"You can't leave us!" begged Kay.

"Are there others like you on the compound?"

Both women nodded.

"Then I have to check on them and make sure they're safe. I'll come back for you. Right now I need you to close the door and don't open it for anyone except me. Understand?"

They both stared at him blankly.

"Ladies, do you understand?"

"Y-yes," Mich.e.l.le stammered.

"I'll return in a few minutes." Robson made his way to the door and looked out, checking the compound for signs of gang members or rotters. When he turned, neither woman had moved. "Close this behind me."

Mich.e.l.le jumped up and ran over. Robson stepped out and waited until she slid the door shut. She stopped halfway, her eyes pleading. "Please come back for us."

"I will."

After Mich.e.l.le closed the door, Robson used the chalk to mark the cement with an X and the number "2" beside it. He moved on to the next storage unit.

Earl moved so fast Tracey could not keep up, so he practically dragged her through the compound. She had complained once or twice, and each time Earl clutched her hair tighter and jerked her head to one side to shut her up. Now she kept quiet and endured the lesser of the two pains. Jake followed ten feet behind them, walking backwards and facing the battle zone to make sure no one pursued them. The trio made their way to the opposite wall of the compound, turned left, and after a minute arrived at the parking area.

Earl walked down the line of vehicles, checking the steering columns of each one until he found an SUV with the keys in the ignition. Even better luck, this one held enough food and ammunition to keep them supplied for a while. Stepping toward the rear fender, he opened the back door and shoved Tracey toward the vehicle.

"Get in, b.i.t.c.h."

"Please," Tracey pleaded, "leave me here."

"Get in the f.u.c.king car."

When she hesitated, Earl grabbed her by the throat, pushed her into the backseat, and slammed the door. Tracey's leg was not all the way in and the door closed on her shin. Earl opened it, grabbed her leg, and shoved it inside. She lay on the back seat, wailing. He slammed the door shut again and spun around to face Jake.

"Go move the school bus so we can get out of here."

Jake shook his head. "No f.u.c.king way, man. That thing is full of deaders."

"Move it or I leave you behind."

It took a moment for Jake to realize Earl was serious. Rushing across the parking lot, he climbed up into the bus, checking the back to make sure no deaders remained inside, and slid into the driver's seat. The engine was still running, so he shifted into reverse.

As Jake cleared the entranceway, Earl crawled into the driver's seat of the SUV, started the engine, and pulled out of the parking s.p.a.ce.

Dravko and Tibor had released close to twenty prisoners and made their way down the western side of the Line when Tibor heard the school bus shift into gear and its engine rev. He stood up, the chains of another prisoner clutched in his hands.

The human stared at him. "What's wr-?"

"Shh!" Tibor silenced him and called over to Dravko. "Do you hear that?"

"Yeah."

"Something's not right. Moving the bus is not part of the plan."

"Let's check it out."

Tibor rushed away, and everyone on that segment of the Line who had not been freed shouted for them not to go. When Dravko stood, the middle-aged man who he was attempting to release grabbed his arm and clutched it tight. "Don't leave me here. I can't take it any longer."

Dravko patted the man's hand. "We'll be back in a minute."

The man held Dravko's arm for another few seconds before letting go. Dravko set off after Tibor and caught up with him at the corner of the wall. Someone had moved the bus fifty feet from the main gate and backed it between the compound wall and the perimeter fence. "What's going on?"

"Someone moved the bus, but it's not one of our people."

"Why would they do that?"

"I think they're trying to escape." Tibor pointed to the gate. An SUV exited the compound and stopped. A person in a Harley Davidson leather vest ran off the school bus and over to the pa.s.senger side of the SUV. Tibor glanced over at Dravko. "Should we stop them?"

"Yes."

"And feed?"

Dravko hesitated for a moment. "Yes."

The two vampires rushed the SUV and caught up with it as it pa.s.sed through the outer gate and turned onto Parade Road. They morphed into their vampiric forms and jumped onto the vehicle's roof, with Tibor landing on the pa.s.senger's side and Dravko above the driver.

"We made it." Earl high-fived Jake as they sped away from the compound, only to have the elation drain away when something heavy dropped onto the roof.

"What the f.u.c.k is that?" Jake asked.

Three-inch-long talons penetrated the metal above his head. Jake froze, watching in horror as the vampire tore back the front section of roof and hovered over the opening, glaring down at them. It had elongated ears, a furrowed forehead, and a flared nose. Tracey screamed and tried to push herself into the corner of the backseat, ignoring the throbbing in her leg. The vampire snarled at Jake, exposing a mouth full of fangs. Reaching in, it yanked Jake to his feet, plunged its fangs into his neck, and began to drink. Jake whimpered and his body shuddered. After a few seconds, the vampire lifted Jake out of the compartment and tossed him aside, the body disappearing into the dark along the side of the road. The vampire snarled at Earl.

