Free The Renegades 2 Aftermath (A Post Apocalyptic Zombie Thriller) by Jack Hunt Page A

of dead that we were sitting on but at the same time clearly it was a knock. I slid my hand down through the mess of rotting flesh and knocked twice. The knock happened again.
    “It’s Jess,” I said.
    “You sure?”
    I straightened back up. “She must have crawled underneath the dumpster.”
    I lifted the lid. “That you, Jess?” I whispered.
    “Yep.”
    “You okay?”
    “No bites.”
    I lowered the lid again, relieved that she was still alive, and unharmed. We must have been inside that dumpster for the better part of three hours. That’s how long it took before the Z’s moved out. By the time Jess felt safe enough to slide out and join us, there were only ten remaining Z’s by my estimate. The others had wandered off into the city. Over the course of those three hours we heard gunfire a few times. There were others out there. Were they the gangs that Benjamin spoke of? We had no way of knowing. Maybe they were like us? Those who were seeking other survivors. Trying to stay alive and keep their sanity in the process.

102.5 THE WOLF
    I t was late afternoon when we rolled out. We stunk to high heaven but we were alive. Jess told us that if it hadn’t been for the three dead Z’s that had covered and smothered her like a blanket she wouldn’t have survived. Over the course of an hour she shuffled on her back using the dead Z’s as a shield until she had reached the dumpster. She then hid beneath it.
    “You look like you are a newborn baby,” Izzy remarked as we tried to wipe off the grime. We had got used to smelling bad. It was odd how much hygiene was taken seriously before all this. Now, we didn’t care. Survival was more important.
    While the CDC was where we ultimately wanted to go, we had initially targeted 102.5 The Wolf, a radio station. It was the largest of all the broadcasting stations in the city. Based on Benjamin’s advice, he felt that the signal could have only come from one of those two places. Knowing our luck, it never came from any of them. Izzy had argued home the point that anyone could have broadcast it. The city was overrun with the dead. The chances of finding where that initial broadcast came from was like searching for a needle in a haystack.
    There were only five Z’s left in the alley, Baja finished them off with the axe Izzy was carrying. He looked like Thor wielding it, whereas she looked like she was trying to retrieve the sword in the stone. She could barely lift it, and she was a fit girl. How the hell she had managed to strap it to her back was beyond me. Both of them had got into a bit of a pissing match over who should have it. Eventually, Jess told her to let it go.
    Baja was a bit of an oddball that way. Most of the time he was pretty lighthearted, but he could be pushy at times and a bit of an asshole when he wanted to be. Then again all of us could.
    As much as the others were complaining about having to haul ass over to the radio station, I understood why Dax wanted to go. Even if the signal hadn’t come out of there, there was a possibility the equipment might be working off a generator. If it was, we might have been able to contact someone. It was a long shot. We knew that.
    I had noticed that Dax and Izzy were once again keeping their distance. I shook my head in complete amazement. If ever there was a time to bury the hatchet, it was now. None of us knew if we were going to make it through the day. Petty disagreements seemed pointless.
    We were in this together. Family. The only ones who would watch out for each other. In the short time together I had noticed how quick each of us listened to the other, even if we did moan over decisions made.
    Dax had given us this spiel about what they taught them in the military. That no matter what, when they were out in the field, they were to make sure that no one was left behind. Of course there would be times when the enemy would overtake, when things would spiral out of control, but they were trained to look out for