“I was thinking about it.”
“What is wrong?”
“It isn't doing any good. Every rain of fire I bring down, it kills or disables a lot of zombies, but more just rush out to take their place. It is like bailing out the ocean, no matter how much you work at it there is just more goddamned sea water filling the void.”
“That is why we get the big bucks; to fight hopeless battles.”
“No we get the big bucks to go in with overwhelming force, kick ass and pick up the pieces afterward, not for this shit.”
“Well, I don't think we can 'sit tight'. Even stupid zombies get lucky sometimes and that wasn't the last fast one I killed in that mob. I know they have shadows trying to pinpoint us.”
“I haven't seen any.”
“Look harder. I know there was one in that building across the way and if it gets up to the roof we will be exposed here.” The building Katie was talking about was taller than the one they were currently on top of, anyone higher up than them could see them easily. Leaning back so her rifle would not project above the low wall around the roof, Katie pointed the barrel at the floors looming higher than them across the street and began looking for the zombies she knew were there somewhere.
Randy sighed and adjusted his fiber optics cord to scan the building as well, “There ain't nothing there. Some of the zombies are faster is all, some a little smarter, but they don't have tactics or strategy, they are just mindless…”
A bullet ricocheted off the top of the wall next to the fiber optic cable.
“Fuck! Friendly fire! Someone is shooting at us!” From where the bullet had hit Katie knew the shot had come from the other building, she switched to scanning the roof, trying to think of where she would be if she were in the shooter's position. Katie continued to lay on her back on the roof moving just enough to shift her rifle's scope to the rooftop.
“It isn't 'friendly fire', it is the sniper I knew they would send. What is the mob doing down in the street.”
Randy looked at here with wide scared eyes, “What? Why?”
“What I would do is distract us by having some moron who doesn't know shit about sniping and then send the mob up the stairs to finish us off. Are they moving?”
Fiddling with his optics, Randy let out a low moan, “Oh fuck…they are moving to our side of the street.”
“Then they are coming up here and we need to leave. Now.”
“What about their sniper?”
“He ain't no sniper, maybe a rifleman at best. And I don't think he can see us. I think the suits are working. I think he saw our shit, my rifle, your vision gear and took a shot at that.”
“So we run?”
“Climb, the ropes are too goddamned heavy to tote around with us, so we'll use them now and leave them.” When they had been dropped onto the roof they had come with complete packs, in addition each team was given ropes, a harness and climbing gear, which weighed about fifteen pounds.
“Katie, I haven't climbed since….aw hell I don't know when!”
“You think I have? These guys are going to be coming up the stairs, we have the door blocked, but I think they will get through it eventually. So we have to go down the other side of the building.”
“It is six stories!”
“Whine, whine, bitch, bitch. Don't you ever shut up? Grow a pair boy, 'cause it is the only way we are getting out of here!”
“Goddamn it. Fine, but if I die I will haunt you forever.”
“Fair enough. Let's go.” They hastily picked up their gear and ran towards the far side of the roof. “Head for the area behind the access door!” Katie shouted as they ran. The area she was referring to should provide them with some cover from whomever was on the opposite roof. As if to punctuate her words another shot slammed into the roof not too far in front of her, followed by two more in rapid succession.
“See?” she said, “He ain't no sniper, he is, at best, a rifleman. A sniper would not have taken shots at us while we were moving.” They had their backs to the wall the access door was built into, both were breathing heavily despite the short run.
Randy smiled at her, leaned over and gave her a quick kiss. Katie pulled back surprised, “What was that for?”
“I am going to do that whenever I think I am about to die from now on, so at least I will die happy.”
“So you want to have your lips on me all the time then?”
“Ideally.”
“Later Romeo. Lets get the gear ready and rappel down.” Katie bent over and started unzipping the large duffel bags with the ropes. Randy eased over to the edge slowly and looked into the alley behind the building.
“Clear?”
“Only one or two.” He responded.
“Good enough, any cars or anything down there for us to steal?” She tossed him a climbing harness.
“Not even a bicycle.”
“Damn. Fuck, look at this shit. We have gear for four people. At least we will have enough rope. We'll toss the unused stuff down when we go and take it with us in case we have to climb again.”
“We could use one rope.” Randy suggested as he watched her tie a second one off on some pipes near the edge of the roof. Just then something hit the door on the roof, which was just around the corner from where they were.
“Well if you really think would could take turns….”
“Fuck no! Tie them both!” Randy tossed their gear into the large bag the rope had come out of, then attached the bag to his harness.
The pounding on the door increased and they heard a ping as something broke, then gunfire from inside the building. Randy swung himself over the edge and disappeared from view, leaving Katie to mumble, “What? No kiss?” to herself with smile.
Six stories was much shorter than either of them had thought it would be, in less than a minute they were on the ground, Randy was on wobbly legs and Katie stumbled when she hit the ground just a little too fast.
“I survived!” he said, leaning over to pick her up and planting a quick kiss on her forehead.
“Cut it out! Oow! Fuck!” Katie said in a low voice.
“What?”
“Goddamned ankle! I think I twisted my goddamned ankle!”
“Can you walk?”
“Given my other choice? Hell yes. Zombie coming.”
Randy turned and pulled out his pistol in a smooth motion, but waited for the slow zombie to get close before pulling the trigger once. The middle aged man in a business suit fell over backwards without another sound. From up above their ropes fell down around them, cut by the mob that had made it onto the roof.
Laughing Randy flipped the zombies on the roof off, “See ya fuckers! And you just cut the ropes you could've used to climb down faster to get us! Dumb-asses!”
Katie had stood up and picked up her rifle, “Uh Randy. Randy!” she screamed pointing upwards. The zombies were jumping.
Randy pushed her against the wall to get them out of the way of the falling bodies. At first Katie thought the zombies had just fallen off of the roof, perhaps pushed over by zealous companions. After the fifth one hit the ground she realized they were aiming for the two humans on the ground. “We gotta fucking move!”
“Our gear!” Randy shouted as she pulled him along.
“You got your communications, I got my rifle, leave the rest of it, we gotta get out of here!”
Another body, this one of a ten or eleven year old slammed into the ground in front of them, the body hit legs first and the girl's dress slammed into the ground as her broken legs crumpled under her. Katie caught a brief glimpse of both the girl's femur bones snapping through her leg muscles before the dress settled. Worse yet most of the zombies who hit the ground were not dead, they continued to squirm and reach for the two humans as they edged their way along the side of the building.