Earl whipped the steering wheel to the right and back again. The vampire lost its balance and tumbled off the roof on the pa.s.senger side. It reached out at the last second and grasped the SUV's roof rack, trying to regain its footing. Earl swerved right, aiming for the trees along the side of the road, hoping to rip the son of a b.i.t.c.h off the roof.

A taloned hand smashed through the driver's side window. Earl waited for the vampire to claw at him. Instead, it grabbed the steering wheel and pulled. The SUV made a sharp left turn toward the woods. Earl stiffened his arms against the steering wheel as they crashed into a tree head on. He experienced an incredible bolt of pain as his arms snapped and his chest smashed into the steering column, and then everything went black.

Dravko pulled the mangled body from the driver's seat and threw it onto the gra.s.s. Blood poured from the twin compound fractures in the arms, draining away precious life fluid. Desperate for a meal, he dug his talons into the human's chest and ripped open the ribcage, revealing its heart. He had not tasted human blood in weeks, ever since he had turned Dr. Compton. Bending over, he plunged his fangs into the meat and drank, savoring the taste. Terror sweetened human blood, the adrenaline adding a special flavor. Because this human had already lost so much due to the accident, he faded quickly. Dravko sucked as the heart slowed and finally stopped beating. Rising to his knees, he wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and licked the last few drops from his fingers. This one body barely satisfied his hunger. How he missed preying on humans.

Dravko heard a noise from the rear of the SUV. Tibor crouched in the back on top of a young woman. He had her pinned to the seat, his knees resting on her pelvis and his hands holding her arms by her side. She didn't struggle, probably from being stunned from the accident, although she did quietly plead for Tibor to leave her alone. He ignored the woman and drained her blood from her carotid artery. Dravko had to stop him. After all, this woman did not belong to the gang. The vampires had to rise above their instincts if they wanted to live among humans. He moved around to the other side of the SUV and opened the rear pa.s.senger door. He reached in, and for the first time he noticed the woman's injuries. The right front of her face was a b.l.o.o.d.y pulp from where she had smashed it against the window during the accident, and her collar bone protruded from her shoulder. She would die soon, so why let good blood go to waste?

Leaning in, Dravko sank his teeth into the other side of the woman's neck and fed.

DeWitt and Roberta also heard the commotion by the main gate. Someone backed the school bus into the perimeter zone and then jumped into an SUV that raced off down Parade Road, with the vampires in pursuit.

DeWitt stood up and headed toward the gate.

"Where are we going?" Roberta asked.

"To make sure no one else escapes."

The battle between the rotters and gang members intensified, and it slowly became apparent the humans were not going to win.

They maintained a steady barrage against the living dead, taking several down, but their numbers were too great. They also had to contend with Simmons in the hill above them, who had thinned out their own ranks by seven. Several attempted to retreat to the opposite end of the compound. Simmons took down each one who tried. He allowed Karen to escape when she broke away and ran for safety. One of the gang members went after her, making it only ten feet before Simmons put a bullet through the side of his head. A few tried to cut between the two buildings and escape to the rear wall of the compound. By then, Robson had reached the end of the first row of storage units and positioned himself at the corner, shooting anyone who tried to get by him. With the only avenues of escape closed off and the rotters closing in, the gang members fell back to the rape room. Even here they could not find safety because Simmons shot anyone who tried to close the door.

Simmons ceased sniping when the first deader wandered inside, though he continued to watch through his scope. The gang members blew it apart as it sauntered through the open door. The gunfire attracted more of the horde. In less than a minute, fifteen deaders had swarmed the room. The intensity of the gunfire increased, followed by screams of terror and pain as the rotters overwhelmed them. Simmons could not see inside because of the angle, although he could imagine what was going on by the silence, and wished he could watch those a.s.sholes suffer.

A score of deaders ignored the rape room entirely. Some pa.s.sed it and shambled among the perimeter wall, while most turned left between the two buildings and wandered into the compound.

Simmons switched his mission from neutralizing gang members to protecting his people. Moving his scope away from the rape room, he scanned the area for Robson and the others.

Making his way along the middle left row of storage units, Caslow fought back the panic threatening to overwhelm him. He didn't know what scared him more-the sound of the gun battle raging on the other side of the building, or the fact the firing had become less intense, which meant that either the gang members or the rotters had been wiped out, and whichever side had won would soon be roaming the compound. Instead, he tried to focus on finding Debra and Cindy. At each unit, he paused for several seconds to summon up his courage before raising the sliding door. It had taken him five minutes to check out only three of them. At this rate, he would never find his family. He could not move any faster, being paralyzed by fear.

Caslow raised the door to the fourth unit and swung his flashlight from one wall to the other. This time he almost p.i.s.sed himself when he saw movement in the corner. He raised his Heckler and Koch 223 to confront the threat, and in the process dropped the flashlight. It rolled one hundred eighty degrees, directing the beam behind him. He held the weapon in the direction of where he had noticed the movement, his aim unsteady.

"W-who the f.u.c.k is there?" he asked.

