{"id":472,"date":"2017-12-10T14:50:52","date_gmt":"2017-12-10T19:50:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stories.astoundingoutpost.com\/?p=472"},"modified":"2017-12-10T14:50:52","modified_gmt":"2017-12-10T19:50:52","slug":"hellbound-express-chapter-6","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/astoundingoutpost.com\/stories\/2017\/12\/10\/hellbound-express-chapter-6\/","title":{"rendered":"Hellbound Express Chapter 6"},"content":{"rendered":"

For your reading pleasure, here is the third installment of Mel Odom\u2019s Hellbound Express. If you haven\u2019t yet read the first 5. chapters, here (1<\/a>, 2<\/a> , 3<\/a> , 4<\/a> , 5<\/a> ) are the links for them. Enjoy.
\nChapter 6
\nBy Mel Odom<\/p>\n

A zombie in the ragged remains of a gray mechanic\u2019s uniform rushed Gant with its mouth open and black ichor gleaming on its teeth. It moaned without emotion. In life, the dead man had been big, taller than Gant and heavier, but death had stripped away the excess weight.<\/p>\n

Raising his left arm, Gant blocked the zombie\u2019s right arm with his forearm and brought the ASP down in a hard arc with his right. The matte black baton slammed into the zombie\u2019s forehead with a liquid crunch, breaking through bone. Its rheumy eyes exploded. Bloody black goo leaked down its withered cheeks as its head came apart.<\/p>\n

Setting himself, Gant caught the zombie\u2019s collapsing weight against his left arm and shoved forward, driving the corpse back into the one dressed in shorts and a t-shirt behind it. The two things toppled back and down, then hit the ground hard. The one with the crushed forehead lay still, but the one underneath fought to get free. For the moment, the dead weight on top of it kept it pinned.<\/p>\n

A few feet away, Jenni knocked her closest attacker\u2019s feet from under it with a leg sweep and side-stepped the falling body as she slid toward the second zombie facing her.<\/p>\n

In life, the fallen zombie had probably been a thirty-something year old mom. Now the PTA t-shirt and stretch pants hung in tatters. Before the virus spread, the woman had been someone\u2019s mom and wife. Gant remembered his own lost family and the cinnamon smell that had pervaded his childhood home on holidays.<\/p>\n

He forced that memory out of his mind.<\/p>\n

As the dead thing tried to get up and reach for Jenni, Gant crossed over, leaned down, and swung the tomahawk into its temple. Desiccated flesh ripped and bone shattered as the blade drove into its brain and stilled it.<\/p>\n

Jenni drove her broad-bladed hunting knife up under the zombie\u2019s jaw, putting enough force into the effort to shove the tip up into its brain. It went still and slack and dropped to the ground.<\/p>\n

Gant turned, intending to get to the zombie he\u2019d left behind, when something smashed into him and drove him backward. Unable to keep his feet under him, he stumbled and went down, putting out his left hand to keep him from falling facefirst to the ground.<\/p>\n

\u201cAaaaahhhhhhhh.\u201d The zombie clung to Gant\u2019s shoulder and moaned into his ear. The cry deafened Gant even through the helmet.<\/p>\n

In life, the zombie had been big and strong. Faded tattoos ran the length of the dead thing\u2019s forearms. One of them showed a nude woman in a cowboy hat and boots riding a dolphin leaping up from the ocean. Frayed, braided cord bracelets had sunk into the undead flesh at its wrists. Long, scraggly hair and an unkempt beard scratched at the thin line of Gant\u2019s neck that lay exposed between his helmet and body armor.<\/p>\n

The thing\u2019s rancid stink so close to Gant almost made him violently ill. Its breath was strong enough to blister paint. Gant tried to roll to dislodge the corpse, but it gripped him solidly. Its large head came forward, jaws wide, and yellowed teeth snapped and gnawed at his Kevlar-covered shoulder.<\/p>\n

Fear rose inside Gant even though he\u2019d faced zombies dozens of times. They were bad enough at a distance, and even killing them in hand-to-hand combat still jarred him, but having one at his throat again brought up all those old memories of being trapped with no place to run.<\/p>\n

For a moment, he panicked and tried pushing it off him even though he didn\u2019t have the leverage he needed. The thing was godawful strong and\u2014even a husk of its former self\u2014was heavier and taller than Gant. Before he could shift and try to counter the thing\u2019s hold, a gloved hand closed in the hair at its forehead and yanked back. Then a knife plunged into the zombie\u2019s right eye to the hilt.<\/p>\n

Instantly, the dead thing went slack and the sudden surge of its weight almost knocked Gant over. He twisted aside and let the body fall as Jenni yanked it to the side using the fistful of hair she still clung to. She had one knee in the thing\u2019s back as she guided it away from Gant.<\/p>\n

\u201cDon\u2019t leave one of these things operational behind you in close quarters.\u201d Jenni ripped her blade free as she spoke in a harsh, angry tone. \u201cIsn\u2019t that one of the rules you taught me?\u201d<\/p>\n

