He met her eyes with hard eyes of his own, and he could tell she was frightened as she looked bravely up at him. With a nod, he ordered in a loud voice, "Everybody pick a target. We're taking out the mad-dogs before we fall back." With that he raised his weapon to his eye and took careful aim.
The charging mad-dogs were less than fifty yards away and closing the gap rapidly.
Ten people raised their weapons, and when half of that fifty yards was gone, they all fired almost at once.
Six of the eight mad-dogs were dropped immediately with that first volley, and the last two advanced only another three or four steps before being cut down as well.
"All right," the Corporal ordered. "That's them. We'll fall back to a choke point at the end of the hallway and hold 'em as long as we can." He looked to Zoe again and ordered, "If it gets too intense out here then I want you to fall back, too. Find a safe place and wait for Colonel Halstead and reinforcements. We'll take care of business in there."
"Yes, Sir," she complied. Turning to the threat as the others retreated inside the building, she held her rifle with a tight grip as she watched the rest advance on her with a relentless purpose. There were hundreds and she stood no chance of stopping them all, and she did not know if there were more mad-dogs among them. She raised her weapon and took aim at the first she saw, one that was just over eighty yards away. Perhaps she could not stop them all, but maybe all she needed to do was buy time.
She squeezed her trigger.
The round hit one in the shoulder, spinning him almost halfway around, but he recovered and kept advancing.
"I need to be closer," she said aloud to herself. Fearlessly, she strode toward them, keeping her weapon at the ready. About twenty steps later she stopped and looked around her. They were coming from both sides as well, an undead hoard she could not hope to stop.
That familiar growl sounded from the left and she looked that way, then swung around, planted her feet as she had been taught and took careful aim, waiting until the charging mad-dog was about ten yards away before she fired.
Her round hit his cheek and spun him around. He collapsed, but scrambled back to his feet and charged again, this time with the side of his face and part of his head missing.
Slightly panicked, she aimed quickly and fired two more shots, hitting his eye and forehead, and this time he went down and stayed there.
Four precious bullets were now gone. The rest of her shots had to count!
Aiming carefully for foreheads and noses, she fired and dropped one, then another, and another. Though some of them stumbled over the fallen, they just kept coming! She backed away and looked to her right, seeing one walking faster than the others and right toward that open doorway, and he was only a few yards from her. Raising the weapon to her eye, she shot him squarely in the forehead, then watched as he dropped to his knees and slumped forward to the ground. Killing them was easy, but she knew she was running out of time and bullets.
Zoe retreated slowly, firing and felling zombie after zombie, and soon her rifle made a final empty click. Her last magazine dropped to the ground as she lowered her weapon, then she crouched down and laid it on the ground as she watched the horror continue to advance. Standing again, she pulled out her revolver and aimed carefully with both hands. Once again she fired with precision and at very close range, making every last bullet count, and slowly she found herself retreating toward that doorway. She reloaded and shot six more, reloaded and did it again, reloaded and turned to cut off those from the side that were almost at the door. Her pistol ammunition was going just as fast and soon she would be out of ways to fight them.
Loading her last six rounds, she did not fire right away, instead backing up to the doorway and looking around her as the zombies closed in from all sides.
A gurgling growl alerted her and she drew a gasp, looking to her right to see something pushing through the crowd of zombies, and moving very fast. She pushed one zombie back, and the mad-dog that charged shoved another aside, saw her, and bared its teeth. This one was a woman in a white blouse and skirt, and she bared her blackened teeth as she sounded a horrible yell and launched herself at the zombie girl.
Zoe fired and missed, then fired again when the mad-dog was almost on top of her and finally connected, hitting the mad-dog between the bridge of the nose and the eye. She backed away, into the door jamb as the ferocious zombie fell, then she looked to the hundreds that mobbed in on her from every side. They could smell the people within just like Zoe could, and they were determined to get inside and feed.
Four bullets left. They would have to count.
Holstering her revolver, Zoe tried to push back against them, tried to push this wall of the undead away, but one of them grabbed her wrist, another her other arm, still another reached through and grabbed her shirt. They had never done this before and panic began to well up in the girl and she fought to get away from them. They were pulling her away from the door, toward the heart of the mob and she fought wildly against them, crying out like a frightened child as still more hands clutched at her.
Zoe screamed wildly and fought with all she had to free herself, to free one arm, one hand. If only she could reach that revolver!
More hands grabbed her, pulling at her clothing, her hair, her arms and legs. Their strength easily overwhelmed her. Even as she struggled against them she was pulled from the ground and drawn into the seething mass of undead former humanity. Zoe screamed and cried, her eyes tightly closed as she fought with primal panic. As one hand released her, another grabbed on to pull her further from the doorway she fought to guard.
Hope abandoned her. The fight drained away in an instant and she just allowed them to drag her away.
Her next realization was concrete against her back, hands holding her down to it, and the moans of the undead all around her. Slowly, she opened her eyes, her gaze darting around from one to the next. She could not see through the wall of zombies that surrounded her. Those closest to her, holding her were crouched down or on their knees. Many, many more stood behind them, and all had their attention on her. A zombie woman with completely white eyes who held her left wrist and elbow drew a wheezing breath, then let it out in a long moan that ended in a strangled gurgle.
"Let go of me," Zoe whimpered.
A large man in overalls to her right slowly bent toward her, pressing his hand against her breastbone as he put much of his weight on her. His face lowered toward hers and he sniffed loudly in long breaths, and did so many times. One of his eyes was completely white while the other still had the pinpoint of a pupil right in the middle, and this pinpoint was focused on her neck.
Panic surged through the girl and she tried to shrink away as he lowered his mouth to her throat. Turning her head away, she found herself crying and tried to pull her arms free once again. Horrible thoughts rampaged through her imagination and she screamed and tried to get away again, but more hands found her, pinning her legs down and more grabbed onto her arms.
The zombie that was sniffing her grabbed onto her throat and forcibly turned her head, sniffing the side of her head that had rested on Zachary only an hour before.
Zoe did not know why they were suddenly so interested in her, but they were sure they intended to eat her, and eat her alive. More of them bent over to sniff her and she felt other hands tugging at her shirt. One of them grasped her shorts at the belt line and pulled against them and she felt them creep down her hip. Twisting to prevent this, she screamed, "Stop!" as she fought them one last time. A hand grasped her shirt at the neckline, another slid along her belly under it. She was sure they intended to suddenly rip her open and this sickening thought spent the last of her horror in one more surge of frenzied struggles. "Stop!" she screamed again. "Let me go!" Drawing the deepest breath she could, a primal scream exploded from her. "Help me! Please, somebody help me!"