“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 to the door!” Hess yelled, as the zombie he was pushing grabbed his arm, frantically snapping with its teeth to get a bite. He flung it side to side in an attempt to avoid the teeth.
Mason rushed up, lowering his shoulder and bashing into the last group of two zombies by the door. The impact sent them staggering backwards through the door and into the store. His momentum carried him forward through the door, and he stumbled before catching himself and whirling around.
Hess finally managed to throw his attacker to the ground and smash its face in, turning just in time to see a zombie leap on Mason’s back, sending him face first into the linoleum. Hess drew his handgun and fired at the two zombies converging on his partner’s position, tearing towards his fallen friend.
He grabbed it by the back of the shirt, but the ghoul managed to bite into Mason’s shoulder, taking a chunk of him with it as Hess ripped it from his friend’s back. He put the barrel to its head, watching it savor every bite of his companion’s flesh before he blew its brain apart.
Hess looked down at Mason to help him up, but the blood poured out of him, the bite close enough to his neck that he struggled for breath, gurgling blood.
Hess scrubbed his hands down his face, brain still trying to process what had just happened. Moans erupted from the loading dock and he shook his head, snapping back to business at the looming threat of death.
“I’m sorry, man,” he said, and swallowed hard before placing the barrel of his handgun on the back of Mason’s head and pulling the trigger, setting him to rest. It was an undignified death, and Hess couldn’t fight off the guilt washing over him, but he had no choice. He couldn’t allow Mason to suffer at the hands of the zombies still here, and he couldn’t risk a runner tearing free.
He dug into his fallen friend’s pocket and grabbed the keys, slipping them into his own, and readied his assault rifle, slamming in a fresh mag and holding up his flashlight to illuminate any target he could find.
He moved swiftly through the store, coming around the corner into the center aisle and seeing several ghouls milling about. His first instinct was to light them up, to make them pay for the death of his partner, but he thought better of it. The less noise and wastage of bullets, the better.
One of the creatures turned towards him, attracted by the light, and began shambling in his direction. Hess let out a huff and kept moving. He moved through the front half of the store, gun at the ready, but pocketed the flashlight as he got closer to the front glass with the sunlight pouring in.
There were a dozen or so zombies near the registers, and another few dozen just outside the front door, attracted to the rumbling of the truck just to the left of the entrance. Hess tried to plot a course through, but none of them looked viable as there were just too many zombies by the front entrance.
I have to signal whoever is driving to get out of the way, he thought, and looked around. There was a register just across from him with two ghouls standing next to it. If I can get over there, I might be able to get his attention.
He drew his knife, knowing he’d have to be quiet about it. He waited for the zombies to look in the other direction and then darted out. He rushed over
