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

  As they stepped back out on the Berkeley Marina, everyone was on high alert with guns and crossbows drawn.

  They immediately headed for the Fuchs, uncovered it, and all six of them got in: Hunter, Dallas, Roper, Zoe, Akiko, and Yuzo.

  “I doubt we’ll have to go far,” Zoe said. “But this would have been easier if you would have let us bring a ZB or two.”

  Dallas shrugged. “We can’t afford to lose our focus taking care of a ZB. They’re around here somewhere. I mean, not all of them glued to a horde. Those are the ones we need to find.”

  “And you know where you’re going, right?”

  “I grew up here. First stop is to the U-Haul on Shattuck.”

  That was exactly where they went, and two hours later, Dallas was hitching a trailer to the back of the Fuchs.

  “This is some crazy ass shit,” Zoe said softly.

  “Ya think?”

  “Oh, I know we’ve pulled off some stunts, but collecting zombies is a first even for us. Fuck me, that’s over the top even for you, Dallas.”

  “Desperate measures, Z. We need that ship sailable. Can’t do it if we take it out conventionally.”

  “Well love,” Roper said, eyes roving the streets ahead, “a zombie bomb is about as unconventional as we’ve ever gotten.”

  As they picked their way through Berkeley, they saw a small horde clamoring around an REI store.

  Dallas slowed down and exchanged looks with Roper. “Well, if I could hold up in any store, an REI would be ideal.”

  “All that dehydrated food...”

  “The weapons and gear.”

  Hunter had his crossbow out in a nanosecond. “We got survivors?”

  “We’re not here for survivors,” Zoe announced. “We’re grabbing these ghouls, Hawkeye, and that’s it. You’d best man your battle station.”

  Hunter climbed on the roof of the porch and then disappeared, landing with a thump.

  Roper looked up at the silhouette of a man in the second story window. “Heads up, folks. We’ve got survivors.”

  “Always a treat,” Zoe groused. “Don’t tell me. They want the Beast. No wait. They want our weapons. Or maybe our bodies. Or maybe they want to invite us to be dinner.”

  “Zoe––”

  “Sorry, Dallas. I’m just sick of people is all. I, for one, can’t wait to be on the first boat outta this nuthouse.”

  Roper shook her head. “Whoda’ thunk other humans would be more dangerous than eaters? Stay on your tippies, everyone.”

  “Roger that.” Zoe grabbed her crossbow and she, Akiko, and Yuzo followed Roper to the back of the mob as it moaned and pressed on the walls of the store.

  “You got a bead, Hunter?”

  “Roger that.”

  Dallas opened the door and set her rifle over the top of it, her eyes scanning for trouble. “Make it fast, ladies. Whoever is in there might not want visitors.”

  “Herd ‘em like cattle,” Roper said, tossing Zoe one end of her rope. “We’ll just kind of gently corral them with the rope and lead them into the trailer.”

  Zoe chuckled. “Gently lead? You do realize how insane that sounds, don’t you? They’re fucked up dead people.”

  Roper threw the rope over a group of ten and started walking toward the trailer.

  Akiko and Yuzo stood guard, Katanas raised. “I must agree with Zoe. You all are insane. Brilliantly insane.”

  “This whole thing is insane, but Einstein was spot on when he brought it up. We know they sent the gays to the mainland and the skeleton crews of the ships are straight military, emphasis on straight. If we zombie bomb a destroyer full of humans, then wait it out, all we have to do is go in there and whack off a bunch of undead heads. Ship is intact. Crew is dead. We ship everyone out of here who wants to go. Zip. Zap. Zing.”

  Zoe started walking as well, and the two of them herded the first ten into the trailer. “Zip, zap, zing? My God, Dallas, you’re even starting to sound like a lunatic.”

  “We’ve got movement,” Dallas said, picking up a shadowy figure in her sites. “Heads up.”

  On their second trip of rounding up the man eaters, someone fired on them.

  “Hunter!”

  Hunter grabbed the gun in the turret and sprayed bullets across the front of the building just above the zombie heads. Glass shards rained down on the eaters below, none of whom noticed.

  The air became very still.

