They nodded. Katie smiled. She liked killing the dead.
"I'll stick to your back," Katie told Dez. The woman with the haunted eyes nodded back at her.
To Joan, Mort said, "Joan, you stick with me. If I gotta carry you and Tammy out of here, I'll do it. But it'll be much easier if you can keep up with me."
Joan nodded. She bounced up and down nervously, her spear/crutch gripped tightly in her hands. She would have given anything for two fully functioning legs at that moment.
"I'm dizzy," Tammy said as she hung upside down from Mort's shoulder.
Liz and Theresa began tossing aside the old furniture that they used to barricade the front door. The last thing to move was the desk. As soon as it was halfway out of the way, the dead pushed the door open.
Their gray hands pawed at the air, and Katie fired, dropping the first one in the door. Dez dropped another with her handgun. The dead came in a never-ending wave, and for a while, the front room of the ranger house was a pit of thundering gunfire. Gunsmoke filled the tiny space, swirled by the draft that rushed through the building. Bodies dropped, and more of the dead climbed over, crushing the corpses underneath.
The survivors were forced to retreat, and still, the dead came on.
"We're not getting out of here," Mort groaned, trying to find any way to escape the ranger station. He hefted the hammer in his hand, and then he turned to go to the back of the building. He stood in the hallway, the dead still struggling to pull the boards free in the room to his right. He looked straight ahead, at the dry boards in front of him. He set Tammy on the ground, and she groaned, her hands going to the stitches in her belly. Mort took a deep breath, the gunfire raging behind him, and he charged forward.
He knew what he was doing was stupid, that there was no way that he was going to burst through the wooden boards at the end of the hallway. Most likely, he would bounce off and fuck up his shoulder again, and then Tammy would really be fucked because he didn't think any of the others could carry her, and she certainly couldn't walk on her own. But there was no other choice. He hit the boards, and instead of bouncing off, his shoulder plowed through with a loud crack. He stepped back and looked at the hole he had made.
He immediately set about kicking the splintered boards and making them wider.
"I got a way out!" Mort yelled. "Back here!"
With the hole made, he turned and picked up Tammy off the ground.
"I hate you," she said weakly. But Mort didn't have time for any of that noise. He rushed through the hole he had made at the back of the ranger station, the jagged wood digging furrows on his arms as he slid through, even through the thick cloth of his military jacket.
Then he was out into the day, breathing fresh air for the first time in four days. He moved forward, looking from side to side. The dead were coming from around the sides of the ranger station.
Joan came out next, moving quickly but gingerly in the snow, unsure of its depth. Mort swung his hammer at one of the dead that came around the corner. "Keep going," he told Joan.
She did as she was told, and the next person out was Dez. Once Dez was out, she backpedaled, thumbing rounds into her rifle from a pocket on her jacket. Then came Liz and Theresa. Katie was the last one to appear. Mort had to clobber two more of the dead that rounded the corner as Katie took her time killing the dead in the ranger station.
"Let's go, Katie!" Mort called.
Katie turned and burst from the ranger station, and like that, they were out into the compound. Mort spun and assessed their situation. They would have to work across the circle of trailers to make it to the break, or they could rush the guard post and drop down from there. There was a wall of the dead between them and the opening between the trailers, so he chose the guard post. "Get to the guard post!"
They ran then, Mort chugging along with his hammer in his hand and Tammy slung over his shoulder. Joan hopped as best she could, her teeth grinding against each other as she pushed her gimp leg to the point of agony. Dez kept close to her. Theresa and Liz cleared the way up front, while Katie brought up the rear, gleefully killing the dead.
They clomped up the wooden steps, the gaggle of the dead swirling after them.
"Let's be quick! Theresa shouted from the top of the guard post. She had seen the dead milling about in the woods. They were still coming, and if they didn't get over the wall fast, they would be surrounded in no time.
Mort leaned Tammy up against the railing. She swooned there like she was drunk, but he could tell she was a result of a combination of pain and weakness. "I'm gonna climb down. Y'all lower her down to me."
He didn't wait to hear whether they would or not. There wasn't time to doublecheck anything. They were in a full-steam-ahead situation. To do anything else would mean their own death.
Mort landed deftly among the snow and the dead bodies, thankful that he hadn't twisted an ankle. They were already moving slow as it was.
He heard the sound of Katie's rifle as she fired off more shots. Theresa and Liz lifted Tammy like she was a piece of firewood. Putting their hands underneath her shoulders, she dangled there, and Mort
