“See anything interesting?” he asked.
Tammy smiled and shook her head slightly. “Not really.” She looked further down the roof and saw Nat’s retreating back, a rifle slung over her shoulder.
Like a caged animal, that one, Tammy thought. Then realized that she’d been doing the exact same thing herself.
She got down to the lower roof and looked right. Melissa lay on an improvised stretcher. She was covered in blankets to guard against the chill in the air. The wounded woman was under the watchful and oh-so-large eyes of Shelley.
Christine also sat nearby, although her attention seemed to be drawn elsewhere. Tammy frowned at the look on the young woman’s face. She looked angry.
Maybe that’s what she looks like when she’s scared. Tammy made her way to the trio.
“Aren’t you guys heading back downstairs?” she asked the nurse and her helper when she got close.
“I’m not,” Shelley said with a shake of her head. “I’m sticking with Mel here.” She patted Melissa on the shoulder.
“How is she doing?” Tammy asked.
“Hey, I’m right here, you know,” Melissa said, feigning offense. Tammy smiled down at the woman. She hadn’t really gotten to know Melissa but had a feeling that they would hit it off.
“She’s still combative, as ever — as you can see,” Shelley said, shrugging and grinning faintly. “But as far as her health goes”—her expression turned more serious—“she is doing great. I actually think that we can start practicing taking some steps in the next few days.”
The sound of a few more gunshots in the distance dampened the excited look in her dark eyes, and an expression of concern took its place. “If we get through this...” she finished uncertainly.
“We’re going to be fine,” the woman on the stretcher stated.
Melissa drew herself up to her elbows, but still couldn’t see over the small ledge of the school roof. She let herself sink back down with a frustrated sigh. “I can’t see a damn thing,” she muttered before looking back up at her nurse.
“Shelley, my husband is out there. I bet that he can take on entire army of those things and still walk away. Besides, the plan they’ve put together is solid,” Melissa said with a confident smile.
“But what if there are too many of them?” Tammy couldn’t resist asking. She’d seen what an overwhelming force could do back at the safe zone.
Melissa looked up at Tammy. “Those things are not smart,” she said with a flat stare. “The guys will just lead them away and pick them off as they travel. And even if all else fails, we’ve got some pretty decent security measures set up here.”
As if on cue, they heard a long, continuous burst of gunfire. It was of the lower, heavier, booming variety.
“That’s probably John,” Melissa said, nodding to herself. “He likes to let her rip sometimes.”
Christine had crept closer to the other women. “Is that the same gun that Emily’s got?”
“Yep. That’s the M249 Squad Automatic Weapon. Commonly referred to as a SAW.” Melissa oozed confidence, despite being wounded and stuck in a prone position. “Each of those boxes contains a thousand rounds of ammo,” she added as she pointed to the boxes sitting beside Emily. “Enough five fifty-six to light up a small army.” She looked around at the three women kneeling and standing around her and saw the blank stares. She let it go with a small shrug. “I doubt that we’ll even need to use it.”
Just then, Ethan poked his head up out of the roof hatch. His expression left no doubt.
Something was wrong.
Tammy stepped closer so she could hear what he had to say.
“It’s Bill’s team. We’ve lost contact with them...”
THE LOADING-DOCK DOOR opened with an earthshattering rattle and bang.
Breanne didn’t quite catch how it got done. Her attention was focused solely on the growing crowd of undead in the parking lot. Bill was picking his shots carefully, but it was clear to Breanne that it wouldn’t be enough.
She exclaimed loudly when that door slammed upward behind her. To her it sounded like a squeak of a drowning rodent. Not that she’d ever heard the sound that a drowning rodent made. But she figured it sounded something like that.
“Do I sound like that?” she spoke out loud.
Yep. Sounds under water. She realized. “Hello?” Yeah, there it was again. One ear seemed mostly OK. The other one, though...
“Oh shit! My ear!” She exclaimed, her hand shooting up to it. She touched the sticky surface, then stared at her fingers in horror. They were covered in blood.
Just then she felt herself getting dragged away from the edge of the loading dock and into the warehouse. She sat up as soon as BB released his grip on her armpits. Bill was at the door, still carefully picking his shots. Beyond him, the first of the zombies had reached the dock.
Breanne hoped the zombies would congregate at the chest-high obstacle, but to her dismay she could see the first zombie trying to pull itself up.
“Holy fuck.” Breanne slowly started to get to her feet. “We’re fucking trapped in here!”
“Over here,” Breanne and Bill turned to the sound of BB. He had found a metal stairway, set into the wall, and just visible in the dim light of the building.
Bill turned and offered Breanne a shoulder. Breanne’s body did not feel like moving, but seeing the mass of undead just ten feet away was just the motivation it needed. The twosome stumbled to the stairs and started to ascend. They came to a landing. The door of a small office was on their immediate left. That office was also the only thing on this floor.
The only other way was up. “I’mma check the roof access,” BB said before lunging up the stairs.
Breanne leaned on the metal handrail and