  “We don’t want your stuff!” Dallas called out on the intercom. “We’ve just come for the zombies. Do not fire or we will fire back.”

  “Motherfuckers,” Zoe said, pushing the last zombie up the steps of the now full trailer. In all, they rounded up 32 of the undead. “It’s like herding cats. They are just so stupid.”

  A second shot rang out, bouncing off the front windshield.

  “Stop firing,” Dallas’s voice commanded over the microphone system of the Fuchs. “We can help you out of there, but you have to stop shooting.”

  Silence.

  Dallas looked at Akiko, who shook her head. “We do not need them, Dallas. We did not come for survivors.”

  “Maybe not, but they need us.”

  “Not if they are shooting at us.”

  Dallas looked at the front door of the store and waited.

  “Don’t want, don’t need your help. We’re fine!” came a voice from inside. “Now shove off before we have to make you.”

  “There you have it.”

  Hesitating, Dallas put the mic back, then picked it up again. “Roger that. We’re leaving. You shoot at us one more time, and we’re coming in to remove your heads from your bodies. Are we clear?”

  Silence.

  “Fuck off!”

  “Oh hell no––” Roper started for the door when Zoe grabbed her.

  “Wrong fight, babe. These Bubbas aren’t important. We got what we came for.”

  Roper considered it a moment before pulling free. “Assholes.”

  “Yeah. The world’s full of them. Let’s just get the hell out of here,” Dallas said.

  “Let’s just leave them to their powdered food,” Zoe said, grabbing her crossbow and covering Akiko and Yuzo as they got back in the Beast.

  Hunter aimed the large caliber gun at the upper window. “I see movement. Someone is going downstairs.”

  Zoe nodded. “Let’s hit it, Dallas. Staying around is inviting trouble we don’t need.” Zoe was just about to get in the Fuchs when Hunter fired a through the window. “Shooter!” he called out.

  Another shot careened off the Beast inches from Roper as she dove into the passenger side. “Fuckin’ A.”

  “Jesus Christ!” Zoe said, jumping into the Beast and landing near Akiko and Yuzo. “What’s the matter with these assholes?”

  “All in!” Akiko announced, and she reached over Zoe to close the door.

  Suddenly, the Beast lurched forward, a loud crash roaring through the air as Dallas drove the Fuchs straight through the doorway and back out. Glass, metal, sheetrock, and doorframe all crumpled to the ground in a flurry of destruction as the Beast backed out of the front of the store, taking the window frame with it.

  “What the fuck?” Zoe said, looking up from her place on the floor of the Fuchs.

  Roper shrugged. “You know…shooting at Dallas’s lover is a very bad idea. She’s taking their security away.”

  “Well, serves them right. Let’s get this herd out of here.”

  Just as Dallas put the Beast in drive, a man came out of the building holding a small boy in a headlock with a gun pointed at his head.

  “Help us...please,” the boy whimpered.

  Everyone in the Fuchs stared as the man dragged the boy out of the store, muzzle pressed into his head. “Out of the vehicle or this kid’s not gonna see sunset.”

  “Not our problem, Dallas,” Zoe said. “Hit it.”

  Dallas glanced over at Roper. “Anyone get a clean shot?”

  Roper shook her head.

  “Then let’s a
dios,” Zoe growled. “Not. Our. Problem.”

  “We can’t just leave.”

  “Roper’s right. That’s a kid, for Christ’s sake.” Dallas looked at Roper. “Let’s distract him long enough for Hunter to get to the roof. Hunter, can you take that shot?”

  “It’ll be close, but yeah.”

  “Akiko––stay with the Beast. Tell Yuzo to come with us.” Dallas was out of the Fuchs in the tick of a clock.

  Akiko spoke quickly and Yuzo moved just as swiftly and was next to Dallas before Roper was.

  Dallas pulled out her Sig. Roper did the same with her .357. “Tell her if there are other kids here, kill all the adults first. Do not make the mistake of allowing them to live.”

  Akiko translated once more and Yuzo slowly slid her Katanas out. They barely made a sound.

  “Get your man away from the car and I won’t shoot this kid.”

