She landed unsteadily on the top of a pickup truck, but was able to swing herself into the passenger seat almost in the same instant as the man who hefted her from the garage. The adolescent boy and middle-aged woman that had stumbled from the wreckage weren’t moving as quickly, and as the vehicle squealed backwards she sputtered,<span style="color: #FFBFBF"><span style="font-weight: bold">“W-wait, they - !”</span></span><br/><br/>A double-tap thud from behind her snapped her head toward it, and though she wasted no attention on the two new additions, her echoing command came too late. Amanda’s eyes shut against the wave of scalding air, and the hand that wasn’t holding the passenger door in an iron grip came up to block them. She regained visual just in time to see a hand, the palm down in some completely fucked-up high-five, slap into the cracked windshield in front of her. A wave of emotion- terror, grief, unbridled frustration and confusion- boiled to the surface behind her face and she felt tears of panic form in the far corners of her eyes.<br/><br/>The driver slowed to a stop, shouting out his window, and she nearly barked a command to just<span style="font-style: italic">go</span>already, but after two slams from the rear he gunned it again and she choked it back.<br/><br/>The scene in front of the flying truck was carnage. Smoke and random spurts of fire from the decimated wrecks of cars, bodies in various states of… whatever they were in states of. Through the cacophony of sirens, screams and gurgling blood, the sharp snarls of the cannibals came through with agonizing clarity. The ranger swallowed back her puke and began again in a shaking voice,<span style="color: #FFBFBF"><span style="font-weight: bold">“How do – <span style="font-style: italic">shit</span>!”</span></span><br/><br/>The truck went from a straight, fast route to something that should undoubtedly only be done by a professional and was most certainly<span style="font-style: italic">not</span>. Amanda’s body felt pressed into the seat and slung around at the same time, and she sunk her fingernails into the seat so hard that her knuckles locked painfully. From an outside perspective (by someone who had time to form such opinions) she must have seemed like a cat latched to the ceiling in spastic fear, but as the truck rocked to the side and her temple hit the window she found she seriously didn’t care.<br/><br/>Finally, the main road. Straight, wide, where he could drive fast and most importantly, on all four wheels. She took a deep breath, but before she let it out, she saw the man standing on the roof of a vehicle, felt the tangible hesitation in the cab of the truck, and locked her pale stare onto the driver.<span style="color: #FFBFBF"><span style="font-weight: bold">“No no no we can’t just – <span style="font-style: italic">damn it!</span>”</span></span>she finished as the truck swerved neatly into the horde of nightmares.<br/><br/>The sickening crunch of bodies and oddly hopeful sound of bestial snarls cut short surrounded them, followed by the snaps of gunfire that made her ears ring and the rest of the world grow dull and silent in comparison. White, black-veined arms and faces clawed at the closed window in her new, voiceless world, and the ringing faded just in time for her to catch a few shouted words from the reason they were shoulder-deep in black blood and gurgles:<span style="font-style: italic">“Just hold on a second… just hold out!”</span><br/><br/>Oh no, no no no, no<span style="font-size: 120%; line-height: 116%;"><span style="font-weight: bold"><span style="font-style: italic">FUCK</span></span></span>that<br/><br/>Rage shot through her limbs, her knuckles cracking against the supreme tension that had locked them. Whatever they were moving, there wasn’t time.<br/><br/>As if to reinforce her thought, one of the black-striped people snarled right against her passenger window, the cloudy eyes turned in her direction but obviously with no comprehension. The thing slammed its own head into the thick glass of the window; the ranger heard the tinkling of it beginning to break with the crunching of the sick thing’s skull, saw the indentation in both before it came back for another round. The spiderweb of cracks widened dramatically and her shaky voice solidified in adrenaline.<span style="color: #FFBFBF"><span style="font-weight: bold">“Go! <span style="font-style: italic">Now</span>!”</span></span>