Pedal to the Metal (Riders of the Apocalypse Book 4) Read online

  “Jesus Christ, what was––”

  When the chain-link bag landed, it split open, and out bounced two dozen zombies, some intact, others not so together.

  “Keep firing!” Dallas yelled, putting her eye back on the scope as she backed up to the Fuchs. “Everyone okay in there?” she asked Einstein, who cracked the window slightly.

  “We have room for more.”

  A third chopper dropped another bag of death on the opposite side, splitting their focus as dozens of man eaters climbed over each other to get to their prey.

  “Jesus Christ,” Roper growled. “We’ve got ZB’s on the ground!” She took off and swung her machete wildly as she killed two man eaters making their way to the three young women shooting from behind one of the Hummers.

  “Everyone get back in your vehicles! Go! Go! Go!” Roper yelled as the horde spread out, looking for food, moaning, dragging broken limbs, and even crawling to get to food…to get to their people.

  Dallas kept firing the sniper rifle until she realized it was simply too slow.

  When a third bag popped open, she knew they were going to have to get the hell out of Dodge and make a run for it or use all of their ammo to protect the ZB’s. Already, two of the Hummers had been surrounded by the horde as they pounded futilely on the sides. Dallas could see Roper hacking and slashing her way, trying to clear a path for those too far out to get to the Hummer the first time.

  The number of undead was well over sixty now, and with ZB’s scrambling to get away, it was too hard to mow the man eaters all down with machine guns.

  “Zombie bombs,” Einstein muttered from inside the Fuchs. “Those bastards dropped zombie bombs on us.”

  “What?” Luke asked.

  “Zombie bombs. In the Middle Ages, men sieging a castle often hurled the bodies of plague victims over the walls. They’d land with a horrific splat, sending people scurrying all around. Plague bombs. These? These are zombie bombs.”

  Luke did not reply. Instead, he made an odd choking sound.

  Einstein leaned forward to better see out the window. “Oh shit, man, they’re almost to the ZB’s. Roper...shit! I can’t see Roper!”

  Dallas flung her weapon over her shoulder, pulled out her machete, and start for the horde.

  Luke gasped once and swallowed loudly. “Dal-las?”

  “She’s trying to get to Roper,” Einstein said, his eyes on Dallas’s back. “The horde must have hemmed Roper in.” He dropped the binoculars and reached for his rifle. “Maybe I can hel––”

  That was when he saw.

  That was when he knew.

  “Oh shit, Luke. No. Aw man, no!” Einstein stood staring at the man he had come to love.

  Luke nodded, struggling to his feet. “Kill…me.”

  Backing away, Einstein shook his head. “No...no...come on. Not me.”

  Luke inhaled deeply, walked over to Violet who was holding Egypt and took the baby in his arms. “If you…care…for my…daughter…”

  Einstein pulled his Glock from the back of his pants and pointed it at the back of Luke’s head. “You know I do. You gotta put her down right now.”

  Kissing Egypt on the forehead, he whispered something to her before handing her back to Violet. Then he turned to Einstein. “Got...one last…mission in me,” he said in a voice that sounded less than human. “Take care…of my girls, kid. All of them…no…matter…what.”

  Einstein felt tears roll down his face. “You know I will.”

  Luke smiled and looked more ghoulish than even the zombies outside. “Tell her…tell her…to…to live…for…Egypt. Tell her…to never stop fighting.”

  Einstein pointed the Glock in his face. It trembled in his hand. “Do it now?”

  “No. I can…still help. Don’t…hesitate. Stay alive…brainiac. They need you.” Luke struggled, but managed to grab two flares and hopped out the passenger door. “Take me…out…away…from them.” Then he lit the flares and took off running. “Over here, you lifeless…pieces of shit!”

  He slowly ran up to the crowd and waved the flares. The man eaters turned toward the flares and began following Luke as he took off for an open field, his run quickly degenerating to a slow jog…then into a painful walk. “This way…you bloodless…motherfuckers!”

  When Butcher saw him, she screamed, “Luke, no!”

  Leaping off the Fuchs, Butcher landed hard and rolled once before popping back up and starting after him, arms churning as she raced toward the mob.

