Part One

General Louis stood up from his chair and walked to the projection screen at the back of the conference room. “There’s no easy way to begin. Last night’s attack in San Antonio was a disaster. The bombing runs did very little to reduce the zombies’ population, and the army reported heavy losses on their attempts to retake Lackland. We believe most of the soldiers we’ve lost have been converted already.

“This morning, satellite photos picked up activity on the airstrips. We weren’t sure of what the zombies were doing, and we had a plane make several passes over the base. Tom?” The lights dimmed while the screen behind General Louis filled with an aerial photograph of the base. “Those vehicles on the strip are meant for repair work, and in this first satellite image, you can still see the majority of the damage caused by our attacks.” The image changed. “This is the image taken by our planes one hour later... two hours later… and this last image is what the airstrip looked like as of two hours ago.”

President Crane coughed to clear his throat. “Why would they repair the airstrip?”

“We believe the zombies plan to use our own aircraft against us.”

“They can fly jets?”

“Possibly. We’ve seen how the zombies are capable of operating vehicles, and there has been some speculation that they retain some form of memories to be able to operate independently from the leader. If the pilots still retain memories of their training, then it would seem the whole point of taking Lackland might have been to convert the pilots.”

“What would you recommend?”

“We can’t take back the base using conventional methods, and the city is a total loss, sir. I’m recommending another nuclear strike.” The general nodded at the disapproving murmurs running through the room. “Sir, I know it’s not going to be a popular choice, but this is a matter which can’t be looked at as a plus or a negative for your popularity polls. If we don’t destroy the base, the zombies will continue to press their advantage.”

President Crane raised his eyes to study the aerial photograph again and nodded. “All right, I’m authorizing the use of another nuclear strike. Have our forces redeploy to Houston to continue with the clean up operations there, and launch as soon as they’re safely out of range.”

***

Gordon finished packing the van with supplies and walked back into the house. “Fred? Claire? We’re just about ready to leave.” Fred walked into the living room alone. “Where is she?”

“Beats me,” Fred said. “I lost track of her after breakfast.”

Gordon sighed and went to the kitchen, where he found Robin putting away the dishes. He still wondered why she insisted on cleaning the house before they left when no one was going to be returning, but he let it go. “Have you seen Claire?”

Robin turned to frown at him. “She’s missing?”

“Fred says he lost track of her after breakfast.”

“She probably wandered out to the barn or the tool shed behind the house.” Drying her hands, Robin walked to the back door and opened it. Her eyes widened, and she turned her head to give Gordon a worried look. “Go tell Frank and Janice that we’ve got company.”

“How many?” Gordon asked.

“I just saw one walking into the barn, but there could be more already inside.” Robin went back into the kitchen and slid the two largest knives out of the cutlery drawer.

She didn’t bother waiting for the others. Her first thoughts were for Claire, and she felt certain of the reason why the zombie had gone into the barn.

***

The zombie had been following the scent of cooking foods. As it got closer to the source, it began to pick out the individual scents of eggs and bacon. The zombie wasn’t concerned with finding the food. It wanted the humans. It wanted to make them pay for the pain it was suffering without its leader. It wanted to kill every last human it could find for making the light in the sky which had burned its skin and left it feeling disoriented.

A soft humming sound caught the zombie’s attention as it neared the barn, and it walked inside. The humming was almost musical, though there was no recognizable tune. Moving from stable to stable, the zombie searched for the source of the humming. Yet the stables were empty, and it moved back to the ladder leading to the loft above.

Climbing up slowly, the zombie spotted a little girl with long brown hair. The girl’s back was turned toward the zombie, and it rose up the last few steps, pausing when the floor creaked. The little girl seemed not to notice, and the zombie inched forward step by step. It was only a few feet away when it started to notice the smell of paint.

The girl stood up and turned around, moving both of her hands behind her back, as though she had been expecting someone else behind her. Her eyes widened for only a moment before her expression became calm, and she held out one of her hands. The zombie looked at the plastic doll, which the girl held by the hair. She had painted the entire doll white, and the smell of wet paint grew stronger.

“I made it for you,” she said. The zombie made an angry hiss and swung an arm to bat the doll away. The girl drew it away quickly, taking a step back. “No, not you.”

“Claire, get back.”

The zombie spun to look at the pale dead girl climbing up the ladder, and an expression of confusion filled its face. Everything about the girl’s appearance suggested she was an ally, but she still wore clothing.

The girl stepped onto the loft and drew two knives which she’d slipped though her belt on her hips. The zombie understood she was a threat. Hissing at her angrily, it turned around, intending to go for the easier target first. Instead, it was looking directly into the nozzle of a spray paint can before the little girl pressed the top down.

Blinded, the zombie slashed at thin air and stumbled forward. It took another step before a knife sank through the back of its neck.

***

Robin let the body fall and walked over to Claire. Kneeling down, Robin put her knives back into her belt while she pouted at Claire. “Didn’t I tell you not to wander off?”

“I’m sorry.”

