The Endgame Chronicles (by Hugh White) novel Chapter 73

In front of Hayley stretched an eight–lane toll plaza on the elevated highway. A brutal car crash had completely blocked the road, with traffic jammed solid in both directions.

Especially up ahead, where the highway rose above the ground, the line of cars seemed endless, with vehicles packed bumper to bumper as far as the eye could see.

Hayley scanned the scene and spotted a whole row of delivery trucks stuck up there. By her quick count, there had to be at least 40 of them.

Bright red, green, and white cargo trucks filled the lanes, frozen in place. She saw refrigerated trucks, shipping containers, flatbeds loaded with goods, and even a semi hauling luxury cars.

It was clear these were shipments meant for Aecraton that never made it into the city the day everything went down.

The four delivery trucks Leonard and the others brought back yesterday were only a fraction of what was here. There was still a mountain of supplies waiting.

Hayley jumped down from the armored vehicle and handed out orders.

“Clear out the crash site down here. I’m heading up to check it out.”

“Got it.”

If they wanted to haul supplies from the highway above, they’d need to clear a path first. Leonard would work on that while she went ahead to grab what she could and store it in her inventory.

Later, they’d just need to drive one truck home. Easy.

She let her dogs out of the truck, leaving two with Leonard and taking the rest with her.

There weren’t many zombies nearby. It looked like Leonard’s team had already cleaned up most of them yesterday.

Hayley walked through the twisted wreckage toward the toll booths.

Inside one of the booths, a single zombie was trapped.

The creature still wore a toll collector’s uniform, her hairnet askew on her messy head. Her face, once carefully made up, was now drained of all color. Her skin was shriveled tightly over bone, with dark veins crawling under the surface like black worms.

Her cloudy gray eyes gleamed with hunger as she pushed her head through a cracked window, reaching out toward Hayley with a hand that had been bitten down to bare bone.

“Raaarh!”

Clang!

Hayley slid the blade of her long shovel through the window seam, struck clean, and pulled it back in one swift motion. A thumb–sized crystal dropped free with the blade, and the zombie collapsed lifelessly to the floor. Wearing gloves, Hayley picked up the crystal, slipped it into a plastic bag, and glanced at the skeletal hand still hanging out the window.

She flicked a one–dollar arcade token into its palm.

+25 Bonus

“Don’t say I didn’t pay the toll.”

Leonard, who was busy clearing debris behind her, paused when he saw it, totally awestruck.

Hayley looked incredible when she fought.

The way she handled zombies was so smooth and sharp that it almost didn’t seem real. Every move was clean, brutal, and final.

It was as if she’d already killed tens of thousands. There was no wasted effort or hesitation. Just pure, precise

violence.

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