Mac waved his hand as if brushing away her concerns. “You have to,” he responded, firmly. “I’ll look after Ryan and Rob. Try to make sure they get out of here. What’s more important is saving you and the kids. Now get it." Jake didn’t move a muscle, a fact that Mac noticed after a moment. He turned his head and looked at her over his shoulder. A warm smile crossed his lips, a smile that couldn’t have possibly seemed more out of place in such a crazy nightmare that the world had become. “Hey, don’t worry about me,” he added. “Ain’t no flesh-eating jackass getting the better of me.”For a moment that seemed to stretch into eternity, Jake still did not budge. Then, at last, with an ache in her heart, she turned and pulled open the door to Gabriel ’s car. She shot one last glance at Mac, who was standing near the front bumper of the SUV, his back to her and his shotgun resting on his shoulder. In the dim light of the evening, he looked strangely heroic.Jake sat down and closed the car do

He craned his neck and peered off in the direction of the back of the store. The aisles were already filling up with the creatures. Where the hell did they all come from? Gabriel wondered to himself. Jake followed his gaze and her eyes went wide at the sight. “Right,” she said, dumping one last bottle into her bag. She broke into a run and barreled past Gabriel and up to the car.“Should we shut the doors?” Gabriel called after her, hesitating for a moment.“Screw the doors, let’s get them!” Jake snapped. She pulled open the passenger’s side door and threw herself, bags and all, into the seat. Gabriel shrugged his consent and followed her lead.“What’s going on?” Nancy demanded as the car roared to life.“A swarm,” Gabriel answered. The tires screeched as he threw the car in reverse and blasted away from the store. “They came in through the back. It was like they were planning it.”“They can’t do that.” Nancy said, but there was a wavering uncertainty in her voice. She turned to

Gabriel offered a meek smile and sighed. “Well, it’s hardly important,” he said dismissively. “What about the others?” he added, motioning back at the group with his head.“The first one’s Matthew,” Daniel answered. Matthew was a tall man, easily six feet, probably more. He hovered over the other three, taller even than the preacher who was himself a rather tall man. Matthew was bigger, though, built like a boxer, with a broad chest and broad arms and legs like tree trunks planted firmly into the ground. “Matthew’s married to Kelsey. That’s her over there.” As he said this he motioned to a woman across the room, back behind Gabriel . He turned and looked. She was sitting by herself, eating something directly from a can. She was a fairly attractive, young woman, with shoulder length blonde hair and thick, rectangular glasses. Gabriel figured she couldn’t be more than a decade older than him, which would probably put her just a few years younger than Matthew.“The other one’s Stephan,

His eyes opened at last, but everything was blurry. He blinked, feeling the crustiness around his eyGabriel ds, and after a few moments could make out the general form of the woman standing at the end of his bed. “I knew you’d come,” he said, not really fully aware he was even talking.Jake's eyes went wide. She scoffed in annoyance and rolled her eyes. She kicked him in the feet again, still harder. “In your dreams, you perv. We’re being overrun. If we don’t leave, and I mean right now, we’re as good as dead. So get your ass out of this bed or I’m taking your keys and leaving you here as bait.”Realization slowly dawned on Gabriel and his face flushed red. He rolled out of the bed and grabbed his bag off the floor. He must have been much more tired the previous night than he’d realized, as he was still fully clothed. He hadn’t even taken off his shoes. I must reek, he thought distantly. Actually, considering that there probably wasn’t running water anymore, everyone in the group pro

Gabriel caught the knife with both hands and as little flailing as he could manage. He had never been too good at catching unexpected items midair, and usually just ended up batting them around a bit with each hand as he flailed desperately and unsuccessfully to grab the item before knocking it out of his own reach. Not wanting to look like an idiot in front of this big group of strangers, he was quite thankful and rGabriel even when he managed to actually catch the item this time.He turned the pocket knife over in his hands, looking at it. It was the multi-tool variety, complete with a number of items that would probably never be useful again, like a cork screw and wire cutters. “Thanks, uh, I guess,” he muttered. He turned his head and looked down the highway. Down the line, at another empty car, someone was busy draining the unneeded gas from the tank into a container. Someone else was similarly busy going through the vehicle for useful items. “What kind of stuff would be conside