at fighting than him, she was also a more capable leader. She assigned groups, organized the support teams made up of the refugee kids, and ran the show.
    For once it was nice to have everything be simple. Point him at a target and let him fight.
    The first zombie bumped up against the side of a truck. The hood reached its chest, but the starving thing didn’t notice or care. Its arms stretched over the smooth metal, clawing strips of paint away as it tried to pull itself