Calvin rubbed his forehead and offered her a reassuring smile. “Might be the first time I’ve ever avoided trouble in my life,” he said.
“Explains why you and my little brother get along so well,” she quipped, and they shared a quick chuckle. She squeezed his shoulder and then the duo hopped through the hole.
They darted across the street, reaching the first house and moving slowly along the wall to the corner. Calvin peered around it, seeing a few creatures about forty yards up near the road, wandering towards the noise at the gate.
The sniper tapped his companion on the arm, motioning for him to follow across the street to the next house. As they reached the corner, Calvin looked to the left, seeing a couple of creatures lumbering towards them.
“Mateo,” he murmured.
His partner stepped up, cleaving the side of one ghoul’s skull before quickly stabbing the other one in the face. As quickly as it had begun, the fight was over and they were both down, without a single peep or snarl.
Calvin blinked with appreciation. “We live through this,” he said, “and you’re gonna have to teach me how to do that.”
“With pleasure,” Mateo replied with a grin. “Just don’t ask for my grandmother’s tamale recipe.”
Calvin scoffed. “Shit man, I’d be like a teenage boy with a porn star,” he said. “Wouldn’t know what to do with it even if I had it!”
They reached the next corner and peered down the road, seeing several zombies coming up from the bridge.
“Hope we’re not too late,” Calvin murmured. He crept across to the next street and into the yard, coming up to the next house. They did a quick sweep, not seeing any zombies in the immediate area. Across the street was a dead end, thick woods that would eventually lead to the river.
The two took a deep breath in tandem, simultaneously hoping that the coast would be clear to the bridge. They broke out from cover and ran up the road, staying just off of it on the grass, hoping to muffle their footsteps.
As they approached the main road, they ducked down behind a tree as another group of a dozen or so zombies lumbered past towards the camp. They stayed silent, hoping and praying that nothing else followed them up. Luckily, once the lumbering throng moved out of their line of sight, nothing else appeared to be following them.
They rushed out onto the main road, pausing at the corner to scan the area. To the right towards the camp were several groups of zombies, moving up, attracted by the noise. To the left it was mostly clear to the bridge, where a makeshift blockade of cars kept a lot of creatures at bay. It was about four blocks away, and easily fifteen creatures stood between them at the front edge of the cars.
Wendy’s camp had tried their best to barricade the bridge using the cars at one point, but it was only minimally successful. There were still some gaps that were filled with sheet metal, but those had been broken through, presumably by some of the horde at the gate. From their vantage point, they couldn’t see how many were waiting for them on the bridge.
“Let’s blow past these fuckers, knock them down if you have to, and we’ll deal with them on the way back,” Calvin whispered.
Mateo nodded in agreement, and the sniper looked through his scope towards the bridge. About forty yards past a bread delivery truck in the center of the road, he spotted the target vehicle with the pizza delivery sign on top. He moved over to let his companion have a look.
“That’s your target,” he said quietly. “I’m going to get up on that delivery truck and provide you cover. You get in there, light it up, and get the fuck out. You with me?”
Mateo gave him a thumbs up, and they readied themselves to spring. The duo darted out into the road, running full speed ahead towards the bridge and the zombies standing in their way.
They split up, each taking one side of the road, ducking and running past the creatures that clumsily reached out for them. Calvin approached two of the ghouls near the delivery truck, and lowered his shoulder, plowing into one of them, sending it to the ground.
He used the butt of his rifle to smash the second one in the face, and when it fell he leapt onto the trunk of a sedan next to his target. He clambered up onto the roof and threw his rifle over his shoulder, jumping and grabbing the top of the delivery truck. He struggled to pull himself up, but with a heaving groan, managed to haul his body on top of the truck.
He didn’t waste any time dropping a knee, drawing his weapon, and refocusing on the pizza sign. As he scanned, he saw three zombies huddled around the car, so he took careful aim and fired. One by one, the creatures’ heads exploded, splattering nearby windshields with crimson goo. After taking out the immediate threat, he looked past the vehicle, and his blood ran cold.
“Mother of god,” he breathed.
Between the bomb going off and the constant stream of gunshots, thousands of zombies had been attracted to the noise. Slowly, they navigated their way across the densely packed bridge, breaking through the makeshift barricades just from their sheer numbers. The weight of their mass was too great.
The front edge of the horde was close to thirty yards from the target car. Calvin immediately took aim at one of the lead creatures, hoping that if he dropped enough of the rotted undead they’d stumble up their brethren and buy Mateo precious seconds.
“You’re gonna have to haul ass, brother,” he muttered to himself.
Meanwhile, Mateo did just that. He ran as hard as he could towards the delivery car, picking one of the center aisles and pumping his legs. He could hear Calvin firing at a rapid pace, and the situation worried him.
Oh god,
