barely moved at first, and then groggily stood up and started turning a crank that slid the gates open about three feet.
'This the best use for our kids?' Dora asked Paige after they had passed through and the chain link gate clanged shut behind them.
'Like Mike is much more than zombie walking right now.' Paige said.
Dora looked over and it was true, Mike looked like he was asleep on his feet, just shuffling forward slowly beside them.
'Mike? You awake?'
He turned his face towards her and winked, 'Not sleeping. Just thinking.'
'You? A hidden talent! Tell us what you are thinking about!'
Mike gestured towards the next gate, which was only about half a block out from the first one. 'I am thinking there should be a guard there. And there isn't, so I am wondering why not.'
The little group scattered, going to ground in the uncut grass next to the sidewalk. Scanning the rooftops Dora could not see the sniper who was also supposed to be watching the gate as backup.
'Fuck. Where are they? It looks like the gate is closed to me.'
'It is. I will go on point and see what I can see, cover me.', Mike hunched over and ran a zig-zag pattern towards the guard house.
He gestured Dora and Paige up a few minutes later. They crept up at a slower pace and saw nothing amiss, other than the guard was gone.
'Who is on outer ring tonight Paige?'
'Leroy, with Susan Bower on sniper.'
'You put them together?' Dora asked, Paige shook her head, 'Well I know where they are.'
Dora set off for the closest house, the door was no longer on the front and she walked through, carefully avoiding broken glass and the few fall leaves that had blown in. Paige and Mike followed behind her, with a gesture Dora set Mike to watching out the front door while Paige and Dora worked their way into the house. Creeping up the carpeted stairs like ghosts the two made their way to the former master bedroom, there was still a bed there and there was a dim glow of LED light in the room. This house was used as a sort of rest and relaxation area for the second ring guards, so the windows had all been painted black on the second story to prevent any light from getting outside. From inside the room came some animal grunting noises and the quiet slapping of flesh against flesh.
This was not the first time Leroy had been caught away from his post, it was not even the second. The man liked to fuck, pair him up with a female and the odds were good he would make a play for her before his shift ended. How he managed to flirt the distance from the rooftop to the guard station, Dora couldn't figure out.
No one had ever heard the man on the walkie-talkies, and the women he hooked up with never discussed what happened either. The last time Dora had come down on Leroy hard, or rather Leon had, at Dora's request. The guy didn't listen to women well, apparently he didn't listen to his elders much either. Susan was Leroy's latest conquest, a Caucasian woman about forty years old, she would not have been much to look at six weeks ago, but the available choices had dwindled Leroy's options down quite a bit. She didn't seem to mind the attention either. It was almost love, or so the gossips speculated.
Paige looked at Dora's face and the older woman flashed her a keen smile and gestured for them to go forward. The made it to the doorway and silently stood watching as Leroy pounded into Susan in a classic missionary position. He was a noisy love maker, while Susan just clawed his back and threw her head back on the pillows until she was almost facing the head board. Both were completely nude, their clothing was piled on the floor at the foot of the bed. Dora almost giggled, but managed to stop herself, looking at Paige she saw the other woman staring curiously at the couple on the bed.
Dora leaned over, 'Never saw an African American naked before in real life?'
'Just the kids, when we bath them. I saw some porn on the internet. I thought, well…I don't know…that he would….'
'He'd be hung like a horse? Me too! I am glad that myth got cleared up.'
The two on the bed were not finished yet, in fact they hadn't noticed their audience. Leroy was talking dirty to her now, which caused Paige to blush fiercely.
'I really hate to stop them before they finish, but it looks like it might be awhile and we need to get out the gate.' shrugging her shoulders Dora straightened and cleared her throat loudly.
Leroy looked back over his shoulder at her, reaching over for his rifle while balancing on one hand. The fact that he kept grinding into Susan at the same time amazed Dora, if only Roger had displayed such dexterity!
'Oh, it's you.'
'Yeah Leroy, me. Are you on gate duty tonight? Oh, hi Susan! I didn't notice you there!'
Susan looked like she wanted to shrink into herself and clawed frantically at the bed covers trying to pull them up over herself. Leroy didn't get up off of her and indeed, kept making moving up and down on her as she struggled.
'Oh don't stop fucking on my account, Leroy! We just needed to get through the gate. The one you are supposed to be guarding. If you want to give Susan a lift down there hanging off the front of you while you open it up, that'd be fine.'
Finally the man gave one last thrust and then rolled off of Susan, who wrapped the blanket around her. 'Shit, Dora, I am sorry. You know? I, we didn't mean anything by it, but there isn't anything going on tonight and we were bored.'
'Yeah, yeah, lunch break, okay. Look I don't mind you two going at it like rabbits, but in the future could you do it on the roof or in the guard house? At least then you might see the zombies coming.' Susan pulled the covers more firmly over her as Leroy disengaged causing Dora to giggle, 'Don't bother, Susan I've seen you naked already, and nothing will ever take that away from me now. Get dressed and let us through, then get back to your positions, I mean back to your posts. We are plan on heading back through here within fifteen minutes.'
'Thanks Dora! Thanks! In the guard shack? Okay, okay, we can do that.' Leroy said as he quickly pulled on his clothing. In a moment he was done except for his shoes and socks, which he picked up and carried with him back downstairs and outside. They left Susan wrapped in her blanket and followed Leroy out to the guard house.
'Nothing happening out here. Glad you found them okay.' Mike said as they came out.
Leroy stopped and propped his gun against the plywood shack that served as the outer guard station. They waited while he pulled on his footwear and then waited a little longer until Susan appeared on the roof of the house overlooking the shack. Waving to her they moved through the gates.
'Leroy, we are coming back through here in a few. Do not disappear on us, there is something going on tonight. You got it?' Dora tried to sound stern.
'Yes, Dora. Thanks again for being so cool about the lunch break.'
The three of them walked towards the final fence where the trench was dug in along one side of the wasteland. The 'outer fence' was really not much more than a loosely strung together set of chain link running from building to building. There were holes in it, it did not run all the way to the ground in some places and it was not very good at keeping out slinkers or the wonder twins, as the little girl super zombies were called.
Fortunately the girls had not been seen for about four days and there had been a noticeable lack of slinkers in the past week as well. Dora suspected most of the tougher zombies were fighting it out with the Iowan National Guard further to the east.
As they approached the trench a voice cried out ahead of them, it sound to Dora like it was Peter.
'Run! Run! They are coming!' The voice got closer and Mike and Paige had their rifles raised and aimed towards the trench. Gunfire erupted ahead of them; the flashes from the gunfire were oddly muted, except for one rifle, the M16, if Dora guessed right. Normally the three of them would have gone prone and started looking for targets, but when someone yells 'run' they tended to mean it. Risking a light Dora flashed one towards the trench.
Directly in front of them, running down the street towards them was Peter, he was not carrying his weapon. Behind him all she could see were zombies, the trench was either overwhelmed or had been surrounded. Dora's light was not that powerful so the shapes moving around were more like shadows than definable people. That
