He swung his cleaver from up high, blunt edge down. The metal weapon cracked the top of the skull of the first creature, and Mateo quickly swung back up, catching his partner underneath the chin, cutting straight through the front part of its face.
He continued to back up as the five remaining zombies navigated the alley and fallen creatures. Mateo grew tense, expecting a large boom to rattle his teeth, but it didn’t come. He glanced up and saw Fingers shaking the pole frantically, but no boom.
Mateo’s attention was refocused quickly when the moan of a zombie grew very loud directly in front of him. He snapped back just in time to face a creature lunging at him, forcing him to react by instinct. He dropped his cleaver and grabbed the zombie by the shirt, shoving it hard against the wall before jamming his knife through the bottom of its jaw.
As it fell, he ducked down and grabbed the cleaver, just as another creature closed in. Mateo glanced back to see he was only ten yards away from the dumpster blockage, so he shoved the lead creature back as hard as he could, giving him some space. As it fell, he knocked down the next couple of zombies, giving him a view of the top of the alley.
The main horde was there, beginning to filter in.
“Fingers!” Mateo bellowed. “What the fuck, man?!” He looked up to see Fingers pulling the pole back up towards him.
As the bomb got close to the building, he cut the cord on it, dropping it to the ground below. He pulled out the small bomb and lit the fuse on it before throwing it down into the alley.
Mateo panicked a bit, seeing a lit bomb headed in his direction, eyes wide.
“Twenty second fuse!” Fingers yelled. “Small yield!”
Mateo realized what he was doing as the bomb clanged on the pavement between him and the oncoming zombies. He dashed forward, picking it up and tossing it underhand towards the closest zombies, rolling it just past them. He immediately turned tail and rushed back towards the dumpers, tossing his blades up on top before quickly pulling himself up.
As he reached the top, the mini-bomb went off.
The echo of the blast in the alleyway was deafening, stunning Mateo momentarily. The bomb ripped through several creatures, sending blood and body parts flying through the air. Mateo grabbed his blades and rolled off of the dumpster, landing with a thud on the ground.
“Stay behind the dumpster and keep it in place!” Fingers yelled down to him.
Mateo nodded and watched as his rooftop companion secured another big bomb to the pole. He quickly lit it and lowered it into the alley, which was quickly filling with zombies. Mateo startled when the dumpster began to move due to the weight of the monsters on the other side, so he quickly pushed back.
He strained against it, trying to keep the barricade in place, hoping that this next bomb wasn’t a dud as well.
“Come on, come on, come on,” he muttered, the words like a prayer.
The bomb detonated with a blast exponentially louder than the smaller one, metal clanging like bullets ricocheting off of the dumpster. He flinched when several bits of the shrapnel crashed into the ground behind him.
The weight on the dumpster vanished, and he relaxed his shoulders, looking up at Fingers. The man on the roof glanced down into the alley and nodded. He looked over at Mateo and gave a thumbs up, prompting him to climb back up onto the dumpster.
The carnage was horrific, with dozens of bodies ripped to shreds in the alley, looking like they’d been pureed with a blender. Some of them continued to move, writhing around despite having no proper limbs to do anything with.
“I’ll go ahead and tell you right now,” Mateo said, motioning to the zombie stew, “I ain’t cleaning this up.”
Fingers chuckled, and then moans sounded at the mouth of the alley. There were a dozen creatures down there still remaining, excited to get to Mateo. They slipped as they stepped into the carnage, unable to stay standing as they attempted to shamble through the slick debris.
“They’ll be fine there,” Fingers said, “we need to worry about the other street.”
Mateo nodded and hopped down from the dumpster. He readied his blades as he approached the corner, peering out down the street. He was relieved to see that this group was smaller, about forty zombies or so, and they were all moving as a single unit, no doubt attracted by the bomb.
They were still about fifty yards away, and closing in. Mateo jumped when Fingers started talking, having moved just above him.
“This group shouldn’t be too bad,” he said.
Mateo shook his head. “That’s what we thought about the last group, so let’s not get ahead of ourselves.”
“Yeah, sorry about that,” Fingers replied, scratching the back of his head.
“What the hell happened?” Mateo asked, raising an eyebrow.
His rooftop companion shrugged. “It was just a dud, man, they happen from time to time,” he explained. “But don’t worry, they don’t happen that often.”
“Well, if it’s all the same to you,” Mateo began, pointing a finger at the street, “I’ll wait for you to take out this group from the comfort of the main road up there. My days of luring shit down alleys is over and done with.”
Fingers chuckled and nodded. “Don’t blame you one bit,” he agreed. “Just don’t go too far, because I’ll need you on mop up duty once this thing goes off.”
Mateo gave him a thumbs up before making his way to the top of the street. He glanced back at the horde, thirty yards and closing slowly. “After taking out your friends, you ain’t gonna be nothing,” he muttered.
When he reached the top of the street, he looked back to see Fingers extending the bomb out of the crowd. He took cover behind the wall, resting comfortably against it, waiting for the blast to shred them.
