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Katie realized Arnold ered them

Fire and smoke filled the street outside thelot at a quick clip One by one, the trucks, both military and civilian, and several metro buses and one school bus, roared out into the town of Madison

Overhead the helicopters swooped in an atte The mall doors shattered froered out into the abandoned parking lot as the last bus rolled out

Katie held onto the dash for dear life as the truck roared through the town Zombies rushed them, but the vehicles ss Their salvation fro overwhelmed was that ed to find its way inside the structure That meant fewer zoht with danger as it could have been

At last, the convoy broke free of the city limits and cliered, hands outstretched in desperate hunger, toward the escaping vehicles Slowly, they began to walk determinedly after them

The driver of the truck Katie and Travis were in looked very gri hand

"We’re clear," he reported in

Katie sank into Travis’ ar her shoulders

She cried as the truck rumbled on

A few minutes later the word ca lot were accounted for

The survivors of Madison Mall, overwhel events, rode into the hills toward their new horay and low as the convoy wound through the barren hills away froh the hills, the cracks in the asphalt already thick with gnarled weeds The juniper and cedar trees stretched twisted li the bare trees slide by, Katie wondered if the trees were praying for those in the convoy to get back to the fort safely Her bible school days had instilled a lot of verses in her head and she re when no one else had a voice She certainly felt like she could not utter a ithout sobbing She rubbed her brow and snuggled deeper into Travis’ ar past the

The convoy had taken a long roundabout way toto follow fro in a direction opposite of the fort Now the convoy wasdead farled toward the convoy fro abandoned structures They seemed pitiful in their slowness In the first days they had been so fast but now they were so slow Katie was sure that they could be easily circu as there weren’t that many

Of course, the mall had flooded with them

She closed her eyes and fresh tears slipped down her cheeks

Travis tenderly wiped a tear away and stroked her hair

There had been sowith Travis’ and Jenni’s hands clutched in her own had been theevent of her life Thehad been acacophony Then the most horrible moment had co as she lived, she would never forget the despair that filled her when Jenni’s fingers slid so easily froet what followed either

Katie re the sea of dead looking up at Jenni For a crazed second, she thought Jenni could maybe jump into the water and somehow make it to the stairs But then that fast zombie had barreled up the stairs that led up the side of the waterfall, pushing aside the slower ones Katie re the gun at the zombie and it had been empty She hadn’t breathed as she watched Jenni bash the zo its brains across the crowd below Foolishly, Katie had thought Jenni was safe But as she watched Jenni wash her hands, dread had overwhelash on her hand and Katie had known the terrible truth: Jenni was dead

All that followed…taking the gun froer…was just a ritual for the dead As Jenni stood there, her hand over her head, s below her, Katie had understood as well as Jenni that it was over

And then she had pulled the trigger… Thankfully, Jenni’s body had fallen where the zombies would never reach her

Katie wiped another tear away

Lydia had been right She had been at the mall for one there to lay Jenni to rest

Katie had thought her destiny was so totally other than what it had turned out to be Yes, she had stood up against the Senator, but in the end, she had freed Jenni from Lydia’s fate She had also laid her to rest in a way she never could do for Lydia

"Fuck!" The driver swore, breaking her out of her dark thoughts

The driver of their enor the cab Katie looked up to see the truck in front of the out with her hand, she tried to brace herself as their truck shian to pass the truck in distress

The tarp covering the back of the truck opened and a young boy appeared