The Mortis Desolation (Book 1): Mortis by Logan Rutherford Page B

position. I got my gun ready, and peeked over the edge of the trench.
    The Roves were about a hundred and fifty feet away, taking out zombie after zombie. A lot of them were coming now, all the noise and commotion drawing them to the Roves. I didn’t fire my weapon. It was best to let the Roves stay distracted by the zombies, and forget about us for a few seconds so we could get out of there.
    I crawled over the dead zombies and stuck my head into the van. John crawled out just as I did.
    “Alright,” he told Daniel, “I’m ready.”
    He reached in, and hooked his arms under Julia’s armpits. He pulled her out, and Julia cried out in pain.
    A zombie that was walking over the van heard her, and turned to look. I looked up just in time to see the zombie walk off the edge of the van, and land right on top of me.
    He only had two teeth in his rotting mouth, but he was determined to sink them into my flesh. I wrapped my hands around its throat, trying to keep its snapping mouth away from me. I couldn’t even focus on pushing it off me, or reach for any of my weapons. All I could do was keep its mouth away, and let John do the rest.
    I looked behind the zombie at John, just in time to see him grab the zombie around his chest, and pull him back off me.
    Using the butt of my gun, I slammed it into the zombie’s head, bashing its brains in. The zombie went weak, and John threw it aside.
    “We gotta get out of here,” I said, stating the obvious.
    John turned around and helped pull Daniel out. I reached in and grabbed Peter by his unbroken arm. I pulled him out, while he held back a scream of pain the entire time. Rachel crawled out last.
    Once we were all out, it didn’t look good. We were all injured in some way, and we still had to climb out of the trench and get away from the Roves.
    Not wanting to waste any time, I got down next to the side of the trench that led away from Jefferson Memorial and interlaced my fingers, creating a step. “We gotta go, now .”
    Rachel went first, digging her boot into my hand, and pushing herself up and out of the trench. She lay down, and reached into the trench. “Daniel next, so the both of us can pull Julia out,” she said frantically as he looked over her shoulder to make sure no zombies had noticed him. They hadn’t, but it was only a matter of time.
    Daniel grabbed Rachel’s hand and, using my hands as a step, climbed out of the trench in one swift motion.
    I grabbed Julia and pulled her over to me. “You’re gonna have to stand,” I told her.
    She mumbled something and nodded. I helped her stand; she put most of her weight on me as she did so. Daniel and Rachel hooked their arms with hers, and pulled her up. She didn’t yell in pain this time, simply because she didn’t have the strength to.
    Peter climbed out next, and once he was out, John went next. He helped pull me out last.
    We all stayed low to the ground, not wanting to be seen by the Roves, who were beginning to thin out the horde of zombies. If we just stood up and ran, not only would we be seen by the Roves, most of whom had night vision goggles, but having to carry Julia would slow us down.
    I came to the horrifying realization that we didn’t have another option. Despite the risk, if we just slowly crawled out, Julia would bleed to death, or the Roves would finish taking care of the zombies, find us, and kill us.
    “We’re going to have to make a break for it,” I whispered loudly in order to be heard over the gunfire.
    John looked at me with fear in his eyes, but Daniel nodded. “John and I will help Julia.”
    I nodded. “Okay. I’ll make sure Peter keeps up.” I turned to Rachel. “You lead the way.”
    She nodded. “If we can just get across the street and behind the Johnny’s, we’ll be fine.”
    I looked out toward the Johnny’s convenience store. There was a tiny field, a two-lane road, and a small parking lot between us and Johnny’s, and we only had the light of the moon to guide