Ellie was thinking something very important and that was that they weren’t running fast enough. She didn’t like doing it and knew it was very irresponsible. She slowed down not asking for permission, no one was in charge of her and when they had a good twenty feet on her she pulled a grenade from her pocket, pulling the pin, and tossed it as high in the air behind her shoulder as she could, then turned on the gas, pumping her arms, feeling the gun bouncing on her side. Her legs burned as she pushed, and her stomach was rolling as she thought about what was happening and how she had but only a few more seconds.
Ellie yelled, “Don’t slow down, move faster! I threw a grenade!”
Joe wasn’t sure he heard her right and saw the small object in the air. It was coming down and he realized that he knew exactly what she had just said, it was definitely a grenade. He let the kids go in front of him, hoping if there was any sort of shrapnel that it would hit him and not take out one of the kids. Any time that he needed to go on a call related to that of a baby, kid, or teen it broke his heart. He knew most of the time it was the environment that he had to deal with and the way kids were brought up that was the worst. Ellie looked behind her seeing the grenade bounce once before the dirt beneath their feet became all that she could see.
The Turned who had been racing on their hands and feet, sprinting as long and hard as they could, were instantly thrown off balance. The Turned didn’t have many lost to the blast, but some were tossed to the sides. Having pieces of it, however small, shooting in every which direction could prove useful. The dead fell to the ground, trying to get up, unable to and confused as to why. The Turned didn’t realize that they no longer had the necessary items to be able to stand again.
Ellie tried not to smile. She knew there wasn’t any chance of getting all of them at once. Her biggest issue that she was dealing with at the moment was she could not hear and it was messing with her ability to run a straight line and was pretty sure her equilibrium wasn’t doing awesome at the moment. Ellie looked like she was going to fall flat on her face, and once she saw the ground giving out, she felt an arm that was not joking around keep her up on her feet and in one more solid movement she was up on a shoulder. She could tell by the size of legs and the football jersey that it was Joey. Joey didn’t slow down; he'd put on pounds of muscle over the last year, utilizing the Olympic style gym that Camp Dodge offered. Ellie was going to yell at Joey to put her down, but she trusted him with her life because he’d proven himself multiple times.
He raced past Joe and Yassa who both stopped firing off shots after they dropped the first ten who were in their way. The Turned were doing their normal run when they were trying to be as fast as possible; they looked more like wolves sprinting than humans.
When they took out those that were in front, they started sprinting again. Their lead was definitely shrinking with every leap of the Turned. When they got within ten feet of the door, they started worrying that they were just onlookers and not going to be helpers. When all hope was lost, two steel doors opened and a terrified group was standing looking like they weren’t sure about letting these complete strangers inside of the building.
They ran far past the door, not stopping until they were safe. They turned around guns up and ready to start squeezing triggers. A kid that looked like he shouldn’t even have been in high school was slamming the doors shut and attached a bar with two discs to each side. The strange objects began making a humming noise and the kid leapt into the air holding his arms up in the air. He had to shake the red curly hair from his face. The boy was pretty sure that he was going to be shot. He was doing his best to hold his bladder but having a gun pointed at him was a new and unenjoyable experience for sure.
“Don’t shoot, please. I’m not a zombie, don’t shoot me! I opened the door!”
Joe in about as much of a veteran police officer tone as possible yelled, “Get your asses out of the way, now! The dead are coming from the courtyard. They’ll be here any minute. Get out of the way before those damn things come through that door, move now!”
“That door isn’t moving, sir. Just stop pointing that gun at me, please. I don’t like guns looking this way...like when they are pointing in my direction.”
“Then step to the side, idiot, we aren’t going to take any more stupid chances.”
The boy walked over to the side slowly. He laughed, not thinking about how he might be coming off as rude or a smartass. He said, “If you’re in Des Moines at Drake then you’ve already taken some stupid chances.”
A girl who did look like she belonged in college said, “Pete, just get out of the way. Do you want to get shot?”
He was going to say something but realized maybe he just needed to get out of the way. He could prove to the new people that he was correct once the freaks outside didn’t make it in.