  Dallas kept her weapon on him. She would not be able to get off a clean shot. “Look, you can’t have our vehicle. Plain and simple. If you shoot that kid, we’ll just kill you. That’s plain and simple as well. So you see, you’re fucked unless you put that weapon down right now.”

  The man looked at Yuzo. “What the hell is that?”

  “Pl..please…” the little boy said, his face getting redder from the headlock. “Help. Me.”

  “That, my friend, is the sound of death coming for you and your people in five seconds, if you don’t drop the kid right now.”

  “You’re bluffin’. You don’t have a shot.”

  THWUP.

  Right through his eye.

  As he crumped to the ground, the boy took one look at Yuzo in her white uniform and ran back up the stairs yelling, “There’s more of us up here! Help!”

  Dallas looked at Roper. “Well?”

  Tiny voices wafted down the stairs calling for help.

  “Shit.”

  Shrugging, Roper said, “We can just get in the Beast and go.”

  “They’re children, Roper. How do we just turn our backs on kids?”

  Roper sighed and waved her forward. “We don’t.”

  “Come on.” Dallas turned to the Fuchs and motioned for Akiko to join them. “Zoe, at the wheel!”

  With all of her people in place, Dallas started up the stairs first.

  Dallas often had to negotiate stairs when firefighting. She knew they placed her in a vulnerable position and at a tactical disadvantage. Being up the hill in any battle was preferable to being at the bottom. Stairs were no different.

  Weapon drawn, she pressed her back against the wall and swung her gun around from left to right as she turned the corner.

  Roper was right behind her, magnum barrel moving opposite of Dallas’s.

  The smell of sour body odor and rotting food assaulted their nostrils as they moved to the next set of stairs. A bead of sweat rolled down Dallas’s temple. She could feel the intensity in the floor above her.

  They were waiting.

  Roper suddenly pulled her back. They spotted a thin monofilament stretched across the top stair.

  These people were playing for keeps.

  Dallas wondered why she no longer heard the children. Children were precious in a post-apocalyptic world, and she was certain she’d heard at least two, maybe three.

  Roper motioned to Dallas to go over the line and then go left. She would peel right, leaving Yuzo and Akiko to watch their flank.

  This was no time to bring swords to a gunfight, especially in such close quarters.

  Whirling around the corner, Dallas came face-to-face with a large, burly mountain man holding a gun to the head of a little girl. She was probably all of eight years old.

  She wasn’t the only child with a weapon to her head.

  “Shit.”

  “Drop your weapons or they’re fucked,” Mountain Man said.

  Dallas leveled the Sig at him. Half his face was covered by the little girl’s. She had no shot. “You seem to think we give a shit about these kids,” she said. “We came for your weapons and your other shit.”

  There were four other children in similar positions, but Dallas couldn’t really see them. All she could do was keep her eyes riveted to the little girl in front of her.

  She’d never seen such fear. It was so deep and so dark, she smelled it before she felt it, and it made her stomach lurch.

  “You fucking motherfuckers,” Roper growled, keeping her .357 aimed at an older man in his fifties or sixties who held a knife to a young boy’s throat.

  “We don’t want or need yer help, so why don’t ya just back on outta here nice and slow and we’ll let these young ones live? You aren’t getting shit from us.”

  Dallas did not move. “You seriously think we’re leaving here without these children?”

  “We can give ‘em to you in a body bag, lady, so if you don’t want their blood on your hands...back...the...fuck...out of here.”

  Dallas raised her Sig and considered the shot. “Kill them and you’ll join one second later. Is that how you want this to end?”

  “Give us the vehicle and no one has to die.”

  “I’m afraid you’ve just punched your own ticket.”

  Roper slowly lowered her weapon. “Sorry, Dallas, I don’t have a shot.”

  Dallas blinked. She’d never seen Roper back down so quickly. “Rope?”

  Before Roper could reply, from behind them, Yuzo unleashed two throwing stars that embedded into the foreheads of the two men holding guns. They fell backwards, one gun firing as Mountain Man fell back, dead.

  Roper raised her magnum and put down the man with the knife while Dallas unloaded on two other men.

  When the dust settled, all of the children were free of their captors who lay dead on the floor.