“Sorry isn’t good enough, Claire. You could have been dead, and not in the good way either.” Robin stood up and laid a hand on the girl’s shoulder to move her back over toward the ladder. “Come on. Everyone else is ready to go, and now we’re going to have to wash paint off your hands  before we leave.” Waving her hands to Gordon and Janice as she stepped out of the barn, she noticed their disturbed expressions. “It’s okay, I saved her from-” She stopped when Gordon shook his head and pointed behind her. Turning around, Robin stared at the mushroom cloud and opened her mouth. It was still several second more before she could speak, and then all she could say was “Oh.”

The cloud began to lose its shape before anyone could speak. Janice looked around to orient herself and then frowned. “I think that was San Antonio.”

Gordon nodded. “Yes, it was, anyway.”

“Where are we going now?” Robin asked. “We can’t stay here. I just killed a zombie in the barn, and there has to be more somewhere nearby.”

Gordon raised an eyebrow as her regarded her with a curious look. “Just one?”

“Yes, and he looked weird. His skin was grey, and he looked like he had some kind of burn marks on his chest.”

Gordon went into the barn and looked around. “Where is it?”

“Up in the loft.”

Gordon took the ladder up and walked over to the body, rolling it over onto its back. “Its face is still white.”

“No, that’s paint. Claire blinded it before I killed it,” Robin called from the ground. “Can we get out of here before any of its friends show up?”

“Give me a minute here.” Gordon knelt down, noticing the strange way the lips were bulging out. Moving slowly, he lowered his hand to pull down the lower lip. The teeth of the zombie were longer, and they ended in blunt points. Bits of raw meat were still wedged between the jagged teeth, but once he’d started looking closely, he noticed that the inside of the zombie’s mouth was still wet. “Hey, Robin, you can’t make saliva, can you?”

“No, why?”

“Because this guy could.” Gordon saw a shadow fall over him and glanced back at Janice. “It has fangs, and if I had to guess, I’d say it’s fed recently.”

Janice knelt down beside him. “Do you think it came from Houston? Maybe it was burned by one of the explosions there.”

“No, it doesn’t seem likely that a zombie could walk all that way in one night.” Gordon shook his head. “Maybe it’s one of the stragglers from Dallas. The radiation may have caused it to mutate in some ways.”

Janice turned to frown at him. “Don’t tell me you’re still thinking of going to San Antonio.”

“No, We’d be driving into a fallout area, and that would be fatal for everyone except Robin and Frank.” Gordon stood up. “I think we’re better off heading to Austin. If they haven’t been attacked yet, they probably will be within the next few days.”

***

Gordon pulled the van up to the gas pumps and glanced over toward the store front where a car and two trucks were parked. The store was empty, though Gordon had expected it would be. “Kids, stay in the van for now. I want to go check out the store first.”

Getting out of the van, he walked around to the back doors and opened them to take out a machete. Neither it nor his guns made him feel very assured of his safety, but he knew carrying the flamethrower would probably be a mistake.

An ancient Buick Skylark pulled up on the other side of the pumps, and Frank rolled down the window. “Zombies?”

“Maybe,” Gordon said. “The store looks empty, so I’m going to check it out before we all go wandering into a trap.”

The scent of blood lingered in the air when he opened the door, and he found a small stain behind the counter near the cash register. He went back toward the drink coolers and found two more stains. None were very large, and they weren’t big enough to suggest that any of the victims had been torn apart. He knelt down, tracing the outer edge of the blood.

The door opened, and he stood up to find Frank and Robin both moving around the counter. While Frank turned the pumps on, Robin raised the cash register to pop the cash drawer open.

“What are you doing?”

“It was Scott’s idea.” Robin began gathering up the bills quickly. “He makes sense too. We’re going to need money for at least two motel rooms, and for food. I’m sure your credit and cash reserves are almost gone.”

“Ah, yeah they are.”

“Well let’s see if he was right about the safe.” Robin turned around and pressed a button on the front, smiling when a roll of twenties dropped from the machine. “Yep, the safe is on a timed drop. I can take rolls of every denomination now, but I couldn’t do it again for a little while.”

“Grab what you can, but we can’t hang around to-” Gordon stopped and sighed as Scott walked in. “Okay, what are you doing?”

“Just grabbing milk for the bag of kittens.” Scott laughed and pointed at the restrooms in a hallway near the rear of the store. “That and I need to spring a leak.”

“Relax, Flash. The store is empty, right?”

“I wouldn’t know. I didn’t finish checking before you all decided to come in with me.” He looked back at the pumps, and he saw Janice running with the kids for the door. In the street, he saw a dark gray beast loping toward them . The creature look like a gorilla for the size of its grossly oversized front arms, while the legs almost looked human.

Just as Janice was pulling open the door, Scott backed out of the back hallway with a worried expression. He looked back at Gordon, not seeing the beast outside yet. “There’s a zombie hiding in the men’s-”

The window exploded as the beast leapt through it. Scott spun and ran into the women’s restroom, and Gordon felt certain the creature would follow him. Instead, it turned at the men’s room and began pounding on the door. Every punch bowed the door in further until the metal finally gave way under the stress.