  “Butcher, it’s too late! Get back here!” Einstein yelled from the top of the Fuchs. On his shoulder was one of the sniper rifles, the crosshairs hovering over Luke’s head. “You can do this. You can do this,” he chanted softly. “Come on, brainiac, you can do this…just squeeze the trigger. Just…”

  Zoe and Hunter let their bolts fly at the zombies chasing Luke. “What the fuck?” Zoe said. “Has he lost his mind?”

  Akiko resumed the use of her rifle, but it wasn’t enough. They could all see that it wasn’t nearly enough. The man eaters crowded around Luke and the flares until they went out.

  “No!” Butcher was thirty feet from the horde when Dallas tackled her hard, and they rolled across the dry and dusty ground until Butcher came up fighting, her first punch connecting with Dallas’s forehead.

  “Butcher, stop!” Dallas said, positioning herself between Butcher and the mob. “It’s too late, Butcher. He…he’s turned.”

  “No...he...hasn’t!” Butcher tried to run past her, but Dallas threw her arms around her friend and held on for dear life…for Butcher’s dear life.

  Butcher struggled to get away, kicking and hitting her with everything she had. “No, no, no! It’s not true. It can’t be true!”

  Dallas still held on. “Butcher, stop it! You’re gonna get us both killed.”

  As if of one mind, the horde slowly turned away from Luke and the extinguished flares. They deliberately rotated in unison as they smelled fresh food. Living food.

  Butcher.

  Dallas took several more punches from Butcher when she heard Roper yell out, “Dallas, get out of there!”

  Dallas looked beyond Butcher. “Butcher, stop! Just stop.”

  Butcher’s fist paused as she caught Dallas’s line of sight and saw the horde moving for them. “Oh fuck.”

  The horde closed in quickly as Dallas and Butcher disengaged from each other.

  “Get behind me,” Dallas ordered, shoving Butcher behind her. “Go. Get back to the Beast.”

  THWUP.

  THWUP.

  THWUP.

  The three closest to Dallas went down with bolts to the head.

  BAM!

  BAM!

  BAM!

  The next three went down with gunshots to the head.

  But there were so many, and Dallas had to start chopping away with her machete to keep them away from Butcher, who was swinging her machete as well.

  “Make a run for it,” Dallas ordered. “There are too many.”

  “Not leaving you here,” Butcher said, still swinging her machete.

  Suddenly, Luke plowed through the three-deep horde, his machete whistling as he slashed through the air, cutting legs out from under those closest to him, hacking off arms and heads. He fought like a man possessed until he killed the two closest to his wife.

  “Run…God damn it,” he gurgled, his eyes barely showing any blue through the opaqueness of death. He was more man eater now than man.

  His machete found rotting skin over and over. Heads fell, limbs fell, as Luke lopped off anything that touched his blade.

  With bolts, blades and bullets, Dallas’s people put down every man eater closing in on the two women. When the final zombie went down, Luke fell to his knees, blood and black goo splattered over his clothes, his breathing now a thick wheezing.

  “Luke!”

  Butcher started for him, but Dallas blocked her path. “No, Butcher. Can’t you see he’s done?”

  Butcher paused, her face stone. “I
’m gonna say this once, Dallas. Get the fuck out of my way or I will kill you.”

  Dallas bowed her head and sighed. “No can do, bud. I won’t lose you to him.”

  “I wouldn’t keep you from Roper.”

  “Yeah. Yeah, you would.”

  Luke coughed up blood. “Dallas...”

  Dallas whirled around. “No, Luke.”

  “Not...gone...yet. Please. Gotta…say…goodbye.”

  Dallas inhaled a shaky breath and then stepped aside. “Make it quick.”

  Butcher raced to his side and Luke fell into her arms. “Butcher...my…wife…”

  “Shh. I’m here, lover. I’m right here.”

  “No...time...” The words gurgled from his mouth. “Keep...fighting. Our daughter...deserves a chance...at a...new life…here.” Blood ran from the corner of his mouth. “Promise...me.”

  “I...” Butcher closed her eyes and nodded slowly. “I promise.”

  “Never...loved anyone like you...ever. Thank...you...for...loving me back.” His eyes began to completely opaque over.

