Twenty Eight

Maylee guided the car through another bend in the road. It was a little easier than before. She was getting the hang of this. She smiled to herself. See, I'm not a kid anymore.

Dalton was looking out his side window, watching trees speed by. He turned to her. "How much longer?"

"Not long at all," said Maylee.

Dalton nodded. "Okay, I'll get the bat so we won't forget it this time." He crawled around in his seat, reaching into the back.

Maylee shot a quick look over at him, then back at the road. "Hey, your seat belt isn't on!"

"So?"

"Put it on right now!" Maylee turned the wheel, going through another bend.

"I'm just getting the bat!"

"Dammit, Dalton!" she said. She took one hand off the wheel and pushed him back into his seat. "Put it on!"

He glared at her, then started to reach for the back seat again.

"Now!" Maylee yelled, doing her best Mom impression. Dalton sat back in his seat, looked at Maylee, then reached for his seat belt. He put it on and stuck his tongue out at her.

Maylee smiled and went around another corner.

Three corpses stood in the middle of the road.

Maylee and Dalton screamed as the headlights washed over the corpses. Maylee panicked and wrenched the wheel as far to the right as she could. The car screeched, slid down the road sideways, and flipped over.

For a moment all Maylee knew was the sound of crunching metal and breaking glass. And Dalton screaming.

Then her senses were too numb to know anything.

Then, slowly, they came back. She was upside down in her seat, hanging from the seat belt. Dalton coughed next to her.

Oh god, she thought, looking upside-down at the glass strewn across the road and smelling the burnt rubber of the tires. I am just a kid. What the hell am I doing?

She heard the sounds of feet shuffling to her right. The corpses were coming.

"Dalton?" she said. "Are you okay?"

"I think so."

Maylee fumbled with her seat belt. It detached and she fell to the top of the car. Her head banged against the ceiling. It smarted but she did her best to ignore it. The corpses were getting closer. She could hear them.

She got up to her knees and reached across Dalton to his seat belt. He seemed to be okay.

"Told you to wear this," she said, quietly.

She undid the latch and caught Dalton as he slid out of his seat.

A pair of legs appeared just outside the broken windshield.

"Shit," she said, easing Dalton down. "We gotta get out of here."

Moaning came from over the car. With a "pop" and the sound of flesh tearing, the corpse dropped to its knees. It was a woman in a flower-print dress. She moaned through cracked lips and reached for them.

Maylee turned to her window just in time to see another corpse crawling toward it. It was a man covered in scrapes and cuts. He reached out, clawing at her.

Dalton screamed from behind her. Maylee turned to see that the woman almost had him. She looked past Dalton to see his window was still shut. The car was too wrecked to even think about trying to get it open.

"Back seat!" she yelled, pulling him into the back and clear of the reaching corpses.

The woman at the front of the car climbed into the car after them. Her dress caught on a piece of glass, slowing her down. The woman grunted and tugged, reaching for Maylee and Dalton.

Dalton picked up the bat and swung it at the woman's hands. Maylee kicked at the back window. The window cracked but didn't give.

The corpse at the side window stuck its head inside. It bit and hissed at Dalton. Dalton swung the bat into the corpse's face, then back at the reaching woman. "Hurry!" he yelled.

Maylee kicked the back window a second time. Cracks spread through the glass but the window held.

The corpses up front and to the side reached back at them. Dalton furiously swung the bat from side to side.

"Dammit!" Maylee yelled, kicking the back window with all her might. The window gave. The window shattered outward.

Maylee pulled her leg back and turned to tug Dalton toward her. "Come on!"

They both crawled for the opening in the glass. Wait, Maylee thought as they crawled, weren't there three corpses in the road?

A rotten arm reached down from above and into the broken window. It caught Dalton by the hair and he screamed. Maylee could hear the corpse groaning from atop the overturned car.

Dalton pulled free and smacked the hand with the bat, nearly hitting Maylee in the head in the process.

"Watch it!" said Maylee.

The woman from behind them groaned and Maylee heard glass break. They looked back and saw that she was free of the glass. She was crawling into the car.

"Shit!" Maylee turned back to the grasping hand. She grabbed hold of it and pulled it toward her as hard as she could. The arm caught on the glass of the broken back window. Maylee tugged harder and the skin of the rotten arm tore and snapped. She fell back, the arm in her lap. She flung the arm aside and grabbed Dalton.

"Now!" she yelled, pulling him with her. They crawled out of the car, avoiding the rotten stump where the arm had been.

Out on the street, they stood and looked around. The car was in ruin. A corpse was atop the car, hissing at them. It had no arms. Apparently Maylee had broken off its last one.

"Serves you right!" she said.

"What?" said Dalton, looking around.

"Nothing," said Maylee, taking the bat from Dalton. She slammed it down on the corpse's head. The rotten head collapsed and the corpse fell forward, still. The other two corpses were crawling around in the car.

"Now what?" said Dalton.

Maylee looked around. She pointed the bat toward the woods. "The hospital should be just over the hill that way. If we take a shortcut through the woods, we should still get there pretty fast."

Dalton looked at the woods, then back at Maylee. After a few seconds, he nodded.

Maylee frowned down at him. "Are you scared?"

"No!" he glared at her.

"Well I am," she said. "But let's go anyway."

And with that they turned and ran into the woods.