Allen raised his rifle and sighted down the barrel, adjusting for the awkwardness of the night-vision monocle. His first shot missed, and he cursed at himself, as the expelled gas from his rifle hissed in the night. "Shit, missed."
He sighted again, making a few small adjustments. He squeezed the trigger, and the Annie's head exploded, its body falling into the snow. The sound of metal blades breaking bones rang in his ears, but he focused on his job. The woman stumbled again, and he lined up another shot, squeezing the trigger. He had it down now. He dropped another Annie, giving the woman the time and space she needed to get to her feet.
She passed behind a tree, cutting off his line of sight. He turned to Brown and Epps and said, "We gotta move." Then he was running again, ignoring the bodies lying in the snow. They moved through a copse of trees in front of an office building, and he finally caught sight of the woman in the distance. So far, she hadn't noticed them off to her right. It was too dark for her to see very far without a NOD like his own.
She was moving again, and the dead bubbled along behind her. He scanned the tail that trailed after her, a line of shambling monstrosities of every shape and size, some tall, some fat, some things that used to be children. He didn't have ammunition for all of them, so he picked and chose the targets close to her.
He heard the grunt of Epps as he chopped down another Annie. He fired again—another hit.
"We gotta move," Brown said.
Allen turned his head, scanning his surroundings. Their own tail had caught up to them.
"Alright, let's sprint around that building," he said, pointing to a large square warehouse, "come out on the other side, and see what we can do." They ran again, their bodies and legs rested from their brief halt in the action. It was slower going now that they were off the broken snow trail. He pushed through shin-deep snow, scanning the way ahead. He felt the time now. Every second he didn't have eyes on the woman felt like an eternity. He shoved an Annie out of the way as he passed. Brown and Epps took a wide circle around it, not willing to waste time and energy until it was needed.
They rounded the corner, and Allen's breath caught in his throat. The woman stumbled backward through the snow, fending off the grasp of an Annie that had closed on her. He took sight immediately, not even pausing to think. He squeezed the trigger, hoping that the muzzle flash didn't alert the dead to their location. His breathing was faster now. It had messed up his shot. Instead of taking off the damn thing's head, his shot had exploded in the Annie's shoulder. The woman looked in their direction, searching, though she couldn't see anything. She knew they were out there now.
"Keep fighting, dammit," he muttered as he lined up another shot, trying to slow his breathing enough to keep his aim true. He squeezed off another round as the woman fell backward. The Annie fell on her, but it was still. He watched as she tried to push the body off of her and regain her feet. But then he didn't have time to watch, as more of the dead closed on her position. He feathered the trigger of his M4, dropping the dead a few feet in front of the woman. The snow around the bodies was covered in black ink stains.
He was out of rounds for the rifle. He ejected the magazine and placed it in his pocket. Then he slapped another one in. The woman finally extricated herself from underneath the dead Annie, and she got to her feet. She looked over in their direction briefly, and then she took off running.
"She's on the move," Allen said before lowering his rifle. He looked at Epps and Brown, just a quick visual confirmation that they were alright. He saw their own tail getting within the danger zone, an imaginary five-foot zone that set alarms ringing in Allen's head. "Let's go."
They picked up the pace, moving through the snow to catch up with the running woman. Allen alternated between keeping an eye on the woman in the distance and keeping an eye on the path they were running. Their path wasn't as smooth as the woman's as she was on a street. Their own path meandered through parking lots and the industrial green spaces that surround a line of office buildings on that road. Trees broke their path and the occasional fence.
As they hopped a chain-link fence that separated two parking lots, he breathed a small sigh of relief. The fence could cut off their tail and give them more breathing room. After he took the time to climb over the fence, he looked for the woman. She had gained some ground on them. He scanned in front of her, and he said, "Uh-oh." The woman was running right into a wall of the dead. They were on the move, meaning they were alerted to the woman's presence.
He rushed forward, closing the distance between himself and the wall of Annie's. If he didn't thin them out, the woman was going to get crushed between her tail and the dead ahead of her.
"What do you mean, uh-oh?" Brown asked.
"Got trouble," he said. He tried to slow his breathing, taking deep breaths. His heart pounded in his ear. This was going to be difficult. One, two, three. The woman looked in his direction again, but she was able to move forward and through the wall of the dead until one of them grabbed one of the straps of her backpack.
"Son
