Bunny nodded and ran the car forward, spotting the narrow alley as she drew close. Behind her, York fired off at one that groped for the open window, while Angel knocked one free from her side.
"Hey, I need a little confirmation here, God-dammit! Somebody talk to me!" Tanner yelled.
Once in the tight space, Bunny barely let off the gas, pushing the battered car as hard as she dared in the narrow passage. Whatever Lucy had in mind, she hoped it hadn't led them into a trap.
"There's a spot up ahead, you'll know it when you see it," Lucy told her. "An old loading dock, turn right again when you see it."
"Okay," Bunny said, watching for it. "And where are we?"
"A shortcut I use to take to avoid the lights," Lucy said. "It shouldn't be too crowded."
"Ah, smart girl," Bunny told her with a smile.
Spotting the loading dock, she spun the wheel, tires squealing as she did, and raced down the claustrophobic alley. Bunny had to admit she was impressed, very few dead were in the back alley, and Tanner dispatched them well before they were a threat.
"Where's this let out?" Bunny asked.
"East 62nd," Lucy replied. "Right behind Washington Park."
"I like you," Bunny said as she rocketed the Camaro forward.
"Goddamn you, fly boys!" Tanner yelled. "This is Jake Tanner, USMC, authorization Delta Zulu Niner Five Niner. Somebody fucking answer me!"
Bunny leapt the Camaro out into the street, spinning the wheel as she went, sending the car into a sideways slide, knocking over many shambling dead as she went. Wasting no time, she shifted and floored it, powering the Camaro forward.
"Oh, shit," Angela said as she looked at the number of them in the street.
Bunny grimaced and kept driving. They were surrounded. Hundreds of them, all looking their way, all reaching. York muttering something to God, while Tanner dropped the radio and started firing, trying to hit the ones closest.
They weren't going to last long like this, Bunny knew, but she had no intention of going down without at least a fight. Not without having at least tried. Damn the dead, she was going to reach the Park if it was the last thing she did in her entire life.
Then she saw it, the thing that made her blood run cold. It sat in the middle of the street, a flat tire run off the rim, the windows bashed out, but without a doubt, Randy's van. The doors stood open, and blood smeared the pavement nearby, making her heart catch.
They hadn't made it. She choked a bit as they flashed past the van, pushing back tears as she accepted it. Her friends, her dear and wonderful friends, were dead. They weren't waiting for her in the Park. They had come close, but not close enough.
"Bunny! Ahead!" Tanner yelled.
She shook her head and jerked the wheel, spinning the car to the right and down another street, only to jerk back to the left at the next turn, the dead rolling towards them in ever-increasing numbers. There was no way through this, she saw, and though she fought against it, screamed at the cruelty of it, began to accept that they weren't going to make it.
"Tanner this is Zulu Charlie. Copy," the radio said.
For a moment, time stood still in Bunny's eyes. All around her, the ragged, disfigured dead reached out for her. Behind her, the shattered remnants of her hope faded from sight. Ahead of her, death reached out with a chilling embrace.
In that single breath, Bunny lost all hope of ever seeing her friends again. In that tick of a second hand, she resigned herself to their loss, and prayed they were at peace. In the brief moment of time, she vowed to live on, and to avenge their deaths.
"Hoo Yahh!" Tanner screamed at the radio. "I was beginning to think you boys didn't like me anymore."
"Copy that," the radio squawked. "What's your location?"
Bunny hauled on the wheel, skidding the car around a corner. Angel stabbed at a corpse that’d gripped the window, sending it bouncing along the pavement. Across from her, York shot another in the face.
"South Calumet Avenue," Tanner answered as he fired at a dead body clinging to the hood of the car. "Moving north past East 61st Street."
"Copy that," the radio said. "Please stand by."
"Stand by? What the fuck do you mean stand by?" he barked at it then cursed as he shot two more off the front of the car.
"Bunny!" Angel yelled, whacking at the hands clutching for the car.
"I know," she snapped back, giving the car more gas, plowing through and over the dead.
"Oh, God," Lucy wept.
Bunny gritted her teeth, pushing the poor car even harder, swerving and weaving through the street, trying to avoid as many as she could. There were just too many of them, though, and no way to avoid them anymore. They crowded the car, reaching, hungry, and she couldn't avoid them all.
Tanner blasted one after another away, every shot perfect. Angel hacked and slashed at them, leaving fingers and hands to fall away like leaves in the wind. York bashed at them with the butt of his rifle, almost out of bullets.
"Private Tanner, please come back,” the radio called.
"Copy that. Go ahead," he said.
"Fix your position for us."
He gave the radio a dirty look. "I told you, South Calumet Avenue, moving north. Passing East 59th now."
Silence for a moment as Bunny shifted gears, pushing the ragged engine harder. The ride was getting very rough as she rolled over many of them, the low-slung car bogging down in their numbers. It wouldn't be long now, and they would stall out. Then, game over.
"We don't have eyes on you, Private," the radio finally said.
"I'm in the
