Calvin turned towards the entrance of the store so they could escape the mall proper.
“Gonna have to hose those things down when we get back,” Zion said, facing front again, “but they’re in one piece.” He checked his watch. “And we still have two hours,” he said.
Calvin shook his head in disbelief. “Holy shit, we might actually pull this off.”
“We just gotta hope your lady is up to the challenge,” Zion said with a smirk.
His friend laughed. “I’d put a lot more money on that than us pulling off what we just did.”
Zion joined in and shook his head. “Ain’t that the damn truth.”
CHAPTER FIVE
Mateo watched Fingers climb up the fire escape ladder on the single story building on the corner. The building was large, covering the entire top of the block, reaching both streets with zombies congregating at the end.
Once Fingers was up, he motioned to Mateo, who picked up a large metal pole from the ground and handed it up to him.
“Okay,” Fingers stage-whispered down to him. “Which side do you want to start on?”
Mateo looked around before motioning to the right, the street furthest from the hotel.
Fingers nodded. “Remember to duck at the alley so you don’t get hit by shrapnel,” he said.
Mateo nodded and gave him a less than enthusiastic thumbs up, clearly not thrilled with the plan. But there was nothing else to be done. He had a job.
He peeked around the corner, seeing about eighty zombies standing a hundred yards down. A few of them were banging on a small business door, leading him to believe that at one time someone had been alive in there.
Okay, this is easy, he thought to himself. Just jog down, clank your blades together, and waltz back to cover… surely the seven-fingered man knows what he’s doing. He sighed, realizing his life was in the hands of a man who needed to use both hands to pick up a glass of water.
A moment later, a light whistle came from the top of the building, signaling that Fingers was ready. Mateo burst out from cover and began jogging towards the horde, pulling out his long knife and cleaver as he grew closer.
The bulk of the zombies were focused on the building, a small mom-and-pop shop, with a trio of creatures on the outer rim of the mass, about ten yards away. With the nearest ghouls focused on the horde, Mateo came up silently behind them, swinging the cleaver and taking the head clean off of the first one before quickly stabbing the next one in the side of the head with his knife.
The noise of the falling bodies alerted the third one, but before it could cry out it took a cleaver to the face. While it wasn’t too loud, the crumpling of rotted flesh hitting the pavement peeled a few more zombies from the mass. They shambled forwards, clearing a few yards before their moans really started to amplify.
Well, if they’re going to line up for me, then I’m going to take them out, Mateo thought to himself, and waited for the first creature to reach him. He lashed out quickly with his knife, directly into the ghoul’s eye. Two more creatures came up, staggered a couple feet apart, and Mateo delivered another swing of his cleaver, slicing through the top part of its skull.
The moans and bodies hitting the ground alerted a dozen or so zombies, who had begun to move in his direction. Rather than continue the fight, he slowly began to back up, with the one remaining breakaway zombie keeping pace.
Mateo surveyed the situation. A pack of a dozen behind the lone zombie, with a gap between them and the rest of the horde.
Shit, he thought, they need to be bunched up more if that bomb is going to be effective.
Mateo continued to backpedal, glancing over his shoulder to keep track of his location and potential threats. The alley was now twenty yards behind him, and coming up quickly, the zombies still spread out.
Mateo glanced up on top of the roof, seeing Fingers standing there, waiting with the bomb attached to the end of the metal pole. He flicked his lighter a couple of times, letting him know he was ready to roll.
Mateo nodded and lunged forward, coming at the main breakaway zombie. He grabbed the beast by the shirt and shoved it back towards the dozen, causing a few of them to stumble, allowing the rest of the horde to catch up to them, though eight creatures still remained broken away.
Gonna have to do, he thought to himself, and jogged back to the alley.
“You think you can handle that tiny group?” Fingers called down to him.
Mateo looked down the alley, about six feet wide, butting up against another building that ran the entire length of the block. About two-thirds of the way down was a large dumpster that had been flipped over on its side, blocking the route to the next street.
“Yeah,” he replied, “you just make sure you take those things out, though. I can handle eight. Eighty is another story.”
Fingers gave him a thumbs up. “You just make sure you’re clear of the street,” he reminded him.
Mateo continued to stand at the entrance to the alley, waiting for the eight creatures to close in on him. When they were ten yards away, he slowly backed into the alley, readying his weapons. As he backed up, Fingers lit the fuse on the pole bomb and began to extend it off the corner of the building, positioning it over the edge of the next building, dipping it down so it was right beside the wall.
Mateo made it about halfway down the alley, zombies in pursuit, making sure he was clear of the blast. The first ghoul lunged towards him, and he stabbed it in the face with his knife, dropping it. The next two creatures were almost on top of each other, climbing on the
