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zombies hanging off the back and sides of it. The driver was weaving back and forth in a desperate attempt to shake the ghouls. He drove clean over three more who were shambling along in the middle of the street; their bodies cracked and broke, and one had its head smashed under a tire. The headless body lay still, while the other two zombies struggled to follow the truck by pulling themselves along with whatever limbs still moved. Nancy watched them crawl along and had to swallow back the bile that threatened to rise up her throat again.
    A particularly loud screech from its tires brought her attention back to the truck. It had skidded too quickly when trying to turn down the next road. She cringed as it flew nose first into a telephone pole, crumpling like a tin can. The driver, dazed only for a second, leaped out of the vehicle and ran for his life. Nancy couldn’t watch him anymore as he went around the street corner, but she did notice that all the ghouls on the street below her had taken notice of the live driver and had begun to shuffle off in his direction. In a few moments she’d have a clear run to her car while they were distracted.
    “Time to go!” she hissed, turning to look at Terri-Lynn.
    The other woman had fainted in a heap, almost landing face first on the blade of her knife. Nancy cursed as violently as she could while still keeping her voice low. “Wake up!” she growled. She kicked Terri-Lynn (a little bit maliciously) in the ribs. “I can’t possibly carry you to the car fast enough to avoid us being seen!”
    She stared from her friend, to the car, and back again, and then kicked the woman once more for good measure. She wondered if she could make it with Terri-Lynn hoisted over her shoulder. She thought not. She considered running to the car and driving it back to the end of the fire escape, but she doubted she would be able to get out, get Terri-Lynn down, and get them both back into the car before the zombies made their way over to them. It was possible, she thought, but very, very risky. Just when she was surprising and disgusting herself with the idea of leaving Terri-Lynn behind all together, a beckoning sound from above made her jump out of her skin. She whipped around, katana in hand, and saw a boy of about sixteen peering out a window one floor up. He had a finger to his mouth to tell her to keep quiet. Nancy could tell that he hadn’t become a zombie, but she remained on guard none-the-less while he quietly climbed down to her.
    “Are you trying to get to your car?” he whispered. His black hair was limp, and his dark eyes were hollow.
    Nancy nodded.
    “Take me with you?” he begged. “My family, they... I’ve been holed up in my bedroom, and I-” He couldn’t seem to get the words out.
    Nancy put a hand on his shoulder. She motioned toward Terri-Lynn. “Can you help me? Can you wait here and help me get her into the car when I bring it over?”
    The kid nodded enthusiastically. “Whatever you say,” he promised. “Just please, get me out of this place.”
    Nancy nodded back and reassessed the situation. The zombies had continued to shamble off in the direction the man had run, and most of them were now past Nancy’s car. For a minute she considered simply waiting until they wandered out of sight, but with a heavy heart she saw that there were more already wandering this way from the other end of the road, and yet more appearing from alleyways, and through broken doors and windows in the surrounding buildings. They could wait here for ages, hoping that all of the creatures would wander away from the general area, but in the meantime there were still plenty of them in the apartments behind them who would likely, eventually, discover the three runaways on the fire escape.
    Nancy took a deep breath and turned to the kid. “I’m Nancy. What’s your name?” she asked.
    “Greg,” he replied.
    Nancy nodded, plucked the carving knife out of Terri-Lynn’s limp fingers, and