"In the back!" she barked at him.
He paused then nodded and slid behind, jerking the door shut behind him. Bunny roared the engine to life, dropped it into gear, and threw dirt as she floored the gas. She could still hear automatic weapon fire, meaning her new best friend was still fighting.
She ran the Camaro through the smoke, rolling over bodies and appendages as she aimed for the exit, seeing the young man as he fired down the street, rifle to his shoulder, aiming more carefully than she had expected.
Slamming on the brakes, she skidded the car to a stop in front of him and shouted, "Hop in!"
He dove through the window, wasting no time. Bunny didn't wait for him to get situated either before gunning the engine and pulled into the street, intending to roar through them. The only problem with that plan, she quickly realized, was that there were just too many of them.
As he squirmed himself into a sitting position, raising the rifle to pop a few more, Bunny looked over her shoulder, back inside the site. Chewing her lip, she made a decision and dropped the car in reverse. She just hoped her girl was up to the task at hand.
“Hey, where are you going?” the young man demanded. “Street’s that way.”
“Too many of them. Chance of getting bitten is too high,” she answered as she steered the car backwards, gunning the engine harder. “We need to make a new exit.”
He stared at her in confusion for a moment then looked back and saw where she was heading. “You guys might want to duck your heads a bit,” he suggested to the people in back.
No sooner had they dropped their heads then Bunny hit the fence, right where they’d pulled the board lose. It was a risk, she knew, that the fence there was weak enough, and the car sturdy enough, to shatter the wood. As luck, or a small pink rabbit would have it, her plan worked, and the Camaro bounced out onto the street, clear of the dead.
Wasting no time, Bunny shifted gears and floored it, peeling away. Behind her, her new companions looked back in disbelief, while next to her, the young man just smiled. Together, they roared away to freedom.
"Woo hoo!" the young man next to Bunny bellowed. "We are the shit now!"
Bunny laughed. "Let's not get excited yet. We're still out in the open here."
"She's right," the lead man said. "We should be planning our next move, not celebrating."
"Aw, come on, Sarge," the younger man said. "We did good back there!"
"We did, yes. But like the lady said, we're still exposed."
"Which we wouldn't be if we hadn't stopped to help her," the scruffy one put in.
The young man turned and gave him a dirty look. "As I recall, you'd be ass-deep in shit if the three of us hadn't pulled you out of the fire, Jerry."
"That was different," Jerry shot back.
"Yeah," the woman said. "It was different. She has a car. All you've got is a whiny mouth."
Jerry flopped back, not saying anything more. Bunny looked at the woman in the rearview and smiled. She had looked terrified, but Bunny saw now that she had some strength to her.
"Private First Class Jake Tanner, USMC," the young man said, offering Bunny a salute. "Behind me here is Sergeant Alvin York of the Chicago Police Department and his lovely wife Lucy. That there is Jerry."
"Bunny Beckman," she said. "Nice to meet you. Especially you, Sergeant York."
"Beckman," he said slowly, staring at her in shock. "I'll be damned."
"Bunny? Seriously?" Tanner asked, looking at her in disbelief.
"Watch it, Tanner," York told him. "That's one of the finest cops to ever serve on the force you're talking to."
"I see you've heard of me," Bunny said.
"Hard not to have. The bum's rush they gave you was the shame of the department," York told her.
Bunny looked at him in the mirror for a minute. "Thank you, Sergeant."
"Oh, this is her?" Lucy asked. Her husband nodded and Lucy shook her head. "Hell of a raw deal you got, girl."
Bunny gave a sarcastic laugh. "Same old story. He does the crime, we do the time."
"He didn't do as well as you might think," York told her. "Got in trouble with Internal Affairs about a year after they drummed you out."
Bunny looked at him in the mirror. "They send him up the river?"
York shook his head. "No, he had connections. Got transferred out of state. New Mexico, I think, somewhere around Santa Fe."
"Figures," Bunny snorted. "Dyson always did have a lot in common with a cockroach."
"This sounds like a story I need to hear," Tanner laughed.
"Maybe later. For now, we need to get to Washington Park. It's the only safe place I know of in the city," Bunny replied.
Tanner nodded. "Yeah, it's safe alright, but no way you're going to get there. The entire area is crowded with the dead."
"Fuck me," Bunny sighed.
"We tried for it, too," York told her. "There wasn't any way through."
"So where were you guys heading then?" Bunny asked.
"Midway airport," Tanner said.
Bunny looked at him in confusion. "Why the hell go there?"
He smiled. "Army has to refuel them Hawk's somewhere, ma'am."
Bunny blinked. Of course they did. She was stupid for not having thought of that herself. "And if it's crowded?"
"The military academy north of Washington Park is the next best bet. If nothing else, they're bound to have an armory, if my pals in
