White Ash on Bone: A Zombie Novel by Jason Campagna Page B

and she slammed on her brakes.  The woman dove to the side of the road to avoid being hit.
    A zombie emerged from the woods after its prey and limped dead center into the path of the car. The impact hurled the zombie forward twenty feet, and it continued to roll for another ten, but it started to get right back up.
    Ginger's mom struggled up from the ground and limped to the car. 
    "Hurry up," said the girl in the back seat while she opened the door for the woman.
    Ginger turned around and looked into the back seat at her winded mother. Her mother, Vicky, worked out a lot and occasionally did marathons.  Ginger thought her mom looked worse than she did when she finished one.
    "Mom, are you okay; where's Dad?"
    Vicky pointed to the front of the car.  "He's right there, baby.  They got him, and he's been trying to get me ever since."
    Ginger looked up to see her father walking toward the car.
    "We need to move,” Alison said, "or he's going to try and get in."
    Ginger pressed on the gas and maneuvered the car off the road and into a yard on the right avoiding her father.  The car plowed into a mailbox and knocked it under the vehicle.  Ginger drove the car back onto the road and the mailbox hung along for a few moments, screeching metal and throwing sparks.
    Ten minutes later, Ginger's red Saturn pulled into her Mom's driveway.  The lights to the house were all on.
    Rex hung out of her Mom's bedroom window waving at the car.  He held her father’s shotgun in his other hand.
    Ginger pulled the car into the yard below the window to the protective cover of the gun and got out.
    "Ginger," Rex said, "I don’t know if you know what's-" he stopped mid-sentence when he saw his mother-in-law get out of the car.  Rex didn’t see his father-in-law and filled in the blanks without asking any questions.
    "I’ll be right down, don’t move," Rex said as he disappeared from the window.
    From the outside, they could see him come halfway down the steps through the window in front of the stairs.  He then jumped over to the side of the stair rail and went out of view.  A moment later, Rex opened the door, gun at the ready, wearing only pineapple-covered swimming trunks.
    "They came at me when I was in the hot-tub.” he said. “I killed one out back then they followed me in the house. There's a few bodies behind the door here, so don’t be alarmed when you see them.  You have to shoot them in the head or they don’t want to die... or stay dead," he explained.
    Rex handed his mother-in-law the shotgun and turned back toward the bodies.  He grabbed on to the legs of the first body dragged the bodies out of the house one at a time.  The corpses left a smear of red on the hardwood floor.  Everyone watched in silence and kept an eye out for more zombies.
    He waved for everyone to move close to him, "We’re going to stick together and move as a group.  Let’s keep as quiet as possible and not panic."
    Rex led the way down the stone pathway that curved around the side of the house to the garage.  He paused at the corner and peered out into the night while willing his eyes to cut past the edges of darkness. 
    "The garage is all metal and block with steel fire doors," He said.  "We can hold up there till the morning. Hopefully by then, we’ll have a plan and perhaps know what the hell is going on."
    He thought about his options.  When they moved to Pennsylvania, they moved in with the in-laws temporarily.  The majority of their property sat at the far end of the driveway in a white storage pod.  Among the pods inventory were several of Rex's guns and a decent cache of ammo.  He also thought about his in-laws brand new all black Dodge Ram mega-cab.  Rex had a vision about driving over the undead and laughing.
    Ten minutes later, the group watched the garage door rattle closed while they sat safely inside the pickup in the garage.
    Rex and Alison had collected all his guns and ammo from the storage pod.  The guns included