We began systematically firing at the monsters wanting to kill us because of some evil, ungodly reason we didn't comprehend. Elsie and Marilyn faced away and covered our backs to ensure none of the dirty, rotted horrors sneaked up behind us.
It was after eleven when we finally opened the gate. Vince mashed his way across the few prone corpses with the Peterbilt and semitrailer, and the two pickups and trailers followed. Two shooters kept more zombies from reaching us as we worked to close the gate. Shane and I pushed the gates together and snapped the lock through the heavy chain before we and Kira and Elsie jumped in the trucks and followed Vince away from the life sustaining warehouse.
Slight snow flurries blew as we retraced our route through towns we'd entered the day before. We expected our trip to end on a high note after all the booty we'd found. About thirty minutes from the warehouse we encountered a frightening low note scene. A group of humans ran down a major intersection and crossed directly in front of our trucks. We were only driving thirty MPH, but still barely had time to stop without hitting anyone. Our truck led the convoy and halted in the middle of seven people. The small group was followed by another three figures two-hundred feet away. Behind them ran a group of at least twenty zombies that were maybe thirty feet behind them and closing fast.
We bailed out of the three vehicles and ran to the people in front of us. They appeared to be as afraid of us as they were of the zombies. I gave the area a cursory inspection and saw more zombies in the opposite direction a full block from us.
The other three people about to be caught appeared to be elderly. They struggled to hobble along and steadily lost ground to the zombies with every short step they managed. As we watched all three were brought down in quick succession. The pitiful screams rang clear above the ragged noises of the undead.
Our sharpshooters picked off the zombies on the edges of the horde, and then they began shooting anything that moved. The elderly people were done for anyway. When all three were prone and unmoving, I directed Elsie to watch the unfortunate geriatrics for movement. If any even twitched she would blast them again. The rest of us turned to the new threat of zombies approaching from the other side of the intersection. Fast runners streaked ahead of their slower counterparts and were the first to go down as we fired volley after volley. I noticed several of those at the front of the line were full bodied and ran with a curious gait. Through my rifle scope, their eyes appeared bloodshot. Were these newly transitioned bodies that hadn't been dead long enough to rot? Or was a mutation taking place among the undead? It would be a subject for discussion with the leadership committee and a development to monitor closely.
The slow movers continued to advance like a herd of lemmings moving toward the sea. They met their fate against waves of lead until all were cut down.
I looked at the motley crew of strangers, not enthused by what I saw. A youngish man and woman held hands and appeared to be between twenty-five and thirty. Their clothes were ill fitting and dirty and their sunken eyes were dark ringed. They looked like homeless drug addicts. He looked short, five feet four, one-hundred-ten pounds with brown hair and pleasant looking at best. She was a plain looking blonde and tall, maybe five feet ten and one-hundred-thirty pounds.
Next, I focused on two young men around twenty, one Caucasian, the other black. The white man on my right pulled a small revolver from his pants pocket and stepped closer to me. "If any of you try anything, I'll kill this dude." He motioned. "The rifle, hand it to Demetrius and give me that pistol.”
He was clearly thrown off stride as I grinned and smirked but didn't comply. My rifle butt rested on the roadway with the barrel loose in my left hand. Demetrius scurried behind and then around his friend toward me and made a move for my M14. In a flash, I turned to my left and my right hand knocked the revolver aside and down.
The gunman's head exploded, and a gunshot echoed through the tall buildings that rose around us. A surprised Demetrius turned his head toward the source of the shot as two more bullets shattered his skull. I turned and saw all seven of my friends held their Glocks in hand, pointed in my direction.
Ed walked to me as he holstered his handgun. "Thanks for giving me the opportunity to take them out. The dumb shits actually thought they could rob us without a fight after we'd saved their worthless hides." He stooped and picked up the cheap Saturday night special piece of crap revolver. He flipped the cylinder out. "Look at this little nine mil. It's empty. The dumb shit was running a bluff without ammo." He tossed the worthless gun away.
The five new people stood anxiously waiting. Fear etched their faces. A young girl about twenty asked, "Are you going to shoot us too?" Her clothes fit too tight and painted her like a floozy. Ultra short black leather skirt, torn fishnet stockings on pale legs and a ridiculously low cut blouse under an open short winter jacket. Her dyed black hair and extreme makeup
