“Ain’t gonna be fun,” he admitted, “but I think I can pull it off.” He lowered his gun and turned to his companion.
Kowalski nodded. “Good,” he said. “That’s what I want you to do then. Get up on top and start causing a ruckus.”
“What about the northern position?” Martin asked.
Kowalski pointed to two of the kneeling men. “I want you two to handle that.”
Private Hurley spoke up from beside them. “That’s gonna leave us mighty thin for the main target,” he declared. “Especially when we have two fronts to cover.”
“True,” Kowalski agreed, “but if we try to cross that sea of death without diversions, we’re gonna be a whole lot thinner.”
Hurley nodded in defeat. “Heard that,” he agreed.
“How far up do you want us?” one of the snipers asked, getting to his feet.
Kowalski contemplated for a few moments, looking at the interstate and picking the crossing point. There was a spot about two hundred yards up from the edge of the parking lot, a short climb up a hill that led to the freeway.
“Two blocks,” he said. “Find whatever structure you can get on top of, and start firing.”
“What’s your ETA?” Wade asked them as they nodded. “Don’t wanna start firing too early.”
One of the snipers shrugged. “If we’re not firing consistently within ten minutes,” he replied, “there’s a good chance the shots you do hear will be our last.”
“Ten minutes it is, then,” Wade replied, clapping him on the shoulder.
Kowalski looked around at the group. “Okay, we good?” he asked, and when there was no response, he raised a fist. “All right, let’s move.”
The two snipers headed off towards the north, and Wade tore off for the shopping center. He stayed low as he moved across the field. The moonlight wasn’t exceptionally bright, and while that was difficult for him to see where he was going, it provided him some cover at least.
After a bit, he reached the end of the field, taking a knee in the grass to get a look at the situation. The ladder was forty yards directly in front of him, with half a dozen zombies shambling about. To the left, fifteen ghouls hung out by a door about forty yards away, and to the right was the dumpster with about ten more monsters twenty yards past it.
Gonna have to go silent, Wade thought to himself, at least initially.
He pulled out a knife and unlatched the holster on his handgun, just in case. He focused in on the closest zombie that was directly in front of the ladder. He darted out from cover, using the soft ground to muffle his footsteps as he quickly closed the gap. He slowed to a cautious pace as soon as he hit the pavement.
The first zombie had its back to him, making the kill easy. He shoved the blade into the base of its skull, catching the creature as it fell. He gently laid it on the ground to the left of the ladder.
The other creatures milled about aimlessly, not alerted to his presence just yet. He turned his attention to the duo between him and the dumpster. They were close together, about three yards apart, looking away from him. He silently moved up, but his toe kicked a rock that skittered across the asphalt.
Shit, he thought, freezing.
The two closest zombies heard and turned around, immediately opening their mouths to moan. Answering moans erupted from behind him as well.
“Fuck it,” Wade muttered and sheathed his knife, pulling his handgun. He popped off two quick rounds into the zombies by the dumpster. This set off a chorus of moans in both directions, so he rushed the bin and threw his weight into it.
It picked up speed, and he rammed it into a trio of ghouls headed his way. The front edge of the dumpster popped up in the air as it rolled over a rotted corpse. He pushed as hard as he could to make sure the back end cleared the obstruction.
The bin cleared the body, and he gave the metal beast a shove, stopping dead in his tracks to pop a bullet into the speed bump’s head. He looked over at the two other zombies that had been knocked down, struggling to get to their feet. He aimed for a second but then quickly changed course, running towards the dumpster and pushing it against the wall by the ladder.
As the zombies closed the gap, Wade jumped up onto the bin, making sure to put the bulk of his weight onto the frame rather than the dumpster lid. With all the extra ammo and food weighing him down, he didn’t want to risk crashing through the doors.
He stood up on the edge and watched the horde of creatures headed his way in both directions. He worked his way carefully around the outer edge of the bin before leaping up and grabbing on to the first exposed rung. He strained as he pulled himself up, using his upper body exclusively until he was able to swing his feet up onto the ladder.
Wade paused for a moment to catch his breath, locking his knee and looking below. Dozens of zombies clustered below, reaching up and moaning. He shook his head and took a deep breath, getting back to his task and climbing the rest of the way up to the roof.
As he hopped over the side, he dropped his heavy bag as he walked to the front of the building, carrying only his rifle. The sight below took his breath away.
“There’s something you don’t see every day,” Wade muttered, and shook his head in disbelief as he gazed at hundreds of zombies. They were easily into the thousands on the interstate, just a sea of rotting
