Free Zombified (Book 2): Shady Oaks by Char Robinson Page B

spare."
    At the farmer's nod, he grinned, walked over and held out a hand. "By the way, I'm Harry Jones and it's nice to meet you."
    Further introductions were quickly made and after grabbing the gas cans from the truck bed, the group quickly hurried over to the fuel tanks. Within ten minutes all the cans were full. Placing the last can in the back, Harry turned to Cindy. "If it's all right, I'd like to ride back with Bitsy and Travis."
    "Oh certainly," Cindy said with a big smile. She gave Harry a pat on the shoulder. "Besides, I don't think Bitsy will let you out of her sight for awhile and I know you have a lot of catching up to do."
    "We do, I know she's going to ask me what happened to her parents and aunt, and that's one story I'm not looking forward to telling, but she has a right to know. My wife, Lana, and Bitsy's mom and dad were watching me from a nearby building while I was getting the Huey ready for flight. There were no zombies anywhere, so when I finished my preflight checks I motioned for them to come to me. I guess the noise drew the zombies out from somewhere close by and before I knew it, they were surrounded and literally torn to pieces right before my eyes."
    Harry took a shaky breath and continued. "There was nothing I could do. When even more of those things headed my way I had no choice but to fly out of there. I didn't have enough fuel to get far, unfortunately. I think I was in shock; the first few days are a blur and some things I don't remember. I did manage to find enough fuel to get here, my one and only goal was getting to Bitsy, so here I am."
    Cindy shook her head, closing her eyes for a second before replying. "I'm so sorry for your loss, what a horrible thing to witness. Please, have Travis drive and try to go easy on the details for her sake."
    Harry nodded and sighed as he looked up toward the sky. He rubbed the back of his neck. "I've been practicing what I would say all the way here and there's really no way to make it easy on her. Their deaths were gruesome and painful; the only comfort I can give her is that it was fast."
    "Concentrate on that then, and spare her the other details, that should help. If she really wants more she'll ask."
    "Good idea," he replied. He glanced over at Bitsy waiting with Travis at the other truck. "Guess we'd better head out then. We'll follow you out."
    "Sounds good," Cindy said with a nod as she turned to get into the truck.
    Within moments they were headed back to town to fuel up Harry's helicopter and get it in the air before dusk.
    As she drove, Cindy told Judith and Mark what Harry told her about Bitsy's parents and his wife.
    "That's awful," Judith said with a shake of her head. "So many people have lost so much, we're lucky to have some place to go that's safe."
    "At least for now," Mark said in a low voice. He was sitting alone in the back and when Judith turned to look at him and Cindy gave him a quick glance through the rear view mirror, he held up his hands.
    "Hey, it's the truth. We have no idea how safe we really are and we have no clue how many zombies are out there, either."
    "I see what you're saying," Judith remarked. "The way I like to look at it is the farther we can drive them away or outright kill them, the better it is and right now as far as we know the closest zombies are in Harris."
    "And our teams are busy cleaning up Harris, too," Cindy said with a smile.
    "Well, I hope you ladies are right because I've had enough of zombies to last several lifetimes."
    "Amen to that," Cindy remarked while Judith nodded in agreement.
    They were silent for a moment before Judith glanced at her watch then turned toward Cindy. "How long has it been since you heard from Mick? I just realized I haven't heard from Charlie for over two hours now."
    "We've been so busy I haven't even thought about it, but I haven't heard from Mick, either."
    "I'm hoping they're back, how long does it take to check on a few patrols?" Judith said as she settled back against