“A loud-ass gunfight in the middle of the zombie apocalypse,” he muttered. “Great fucking idea.”
Dante pulled out his handgun as the footsteps got closer. “This could work to our advantage,” he said quietly. “Just have to be careful.”
As he’d anticipated, panic fire erupted from behind the SUV, as the remaining mercenaries fired on the approaching zombies.
Dante peeked up over the hood and was simultaneously thankful and filled with dread at the twenty-strong horde descending on their enemies. A few fell, but the rest swarmed a limping soldier, sending the last one tearing off towards down, leaving his brother to die screaming.
He put a finger to his lips, signalling to Ace and Brandt to stay quiet, and thankfully, the ghouls took off after the other mercenary once they were done with their meal.
“Let’s get the fuck outta here,” Brandt finally hissed, eyes wide.
Dante shook his head. “No, we need to take out the rest of these mercs,” he said.
“Fuck that!” the Sheriff growled. “We need to get away from those things! Who knows how many are in town?!”
“If they get back to QXR and report that we’re here, this whole area is going to be crawling with mercenaries,” Dante argued. “We need to take them out.”
Brandt shook his head. “Then let’s get out of the area,” he snapped.
“And go where?” Ace demanded.
“Survival of this thing is going to count on sustainability,” Dante added. “We can’t just pack up and leave.” He took a deep breath. “Listen, if you stay and help us, I have a safe place you can go.”
Ace opened his mouth to argue, but Dante put up a hand.
“The family we met at the hardware store,” he said, and the redneck contemplated a moment, finally nodding. “We can get him to them, they’re out of the way enough.”
Brandt threw his hands up. “What family? Let’s just go there now!”
“I’m not going to tell you where they are until you help us get rid of these assholes,” Dante said firmly.
The Sheriff scowled. “Fine,” he snapped. “What’s the plan, then?”
CHAPTER FIVE
There was a low moan from the road, and Ace dashed out from behind the police car, drawing his pocket knife. Before the dead mercenary could fully reanimate, he stabbed it in the head. He looked around, and his heart pounded at the sound of moans rising up nearby.
Dante was the first to spot them, seeing ghouls come around the corner of the station into the parking lot. Brandt fired at them, and the blast hit a zombie in the chest, shredding it but not slowing it down.
He turned tail and ran, despite Dante’s cry of warning, but it didn’t matter anyway, because more zombies came around the other side of the building.
“Back inside!” the Sheriff screamed, running for the door.
Ace lashed out, grabbing his arm and stopping him. “If we go in there we’re stuck there, they’ll swarm the door.”
“Safer than out here!” Brandt argued, jerking his arm away.
Dante clambered up onto the hood of one of the cars, making it up onto the roof.
“You can’t be fucking serious!” Brandt cried, and Ace shook his head.
“Suit yourself, then, but we’re not saving your ass a second time,” the redneck drawled, and jumped up on top of his own police car.
The Sheriff waffled for another second, but the zombies were coming fast. Instead of climbing up on a car, he ran for the SUV, diving inside.
“The tires are flat, idiot!” Ace called, but Brandt didn’t get into the driver’s seat, instead opting to pop up out of the sunroof. He gave Ace the finger, apparently unappreciative of the idiot moniker.
Dante drew his knife, stabbing at one of the ghouls smacking the side of the car he stood atop. There were enough zombies that the vehicle wobbled beneath him, but he was confident at least that it wouldn’t topple over. He hoped.
“Try not to waste bullets,” he called over his shoulder. “We also don’t want to make too much noise and attract too many of these things.”
Brandt scoffed. “As if there aren’t already too many?!” he demanded.
“Looks like we’ll be saving your ass for a second time,” Ace muttered, realizing that if the Sheriff couldn’t shoot, he wouldn’t be able to reach any heads from the sunroof. Unless he hung out one of the windows, but somehow the redneck didn’t foresee that happening. He wasn’t even sure if he had a blade, anyway, since they’d only suited up he and Henson with vests and shotguns.
“Should have grabbed Henson’s gun,” he said, dawning on him they could use the extra weapon.
Dante shook his head as he stabbed another zombie. “We’ll get it after,” he replied.
“After what?” Ace asked, sighing at the sheer number of ghouls surrounding them. “This is a lot bigger than I thought it would be.”
“Me too,” Dante admitted. “But we’re here now.” He continued to stab, as did Ace, but soon another problem arose. As corpses fell around the vehicles, the zombies got taller from being able to stand atop their dead brethren.
“We’re gonna have to move,” Ace said, pursing his lips as he assessed the situation. The last eye socket he’d buried his knife into had gotten him an arm swipe that was far too close for comfort.
“Any room on the other side to jump down the row of cars?” Dante asked, turning around to face him.
“Gonna have to be,” Ace replied, taking a deep breath. He raised his leg and kicked a zombie in the chest, slamming it into a few of its friends. Before he could second-guess himself, he leapt for the next car.
It wasn’t a large gap, only a few feet, but from one slick car roof to another, it seemed more precarious than it should be. When he hit the fiberglass on the other side, Ace’s life flashed before his
