The squad was starting to move west slowly, with many members looking north through the chain link fence at the rail road beyond. Dan was a step behind Max when the woman leaped out of the park and tackled him. Following her came a pack of silent zombies heading right for the rest of the squad.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck!” Max yelled, shooting his gun, his shots were wild, as were those of Ruben and Bill beside him.
“Back! Get under the street and into the building!” Bill screamed, firing at the zombies closing in on them.
The woman was young and in the prime of life, Max tried to get a bead on her as she dragged a screaming Dan away from them. 'Life? Omigod, she is not a zombie!' Max thought, shifting his aim at the last instance. Dan's screams continued as Ruben forced Max back under the street. They made their way into a heavily treed portion next to a tall building where Max was sure the zombie's leader was hiding out. Ruben pushed Max forward then turned to fire on the closest pursuers. Max lost sight of him as he continued running towards the building.
Max moved into an open aired courtyard, where Bill and some of the other squad members were, he stopped and looked back for Ruben, who was not right behind him as he had thought.
“Who is missing?” demanded Bill.
“Just Dan.” Max said, “Me and Ruben saw this woman…”
“Where is Ruben!” Bill shouted, “Goddamn it!” He went charging down the sidewalk back to where they still heard a rifle firing. The other soldiers looked shocked, then started after Bill.
Stewart yelled, “Kirk, Larry, stop! You two go and get a door open into the building.” She had called out to the oldest men left in the squad, who did as she told them. The younger men went tentatively towards the east to help Bill.
The twisting paths of greenery provided an illusion of seclusion this close to the building, but under the street was bare, providing and alley of sight. Max was at the fore front of the men heading back to get Bill and Ruben and stopped at that line bisecting the plant life.
“You two! Stay here and watch our backs.” Max said, stepping forward with Javier and Chen.
Max caught a glimpse of movement ahead of them and then saw Bill, half carrying Ruben. He went forward and met them, picking up Ruben's other arm to help drag him forward. The old man had a silly grin on his face that was out of place with his situation.
“Chen, Javier, you guys set up a line of fire here with Bart." said Bill, as the other soldier appeared from a side path, "Keep them off of us for a few minutes. Where are the others?” Bill asked Max.
“Stewart is up ahead with them in the courtyard. What happened to Ruben?”
“Got his shit kicked.”
“Bitten?”
Bill shook his head, “DamnedifIknow.”
“He ain't bleeding.”
“Good.” Bill replied gruffly.
“Any sign of…”
“No.”
They got Ruben into the courtyard at the same time that the rifles opened up behind them. A man started screaming and Bill said, “You guys stay here, get into the building, I am going to fetch my men back.”
“Bill…”
“Just go Max.”
Max turned and headed through the doors that Kirk and Larry had opened, Stewart followed right behind him, reloading as she went. The passageway looked like it would bring them towards the front of the building, where Max could sense several powerful zombies near where he thought the street was.
In the courtyard Ruben leaned against a bench and tried to catch his breath. He had lost his rifle and unlike Max and Stewart he didn't have a sidearm, only a combat knife. Larry came over to help him, leaving Kirk holding one of the doors open and listening down the corridor as Max and Stewart left.
“You okay Ruben?” asked Larry.
Ruben looked up, his face red and covered with sweat, “I dunno Larry, might be I am having a heart attack.”
Larry's face paled and he was at Ruben's side in an instant. “Shit. What do I do?”
Shaking his head, Ruben said, “Nah, tough old bird like me? I am just messing with you, help me over to the door, I think we'll be heading that way soon enough.”
Larry pulled Ruben's hand over his shoulder and turned around in time to see a woman drop from the ornate side of the building onto Kirk. The fall alone toppled the old guy to the ground where he moaned in agony clutching his leg.
Pushing Larry away, Ruben said, “Shoot her!”
The fast moving zombie woman stepped forward as Larry struggled to bring his rifle up. Ruben, unbalanced by pushing away from his friend, fell to the ground hard where he tried to get to his hands and knees. The woman slapped the rifle away from Larry and grabbed him by the throat with her other hand. Lifting the old man by the neck she shook him like an old rag until his neck snapped with an audible 'pop'. She stood there, as if in a daze for a moment, just holding the now limp body in her hand. Larry's feet twitched once or twice and Ruben crawled quickly towards Kirk where he tried to wrestle the other man's rifle away from him. Kirk was half out of his head with pain and fought to keep Ruben from taking it. Ruben had just gotten to his knees with the gun when a voice rang out behind him, “Old man, what are you going to do with that?”
Ruben turned slowly to see the woman standing behind him, she still had Larry in her other hand, the man looked frail and thin in death, like a stout breeze could blow his corpse away. With her other hand the woman reached out and grabbed a hold of the rifle barrel as Ruben tried to bring it around, she twisted her hand and the barrel of the rifle bent when he didn't let go. A look of shock crossed Ruben's face as the woman shoved him backwards on top of Kirk.
“You are lucky Harry said to bring as many of you alive as possible.” she tossed Larry's body to the side of the building, where it landed behind a shrub. “Well? Can you walk or do I have to drag you?”
When Ruben didn't respond, the woman reached down and grabbed him and Larry by the scruff of their jackets and started pulling them inside, going the same direction that Max had taken.
When Bill left Max he felt a pang of fear and regret almost instantly. He was torn between going after the other men and going with his lifelong friend. He hoped he was doing both: going to get the men, then catching up with Max. While he was worried he did have to admonish himself silently, 'Max made it all the way from Denver to Iowa alive, he can take care of himself.' Knowing even as he thought it, that he would still hold himself responsible if something happened to his friend.
The gunfire up ahead had been cut down to one rifle, Bill headed towards the noise to see Javier firing at a group of zombies in front of him. This put Bill in the perfect spot along the path to see the super zombie about to launch itself onto Javier's back. Bill raised his rifle and fired off a three round burst that vaporized the zombie's head into a fine mist.
“Javier! Fall back! We gotta go!”
Javier immediately started walking backwards towards Bill who added a few shots to keep the encroaching slow dead at bay.
“The others?” Bill asked.
“That way. One of them has a gun. They shot Chen in the leg, he fell back, but a bunch of them went after him.”
“Aw fuck.”
“You were on the end of the line?” Javier nodded, “Okay let's head that way and see if we can find anyone else.” said Bill pointing towards the rail line.
They didn't go directly towards the fence that separated the train tracks from the park, but veered at a slight angle so they could keep firing at the few zombies who were following them slowly. Javier paused when they came to a trail of blood that was heading towards the art building. “Do we follow this or keep going?”
Bill shrugged, then said “Follow it. Fast. Let's see if we can get some distance on these guys behind us.”