Free Dead World (Book 2): Headed North by Jacob Mollohan

the bushes getting scrapes on the way down. But he is back on his feet, carrying Chloe away before she even has a chance to resume crying.
    The zombies begin stumbling out of the window upstairs on the roof oblivious to the heights. Just searching for their next meal. The whole group sprints to the car. Luckily Valentine had the presence of mind to grab the rifle Isiah dropped to catch Chloe.
    Daniel revs the engine as everyone hops in and they burn off down the road heading back for the highway.
    “Hold on,” Valentine says.
    Daniel slows a fraction. “What do you mean hold on?” he says rougher than he intended. “Is something wrong?”
    “We need that food,” she says and kicks her foot against the box of rifle shells. Making her point “If I drive, I can bring us around past the place and we can let them trail us and you know… take them out one at a time with the rifle. Then we can go back to the house and get the supplies.”
    Daniel thinks for a moment, the adrenaline coursing through his system makes the world seem slower than it should be. The dead are trailing them now that he has slowed down. A mob of bodies pressing out of the house, and out of the shadows of neighbor’s yards.
    “She’s right,” Isiah agrees. “That was real bad back there, but we can’t just leave all that food behind. There couldn’t have been too many left.”
    “Ok,” Daniel says with resignation. He hates having to go back but he knows they need the food. So he twists the steering wheel and swings around going straight through a mail box as he runs over the overgrown lawn of another house.
    He lets the car slow down as they approach. The headlights pool out onto the group of zombies that are stumbling towards them. Isaiah was right. There are only a dozen or so left still shambling in their direction. Snow starts falling against the windshield casting crazy patterns. It is the first snow of the season and it mixes with the ash to make ugly mud.
    “It’s time we stopped running and took control,” Daniel says, parking the car with plenty of room for him and Valentine to switch places so he can shoot them down before they become an issue. Daniel and Valentine hop out of the car and swap places. She hands him the rifle. There is still a couple hundred yards before the zombies will be close enough but they are already picking up speed.
    Daniel reaches into the front seat and sets down a box of bullets at his feet. He has never had rifle training outside of the practice he has gotten with it in the past few days but he takes to it like a natural.
    He reloads quickly and takes a few deep breaths sighting down the barrel. His first shot clips the lead zombie in the collar bone. Blackish blood, thick as oil explodes out from the wound. The older woman, it seems like that is the only demographic that lives in this neighborhood, spins around from the impact and falls to the ground. She stirs again immediately though, her arm hanging roughly from the ruined shoulder.
    Cursing under his breath Daniel takes aim again. He fires into the mass moving towards him catching a limping zombie in the forehead. His tuft of grey hair explodes backwards and the thing drops like a bag of wet meat.
    Daniel hears the opposite door open as he fires another shot, downing one more zombie. He sees Isaiah in his peripheral. Isaiah is carrying the hatchet still black with gore. Isaiah takes up a position close to him.
    Firing through ten rounds Daniel is able to down 7 more of the dead. They are hard to hit moving so erratic. He stops to reload again as fast as he can but his fingers are shaking. The dead have closed to under 50 yards. He considers getting in the car and backing up some more but he thinks he has time for a couple more shots.
    Lining up the rifle he sights on another zombie. Her jaw and teeth are visible through a gaping hole in her cheek, he wonders how whatever caused this didn’t do enough damage to the cranium to disable it for good.