Chapter 52 Highway Road
What stretched out before Iris was an eight–lane toll plaza on an elevated highway. A horrific crash had completely sealed off the road, with vehicles jammed bumper to bumper in both directions. The elevated section above was especially bad.
The straight stretch of highway went on forever, and every single vehicle was stuck up there on the overpass. The sheer scale of it was overwhelming.
Iris did a quick scan and spotted a long line of delivery trucks clogging the elevated road. Had to be at least 40 or 50 of them, easy. Red ones, green ones, white ones with cargo containers, all stuck dead on the pavement.
There were refrigerated trucks, shipping containers, flatbeds, and even car carriers loaded with sports cars.
Clearly all of this had been heading into Aster City to make deliveries the day everything went to hell, but none of it ever made it off the highway.
Yesterday, Logan and his team had only managed to bring back four delivery trucks, and that was just a tiny fraction of what was here. This place was a goldmine.
“Logan, you start clearing the wreckage down here. I’m heading up to check things out.”
23:20
<Chapter 52 Highway Road
Iris jumped down from the armored vehicle and gave Logan his assignment. If they wanted to haul all those supplies down, they’d need to clear a path first.
At the same time, she was leaving Logan below to work while she went up top to absorb supplies into her storage space. After that, all they’d need to do was drive one vehicle back home.
She let the dogs out, leaving two with Logan while the rest followed her up.
There weren’t many zombies near the crash site. Looked like Logan’s team had cleared them out yesterday.
Iris walked through the worst of the wreckage on foot and made her way to the toll plaza. Inside one of the manual toll booths, a zombie was trapped.
She was still wearing her toll collector uniform, her hairnet hanging askew over tangled hair. Her head was poking out through a cracked glass window.
Her face, once perfectly made up, had no color left at all. The skin was shriveled tight against her skull, and black veins crawled across her face and hands like worms. Her cloudy gray eyes stared at Iris with hungry excitement as she reached through the window gap with what was left of her arm, just bone from the elbow down, trying to grab her.
246
“Graahhh_”
23:21
< Chapter 52 Highway Road
Iris shoved a long–handled shovel through the narrow opening in the window and into the booth. She gripped the handle and twisted it sharply to the side, then pulled the shovel back out clean. A thumbnail–sized glowing crystal came out with it. The zombie toll collector collapsed and went completely still.
Iris picked up the crystal with her gloved hand, looking satisfied, and dropped it into a plastic bag. As she walked away, she glanced at the skeletal arm still hanging out of the toll window.
She tossed a quarter into its palm. “Don’t say I didn’t pay the toll.”
Logan was clearing the road behind her when he caught sight of that move, and damn if Iris didn’t look cool as hell right then.
Her combat skills were absolutely insane. The way she took down zombies was so clean and efficient it actually stunned him. She moved like she’d killed at least ten thousand of these things before, maybe more.
Not a single wasted motion. Every move was stripped down, brutal, and lethal. It was beautiful enough that even their special forces team felt outclassed.
None of them could match her efficiency, not even close.
23:21
What really got him though was this weird elegance she had
Chapter 52 Highway Road
And she was a woman, which somehow made it even more impressive.
Logan felt completely reassured watching her work. He let her head up to the overpass while he doubled down on clearing the road himself.
Iris grabbed her shovel with one hand while her dogs ran alongside her.
“Happy and Lucky, watch the front. Buddy and Max, cover the rear. Red and White, stay on my flanks!”
She checked several vehicles one by one until she found a cargo truck with keys still in the ignition, a full tank of gas, and everything in working order. She marked that one as their ride home and sent Logan a message, then moved on to strip supplies from the other trucks.
She jumped onto the back rail of a shipping container truck and ripped the lock clean off with her bare hands. The body enhancements from the system had pushed her strength to ridiculous levels.
When she swung open the container doors, she found an entire truck full of delivery packages stacked inside.
Iris absorbed every single box without hesitation. She’d sort through them later like opening mystery boxes. Right now, she 4/6,
23:21
needed to grab everything she could while she had the chance.
<Chapter 52 Highway Road
Her gaze locked onto them immediately. There was a gas station, so they should be able to get gas!
6/6
Sara Lili is a daring romance writer who turns icy landscapes into scenes of fiery passion. She loves crafting hot love stories while embracing the chill of Iceland’s breathtaking cold.
