Omega Days (Volume 1) - By John L. Campbell Page 0,19

himself laid in the process. But Evan wasn’t that guy. These were people, and he couldn’t kill people, could he?

The dead didn’t stop, kept coming on and backing him up, and the figures in the field were getting closer. He decided there would be a better time and place to assess his sudden attack of morality, when he could berate himself for being stupid. He had to stay alive to get to that point, though.

Evan started moving right, towards the field and the edge of the road, and was pleased to see his stalkers angle in his direction. Once they had moved sufficiently to one side, Evan bolted left, swinging wide around them and running back towards the intersection. Arms reached and angry moans came from behind him as he sprinted back to the open trunk of the deputy’s car. He had seen a small first aid kit and a long black flashlight held to the deck by Velcro straps, and he slung the shotgun across his chest as he grabbed both.

Then he was running again, back to where the fat woman was still wedged in her car window, croaking and gnashing her teeth at him. Evan stopped again where the deputy had dropped his automatic when he’d been attacked, and he shoved the handgun into a jacket pocket before racing back towards his cabin.

The Harley was waiting, sitting there with the mid-morning sun gleaming off its chrome. He was almost to it when the little girl in the pink jumped lunged out from the narrow, weed-choked space between the cabins. She made a high-pitched growl as she caught hold of his left leg and went in fast with her teeth.

Evan screamed and twisted, bringing the flashlight crashing down on her head, trying to pull away. She hung on and bit hard, but her teeth only sank into the seam of his Levis. Evan swung again at the top of her head, dragging her little shape with him as he tried to escape, hitting again and again and again.

Her hands loosened and she sagged away, eyes rolling up, mouth open. Evan smashed her with it again, and the lens and bulb shattered as her head caved in. She slipped face-down into the dirt, and Evan realized the shrieking he was hearing was his own as he used his boot to stomp the head flat.

He dropped the flashlight, stumbled a few steps away and threw up.

Breathing hard, bent over with his hands on his knees, he stared at the red gore covering his boot, and a fresh surge of vomit came up. He coughed and wiped the sleeve of his jacket across his mouth, looking behind him with watery eyes.

They were coming.

He shoved the first aid kit and the cop’s 9mm in the saddlebags, then used bungee cords to secure his backpack to the tail. The powerful engine came to life, and he was moving. He leaned forward and throttled past the knot of corpses at the end of the dirt road, gunning it through the intersection. There were more now, coming across the fields. Evan Tucker left them behind as he accelerated south, putting Napa behind him.

SEVEN

Berkeley

Skye screamed and tensed for the bullet as the soldier fired. Something thudded to the ground behind her, and she looked down to see a hand inches from her foot.

“C’mon!” the soldier yelled, waving her over.

She just stared at him.

“Move your ass!”

She did, closing the distance with the soldier and the other men in camouflage as they piled into the Humvee. A couple were firing their rifles in different directions, the sharp pops startling this close up. The young soldier yanked open a back door of the vehicle and shoved her in. Two other kids about her age were already inside, a boy in an Affliction T-shirt and a girl in shorts and a pink blouse, tucked into tight balls in a space in the very back, hugging their knees. They stared at her with fearful eyes and said nothing.

A moment later the soldiers were in as well, squeezing her between them as they stuck their rifles out open windows and the vehicle leaped forward. One soldier stood in the middle, sticking his body out through a circular hole in the roof, where the machinegun was.

“Hold this,” he shouted to Skye, handing his rifle down to her.

Skye stared at the thing. Of course she had seen them on TV and in video games, but she had never actually held a real gun in her