  “As if you’d have had it any other way.” Butcher wiped his sweaty brow. “I’ve never loved anyone as deeply as you, Lucas Scott, and I never will again.”

  Luke closed his eyes and twitched.

  “Luke!” Butcher shook him.

  “I didn’t...expect it...to hurt.”

  Butcher kissed his forehead. It was cold and clammy. “I gotcha, love.”

  Luke shook his head and leaned away from her. “Gotta...put me...down.”

  “I know, baby.”

  “Now.”

  Tears fell from Butcher’s eyes. “I...I can’t. Not while you’re still––”

  “Dallas?” Luke implored. “Put me...down. Now.”

  Butcher whirled around. “Do it, Dallas, and you’ll follow him.”

  Dallas removed her hand off her sidearm. “Butcher––”

  “No. We do not kill our own. Not while they still live and breathe.”

  Luke held her face in his hands. “Take care of Egypt. Take...care of Dallas...and know...I truly love you.” He closed his eyes once more, his body going slack in her arms.

  Dallas eased her sidearm out. “He’s gone, Butcher. Step aside. He’d want me to do this.”

  Before Butcher could move, Luke’s eyelids popped up and he lunged for her, snarling.

  A single bolt pierced his right temple before he could bite Butcher, and he fell, limp in her arms.

  Truly dead.

  All eyes turned to Zoe standing atop a Hummer, crossbow still up to her face. For a long, nearly silent moment, no one said a word. Then Butcher laid Luke on the ground and walked away, her shoulders heaving as she sobbed.

  “Dallas?” Roper said. “We gotta get the fuck out of here before those choppers come back.”

  Nodding, Dallas bent over and hoisted Luke on her shoulders.

  “Baby, what are you doing? Leave him here.”

  Dallas trudged on past Roper on her way to the Fuchs. “We bury our own. I’m not leaving him out here for the vultures. I wouldn’t leave you. She won’t leave him.”

  After loading Luke into the Beast, Dallas hopped in and was about to get in the driver’s side when she heard sobbing on top of the Fuchs.

  Climbing up the ladder, she found Einstein crouched down in the turret, bawling. “I…I couldn’t do it, Dallas. He asked me to, but I couldn’t take the shot.”

  Taking Einstein in her arms, she held him tightly. “Shh, kid, it’s okay. No harm, no foul, right?”

  “But…but…he asked me to. He expected me to, and I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t do it.”

  Caressing his head, Dallas gently rocked back and forth. “And you know what? That’s okay. Some of us are natural born killers. Luckily, you are not one. I’m sure he understood.”

  Einstein pulled back looked in Dallas face. “You couldn’t, either, could you?”

  “I should have. I wanted to. In the end, I was just like you. I couldn’t do it.”

  Einstein wiped his face. “Zoe isn’t a killer. She’s a survivor. There’s a huge difference, you know.”

  Dallas touched his cheek with her palm. “I know. And if we’re going to survive until tomorrow, we have to get out of here. You okay?”

  Einstein nodded. “He told me to take care of his girls.”

  “Then that’s what you’re going to. It’s what all of us are going to do.”

  When everyone was accounted for, the convoy headed north, down one soldier they would never forget.

  Roper’s Journal

  He’s gone.

  I don’t remember hurting this much for anyone else. Ever. I can’t even imagine what Butcher must be going through. The father of her child, her love, her husband and mate is gone, and the grief we all feel is weighty indeed.

  I can’t even imagine what I would feel like if it were Dallas. I think I would have just thrown myself at the mercy of the eaters. Dying with her would be preferable to living without her, or worse…watching her turn. That had to be worse than horrific.

  Once we left the ranch area, we encountered no more hazmatters or their choppers, but we learned a valuable lesson: we were all expendable to them, and they had no problem exterminating us. But that’s the thing.

  They weren’t trying to kill us…not me…Dallas or the other gays.

  They were trying to kill our heteros, our zombie bait, our straights. To what end? Even Akiko found that tactic odd.

