Both men’s breath hitched at the hundreds of zombies in the lot, like a Black Friday sale gone crazy. The interstate was no better, jam-packed with ghouls. The two men put down their rifles before pulling the group together.
“Obviously the direct approach isn’t going to work,” Kowalski finally said, swallowing hard. “From what I could tell on the glide in, this group stretches up the road quite a ways.”
Martin nodded. “Yeah, it would take way too long to try and circle around them.”
“We need to draw them away from the road, create an opening we can slip through,” Wade suggested.
Doyle shook his head. “Not gonna do much unless we pull some to the north, too.”
Kowalski raised his gun again, looking through the scope to do a rough count of zombies, his mouth going dry when he realized it was in the thousands. He pushed down the anxiety and focused in on the shopping center, seeing a pathway to the back of the anchor store that was mostly clear.
“Hey, take a look at the center building there,” he said, nudging Wade.
His companion complied, seeing a pathway through the field to the back of the store. “What am I looking at?” he asked.
“You think you can get to that ladder on the back?” Kowalski asked.
Wade studied the ladder in question, a metal structure with a protective cover that stretched eight feet up before the rungs were exposed. He scoped out the back of the store, seeing a dumpster about fifteen yards away, but also a half a dozen zombies in the immediate vicinity, with dozens more on either side at the far ends of the building.
“Ain’t gonna be fun,” he admitted, “but I think I can pull it off.” He lowered his gun and turned to his companion.
Kowalski nodded. “Good,” he said. “That’s what I want you to do then. Get up on top and start causing a ruckus.”
“What about the northern position?” Martin asked.
Kowalski pointed to two of the kneeling men. “I want you two to handle that.”
Private Hurley spoke up from beside them. “That’s gonna leave us mighty thin for the main target,” he declared. “Especially when we have two fronts to cover.”
“True,” Kowalski agreed, “but if we try to cross that sea of death without diversions, we’re gonna be a whole lot thinner.”
Hurley nodded in defeat. “Heard that,” he agreed.
“How far up do you want us?” one of the snipers asked, getting to his feet.
Kowalski contemplated for a few moments, looking at the interstate and picking the crossing point. There was a spot about two hundred yards up from the edge of the parking lot, a short climb up a hill that led to the freeway.
“Two blocks,” he said. “Find whatever structure you can get on top of, and start firing.”
“What’s your ETA?” Wade asked them as they nodded. “Don’t wanna start firing too early.”
One of the snipers shrugged. “If we’re not firing consistently within ten minutes,” he replied, “there’s a good chance the shots you do hear will be our last.”
“Ten minutes it is, then,” Wade replied, clapping him on the shoulder.
Kowalski looked around at the group. “Okay, we good?” he asked, and when there was no response, he raised a fist. “All right, let’s move.”
The two snipers headed off towards the north, and Wade tore off for the shopping center. He stayed low as he moved across the field. The moonlight wasn’t exceptionally bright, and while that was difficult for him to see where he was going, it provided him some cover at least.
After a bit, he reached the end of the field, taking a knee in the grass to get a look at the situation. The ladder was forty yards directly in front of him, with half a dozen zombies shambling about. To the left, fifteen ghouls hung out by a door about forty yards away, and to the right was the dumpster with about ten more monsters twenty yards past it.
Gonna have to go silent, Wade thought to himself, at least initially.
He pulled out a knife and unlatched the holster on his handgun, just in case. He focused in on the closest zombie that was directly in front of the ladder. He darted out from cover, using the soft ground to muffle his footsteps as he quickly closed the gap. He slowed to a cautious pace as soon as he hit the pavement.
The first zombie had its back to him, making the kill easy. He shoved the blade into the base of its skull, catching the creature as it fell. He gently laid it on the ground to the left of the ladder.
The other creatures milled about aimlessly, not alerted to his presence just yet. He turned his attention to the duo between him and the dumpster. They were close together, about three yards apart, looking away from him. He silently moved up, but his toe kicked a rock that skittered across the asphalt.
Shit, he thought, freezing.
The two closest zombies heard and turned around, immediately opening their mouths to moan. Answering moans erupted from behind him as well.
“Fuck it,” Wade muttered and sheathed his knife, pulling his handgun. He popped off two quick rounds into the zombies by the dumpster. This set off a chorus of moans in both directions, so he rushed the bin and threw his weight into it.
It picked up speed, and he rammed it into a trio of ghouls headed his way. The front edge of the dumpster popped up in the air as it rolled over a rotted corpse. He pushed as hard as he could to make sure the back end cleared the obstruction.
The bin cleared the body, and he gave the metal beast a shove, stopping dead in his tracks to pop a bullet into the speed bump’s head. He looked over at the
