He managed to keep a hold of his knife, miraculously, scrabbling as he slid down the windshield on his belly. A rotted hand grabbed his ankle, and he kicked and flailed, hands squeaking against the car as he struggled to get back up on top.
There was a hard thump as Dante landed on the roof, the vehicle bowing under the impact. He grabbed Ace’s arm and heaved, dragging his body up on top of the car. The zombie came with him, but at least its mouth wasn’t within biting distance, and Dante fired once with his handgun to end the creature.
Ace disengaged the ghoul’s grip and got to his feet carefully, the two of them standing back to back on the car.
“We should be able to take the last of ‘em out from this one, but if not we’ll make the jump down the next two,” Dante said, and the redneck nodded.
“Thanks, man,” he said.
“Anytime,” Dante replied, and then swung down, stabbing a zombie.
Ace followed suit, vigor renewed after his adrenaline-fueled near death, and soon there were only three zombies left, struggling to clamber over their fallen pack.
Dante bent his knees and then jumped, his feet hitting the lead one in the chest, knocking it back into its companions. Ace slid down the back of the car and joined him in lunging down to stab the zombies before they could struggle to their feet.
Once finished, the two men stood and admired their pile of bodies, more than a little shell-shocked at how the whole thing had gone down.
At the sound of a door slamming, they turned towards Brandt, who was shaking his head, face pale. “We gotta get out of here,” he said.
Ace rolled his eyes. “Plans don’t change just cause a few zombies show up,” he drawled. “We still gotta take out those QXR assholes.”
“Did the one that reanimated have his gun on him?” Dante asked, inclining his head to the SUV.
“They took it,” Ace replied, shaking his head. “We going back into town, then?”
The larger man nodded. “We’ll have to get to the bike, once we take care of these guys,” he suggested.
“Good call,” Ace agreed, and pocketed his knife, keeping his shotgun at the ready.
As the trio came up to the main road, the sound of squealing tires rose in the air, and they pressed themselves against a building on the corner. A bullet exploded the brick above their heads, and they ducked and dove.
Brandt and Ace lunged behind a dumpster, while Dante darted around the corner. He spotted an SUV skidding out, having spotted him and in the process of turning around. He ran full-tilt across the road and into an alleyway, coming face to face with a pack of five zombies.
They shrieked when they spotted him, but he didn’t let it faze him, simply dropped his shoulder and took a run. He slammed into the first ghoul’s torso, pushing off of the ground so that it flew back into its brethren. He fired twice, hitting one in the face and another in the throat, and then ran overtop of them, using a chest as a stepping stone to leap clear of the writhing group.
Once on the other side, he tore down the alley and hung a right, skidding at the sight of a thick copse of corpses. He darted to the right and clambered up on top of a closed dumpster, just as more shots rang out.
Can’t catch a fuckin’ break, he thought as he whipped around, aiming behind him. There was a blur of black as a mercenary ducked behind a building on the far end. Zombies swarmed the dumpster, reaching up and attempting to grab his ankles. He didn’t like how out in the open he was, but it couldn’t be helped at this point.
If his opponent fired enough times, he hoped that the ghouls would go that way, but he couldn’t count on it.
As soon as a head popped out from around the corner, he fired, missing, but sending the mercenary back behind cover. He chanced looking around to find a way out of his predicament and spotted a ladder across the alley that led up to the roof of one of the main road buildings. He glanced back towards the mercenary, waiting for him to come back.
He didn’t often commiserate on missing an eye, but this was one of those moments when he wished he had more peripheral vision so he could calculate the odds of his jump while also keeping watch on his enemy.
More gunfire echoed from the road, and he hoped that Ace was okay if he was fighting the rest of the QXR goons that had skidded up the main road.
A head popped out from the corner and he fired again, loathe to waste the bullets considering the distance, but it covered him enough that he made the snap decision to make the jump. He backed up against the wall and took a deep breath, running and pushing as hard as he could off of the edge of the dumpster.
A three-round burst whizzed past him, one narrowly missing his nose as he flew through the air. He didn’t flinch for fear of missing the ladder and managed to grab onto a rung with one hand. He maniacally shoved his gun in the back of his pants, next to the shotgun that was slipping down his pant leg and making it difficult to climb. He quickly gripped the rungs as another three-round burst came his way and hooked a foot up as high as he could.
Something gripped his other ankle, and he kicked wildly, booting a zombie in the face.
A few ghouls from the pack tore off in the direction of the gunman, and the mercenary focused his fire on them, giving Dante an opening to try to