  “Where’s Nic?” one of the children asked.

  “Nic?”

  “Don’t shoot!” A young man in his twenties said, raising his hands as he came around a rack of women’s clothing. He sported a soul patch and hair that belonged to the 70’s. “I had nothing to do with this.”

  Dallas kept her gun on him. “Sure you didn’t.”

  The little blonde girl shook her head. “He didn’t. He’s our nanny.”

  He nodded. “I took care of the children. Honestly. I brought them in here when it all went to hell.”

  One little boy caught Roper’s eye. Was he barely shaking his head? She couldn’t tell because her vision was a little foggy.

  The little boy ran to Roper, who knelt down to hug him. “You’re okay now,” she said to the boy. “You’re safe.”

  The boy backed away. There was fresh blood on his clothes, and it took Roper a moment to realize it was hers. She’d been shot.

  “Dal?” Roper said, touching her wet arm. “Motherfucker...shot me.”

  Dallas was at her side in an instant. “What? Where?” Frantic, she looked Roper over, finding a bullet hole through her left bicep.

  “You’re gonna be fine, baby. It went in and out.” Ripping her belt out of her pants, she put it around Roper’s upper arm and tightened it. “Keep your arm up.”

  “Seriously? That hurts like a mother fu––” Then she stopped as five pairs of young eyes stared at her. “I’m getting sick and tired of being shot at.”

  Dallas kissed her sweaty forehead. “You and me both, baby. Just sit for a minute. I got this.” Looking at the nanny, Dallas raised an eyebrow in question. “Here’s how this is gonna go. If even one of these kids says you acted inappropriately toward them, you’re history. Get my meaning?”

  The little girl raised her hand. “Nic never did anything bad, ma’am. He’s our nanny.”

  Dallas cocked her head. “And you are?”

  “Lisa. That’s Isabella, Beth, Matthew, and Adam.”

  Dallas shook each little hand in hers. “Did he hurt any of you?”

  Everyone but Adam, the boy who had hugged Roper, shook his head, and suddenly, Nic began pulling a gun out from the back of his pants.

  The gun an
d the hand still holding it fell to the ground with a thud as blood sprayed everywhere and the children began screaming. Yuzo had effectively ended any threat with her Katana.

  Nic was still screaming and holding his bloody stump in the air when Dallas raised her Sig at him. Roper reached out and gently lowered it.

  “We need him,” Roper said softly. “To get the eaters on board the boat. It’ll be easier that way.” Taking the belt off, she handed it back to Dallas, who punched the screaming young man in the mouth to shut him up.

  When he went down, she used the belt as a tourniquet and cinched it too tightly. “You’re coming with us, asshole.”

  “Mmmmy...hand.”

  “Is on the ground, where it will stay.” Dallas glanced over at Yuzo. “Thank you.”

  Yuzo nodded and motioned for everyone to get moving.

  Once outside, they found a pacing and frantic Zoe. “We heard shots. What the fuck...?” Then she saw Nic holding his handless wrist. “Oh man. Don’t tell me––”

  “Sick bastard. We’re just going to leave him here. Let him feel the same kind of helplessness those kids have felt.”

  “Wait. No! You can’t just leave me.”

  “Can and will.” Dallas hit him over the head with the butt of her revolver. “Worse than a man eater, you piece of shit.”

  “Okay then, I say we blow this pop stand. Then let’s...Roper?” Zoe looked at Roper’s arm. “You’re bleeding.”

  “I know. Have I mentioned lately how tired I am of being shot at? I’m thinking I better stop being so nice.”

  “Yeah, that’ll happen,” Zoe smirked. “Akiko will patch you right up.”

  “Get Roper sewn up, please. Then we’re back to the boat. Roper will take the boat to the Emeryville Marina. It will be easier to finish this up there and we can see if there are any larger ships for us when that time comes. Hunter and I will meet you all there with our zombie bomb.”

  While Akiko sewed Roper up and Hunter made the children comfortable by singing songs with them, Dallas leaned back and addressed Yuzo. “I know you probably understand more than you’re willing to admit, but I just want to thank you for what you did back there. Throwing stars? What else do you have up your sleeve?”