Recruitz (Afterworld Series #1) (Volume 1)

I sat in the passenger seat horrified, but I didn't dare drag my gaze away. The world had been told zombies no longer threatened human existence. Yet I was staring at an onslaught of them taking slow, deliberate steps toward our vehicle. 
We had barely pulled into our driveway when the horde descended out of nowhere. I managed to slide my fingers along the door to the electric lock. I didn't know why I thought that would save us. The undead had never let a lock deter them before. 
I looked around our house and it looked untouched. These creatures were only in our yard, coming for us at a most vulnerable time. 
Gavin attempted to take the car out of auto-drive, pressing the buttons frantically and commanding it with voice controls. The car only responded with words. We didn't control it. The car controlled us.
"Pedestrians within minimum safe distance," the car repeated, acknowledging Gavin's attempts to drive us out of danger.
 
We know! We want to run the pedestrians over.
 Tiny beads of sweat began forming at my hairline as I watched Gavin repeatedly engage and disengage various controls. Nothing would let us override the car's safety features.

Gavin's foot pressed on the accelerator trying to override the computer system, but the car still refused to budge. His foot slid off the pedal, and he quickly replaced it. 
I hate these self-driving cars!  
The engine red-lined with each attempt from Gavin's override, but the brain of the car overruled Gavin's actions with every rev of the motor. Gavin kept shaking his head as his finger slid up and down the dashboard. He glanced at me, his green eyes connecting with mine. I didn't want to believe what I saw behind them so I turned to look out the window. 
I gripped the console as I watched the twitches and spasms of the zombies' movements closing in on us. They were everywhere...the grass, the sidewalk, the driveway. There was no mistaking the rotting, grey flesh that exposed the muscle and bone of the undead. They were something I'd run from countless times, but this time we had nowhere to run. The undead had us trapped. They would rip us to shreds in an instant. 
"I think some of 'em are new," I said, turning my attention back to Gavin. 
There were some clean-looking zombies staggering toward us, their flesh mostly intact. That made no sense. The outbreak had been contained for months. There should be no freshly infected roaming around. Everyone had been vaccinated. The only stragglers evading capture had been around awhile, so their bodies were beat up badly by the time they were caught. Not these. 
 "Let's hope not," he murmured, not bothering to look out the window to confirm nor deny my suspicions. 
"We can't run. They'd totally get us before we got away," I said, hoping he'd correct me, tell me that we had a chance. 
He didn't. 
He slammed his fist into the steering wheel and looked over at me. When the outbreak happened, we never looked back. We were always on the move, running from the disease that took our families and friends. That was the key to survival. Never stay in one place. Always stay on the move. Now we had nowhere to move. 
I glanced over at Gavin and saw the fear in his eyes. Even with everything we'd encountered, his eyes had never held this amount of terror."Babe, whatever happens..." 
"Knock it off," I said.


"We have nothing to fight them with, and a horde this size needs a distraction--"  
"Don't you dare," I hissed, shaking my head. The fear was pulsing through me at an unstoppable rate. "We didn't live through the outbreak to die now."