  Which makes me wonder just what the Asian Nation truly has in store for our heterosexuals. Would they be hunted and killed in an effort to prevent anymore from turning? If so, what did that mean to the gay and lesbian population? What was their ultimate plan for us? Would they populate the country with their own straights after they cleaned us out?

  Suddenly, I feel very vulnerable.

  And it has become very clear to me that we are on the only path available to us.

  The path out of here.

  Dallas

  3 Days Ago

  “I’ve no doubt that Livermore Labs’ plutonium stores were battened down before all hell broke loose, but we need to make sure. We might not want to stay and fight, but we sure as hell aren’t going to let them get their hands on something that will help them destroy the rest of the world.”

  It was nighttime and Dallas had pushed the group as far as they could go before resting on top of a hill laced with dead vineyards.

  “And if it wasn’t?” an unfamiliar voice from the back said.

  Dallas inhaled deeply. “Then we have a decision to make. Look, we have no idea what the Asian Nation truly has planned for our country, or for the world, for that matter, but we can’t just moonwalk out of the room and pretend we don’t give a shit about everyone else.”

  “I have to agree with Dallas on this. We need to at least check it out so we can let someone else know that the A.N. got their hands on our plutonium,” Einstein said. “For those who have no idea what they are talking about, plutonium is needed to make nuclear weapons.”

  The group was very still…very quiet, until someone said, “Did you say nuclear?”

  Einstein nodded. “Suddenly, they have everything they need, and more, to make bombs that could change the world. We know when the virus broke out here it came fast. We just want to make sure, since we’re here anyway, that the Lab was able to go into its lockdown procedure.”

  “And if not?”

  “Then we’ll find a way to send word back to our military and let them deal with it,” Dallas said. This is just an intel gathering mission, folks. We’re not doing anything other than establishing whether or not we’ve handed over weapons of mass destruction to the Asian Nation.”

  “And so what if we have? What do we care? We’re leaving, right?”

  Dallas cleared her throat. “If the United Nations, or whoever it is out there who gives a crap, knows that the A.N. has our plutonium, they might think again about pretending we don’t exist. They’ll have to do something to
protect themselves.”

  “Something like what? Attack us?”

  Einstein shook his head. “Not us. Them.”

  They talked a little longer before everyone retreated to their own sleeping bag. Dallas, Roper, and Einstein took a walk with Butcher, shovels in hand.

  “How you holding up?” Dallas asked Butcher when they came to a clearing. The full moon bathed them in an odd, almost iridescent light, the dead vines looking like frozen snakes caught in the moonbeams. In the distance, an owl hooted in an almost melancholy fashion.

  “Ask me after we bury him.”

  With two shovels and a pick ax, they dug a shallow grave while Dallas went back for Luke’s body.

  “I...I don’t know what to say,” Roper said softly, hugging Butcher tenderly.

  “Nothing to say, Rope. He died doing what he loved doing most: being a soldier and protecting the people he loved. Can’t ask for anymore than that.” Butcher’s red rimmed eyes were filled with a deep sadness. She had seemed to age overnight.

  When Dallas laid Luke in the shallow grave, she took one of Butcher’s hands and Roper took the other. Einstein held onto Roper’s free hand. The silence in the clearing said it all. Even the owl stood in silent respect.

  “Go ahead, Dallas. I’ve said all I care to say.”

  Clearing her throat, Dallas began. “He came to us an enemy––a soldier for the other side. But when he became one of us, he became the best of us. Not only did he marry our sister, but he helped create life among the dead. He sacrificed himself for the good of our family, and that sacrifice will not be in vain.

  “We all adored you, Lucas Scott. You were what was best in men, and we salute you.” Dallas twisted open the bottle of Patron she kept in the cab of the Fuchs. “Until we meet again, Luke.”

  She took a healthy swig before passing it to Roper.

  “You will not only be missed...but remembered.” Roper took a swig and handed it to Einstein.

  “You asked me to watch over your girls. I swear I’ll do that until I no longer breathe.” Einstein took a swig then coughed it all up. “Ugh. That’s nasty.”

  Taking the bottle from him, Butcher poured a little in the grave and then drained the rest. “I’ll love you always.” Tossing the empty bottle into the grave, Butcher picked up a shovel and tossed dirt on his feet.