Gant didn\u2019t answer because he\u2019d taught her exactly that.
\n\u201cTake out what\u2019s in front of you.\u201d Jenni breathed raggedly. \u201cKeep moving in the direction you\u2019re headed. Break free, then assess your situation. Trust your partner to cover your back. I remember that one too.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought you needed help.\u201d Even as he said that, Gant knew it was weak. He hadn\u2019t trusted Jenni to handle the things she\u2019d faced. She was still new to scavenging, which was why he\u2019d paired her with him. He\u2019d felt the need to watch over her.
\nShe drove her knife through the temple of the zombie still working its way from beneath the mechanic.<\/p>\n

\u201cWrong! You know that\u2019s wrong.\u201d Jenni knelt to wipe the ichor from her knife. \u201cYou thought I couldn\u2019t deal with those two. So you decided to go all macho and save me.\u201d She stood and sheathed her knife. \u201cNever save someone who can\u2019t save himself or herself. You look for allies. You don\u2019t throw your life away for someone who\u2019s gonna die. Didn\u2019t you tell me that?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI did.\u201d Gant knelt and wiped off his weapons as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI screwed up.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAlmost got yourself killed, you mean.\u201d Jenni\u2019s helmet shook from side to side. She nodded to where three more zombies loped toward them. \u201cMight have got me killed too.\u201d She moved into a fighting stance, loose and ready, just like Gant had taught her.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought about leaving you.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe you should have.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter the example you set? Not likely.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gant stood and moved a couple feet away from here. \u201cWe\u2019ll talk about this later.\u201d
\n\u201cBet your ass we will,\u201d Jenni promised.<\/p>\n

Settled now, Gant stepped to the side and dropped to a crouch, long enough to brace himself to put a shoulder into a dead woman\u2019s chest. The thing stumbled to the side and he swung the tomahawk to catch it at the base of the skull. He yanked the tomahawk free as Jenni drove her knife through the temple of a dead man in the remnants of a cheap business suit. He stayed back, out of the way, while she dealt with the remaining zombie by offering it her armored forearm and then smashing the knife down into its skull when it took the bait.<\/p>\n

\u201cSee what you can find.\u201d Jenni took up a position a few feet away and faced away from Gant. \u201cI\u2019ll keep watch.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gant knelt and placed his weapons nearby on the ground. He went through the dead things\u2019 pockets quickly, taking out keyrings from the three that had them. He took all of the wallets he could find.<\/p>\n

Working quickly, Gant sorted through the wallets, looking at the driver\u2019s licenses and other cards he found. Excitement filled him when he found cards that interested him.
\n\u201cWhat did you find?\u201d Jenni asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cFederal Firearms License.\u201d Gant paired it with the keyring that had come from the mechanic\u2019s pocket.<\/p>\n

\u201cCool. Thinking he might have some guns?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHope so. Unless somebody knew about them. Or he carried them out of the house while trying to get out of town.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe he wandered back home after he died.\u201d
\n\u201cMaybe.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sometimes the zombies returned back to where they\u2019d lived and stayed in the vicinity. There was no way of knowing how much of the person remained in the walking corpse.<\/p>\n

\u201cI saw you take another card,\u201d Jenni prompted.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis one was a doctor.\u201d Gant held up hospital identification and pointed to a woman in a sports halter and shorts. She\u2019d carried a small wallet with her keys, cards, and a little cash. The money was no good to anyone.<\/p>\n

\u201cLocal?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her driver\u2019s license had indicated she\u2019d also lived in one of the nearby houses.
\n\u201cIf she kept meds at the house,\u201d Jenni said, \u201cthis will be a good run.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pharmaceuticals remained hard to come by so long after the initial outbreak. That was why they didn\u2019t search drug stores or pharmacies as a general rule. Those areas often held groups of the dead and the space got too easily blocked to get back out again.<\/p>\n

Plus, any kind of encounter within a store usually ended up with broken glass and maybe alarms going off. Those noises drew the dead immediately.
\n\u201cLet\u2019s go.\u201d Gant gathered his weapons and headed for the nearest house. \u201cWe\u2019ll hit the doc\u2019s place first.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For your reading pleasure, here is the third installment of Mel Odom\u2019s Hellbound Express. If you haven\u2019t yet read the first 5. chapters, here (1, 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 ) are the links for them. Enjoy. Chapter 6 By Mel Odom A zombie in the ragged remains of a gray mechanic\u2019s uniform…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[57,98,103,104],"class_list":["post-472","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hell-bound-express","tag-mel-odom","tag-zombie-novel","tag-zombie-train","tag-zombies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/astoundingoutpost.com\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/472","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/astoundingoutpost.com\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/astoundingoutpost.com\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/astoundingoutpost.com\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/astoundingoutpost.com\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=472"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/astoundingoutpost.com\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/472\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/astoundingoutpost.com\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=472"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/astoundingoutpost.com\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=472"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/astoundingoutpost.com\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=472"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}