Free The Dead Road: The Complete Collection by Robert Paine

use the front yard as a kill zone, and the driveway as a choke point. They'll funnel towards us.  While I'm sighting them in, Roger's got his eyes on the trees to both sides. Any that get in range, he takes down."
     
    All three of them nodded their agreement. It was a sound plan. I got back into the car and pulled the door closed quietly. "Alright Eli, pull up slowly. Try not to get their attention yet. Turn a bit so I can use the roof of the car to lean on and fire across."
     
    He started the engine and put the car into gear. The driveway was mostly level, with a slight incline as it broke the tree line, so Eli just let the car idle and drift forward. The rocks and dirt crunched under the tires as we rolled. It sounded impossibly loud to me, and I kept my eyes trained on the things that wandered closest. One was a man in a tattered paramedic's uniform, the other a woman wearing a bright yellow shirt and a green apron. Both of them were covered in blood, their dead eyes staring straight ahead.  The paramedic paused as Eli turned the wheel and drifted into place, but didn't turn around, didn't change its path. We stopped with our front tires on the grass, and Eli put the car in park. The thing started to move again, shambling away from us along its path that it walked so many times the grass was starting to thin.
     
    I opened my door as quietly as I could and stood up, bringing the rifle up to my shoulder. I lowered my elbows to the roof of the car, resting my chest against the top of the frame. I peered into the scope, sighting in the paramedic. The woman in yellow was closer, but she was walking away from us, while the paramedic was crossing in front of us. Roger rolled down his window, then opened his door and knelt behind it. He could shoot from the window, using the door as cover, the way we had seen police officers do it in television shows. I didn't comment that the cops do it to get cover from return fire, and it probably wouldn't do much against walking corpses. Whatever made Roger feel better.
     
    I put my cross hairs on the paramedic's head and watched it move, studied how it sway with each shambling step. The lurching gait caused his head to remain still for a heartbeat between each step, then lean forward as it lowered its front foot. I started to count beats, tapping the trigger guard with my forefinger in time with its motions. Two beats still, three beats moving, two beats still, three beats moving. I kept counting to myself, adjusting my finger, laying it against the trigger. I watched its step. Three moving. It paused. I squeezed.
     
    The shot rang out. A flock of bird took flight from the trees nearby. The paramedic dropped, its forehead a ruined mass. I turned to face the woman in yellow, cocking the bolt to chamber another round as I moved. She had paused and was turning towards the sound. I sighted her in. I caught the sun's reflection off of a gold cross around her neck. "Amen," I whispered, and squeezed the trigger.  The bullet entered just above her right eye. She collapsed in a heap.
     
    I cocked the bolt as I surveyed the yard. All of the monsters had stopped moving. I could see them reorienting, homing in on the sounds that had disrupted their routine. They were turning towards us slowly, as if unsure. I took aim at a teenage boy in a tank top and fired quickly. I missed. I cursed aloud, chambering another round. I was letting my nerves get the best of me. I sighted him in and waited, making sure my breathing was even and my hands were steady. Another second and I squeezed the trigger. I saw the cloud of red mist behind him as the bullet exited the back of his skull. He took a single step and then fell forward. They were all coming towards us now. I could hear them groaning more loudly, the cacophony of noise rising as they caught our scent in the air. We were fresh prey.
     
    "Eli!" Roger hissed. I looked down at him. He was pointing towards the parked jeep. I looked.
     
    A second group