"We need to get to the Blackhawks. I haven't seen any take off yet, so there's a good chance the military is holding that position," Bunny told them.
"If we get jumped along the way?" Bruno asked.
Bunny looked him the eye. "Shoot first, worry later."
Bruno nodded and took the rear of the group, Caroline the center, and Bunny the lead as they began making their way through the dead-infested Park. It wasn't just the Gaunts they had to worry about now, either, Bunny knew, but their former friends turned by the infectious bite of the dead. Or worse, she realized, the panicked survivors trying to escape.
Though she knew she must seem certain to her friends, Bunny was struggling to hold it together. Between the raging storm, the bellows of the giants, the hungry growls of the dead, and the screams of the living, she felt like she was about to snap. It was too much for any person to endure, and as hard as she fought to hold on, she felt herself slipping.
All she wanted to do was start screaming and never, ever stop. It really did seem like the only sane thing to do, and no matter how hard she shoved the thought back, it persisted.
Only her determination to keep moving allowed her to fend off the panic twisting inside her. Putting one foot in front of the other held her sanity in check. She knew, as she kept her head up, that the way she’d lived her life the last five years was the only thing keeping her alive now.
Rounding a burning Humvee, Bunny saw the Blackhawks surrounded by soldiers struggling to hold the dead at bay. A knot of survivors clustered around the fringe of the soldiers, but for some reason, no one was moving. All of them were just standing their ground, and slowly but surely, losing it to the dead.
Bunny led her friends forward to the nearest soldier she could find, an officer with lieutenant bars on his shirt. Motioning Bruno and Caroline to watch their backs, she grabbed the officer by the shirt.
"What the hell are you doing? Get these people loaded up and out of here," she shouted at him over the thunder.
He shook his head. "We can't. We don't know how many of them have been bitten. I can't take the risk!" he shouted back.
Bunny felt like punching him. "Get them in and worry about that later."
"There are protocols..." he started.
Bunny tightened her grip on him, knotting a hand in his shirt. "Fuck the protocols. Look around you. Did your protocols cover giant monsters throwing living dead at you?"
"But... I can't..." he stammered.
Bunny raised her sidearm. "Deal with the infected later. Get the living out now. Got it?"
Slowly, he nodded his head. Bunny let him go and pushed past leading her friends to the first Blackhawk she could reach. Behind them, others broke through the line, pushing ahead as well. She couldn't worry about them now, though. Her only concern was getting her friends to safety.
She leaned up to one of the soldiers in the helicopter, saying, "They're clean. Get them out of here."
"And go where?" the soldier asked.
"Midway. Follow the evac plan. Get as many people on those planes as you can," she told him.
"The Colonel gave me orders..."
"Fuck it!" she screamed. "Everything's gone to shit, soldier. Now do your fucking job and get these people out of here."
She saw him look over her shoulder then he nodded. "Understood, ma'am. Load ‘em up."
Bunny sighed with relief and waved them forward, helping them into the helicopter. She gave Randy a hug as he passed her and Rebecca as well. To her surprise, Tish embraced her tightly before climbing in. Each of them followed suit, even Dale, thanking her for their lives as they boarded the Blackhawk. With each, Bunny felt a little saner, a little less panicked.
Caroline and Bruno went last, stepping up onto the deck as the rotors overhead reached speed, and the pilot signaled he was ready. The soldier she’d spoken with reached his hand out to Bunny, and she stared at it for a moment then looked to her right, and saw a woman clutching her child, a man holding his arms around them both. She met their eyes, and smiled.
She understood, standing there in the rain, the hungry dead swarming around her, at long last, why. She was no martyr, she realized as she looked at the family huddled before her. She wasn’t a hero, either. She didn’t want to die, or just survive. No, she thought, lifting her head, letting the rain wash over her face.
She was just Bunny, and she would do what she believed was right, no matter the price, or the consequences. She was, always had been, and always would be, an officer of the law.
"Load them up," she said, pointing to the family as she stepped back.
"What are you doing?" Caroline yelled. "There's no more room."
Bunny nodded. "I know. It's okay. Take care of them."
With that, she turned her back and walked away. The father she had given up her spot for gripped her shoulder and thanked her, but she only waved him on, satisfied with herself beyond his own thanks. She knew, in her heart, she wasn't a monster, nor had she lost all measure of her humanity.
Bunny felt, for the first time in a long time, like she was herself again.
She walked through the chaos, back towards the camp, watching as it burned in the rain. Behind her, she heard the Blackhawk lift into the air, but didn't look back. Her friends were safe, for now at
