Fifty yards. Fifty-five yards. Sixty. The two brothers lit up the night. Their arms were strong and their aim was true.
Bullets pierced the air around them. Leo and Anton began ducking down between throws, doing their best to avoid enemy fire. Soon, only two jeeps remained.
But the Soviets had wisened up. They drew to a halt when they were seventy-five yards, maybe even eighty yards away. He saw them readying their rocket launchers.
Leo knew he could throw the ball at least seventy yards. He’d done it many times. It was one of the reasons he’d been so heavily recruited senior year.
If he hoped to survive the next sixty seconds, he was going to have to throw farther than that.
Once again, Jennifer shoved a lit bomb into his hands. “Give them hell, Leo.”
Everything leapt into focus around him, just as it always had on the football field. Jennifer beside him. Anton and Bruce nearby. The enemy three-quarters of the way down the field.
His entire life was all about this moment. Leo knew it as sure as he knew the color of his own eyes. Everything boiled down to right now. He would either live or die.
He sure as fuck didn’t plan on dying.
He ran several steps forward and threw. The sparking bomb zipped through the air in a perfect arc.
It was a damn good throw. Damn good. Seventy-five yards at least.
It bounced onto the hood of the first jeep.
Then something happened. The bomb went off, but it wasn’t a regular explosion. Nonna’s bombs, while effective, were modest in their blast radius. They were just enough to fuck shit up. They weren’t enough to blow shit to the moon.
The explosion that went off in front of Leo was like something out of a Hollywood movie. A huge fireball filled the street. It blasted the jeep straight into the air. It caught several other jeeps in the blast.
He realized the Russians were carrying large munitions, things more powerful than the rocket launchers they’d encountered so far. Missiles or grenades or who-the-hell-knew-what. And Leo had hit the vehicle carrying them.
The heat of the blast seared over Leo’s skin. Shrapnel spewed down the street. He covered his face and hunched down as debris hurtled through the air. A wheel hit the rooftop no more than five feet to his left.
Off to either side, he heard Jennifer and the others yelling his name. He distantly realized they were cheering for him. His own personal crowd in the biggest game of his life.
“Cal Berkley is eating shit right now!” Jennifer cried.
“Time’s up,” Leo replied. “We’re out of here.”
Jennifer didn’t argue with him. She beelined for the ladder. Leo was right behind her. They raced through the campus. Leo kept his rifle up and shot anything that moved.
They met up with Bruce and Anton at the edge of the school. The younger boys were covered in soot and grime. Their eyes were hard, their jaws set. Leo realized that in a few short minutes, they’d transformed from boys into soldiers.
He grabbed Anton in a rough hug. “Nice throws.”
Anton thumped Leo on the back. “You too, brother.”
“Time to get the hell out of here,” Leo said. The Russians were in disarray, but that wouldn’t last long. He hoped Jim and Tate were safe.
“Wait.” Anton pulled a bottle of orange spray paint out of his jacket.
Time was short, but Leo didn’t stop him. He wanted the Soviets to know who had fucked up their day.
He and the others kept watch while Anton quickly sprayed the word Snipers in giant orange letters on the pavement.
“Take that, assholes,” Anton said. “We’re not going down without a fight.”
“Damn straight,” Leo said. “Now come on. Let’s get out of here.
Chapter 44Antenna
“TIME’S UP.” DAL YANKED the plug out of the back of the transmitter. “Did I miss anything?” he asked Lena.
“Not a thing.” She beamed at him and lowered the antenna to the ground.
Dal lashed the transmitter to the backpack. Even though it was heavy, he didn’t want to leave it behind. There was no telling if they might need it again in the future.
“Leo is giving them hell.” Lena looked in the direction of the high school. A series of explosions echoed through the town. “Nonna might be able to hear it all the way back at the cabin.”
They hurried back to the hatch that led down into the superstore. Thinking about all the nezhit inside made Dal’s throat dry. How the hell were they going to escape?
Dal swung his machine gun around. “You open the hatch. I’ll shoot anything that tries to come through.”
Lena nodded, positioning herself to one side of the opening. “Ready?”
Dal aimed, finger resting on the trigger. He sighted down the barrel, ready to shoot the first zombie that came into sight. “Ready.”
She yanked it open.
Nothing happened.
A wrinkle appeared on Lena’s brow. She peered through the hatch. “Um, Dal? I think they’re all gone.”
He wasn’t sure he hadn’t heard her right. “They’re all gone?” he repeated dumbly.
Lena opened the hatch all the way, letting it thud softly against the gravel rooftop. Nothing but silence echoed up from the superstore.
They crouched over the opening, peering inside. The boxes that had been neatly stacked on the mezzanine were in disarray. Many of them had torn open, spilling televisions and other equipment onto the floor.
But there wasn’t a nezhit in sight.
“Leo drew them away,” Lena said.
It was the only explanation that made any sense. “That’s impressive.”
Lena flashed him a grin. “My brother is an impressive guy.”
Dal went first into the hatch. Without the boxes, it was a fifteen foot drop to the ground. Good thing he was tall. He dangled by his hands, angling his body so he’d miss the broken remains of a big screen TV when he landed.
Debris crunched under his Converse when he hit the floor. Lena came through after him, dangling from
