Warpath: Surviving the Zombie Apocalypse by Shawn Chesser

her dry teeth and finished her sentence.
“Logan was a gentle soul. He didn’t deserve whatever you did to him.”
    Carson chuckled as he watched his men loading cardboard
boxes into the idling helicopters.
    “You’re not finished with them. You know that ... don’t you?
His brother and best friend are hunting for you as we speak. And when they find
you you’re going to wish you were never even born.”
    “On that, my lady, you are sadly mistaken. All of your
friends’ corpses were cooling thirty minutes before Logan and Gus bought the
farm,” he said smugly. “Hell, maybe big brother gave Logan the guided tour when
they were reunited ... in hell.”
    One of the pilots called back, “Five mikes.”
    Carson flashed the pilots a thumbs up. After shooting Jamie
a wolfish grin, he repeated her own words. “A marriage of convenience my ass.
You were an integral part of that group.” He looked her over from head to toe
and fished a four-by-six-inch scrap of paper from his chest pocket. It was
creased and tattered around the edges and had uniformly spaced words printed in
light blue on the back. He held it up, long side vertical, oriented like a
portrait, then craned around and looked her full in the face. His eyes flicked
back to what had to be a photo and back to her face, lingering there for a
moment until the pilot called back a one-minute warning. Finally, holding the
photo at arm’s length, Carson made one final side-by-side comparison before
putting the paper back in his pocket. Shattering the Hallmark moment, one of
the pilots shouted back, “We’re wheels up.”
    Carson nodded and looked Jamie in the eye and said, “You’re
right up his alley.”
    As the engine whine and rotor chop increased, Jamie cocked
her head and asked, “Whose alley?”
    “My friend’s.”
    “Over my dead body.”
    “That’s what the other girl said. And somehow through all of
the whimpering and screaming that came afterward we got a name out of her. Said
her name was Jordan.” A knowing, almost conspiratorial smile creased his face.
“You know, as in Air .”
    Instantly the puzzle pieces fell into place. The fresh
scratches and recent comment combined with the fact that she hadn’t seen Jordan
since the quarry led her to the heart-wrenching conclusion that she was never
going to see the impressionable young lady again. Fucker is going to pay if
he lets me near that pistol , she thought as she watched him extract a knife
and flick it open. Her hopes welled but were instantly dashed when he retrieved
a new zip tie. After fashioning it into a dinner-plate-sized ‘O,’ he maneuvered
it over her hands which by now were an angry shade of purple, and secured it
somewhat loosely before slicing off the old ties. Then, with a sly grin, he
mouthed,“You’ll do,” and pulled the soiled hood over her head.
    Breathing in the acidic stench of her own bile, Jamie called
out, “Do I have a choice?”
    She sensed his presence first and then felt his body
pressing against hers. Then he whispered through the burlap. “You have two
choices. Unfortunately a quick death isn’t one of them.” Jamie didn’t indulge
him with a response. Then as the helicopter became light on its wheels and
wavered subtly, Carson spoke again, his words filtering into the hood. “You can
give yourself to one. Or be taken by many.”
     
     
     
    Chapter 14
     
     
    “Under my seat,” Cade called over his shoulder as Wilson
popped open the rear passenger door. “Snip the lock and then wrap the chain
around the posts once we’re all inside.” He dangled a zip tie out the window
and added, “Secure the chain with this once we’re inside.”
    Grunting an affirmative and none too happy to have been
conscripted for the job, Wilson hit the pavement at about the same time Brook,
who was armed with a short and lethal-looking carbine, emerged from around the
front of the truck.
    After taking the zip tie from Cade, Wilson cast a furtive
glance at the Zs they’d