“I’m empty!” He shouted down the line, looking back and forth for someone to toss him a fresh mag. When no one did he assumed that they were all just about out of ammo. He pulled out his Kimber and started firing single rounds at the zeds, but his shots kept hitting them in the chests and stomach. The iron sights were pretty much useless on the dark roof.
“Here, take my rifle!” Johnny shouted over the booming shots as he stood and handed his rifle off to his friend along with two spare mags.
“Make 'em count!” Johnny shouted as he pulled his pistol and fired into the crowd, not caring where the rounds hit.
“I’m empty!” Two more of the men shouted from the line before pulling out their own pistols and joining Johnny. They had all fired several thousand rounds at this point and Johnny was kind of shocked that there were still more than half of the men and women firing into the rapidly shrinking crowd of zeds. Ten minutes later only three men with rifles remained and around twenty zeds still stood in the street reaching skyward. Roosevelt was one of the three left and he was now firing single shots just as Johnny had been earlier. The group watched as one after another of the zeds fell to the ground with fresh new holes in their skulls. Two more men ran empty leaving Roosevelt to finish the job alone. He continued to fire, taking down a few more of the zeds before his bolt locked back again. He yanked out the spent mag and slammed his last one home. He smacked the bolt release with the palm of his hand, sending a fresh round into the chamber. He dropped back down to a knee and took aim at one of the last remaining zeds. He fired the shot, the bullet ripped through the air hitting the monster square in the nose caving in the things face before exploding out of the back of its head. Finally, after several more shots, Roosevelt took aim at the last remaining zed. He watched it for a long second before Johnny’s voice interrupted his blank thoughts.
“Come on man squeeze the trigger!” Roosevelt made sure the red dot was placed on the gaping hole where the thing's nose used to be. He slowly eased back on the trigger after letting out a deep breath. The rifle bucked and the round smashed into the last zeds forehead sending gray matter splattering all over the lifeless pile of corpses below.
Chapter Twenty-Four
9:03 p.m. January 4th, 2049
Sweetwater, Tennessee
The street below was completely covered with hundreds of bullet riddled corpses. Spent brass layered the roof of the building everyone was still standing on. The last remaining townspeople stood around laughing and enjoying the moment of their victory. Bud waved a hand to quiet them all.
“First of all, I want to thank you all for an outstanding job but at the same time we need to keep our guard up. I don’t know if you noticed but it sounded like world war three out here while we were all taking down the horde. That's sure to get the attention of zeds for miles around so we need to be ready just in case more of them show up.” Bud stated as he glanced around the dark roof.
“We’re all out of rifle and pistol ammo. There is no way in hell we could hold off even twenty of those damn things.” A man with a curly mullet said from the side of the crowd.
“Good point Charlie but the good news is that I’ve still got quite a bit of ammunition in the station. We have all of this brass too.” Bud said kneeling down to grab a handful of the shiny spent cartridges.
“I’ve got everything we need to start reloading. I can set three people up in my basement. If we run them at least 8 hours a day, we’ll have more ammo than we’ll know what to do with.” Bud added.
“We can talk about all of that tomorrow. For now, let’s just get home and rest. Tomorrow is a brand-new day.” The group of people climbed down from the roof and all headed in separate directions. Bud Johnny and Roosevelt stood off to the side discussing where Johnny and Roosevelt would sleep.
“You guys just come on over to my house. I’ll help keep an eye out tonight so we can all three get some rest.” Bud said, heading for the side by side. Johnny and Roosevelt followed and climbed in behind him. Roosevelt got into the small utility bed so Johnny could have room to move around with his injured shoulder. A few minutes later they were walking into Buds home. He showed them around to the bathroom and the kitchen and told them to make themselves at home.
“I’ll take first watch and then wake one of you up in a few hours to take over.” Roosevelt said as he stepped into the kitchen.
“You have coffee?” He asked, looking around the countertops. Bud moved past Johnny.
“Does a bear shit in the woods and wipe his ass with a furry white bunny?” Bud asked with a chuckle. Roosevelt laughed.
“I suppose he probably does.” He said looking at Bud then Johnny while they all three chuckled. The coffee pot started to gurgle and churn sending the sweet smell of the roasted coffee beans into the air making all three of the men salivate.
“Will you help me check this wound before we call it a night?” Johnny asked. Bud nodded.
“Yeah no problem. Get that shirt off and that old dressing while I grab the first aid kit.” Bud said heading down a hall to the bathroom. He came back a few minutes later with a small red duffle full of medical supplies. Johnny pulled a chair out from
