Too late dickhead. She silently taunted the zombie. Looks like you missed the bus.
Garcia was on the phone again before the bus got into second gear.
The next pickup went off without a hitch. Not a single undead in the street as an elderly couple was assisted on board. The old man was terribly pleased and insisted on shaking every soldier’s hand once he got safely onto the bus.
The next one was uneventful as well, as four adults and one teen were added to the civilian roster.
The pick-up after that was interesting, though. Garcia had called the guy when the team was about three minutes out. As always, he instructed the civilian to stay inside his house. However, the team was met with a strange sight when the bus pulled around the last corner. there was a man standing in the middle of the street, with several destroyed undead around him. The Asian man was wielding a hammer in each hand.
“What the fuck...” Garcia trailed off as he spotted the man. The phone in his hand all but forgotten.
“Pull up here, Hill.” Peters instructed. The bus pulled up about thirty yards away from the man. The street looked petty much clear, with the exception of one more zombie. That zombie approached the man, who stood and waited.
Emily felt her jaw drop as the guy dispatched the zombie. He leapt with a cat-like reflex to the side just as the undead lunged at him. In one continuous motion he dodged under the outstretched arms, stepped around the back of the undead and swept the legs of his target. The zombie went down hard, smashing its face on the pavement.
Emily could see teeth bouncing away.
The man took a quick step closer to the zombie and delivered two quick hammer blows to the back of its head. Wack-wack. Once with each hammer. Emily saw the second hammer blow penetrate the skull. The zombie spasmed and then lay still. The undead was permanently dead.
Peters told Emily to open the door and quickly stepped out. He called out a challenge to the man. The guy was incredibly cool, as he wiped the head of the hammer on the corpse’s shirt, grabbed a duffel bag and walked over. He identified himself with a calmness that none of the folks on the bus could even pretend to feel.
It happened to be the guy on the list.
As he entered the bus Emily noticed that his t-shirt had a flap in the front where it was torn, and she could see a thin red line indicated a scratch on his chest. He also had a scratch on his forearm but for the rest seemed unscathed. He had holstered his hammers in the carpenter’s belt he wore. Emily looked outside and counted at least five corpses. That meant that he had taken Garcia’s call, walked out, and destroyed all these undead in a matter of a couple of minutes. Armed with nothing more than hammers!
He is ace with those hammers. Blimey, he hasn’t even broken a sweat!
Emily watched the man move down the aisle and grab a seat a few rows back. She pulled the bus back into the road and started driving, but her mind was still on the Asian man. She could only imagine the skills this man would have with real weapons. Like those ninja swords.
What were those things called anyway? Katanas or something...
THE DAY WORE ON AND the bus slowly filled up with people. They had left the safe zone nearly two hours ago now and the team had picked up nearly twenty civilians. Thankfully, without any serious incident. It got a bit hairy on the last extract, when one of the shambling forms came dangerously close, and nearly knocked the rifle out of Durant’s hands.
They also had another incident, when a young couple attempted to get onto the bus while the team was executing another extraction. At least one of them was suffering from the HAPS infection, so they were denied access. The couple went from pretending to be symptom free to begging for help. But Peters and the team had strict orders.
They ended up being turned away at gun point. Emily felt sorry for them. The looks in their eyes was ... hopeless. Emily knew that it truly would be hopeless for those two. They would die like all the others. They would succumb to HAPS. If they were lucky, they would stay dead. If they were not, they would rise again, with that comical yet horrific expression on their faces.
What would you do, Em? Would you let yourself succumb, or would you end it sooner?
Emily thought about it as she watched the backs of the retreating couple. The woman turned and looked back at the bus just before they stepped around a corner and out of sight. Emily could almost hear an audible twang as the woman closed her eyes, turned and stepped around the corner. The sound of the lifeline snapping as the lifeboat floated away...
SHE WAS STILL THINKING of them half an hour later. Emily wondered how the couple was doing. There were dangers all around, but at least the guy looked like he could handle a fight.
Emily’s reminiscence was interrupted as they approached the next pickup location. She guided the bus on a complicated left turn, around a car that was left in the middle of the intersection, and into a residential area for the next pickup. The weather had held nicely. It was getting slightly overcast but at least it was still pleasant and dry.
Collins and Brown were passing around water bottles to the civilians in the back of the bus. It was a tried and tested method of keeping people calm. The water bottles were a distraction for people and besides the obvious benefit of quenching some thirst, the bottles themselves were a tangible object
