By the time he swung left, Durant was engulfed by several undead.
“Shit! Help!” Collins yelled.
Brown swung his weapon left as he continued to lead the civilian to the bus and took several shots. He displayed amazing marksmanship, as his shots found the heads of two zombies.
At the bus entrance, Moyers and Emily were picking off the last few zombies. Garcia turned and with several quick steps he took over the civilian. Brown immediately released the civilian and ran over to Durant and Collins.
Garcia shoved the civilian into the bus, not even noticing her crash painfully into the steps, and turned to help his comrades.
Between Brown and Collins, they were able to clear the undead off Durant. They dragged the injured man by his shoulder straps towards the bus, leaving a fresh trail of blood behind them.
In the meantime, several zombies had piled up on the drivers’ side of the bus near the back, their focus on the people inside. One of the windows had spiderwebbed under the repeated assault of undead fists, causing some of the civilians to panic.
Thankfully, a couple of cooler heads helped the panicking folks to the opposite side of the bus. Another civilian had come up to the front door and assisted Brown in pulling the unresponsive Durant into the bus. The rest of the team piled in quickly, and Emily leapt into the driver’s seat, as undead closed in on all sides of the bus.
With a small jump, the bus leapt forward and started mowing down the undead in its path. The bus shook violently as multiple bodies were run over. Thankfully, it was over after a few seconds and the ride smoothed out.
“Shit! Shit! Shit!” Collins yelled at nobody in particular.
“What the fuck, man. Those idiots should have sat tight! They fucked us up...” He slowly ran out of steam and after a moment of silence turned away to go see how Durant was doing.
Brown and the civilian had gotten Durant further into the bus and had lain him in the center aisle. One of the other civilians had stepped forward and identified herself as a nurse. Another identified himself as a veterinary doctor and stepped up behind the nurse. The nurse was kneeling in the aisle, with Durant’s head in her hands. Emily couldn’t see what was happening with Durant but could see the thick trail of blood tracking in from the steps of the bus and down the aisle.
So much blood! Emily could hardly believe her eyes. Too much blood...
Moyers sat in the front row, staring straight ahead. He was bleeding freely from a gash in his cheek but did not appear to notice this. He rocked slightly in his seat. Emily saw a stone-faced Garcia approach.
Garcia stood in front of the soldier and shook him by his shoulder to get his attention. Moyers turned his head slowly to look at the hand on his shoulder.
“Bill. There’s a doctor back there. Go have him check you out.”
Moyers blinked a few times in succession, then looked up at Garcia with a stunned expression.
“I... I shot him – Sergeant Peters. I s-saw–” He shook as the moments played over in his minds’ eye.
“On your feet, soldier.” Garcia did not feel the empathy but played the part. “Get that gash looked at.”
Moyers complied, still muttering under his breath “I shot him...”
Garcia sat down and looked out the front window. “The way clears up ahead. Go slow for a minute. Take a right up ahead at the lights and get us back to the main road.”
Emily nodded affirmative, as Garcia reached for the radio.
There was some radio traffic and various voices could be heard.
“Break” Garcia spoke into the receiver. “Break”
“Whiskey Alpha Romeo! This is Sierra two. How copy over.”
“Sierra two, this is Whiskey Alpha Romeo. Copy four of five, over.” The voice on the other end replied.
“Sierra two is mission abort and inbound to Kilo two-six with multiple injuries over.”
A short pause before headquarters replied.
“Negative Sierra two, Kilo two-six is compromised. Standby. Over.”
Garcia’s eyes opened wide at that, and he sat in stunned silence, his mouth half open as if to speak.
Emily had managed to get the bus back on to the main road by that point. She drove slowly, occasionally weaving to avoid obstacles, as she waited for instructions.
“Sierra two. Proceed to supply staging location at the following coordinates.” The calm voice continued to rattle off coordinates. Garcia quickly copied the coordinates and was already reaching for his map book.
“When the fuck were they going to fucking tell us!” He said through gritted teeth, as he frantically flipped through the map book.
Collins had made his way over to the front of the bus as all this was going on. He waited in silence as the whole scene played out. Only speaking when Garcia finally noted his presence and looked up at him.
“Durant didn’t make it.” Was all he said.
Garcia stared steadfast at the map in front of him. He started to speak a couple of times, his mouth opening and closing like a fish out of water.
“Fuck! What the fuck happened at the safe zone?! What the hell do they mean: ‘compromised’?! We are ... This is FUBAR.” He exclaimed.
Garcia finally looked up from his maps, looked at Collins, then looked out the front windshield for a few seconds.
Suddenly he punched the partition in front of him with a loud bang. He punched it again, his face screwed up in anger. Gasps and shocked noises could be heard coming from the back of the bus. He released a quick flurry of punches, the partition eventually cracking as one section ripped away from the pole it was attached to. Emily had not realized it, but she had punched the gas in response to his outburst.
Emily guessed at what was going on in Garcia’s mind. He was now the highest-ranking soldier on the bus.
Garcia’s punches flew.
This was
