“To the trees!” Baker shouted and lifted a horn in the air and pressed the button.
“What about Bates?” Castle started backing up and fired into a relentless freak that slammed into the car and ate the bullet spray in the mouth and face before going down.
Across the lot, Bates was kicking at hands outstretched towards him and firing on the infected freaks clever enough to climb the vehicle he was standing on. Bates might as well have been on an island with how things were shaping out. More and more of the monsters were starting to swarm him.
Anderson stumbled about and put some distance between himself and the volatile vehicle. But many of the freaks were hungry for him and not the car. He pulled the trigger to his gun firing randomly at the slower moving lurkers chasing him, “Help! Help me please!” The strikers hadn’t reached him yet but they were moving quickly and would be on him soon.
Miles and Antonio reached the car after cracking some more heads and stabs to the temple. Antonio swung for the fences and bashed the head in of one lurker, then brought the bat down on the next monster and popped its skull like a watermelon. Miles jumped one and jammed his knife down into the infected person’s head.
“Eight!” Miles shouted.
“No way! Then I got fifteen!”
“Nuh uh!”
“If you got eight then I got fifteen!” Antonio went and bashed in the head of a striker who leapt at him with its mouth hanging open.
Miles threw the Berretta at the car’s driver window when he was close enough. He reached inside to unlock the door and snatched it open to climb inside.
Antonio ran to the hood and started hitting it with the baseball bat. “Hurry up Miles! C’mon!”
Yelps could be heard from Anderson across the way and Antonio shook his head when he saw he was struggling with a group of freaks. One of the monsters lurched towards Anderson and the man’s voice cracked when he screamed in terror.
The trunk popped open and Antonio struck the hood again with the bat. “The hood Miles! The hood!”
“Shut up!” Miles screamed from inside the car.
“It’s under the steering wheel!” Antonio turned and crack an infected in the dome and dropped it in one swing. “Eighteen!”
“Nuh uh!” Miles cried out. “You cheatin’! You cheatin’!”
The hood finally popped open and Antonio went to work removing the battery. Miles jumped out of the car and slammed the door. He aimed the Beretta at a striker running at Antonio and capped the freak with one shot. “Nine. You got it Antonio?” Miles asked.
The alarm finally stopped dead, and Antonio slammed shut the hood. “Yup! Now let’s get the fuck outta here!” He spun around just in time to crack another striker in the face before the two boys went running for the trees.
Both of them pulled out their airhorns and raised them above their heads. The horns blared and Anderson screamed when he was mobbed by the infected surrounding him. Many of the monsters turned their attention to the boys, running with their horns, but a few stayed to finish off Anderson, rabid like a pack of dogs. They were biting and pounding the man into the pavement while he screamed.
Baker and his men and Antonio and Miles all went charging for the tree with the hive chasing after them. They were all holding airhorns in each hand and blitzing the air with the sound. All the infected creatures chased blindly after the sound with ravenous intent. Antonio and Miles entered the woods first and went zigzagging through trees and bushes. Baker and his men tried to keep up with the boys but when they split up, Baker thought it best to work on losing the hive on his own. The captain yelled for his men to break off and they all scattered into the trees, still pressing their horns as they ran. The hive splintered to follow the noise but ran in every direction. Many ran into trees, slamming into redwoods so hard that bones were breaking. While others were splitting off indiscriminately, running blindly into the woods.
When it was quiet and Baker was sure no more freaks were running around, the captain went to find his men; all hiding behind a large tree.
Lincoln dropped to the ground after seeing the captain. “Captain Baker… are you… I mean, my god. Have you ever…” He was whispering but Baker shushed him anyway.
Torrez was standing up against a tree, clutching his Rosary and praying in Spanish. Castle was drenched in sweat. They all were.
“What about Anderson… and what about Bates?” Castle spoke low.
Baker peered around the redwood and saw the last of the infected disappearing in the distance. Miles and Antonio were nowhere to be seen. Carver wanted to get rid of them and now they were gone. Whether they went back to join with some group or not, they’d have a whole hive of infected hunting them down. Though after everything, the captain hoped the brothers weren’t dead.
“Let’s head back to the store.” Captain Baker started back towards the parking lot.
“What? What about the kids?” Lincoln pushed himself back up to his feet.
Baker continued marching, not giving a response, and stepped over the body of a mangled freak wrapped around a tree. When it tried reaching out for the captain, he put the creature out its misery with a heavy boot to its skull.
The parking lot of the Costco Superstore was an even worse disaster than it had been before. Now piles of bodies were littered everywhere
