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    All of this happened in a split second, before I made a dash for the car. The woman had had the presence of mind to get her boys into the vehicle and was struggling to start the engine.
    “ Move over , ” I shouted and she did without question. I turned the key and heard the ignition grind. Too fast. The mystery gunman was taking a heavy toll on the creatures in the street below, but even he couldn’t keep them at bay. They swarmed the car, banging on the roof, the windows, the hood.
    I took a deep breath and exhaled through gritted teeth then turned the ignition again. This time the engine roared into life, and I slid the shift into reverse and gunned the motor .
    The car accelerated backward, taking several zombies along for the ride. As I deliberately ove rshot the intersection I stood on the brake and those still hanging on to the SUV were thrown to the tarmac . Then I put her into drive, turned left and raced off into the darkness.
    At Lenox Avenue, I turned right and pointed the SUV south. T he n I stopp ed the car in the middle of the normally busy thoroughfare .
    Tonight t he only vehicles were a bandoned or wrecked or burned out hulks . There were bodies too, lots of them, some half consumed, some skeletal, others afire. Here and there I saw hunched figures lurking, their shadows thrown onto shattered storefronts by the flames.
    Fortunately, the path down Lenox seemed fairly clear.
    “What’s your name?” I asked the woman.
    “Valerie.”
    “Well , Valerie, this is where I get off. You follow the road straight on and it will bring you to Central Park. There’s an army base there, they’ll take you in. Keep the car rolling, drive around obstacles if you can, otherwise push them out of the way. Whatever you do, don’t get out of the car, and you stop for nothing and no-one, you understand ?”
    She nodded, a haunted, drawn expression on her face. “Come with us,” she said.
    “I can’t. I have to get home to my daughter.”
    Valerie nodded. “My husband…” she started .
    I shook my head and the pained expression on her face told me she understood.
    “Take care of your boys ” I said and got out.   As an afterthought I handed her Dom’s .38. “It will probably do more damage if you throw it, but you never know.”
    “Thank you, ” she said , “for everyth ing. ”
    I stood in the middle of the road and watched them drive away . Then I turned and headed toward s home.

Chapter Three: Ash Wednesday
     
    I tried to guess the time and figured it was well after midnight. R uby had been alone for hours and hadn’t been fed since mid-afternoon. For a normal one- day - old baby that would be a problem , but I reminded myself that Ruby wasn’t normal. Ruby was…special.
    That’s how I preferred to think of her now. Ruby was special. Sure she was teething six mo n ths too soon, and her favorite meal was pureed beef, but she was my daughter and I refused to believe that she was one of these things.
    R ight now I had to focus on getting back to her. I was only a mile from the apartment, but alone in the dark, without a weapon, and surrounded by flesh eating ghouls, zombies, whatever the hell these things were.
    I needed a car and spotted a red pickup with a bull - bar parked neatly at the curb on the other side of the road. I crossed towards it, noticing as I did, a man detach himself from the shadows of a building. He approached quickly, not running but walking purposefully, like an angry neighbor intent on a confrontation .
    I reached the pickup, glanced through the side window and saw that there were no keys in the ignition. At that moment the man broke into a sprint and charged me, his face contorted with rage. He was almost on me when I swung the car door open and he ran full tilt into it.
    But the man was not alone. In the side mirror I saw more of the things closing in from behind me . I dropped to the ground, rolled under the pickup, crawled until I hit the gutter then jumped up and