Kick Him to Death

"I wonder if those two bastards will even make it out of Ennis alive after they head back."

Madison muttered, firing up the Tyrannosaurus's engine.

As the vehicle gradually picked up speed, Gavin pulled out his phone to check the battery—seventy-six percent remaining.

While scrolling through various social media sites, Gavin spoke without looking up.

"What, you miss them already after just one meeting?"

"Don't be ridiculous, I just... I just think it feels pretty good to see living people in the apocalypse."

"It is good, indeed. I actually hope to run into people more often; after all, people from this era are much easier to deal with than zombies for the time being."

Gavin replied while turning up the volume on the video, letting Madison hear the audio from his phone.

Roars, screams, explosions, and the sharp blaring of car horns—it was a chaotic mess.

Madison swerved to avoid a headless corpse lying on the road and asked Gavin offhandedly.

"Where is this?"

"San Francisco."

"What about Los Angeles? I want to know how Hollywood is doing."

"Let me look."

Gavin searched for a moment, then pulled up a video of a massive fire and showed it to Madison.

"As you wish, Hollywood Hills. The fire started in Beverly Hills."

At this, Gavin shook his head with a smile.

"If we have nowhere to go in the future, Hollywood might be a decent choice. Who knows, maybe this fire will wipe out all the local zombies!"

"Ha, I like that joke. Those stars don't even have to break a sweat; they make more than us just by climbing into producers' and directors' beds."

"More than you, maybe. They've still got a long way to go to compare with me."

Gavin replied casually, then patted Madison on the arm.

They had already passed that corpse by nearly three kilometers.

"Slow down up ahead, let me check the situation."

Gavin said, rolling down the window and peering into the darkness and faint light on the right side of the road through his 8x scope.

Seeing this, Madison asked in a low voice.

"Oh right, this is a small town too, isn't it? What was it called, Pal-something?"

"Palmer. A very small town, quite a ways from the main road. It was built up over the years around the Palmer Farm on the edge of the forest."

"I came here with my family to buy a cow when I was six. The cows from Palmer Farm won the gold medal at that year's Houston dairy competition. But after I grew up, they turned the farm into a resort to make big money."

With that, Gavin lowered the scope and pulled out the Dallas map he'd scavenged from a gas station to study it.

After a few glances, Gavin said in a low voice.

"Highway 45 splits into two before Ennis. One road goes straight through the center of town."

"The other stays to the left, passes the drive-in theater, and skirts the edge of Ennis."

"We..."

Gavin fell silent for a moment.

Then, with an expressionless face, he said.

"We'll wait for a while at the fork before Ennis. There are some things I want to verify."

"Ha, I knew you were a good boss. Cold-blooded killers like Jordan aren't half as warm as the King of Cowboys!"

Madison laughed immediately, his large features shaking as he spoke.

"If you ask me, that bastard Eugene will definitely survive a long time in the apocalypse. At the very least, he'll outlast the little cop."

"Besides, who knows how many living people are left in America? What if the four of us are the only ones left in all of Dallas? With those two around, at least we can make the little cop do our laundry!"

"Who knows?"

Gavin squinted noncommittally and tapped the map at Ennis.

"I just want to see if those two bastards turn Ennis into a total mess. If there's a chance, it'd be best to use the zombie activity in Ennis to summarize some experience in dealing with small-town hordes."

Gavin put the map away, leaned back, and lit a cigarette.

Madison grunted in acknowledgment and continued driving at sixty miles per hour.

After traveling another eight kilometers in this methodical fashion.

A pair of headlights suddenly appeared in the distance!

"Woo-hoo!"

The moment he saw the high beams, Madison slapped the steering wheel and laughed.

"I knew those two bastards would make it out alive. They're lucky sons of bitches, just like us!"

"Is that so?"

Gavin quietly straightened his back, frowning as he looked at the lights and asked Madison.

"Take a closer look. Could that piece of junk Ford possibly produce lights this bright?"