"Don't shoot," said a female voice. It did not belong to Debra or Cindy. She sounded more scared then him, if that was possible. He relaxed a little. Keeping the semi-automatic trained in the direction of the voice, he bent down, picked up the flashlight, and shined it in the corner. A filthy, sickly woman sat with her back to the wall, clutching a soiled blanket against her chest. He couldn't even begin to imagine what she had gone through.

"I'm not one of them," she said. "My name is Patty."

"I won't hurt you." Caslow stepped a few feet closer. "I'm looking for Debra."

"You mean the woman with the little girl?"

"Yes," he answered hopefully. "Do you know where she is?"

The expression on the woman's face said it all. Caslow fell to his knees, bowed his head, and cried. He had let them down. His family was dead because of him, because of his cowardice. For a moment, he thought of placing the barrel of the Heckler and Koch into his own mouth and pulling the trigger.

"I'm sorry," said Patty. "The little girl, Cindy, is safe though. One of the new girls is looking after her. I think her name is Wendy."

"Where are they?" Caslow asked excitedly.

"I'm not sure. When the fighting broke out, all of us women went into hiding. You could try Meat's quarters."

"Where is that?"

"To your left and...." Patty's sentence dropped off, and her eyes widened in terror.

Caslow spun around to see a rotter in a tattered brown UPS uniform enter the storage unit. Two more approached from fifty feet away. Caslow tried to stand, but the rotter was too close. Spinning around on his knees, he raised the Heckler and Koch at an angle across his chest as it lunged. The UPS rotter knocked Caslow onto his back and fell on top of him, pinning him to the floor. The semi-automatic Caslow held outstretched in his arms prevented it from getting to him. He wouldn't be able to hold it off for long, and had no way of defending himself from the other two.

Keeping his left arm outstretched, Caslow lowered the right until the stock rested on the floor. The rotter's dead hands clutched and scratched at his face. He reached down to his holster, withdrew his Smith and Wesson, and stuck the barrel in the rotter's mouth.

"f.u.c.k you!" he yelled and pulled the trigger.

The trigger did not budge.

s.h.i.t, he had forgotten to release the safety.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Patty rush out the door. The two living dead had closed to within ten feet, and grabbed her as she tried to push pa.s.s them. One latched on to her right arm and bit into it. She screamed and flailed to break the grip, to no avail. The second rotter moved up behind her. Clutching Patty by the hair, it pulled her head to one side and plunged decayed teeth into her neck.

Caslow felt his left arm giving way. Pulling his right hand back, his thumb fumbled around on the stock until it found the safety. Switching it off, he shoved the sidearm back into the rotter's mouth just as his left arm collapsed. The rotter fell forward, its weight crushing into Caslow's chest, its mouth only inches from his face, and with the Smith and Wesson still lodged down its throat. It gagged out a moan.

Caslow pulled the trigger.

A cloud of blood and skull fragments mushroomed above the rotter's head. Some of the gore dripped onto Caslow's face. The rotter went limp and collapsed onto him. Caslow rolled to his right, throwing the carca.s.s to one side. Crawling on his hands and knees into the corner, he vomited, retching until he could only dry heave. When he stood, the room spun a little, forcing him to lean against the wall until everything returned to normal.

From where he stood at the rear of the unit, he saw the other two rotters rip chunks off of Patty and devour them. Once again, someone had died because of his own cowardice and stupidity.

Pushing himself away from the wall, Caslow crossed over to the living dead. With a steady hand and clear aim, he fired off three rounds-one into the head of each rotter, and the third into Patty's face. He then stepped back inside the unit, closed the door, and sat with his back against the metal.

Jennifer had made her way to the end of the row of storage units because she wanted to check the situation at the center of the compound where the fighting was taking place. Once certain that the gun battle posed no immediate threat to her, she made her back along the row, checking each unit and marking them with an X since all were empty. The last one had the words KEEP OUT written in red paint across the sliding door and a padlock securing it to the frame. She slammed the stock of her semi-automatic rifle against the padlock until it broke off, and then crouched down and wrapped her hand around the handle. Raising the door four feet, she scanned the inside of the unit with her flashlight. The beam fell on an old man wrapped in a blanket seated in the corner. He raised his deformed hands level with his head.

"Trust me, I'm no threat."

Jennifer lifted the sliding door all the way and stepped inside. He appeared harmless enough. Still, she kept the M-16A2 trained on him. "Keep your hands where I can see them. I'm not taking any chances."

"I understand."

Jennifer approached and pulled aside the blanket to make certain the old man hadn't any concealed weapons. "We don't want to hurt anyone if we can help it."

"It sure sounds like someone is getting hurt."

"We're here to save our friend and get the rest of you to safety."

The old man's eyes lit up. "You're a friend of Windows?"

"Yes! Is she safe?"

"G.o.d, I hope so."

"Where is she?" Jennifer asked.

"I'd like to know the answer to that one myself." The voice came from the doorway.