Watching everyone duck down behind the counter, Gordon walked into the hall and knocked on the women’s bathroom door. “Scott. Open the door. We have to go.”

Scott opened the door, and he yelped before reaching out to grab Gordon’s hand and yank him into the room. The creature’s fist missed his head by mere inches. Scott shut the door and locked it, his whole body jolting when the beast hit the door. “Okay, this was a bad idea.”

***

“Frank, go to the van and grab a flamethrower,” Robin whispered before she climbed over the counter and drew her knives.

She didn’t look back to see if he moved. The beast could pound through the door with a few swings, and she knew Scott and Gordon would be killed if she didn’t act fast. She was just a few feet behind the beast when she leapt and aimed one blade at the base of its neck while she dropped the other to aim at its lower back. The lower blade sank in easily, but the knife aimed for the zombie’s neck struck bone.

The beast roared and pivoted its upper body to throw Robin off. It continued to turn as she hit the wall and raised an arm for a backhand swing. Ducking under the massive fist and forearm, Robin tried to lunge in for a slashing attack at one of the beast’s legs. The other fist of the beast caught her in the chest and drove her out of the hallway. She hit a metal shelf, sending a sharp stabbing pain through the middle of her back.

The beast leap at he and she saw its mouth open. She raised the knife and let the creature’s momentum send the point up into the top of its skull. Roaring in anguish, the beast shook its head, and she lost her grip on the knife.

It grabbed her forearm and swung her. Robin’s body was nearly vertical when she was slammed into a shelf with bags of candy. The metal rods which the bags hung from punched through her skin, pinning her to the side of the shelf.
The beast released her and worked to removed the knife in its mouth. Robin heard running footsteps just before the beast roared and the blade clattered to the ground.

She saw Frank with a road flare in his hand, but the beast was somewhere above her head. She could only see its shadow on the floor as it spun around to face Frank. He twisted off the cap of the flare and ducked under the beast’s swing, rising up to punch the flare into its mouth.

For what seemed an eternity, the beast screamed before there a heavy thump. The only sound she heard was the soft hiss of the road flare still burning. Frank turned toward Robin and leaned down. “This will hurt.”

“So get it over with, please.” Robin screamed almost as loudly as the best had. Some of the pins pulled at her skin before releasing her, and she internally started begging her mind to shut off and allow her to escape the pain.

She was still whimpering when Frank set her on the floor. She heard a door open, and Scott’s voice, sounding more timid than she had ever heard him before. “Is it dead?”

“Yes, but we’ve got problems,” Frank said.

Robin shook her head weakly. “Just give me a minute or two to heal.”

Frank stepped around her to walk into the men’s restroom. “Hey guys, I don’t think that thing was looking for us.”

Janice was moving over Robin to tend to her. Robin shook her head and sat up. “I’m all right.”

“You don’t look all right,” Janice said. “You’re still bleeding.”

“Sure, but it’s a slow leak.” Robin watched Janice’s frown tighten and shook her head. “Nobody appreciates dry humor.” She stepped into the restroom and covered her mouth. “Oh God… that could have been me.” The zombie laying on the floor had a gaping wound which extended from its right shoulder down to the middle of its back, and white flesh was strewn around the floor. Yet there was no sign of the white zombie blood. Walking across the restroom, she stood over the body and frowned. “Frank, this thing is still alive.”

“What?”

“Look, it’s trying to move.” She knelt down and rolled the zombie over, feeling perplexed by the lack of wounds. Once she rolled the body over, she had to correct herself when she found a bite mark over the side of the neck. “That beast drained the zombie, and it was trying to shred through the back.”

“What was it?” Janice asked.

Robin looked back at Gordon. “It has normal human legs, doesn’t it?”

“Yes, and most of the upper body is swollen and distorted. I was thinking it looked like a gorilla at first, but it has a nose that’s all wrong.”

“Do you think it might be a mutant like the one at the farm?”

“Possibly,” Gordon conceded and frowned as he looked down at the zombie. “Why isn’t it healing?”

“It’s been drained,” Robin said. “Without blood, I don’t think it can repair any of the damage.”

“We could take it with us,” Frank suggested.

“What? You mean alive?” Gordon asked.

“Yeah. We could take it to the hospital and have them run tests on it. Maybe they can tell us something about those rods that the leader inserted.”

“I don’t know. With the zombie alive, it could very well be acting as a spy for the leader.”

“Then well toss it in our trunk and you can keep the kids in the van.”

“I want to ride with Robin, please,” Claire said.

Frank smiled at her. “Even with a zombie in the car?”

“Yeah.”

Gordon nodded. “All right, so she can travel with you. We’ll just need to tie up the zombie before we put it in the trunk. Let’s wrap it up in some plastic first.”

“I think we’ll be okay with just using rope. It has been drained, so we don’t need to worry about stains.” Frank smirked. “Besides, it’s not my car anyway.”