"What? You mean that's not them?"

Madison was a bit surprised, then squinted to look ahead.

After one glance.

Swish...

The headlights in the distance had actually gone from one set to two, and the second set of lights was even flickering left and right, looking truly eerie.

"There are two cars!"

Madison finally got serious, his right hand leaving the steering wheel to grip the lever-action shotgun.

Beside him, Gavin nodded.

"It's two cars, but the second one's lights look a lot like that Ford from before."

As he finished speaking, he picked up an 8x scope to take a look.

Avoiding the blinding glare, Gavin used his exceptional eyesight to distinguish the details, then wore an expression of disbelief.

"That looks like an RV, and the Ford is right behind it. Could they actually still be alive?"

"Fuck, you can see that clearly?"

Madison opened his mouth in surprise, then seemed to recall something and asked with a strange expression.

"But why would they be chasing that RV?"

"How would I know? Get closer and let's see."

Gavin gestured forward, and Madison immediately accelerated. The Tyrannosaurus engine roared, and the speed shot straight up to 150 mph.

In less than half a minute, Madison began to slow down, and shortly after, the RV finally crossed paths with the Tyrannosaurus.

"Help! Save me!"

When the two vehicles were a dozen meters apart, a slightly hoarse female voice came from the RV's driver's seat.

The moment this voice rang out, Madison perked up.

"Holy shit, a woman!"

He hurriedly looked at Gavin, who frowned and replied.

"Forget about the woman, look at the state of that RV, damn it!"

"The glass is shattered, there's blood and scratches on the body, and there's even the upper half of a zombie stuck in the RV's bumper!"

"What?"

By the time Madison heard this and wanted to look, the two vehicles had already completely passed them, and even the old Ford had crossed paths with the Tyrannosaurus.

They only heard William's shrill scream coming from the Ford in the distance.

And what William was shouting was...

"Dad!!!"

Skree!

Madison slammed into a drift, pulling a U-turn right on the road, and chased after the Ford.

The speeds of both the RV and the Ford were very fast, at least 130 mph, which was over 200 kilometers per hour.

But for the modified Tyrannosaurus, this speed was child's play.

In the blink of an eye, the Tyrannosaurus caught up from behind, appearing on the passenger side of the Ford and driving neck and neck with it.

Madison rolled down the window and shouted at the Ford first.

"What happened, shorty!"

"Fuck, little William's shitty dad is stuck on the RV's bumper!"

Eugene gripped the steering wheel and shouted back, then kicked William, who kept trying to floor the gas pedal.

"Fuck you, William! It can't go any faster! Do you think this is a Koenigsegg? It's just a Ford, and a damn second-hand one at that!"

"Ahhh, that's my dad!!!"

William was completely stunned; the way he screamed even gave Madison goosebumps.

Madison turned his head back and said sheepishly to Gavin.

"I suddenly don't want to team up with that kid anymore. He's not just green, he's a bit unhinged..."

"Don't joke around. Go see what's going on with that RV. I like RVs; they're perfect for the apocalypse!"

Gavin ordered while waving his hand, and Madison immediately accelerated, reaching the front of the RV in a flash.

Seeing that there was no one in the RV's passenger seat, Madison continued to accelerate, cutting in front of the RV to position himself beside the driver's side.

"Help, I don't know how to drive, help!!!"

The moment the two appeared beside the RV, the woman driving it shouted at Gavin in a panic.

Gavin took one look, and his expression couldn't help but darken.

The person driving wasn't an adult at all, but a girl who looked to be under thirteen!

Gavin quickly rolled down the window and shouted at the child behind the wheel.

"Shut up, lift your feet!"

"What?"

"Don't move your hands, just lift your feet!"

Gavin didn't bother explaining anything about the gas pedal or the brake; he simply demanded the girl lift her feet.

For the RV to be moving at this speed, had this kid stomped the accelerator all the way into the fuel tank?