“I have a better idea.” Liam interrupted in a surprisingly strong tone. “Leave me here with your pistol and I’ll draw them to me. You take Vanessa with you and get to the roof.”
“You want me to leave you here?” Private Stenson asked, dumbstruck. Stenson had hidden his doubts about their chances, but had remained outwardly positive for the sake of Liam and Vanessa. He would have to carry Liam while holding off an onslaught of undead, defend Vanessa while she checked the other rooms for survivors, and finally climb through the window in the back office with the undead nipping at their heels. None of this would be easy. With Liam over one shoulder, it had seemed hopeless. Private Stenson had nearly written off their chances, but he was determined not to give up without a fight.
“You can’t carry me. Who are you kidding?” Liam sat up in bed. He took a moment to get his bearings, and Stenson could tell it was a struggle for the dying man even to move. “I’m fucked, but you two can make it out.”
“You know they’re going to rip you apart. It won’t be this quiet peaceful death in your sleep.” Stenson didn’t mean to be so blunt, but he figured the man ought to be fully aware of what he was facing.
“How many bullets in that pistol?” Liam asked.
“Fifteen.”
“Then I’ll count to fourteen,” Liam replied. “I’ve spent this entire disaster on the sidelines, Private. Guys like you have been giving up their lives for months now, and I’ve been lying in bed waiting to die. I’m going to die today, or if you make it to the roof with me, I’ll die tomorrow or the next day, and all I will have done will have been to screw over your chances. Let me die, Private. Let me die for something good.”
Stenson hit the talk button on his radio. “Dr. Damico?”
“What’s up?” Kelly’s voice came back.
“We have a change of plans.”
It took a few minutes of convincing and double-checking to know that Liam knew what he was getting into, but in the end, everyone agreed. Liam would stay behind while Private Stenson and Vanessa made their escape. Liam was weak, and Private Stenson still had his doubts… but once Liam’s adrenaline hit his system, Stenson imagined Liam would be able to function long enough to do what he had to.
Private Stenson dragged Liam’s cot next to the door and angled him so he’d be able to fire at anything coming down the hallway toward him. “Are you guys ready?”
“Yeah.” Vanessa answered.
“Let’s rock.” Liam replied, the weakness in his voice betraying the confidence in his words.
“Liam…” Stenson was hit by an intense wave of gratitude. “I’m counting to fourteen too… Thank you.”
“Good luck!” Liam replied.
Private Stenson swung the office door open. A corpse instantly whirled on them, and Stenson drove the butt of his rifle into the creature’s skull. The ghoul’s head snapped backward, and a gout of thick black blood oozed from a shattered face. It groaned in hunger and continued reaching for prey. Stenson kicked it away and smashed his rifle into the zombie a second time. The damage had already been done, though. A chorus of wails rose up behind them. Every ghoul in the DDC was now after them.
Private Stenson and Vanessa hurried to the opposite office door and banged on it. “Anyone alive in there? Open up!”
Vanessa looked behind them and screamed. A densely packed mass of ghouls was pressing toward them through the narrow hallway. Their silhouettes were outlined by the morning sun, which shone through the huge hole in the music store wall.
Liam’s first pistol shot echoed through the building, and Private Stenson was struck by the image of every walking corpse in a mile radius being drawn toward the noise. “Open up if you want to live! We’re going to the roof…”
The door flung open, and a woman made eye contact with Private Stenson before looking down the hallway toward the oncoming ghouls.
Another three shots rang out from the soundproof room.
“Come on!” Private Stenson took the woman’s hand. A pre-teen girl and a teenage boy followed as he led them down the hallway toward the back office.
Two more pistol shots thundered down the hallway, and Stenson pounded on the back office door. “Open up! Now!”
Five more shots rang out from Liam’s position, and the Private turned and aimed his rifle down the hall. The press was moving towards them, some breaking off into the soundproof room. He took careful aim at the lead ghoul before firing and sighting the second. “Open up!”
“Oh, my God!” The woman screamed. Her eyes wide with panic. “We’re trapped! We have to go back!”
Three more pistol shots came from the soundproof room and three walking corpses tumbled to the ground.
“No! Stay with me!” Private Stenson turned, took aim at the lock, and fired twice before kicking the door open. A ravenous ghoul on the other side was knocked back against the opposite wall, as it was snarling back at the intruders.
Stenson pulled the trigger of his rifle again, and a crimson spray exploded from the zombie’s skull. He quickly went to a window where a white bed sheet dangled from the roof. He slammed the butt of his rifle through the windowpane, and glass showered the office floor. With a couple sweeps of his rifle, he knocked away most of the jagged shards that remained.
“Go!” Private Stenson ordered. He hoisted the pre-teen girl onto the improvised rope before taking up a defensive position just outside the door. The girl gasped with fear as she saw the drop outside the window, but as soon as she gripped the sheet, she vanished upward.
The voices of those on the roof came down through the open window. “Hoist her up! Go! Go!”
A final fifteenth pistol shot rang out from Liam’s room, and Private Stenson bit his lip. Liam was gone, his last bullet spent to ensure he would not join the living dead. A handful of undead would be occupied with Liam’s corpse, but that majority would continue their pursuit down the hall. He glanced at Vanessa, who gripped the sheet and disappeared out the window, leaving only the woman and teenage boy.
With controlled breaths, Private Stenson took aim down the hall. He squeezed the trigger, and the closest monster dropped to its knees before toppling face-first onto the floor. He took aim and shot once more, and the next monster dropped. He aimed and fired again. A third.
The gut wrenching click of his empty chamber rang in his ears. He rolled into the office and slammed the door just as the first corpse made a clumsy lunge toward him. The legs of the last civilian woman disappeared out of view and he clamored toward the window.
“Come on, Private!” Dr. Damico’s voice came through the radio and echoed in real time from the roof above. “Come on!”
Private Stenson heard the office door behind him slam open. He gripped the sheet, hoisted himself up, and kicked himself out the window. A claw caught his pant leg, and he swung back hard into the broken window. Shards of broken glass ground into his legs, and he grunted in pain as he fought against his attackers. A second and third hand pulled at him and soon, the window was filled with snarling hungry faces snapping after him.
Then, he heard the sound of tearing linen and panic threatened to overwhelm him. If he couldn’t make it to the roof, his only option would be a several story drop down a rocky rise. That — or be torn apart.
Dr. Damico lay on her stomach, her outstretched hand reaching desperately toward him. “Come on!”
He heaved himself upward against the broken glass with all his might. Blood from his cuts ran down the side of the wall in thin streams. The sheet tore loose, and he felt the undead pulling at him through the window. He kicked away, resolved to take his chances with the fall, when something caught his wrist.
“I’ve got you!” Kelly hung off the roof at her waist, her face red and furrowed as she struggled against Stenson’s weight.