“You’re assuming they’re smart,” Danny said.
“They’d have to be dumb as rocks to keep attacking with only five men left, possibly only four able-bodied.”
“So what’s the play?”
“Give me a sec.”
“Sure, not like I got some place to be. Like with Carly, on top of Carly, possibly even inside Carly…”
Will held his M4A1 out to Lara. She shook her head. “Will, I don’t know how to use that.”
“It’s easy. See the trigger? Squeeze it. One shot at a time. Just like the Glock, except this one’s got a longer barrel. But the same rules apply.”
She hesitantly took the rifle from him.
Will pulled out his spare magazines and stacked them on the floor next to her. “Make sure you see them first before you fire. The sound alone should make them scramble. And keep the barrel high so you don’t hit the people on the floor.”
“Are you going somewhere?”
“We can’t let them wait us out. That’s their game plan, but it’s not ours.”
“I don’t like the sound of that…”
“Trust me.”
“I do trust you. I thought I made that obvious.”
He acted on impulse, leaned forward and kissed her. She moaned against his mouth, and it made him kiss her harder, until he remembered where they were, what was happening, and he forced himself to pull away.
“I need my shotgun back,” he said.
“Wow, that wasn’t quite what I was expecting to hear after that kiss.”
He grinned and kissed her again, just as intense, but pulled away faster this time. He picked up the Remington 870 from the floor. “I’ll be right back.”
He passed Elise and Megan, still sitting on the floor with their knees pulled up against their chests. They both looked stunned and confused by what was happening around them.
He passed Davies, who glanced up and gave him a relieved look. “Man, I’m glad to see you still among the living.”
“Stay frosty.”
He stopped behind Danny and tapped him on the shoulder.
“What’s up, Kemosabe?” Danny didn’t take his eyes off the hallway or the front.
“I think it’s time to see if we can even the odds a little bit.”
“Looks pretty even to me.”
“Even-er.”
“That’s not a word.”
“Of course it is.”
“Whatever.”
“Do me a favor and keep an eye on Lara for me.”
“Sure, I got nothing better to do than keep an eye on your new girlfriend.”
“I really like her.”
“Yeah, I figured. Try not to get dead. Better yet, try not to get me dead.”
“I’ll see what I can do. Ready?”
“Go for it,” Danny said.
Will stood up and leaned against the wall next to the tattered, bullet-ridden doors that somehow remained partially closed, even though they were barely hanging from two battered hinges. Behind him, Danny got up and moved toward the window, then a second later Danny’s M4A1 fired into the parking lot.
As soon as Danny started shooting, Will darted across the doors, making it to the other side without taking fire. He slid down to the floor as soon as he was clear of the wide opening and sprung back up, shotgun aiming down the hallway. It was empty, except for the still hazmat suit lying on the floor at the end.
He didn’t know if anyone had seen him make the move across the opened doors. Not that it mattered, as long as they didn’t anticipate what he was going to do next.
Yeah, that’s the ticket…
Will moved down the hallway just as Danny stopped shooting behind him. He heard return fire from the parking lot smashing into the brick wall outside and punching at jagged pieces of glass still clinging to the destroyed window frame next to the doors. With five fewer shooters, the barrage sounded more subdued, almost lackluster.
He slipped the shotgun up to chest level in case someone turned the corner suddenly in front of him. The man in the hazmat suit lay perfectly still on the floor, having fallen forward on his stomach, head turned sideways. There was a little hole in his gas mask’s right lens, and a thin trickle of red blood had gathered on the tiles underneath his head. Unlike his friend, no one had pulled this man back behind cover.
Will found out why when he turned the corner.
He only had to follow the trail of blood to the first man Danny had shot. The man lay crumpled up nearby, where he had been dragged by the other dead man, then left behind.
Will scanned the short hallway. There was a door at the end, leading into the cafeteria, the other big room in the school. Just before that, a half-opened window. It looked big enough to crawl through.
He moved toward the window, looking out through the glass. He couldn’t see or hear anyone on the other side, but picked up a slight breeze in the air. He moved as silently as possible, glad he didn’t have any spare magazines to weigh him down. He flattened his back against the wall, almost a foot from the window. He stood very still, then held his breath and tried to cut out every other noise, even the distant ringing of the flag pole’s latch. He heard the wind, chirping birds, and what might have been a dog barking far away.
But nothing that sounded human.
He ducked underneath the windowsill to the other side, took another deep breath before appearing directly in the window frame, shotgun aiming out, finger on the trigger.
No one on the other side.
He slid the rest of the window open and climbed out. He slipped down into the tall grass outside the building and scanned the immediate area. There was nothing back here, just the football field and track to his right, behind the cafeteria. To his left, the street and the parking lot.
He moved left, keeping low, eyes forward, shotgun in firing position. Tall blades of grass tickled his waist. He listened for sounds of gunfire and wasn’t terribly surprised when none came. The double attack in the auditorium seemed to have been the full extent of their tactical abilities.
Or at least he hoped so.
He peeked out briefly, taking in as much of the parking lot as he could in the brief second or two of exposure.
The parking lot was forty meters away, and there was a man in a hazmat suit behind the red sedan. He sat with his back against the rear bumper of the car, his gas mask resting on the concrete floor next to his AR-15 rifle. He was eating what looked like a can of Pringles, shaking out the pieces and flicking them into his mouth, and he seemed to be enjoying the sun.
Will looked farther up the parking lot and saw three more men gathered behind the Tacoma and the Ram, facing the school’s all-but-obliterated front doors. One of the men sat on the ground, one leg resting in front of him. He had white bandages around his calf. And there, all the way on the other side of the lot, was the fifth man, standing inside the bed of the beat-up black pick-up truck, a hunting rifle resting on the roof of the vehicle. Sunlight glinted off the smooth lines of a scope on top of the rifle that was scanning back and forth between the auditorium’s back doors, the office window in the gym, and the front doors.
Will slipped back behind the wall and clicked his radio. “Miss me?”
“Like a dog misses ticks,” Danny said. “What’d you see?”
“Five left. Three behind the trucks, one behind the sedan, and the fifth in the pick-up with a hunting rifle and scope. I wouldn’t poke my head out if I were you.”
“Well, there goes my evening plans.”
“Are you okay?” Lara asked.
“Better now that I hear your voice.”
“Barf. Get a fucking room,” Danny said.
Will grinned. “It looks like they’re content to wait us out until nightfall.”