Max nodded, reloaded his shotgun and rose when Stewart did above the lip of the ditch. Unlike Stewart, he had a good idea where the zombies were, though he didn't know which of them had guns. Max fired at the closest zombie and hit it just above the knee. He watched as the creature rolled into a somersault along the parking lot before coming to a rest up against the back of a dust covered Ford Escape. The 'jenner' quickly scurried around the car and Max had to switch targets as more zombies appeared. Stewart fired and brought down a zombie shooting at them through a hotel window on the second floor.
Ruben was in the back of the truck and lifted the back pack up out of the bed, however he was surrounded by shamblers. Dropping the pack at his feet he brought his shotgun up and gut shot two of the zeds as others grabbed him from behind.
"Ruben!" screamed Javier, who was up on one knee firing as close to the other man as he dared. The old man paused for a second, looking back at them, for a brief, calm moment the world stopped. Then the dead engulfed him in a wave and pulled him through the shattered doors of the hotel.
"Damn it! After him!" Bill yelled climbing out of the ditch. Bill made it up to the top when he jerked backwards, like a dog running full tilt that comes to the end of his leash. He fell onto his back on the grass and slid down to the bottom of the ditch, with his head coming to rest in the murky, standing water left over from the last rainfall.
"Bill!" Max yelled stepping behind Stewart to go to his friend. More bullets splattered the pavement around Stewart and Javier, who were forced to duck behind the few cars in the hotel parking lot. Max could hear them returning fire and yelling his name as he skidded down the grassy bank to Bill's side.
His friend was dead. Max saw a lifetime of events leading up to this moment; the trouble they had gotten into as teenagers, but somehow survived. Images flashed through Max's head in seconds: Bill at Max's wedding; Max at Bill's. Playing football with the kids on the lawn in their tuxedos. Playing 'hot lava' in the park as boys themselves, making their way from one side of the playground to the other while avoiding touching the ground. Teaching the same game to their own children when they were parents. It was all coming to an end, here in some shitty little zombie infested town because Max had let it happen. Tears sprang to his eyes as he reached for his friend.
Meanwhile Stewart looked over at Javier who was pinned behind a red convertible a couple of parking spaces over. She grinned and asked, "You okay?"
The young man nodded and said, "They took Ruben, he was still alive. We gotta go get 'em"
"Max! Goddamnit Max!" Stewart pivoted back to Javier, "I don't know if we can do this alone."
The gunfire stopped abruptly. Stewart and Javier looked at each other, both had enough experience with the zombies to know what such a coordinated action meant; there was a super zombie close by sending his troops orders.
"Max!" hissed Stewart, "We need you!"
In the ditch Max grabbed Bill by the shoulders and pulled his body around until his head was higher up on the slope and out of the water. His friend's face was pale and he didn't appear to be breathing. Max concentrated and shifted his vision to see if Bill were still alive. Relief flooded through him as he saw the colorful pattern he associated with living humans settle over Bill's frame.
"Bill! Talk to me buddy!" Max said, looking him over. There was a huge divot out of Bill's army helmet a few inches above the man's left eye. The furrow torn into the kelvar went deep into the helmet and Max released the straps under Bill's chin to check and see if the bullet had penetrated. Bill's skin was already turning a faint bluish color where he was bruised. The helmet had done its job and the bullet had not passed through it.
Bill's eyes fluttered and he looked up at Max, "What happened?"
"You got shot buddy."
"How bad? Don't lie to me Max."
"You got lucky. It hit the top of your helmet at an angle and didn't go through."
"Then why are you crying?"
"Tears of joy my friend, tears of joy." Max leaned over and hugged the man awkwardly on the ground where he lay. The gunfire suddenly stopped and both men became aware of the silence as Max pulled himself up. They heard Stewart's sharp hiss as she called Max's name and he responded to her, "I'm here, what?"
"Get your ass up here, we need to know where the super is, all the zeds stopped firing at once!"
"You okay?" Max asked Bill.
"Go on, let me clear my head a bit."
"I'm coming Stewart." said Max crawling up the hill on his hands and knees. No one fired at him as he crested the hill and he saw that Stewart and Javier were taking cover, while they peeped out trying to keep an eye on the receding mass of zombies.
"I thought you said there were only a few?" Stewart asked accusingly.
"I told you there were this many. They were just scattered about, I didn't spot the super…"
"Where is he?"
Max looked for the leader, it only took him a moment to find the almost human signature in the 'Best Value Inn', "He's over there." Max pointed. "I think he is on the second floor, near this end, probably looking out at us right now."
Stewart raised her middle finger above the level of the car's hood and waved it back and forth. A single gunshot broke the silence, striking the back door of the sedan she was hiding behind. Stewart quickly pulled her arm down.
"Yep, he's watching." said Max taking cover further down the ditch.
"Is it a 'he'?" she asked.
Max shrugged, "I don't really know, does it matter? Ruben is in the Day's Inn. I think I got a bead on the one that shot at you. He is over on the Best Value roof."
"You sure?"
"Pretty sure."
"You can see guns now?"
"No, but I saw a flash from that direction when it fired at you and I know there are zombies on the roof there."
"What about our hotel, is Ruben….alive?" asked Javier.
Max frowned, "Yeah, he is. I don't know if he is infected, but he is alive, they have him up on the second story there too, only at the east end of the hotel. There are a couple, uh, well if not supers, maybe 'Einsteins'? So those two are holding him and there are a few shambling types in the corridor outside the room they have him in. Plus, most of the shamblers are on the ground floor of the hotel now."
"Why aren't they mobbing us?" Stewart asked.
"How the hell would I know? I think they could have gotten us with that last rush."
"Pessimist, we could have held them off."
"Maybe…" Max said doubtfully.
"We could have." Stewart insisted.
Bill had climbed up from the ditch to lie beside Max, he had his helmet back on and was looking better, "What's the story?"
"They got Ruben inside on the second floor with a couple of Einsteins, there is a sniper on the roof of the Best Value and a super over there that we think is directing everyone. We don't know why they stopped rushing us. There are maybe fifteen shamblers and half a dozen Jenners inside the Day's Inn." Max said.
"Okay, we go after him, Javier, get back into the ditch, work your way back towards the highway until you are out of sight of the Best Value. Stewart you follow him after a count of ten. Once you two are in place wait for us to catch up. Go!" Bill's voice didn't leave much room for arguing, regardless Javier took off instantly, leaving Stewart the options of following or leaving him to fend for himself on the far end of the hotel. She counted to ten and followed.
"You ready Max?"
Max nodded, then Bill said, "I'll follow in a ten count. Go!"
Max skidded down into the bottom of the ditch and ran along it until he caught up to Javier, who was sitting near a culvert, where the hotel drive went over the ditch. Stewart had run up out of the ditch and was taking cover behind an old Subaru that screamed 'Hotel Employee', not 'Hotel Guest'. Bill caught up with them a moment later and looked the area over.