“Come on Mason,” Bretz muttered to himself, “let’s make this quick.”
The Private pulled his truck down the back alley, rolling over a couple of zombies as he went. There was a satisfying pop as the tire crushed a rotted head.
“Ah, that sound never gets old,” he declared, shooting Hess a grin.
His passenger shrugged. “I suppose we have to enjoy the little things in life.”
“These days it’s about as good as it gets,” Mason replied.
He stopped at the back loading dock of the store, where there were two trucks backed up. There were four zombies wandering around near the back door.
“Just leave the truck running,” Hess suggested, “we’re not going to be long.”
Mason checked the gas gauge, seeing there was still three-quarters of a tank. He nodded in agreement and hopped out.
The soldiers hit the ground, assault rifles at the ready, and opened fire on the zombies by the door, quickly taking them out with precise headshots. They rushed to the back door, and Mason yanked on it, finding it locked.
“Shit, no good,” he growled.
Hess looked down the loading dock and saw that one of the bay doors was open about two feet, enough to provide the workers with some airflow.
“Come on, we got a way in,” he said, and waved for his partner to follow him.
The two men hopped to the ground and rushed over to the opening, Hess taking out a flashlight and shining it inside. There were several sets of feet in his line of vision, the closest being five yards away.
Hess went silent, pointing it out to Mason before motioning for him to boost him up. Mason laced his fingers together, giving his companion a heave up onto the dock.
Hess drew his knife and slammed it into the back of the closest ghoul, catching its body as it fell and gently setting it on the concrete to avoid making noise. He looked around, seeing the other zombies were easily fifteen to twenty yards away and hadn’t noticed them yet. He quickly went back over to the loading dock and laid down to pull Mason up after him.
The duo readied their knives, wanting to remain stealthy, and headed towards the back office. There were a trio of creatures by the office door that would need to be dealt with, so Hess slid forward and stabbed one in the back of the head, catching the body as he jammed the blade into the temple of the second one.
In the darkness, he missed, glancing off of the creature’s forehead and enraging it. It let out a furious moan and reached for him, and Hess dropped his charge, stabbing the hungry zombie in the eye socket.
Mason finished off the third ghoul, but unfortunately the noise was enough to alert the rest of the zombies in the room. They turned in unison, moaning and shambling for the soldiers.
“Find the keys!” Hess barked.
Mason rushed into the office, pulling out his flashlight. Hess raised his rifle and flashlight, finding targets and shooting them one by one between the eyes. After he squeezed off half a dozen rounds, dropping that many ghouls, the swinging doors to the store flew open under a fresh swarm.
He froze in terror at the sight of dozens of monsters pouring into the back room. “Hurry up!” he yelled. “We’re about to get overrun!”
Mason frantically looked for the keys, throwing stuff in every direction, hoping to uncover them. Meanwhile, Hess opened fire, carefully placing shots, spreading out the carnage in hopes that the ones behind the fallen corpses would trip.
His fire intensified as more creatures came in and grew closer and closer, within fifteen feet away.
“MASON!” he screamed.
His companion opened the last drawer on the desk, relieved to find two sets of keys, and grabbed them both. “Got em!” he cried, bursting out of the office. “Let’s go!” He shoved the keys in his pocket and raised his rifle, joining his companion in shooting to buy them time to get to the door.
Mason hit the release bar on the door behind him, but it didn’t open. He shoved it a few more times, but the door wouldn’t budge.
“We’re stuck!” he cried.
Hess shot several more zombies before dropping his empty mag and reloading. He threw himself into the release bar, but the door wouldn’t move. He looked down and saw a slot for a key.
“They must have dead bolted it!” he said.
Both soldiers fired off a few more shots as the zombies reached ten yards of them, the numbers still in the couple of dozen.
“Out the loading dock door!” Mason cried, and they inched forward, continuously shooting as they made their way to the loading dock.
As they grew closer, they saw that several zombies had been attracted to the noise and were now pressed against the opening.
“Fuck, what do we do now?” he demanded.
Hess clenched his jaw and shook his head. “We have to go through them.”
“What?!” Mason cried.
“Get to the front of the store, and we’ll circle around the back,” Hess explained. They squeezed off a few more shots, dropping two more zombies. “Focus your fire on the center of the horde, drop as many as you can, and haul ass.”
Mason swallowed hard, steeling his gaze, and the two men raised their weapons, flashlights illuminating the front line of the two dozen deep horde quickly closing in on them in the corner.
“Now!” Hess yelled, and they opened up in three-round bursts, sending as much lead downrange as they could.
The bullets ripped through the front edge of the mass, dropping several of them and cutting others to shreds, knocking them down.
Hess led them forward, both shooting rapidly as they went, clearing a path through the center of the group. When they got halfway to the door, his gun clicked empty. He clutched it tightly, extending it forward and using it as a battering ram.
He caught one ghoul in the chest, driving it backwards into the others while Mason fired several more shots into the group.
“We’re almost
