Brandt rushed over, groaning at the pain in his wounded arm as he knelt down to shove a chunk of wood into the seam of the door. Ace let it go, and it closed a bit, staying about a foot open.
“Let’s go!” the Sheriff said, hopping from foot to foot as the zombies grew closer.
Ace shook his head. “One more,” he said, and fired into the warehouse again to keep the mercenaries pinned and interested.
When the ghouls were about ten yards away, he poked his head into the doorway, and the mercenaries fired, three-round bursts peppering the door. Ace jerked away and tore off with Brandt, leaving the ghouls to pour into the warehouse, drawn by the sound of the gunfire.
Screams erupted from inside, but they didn’t look back, running away from the carnage to what they hoped was safety.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Dante peeked around a corner, spotting a lone SUV in the middle of the road. Two mercenaries backed up against it, aiming at a storefront with shattered windows. By the look of the limp corpses hanging over the sills, it looked like they’d just fought their way out of a massacre.
He hoped to hell that Ace wasn’t a body in that massacre, but by the way the mercenaries seemed to be on guard, he hoped it was because they were still expecting resistance.
“We should go,” one of them said shakily.
The other shook his head. “Bob’s got the keys, man,” he replied, receiving a grunt of frustration in return. “We just gotta guard the car till he gets back.”
“What if he’s already dead?” the first one asked.
“I dunno, man,” the second one admitted.
Dante quietly checked his mag, sighing when he found only one bullet left. With his knife in his left hand, he used his wrist to steady the gun with his right, taking careful aim at the closest one’s head.
After a silent countdown from three, he fired, his bullet finding its mark into the back of the mercenary’s head. The other one reacted with shock, but didn’t raise his gun fast enough before Dante was on him.
He used his assault rifle to block the knife strike, and they wrestled for a moment before their tussle resulted in both weapons flying to the side and clattering against the ground. Rather than dive for them, Dante launched himself on top of the man, shoving him back into the hood of the SUV.
The soldier managed to get a good hit to his face, but he’d had enough of those that day, and grabbed a fistful of the mercenary’s hair, slamming his head down into the hood of the vehicle.
As his skull pinged off of the fiberglass, Dante kneed him in the stomach, knocking the wind out of him.
Before he could lunge down with an elbow strike, the mercenary slammed into him, knocking them both back to the ground. Blows rained down on Dante, and he finally managed to shove him over, rolling them and ending up on top.
He wedged his forearm into the soldier’s throat, holding him down and pinning his body. The mercenary gasped for air as Dante crushed his trachea, his arms flailing, but Dante didn’t let up, taking every hit as they grew weaker and weaker.
After the soldier fell limp, he got off of him and retrieved the assault rifle and the knife. He switched the gun to single-burst mode and put a bullet in the soldier’s head.
Dante wheezed as he looked around, making sure no zombies had come running towards the noise. As he caught his breath, he stabbed each tire of the SUV for good measure, just in case ‘Bob’ was still alive and coming back with the keys.
Wiping a touch of blood from his face, he took off at a slow jog towards the area where they’d left the bike, hoping that Ace would be there.
When he rounded the corner, the redneck was there, with Brandt, who had a strip of fabric crudely tied around his arm, soaked with blood.
“Dante!” Ace exclaimed, letting out a whoosh of breath. “Thank fuck! I was really not looking forward to my sister beating the shit out of me for letting you die.”
Dante rolled his eyes. “My life is not in your hands, man,” he said, and clapped Ace on the shoulder. “Glad you made it. Any more mercs lurking about, do you think?”
The redneck shrugged. “We trapped four of ‘em in a store with a bunch of zombies, so I don’t think they’ll be making it out.”
“Even if they do, I slashed the tires on their last SUV,” Dante replied.
Ace nodded. “Good call, good call,” he said. “I think we’re good. I haven’t heard any gunshots in a while. If any of them are still around, I don’t think they’ll get very far. You look a little worse for wear, man, you okay?”
“I’ve had worse,” Dante said with a half smile. “Not a scratch on you, though.”
“Thanks for caring that I’ve been shot,” Brandt piped up.
Dante raised his eyebrow. “What happened?” he asked. “Finally piss off Ace enough?”
“He tried to sell me out to QXR,” the redneck announced, stifling an amused smile, “but they shot him instead.”
Dante shook his head. “Guess that’s the price you pay for not listening to us,” he said with a shrug. “And after we offered you a safe place, too.”
“There’s no way you were actually going to bring me to a safe place,” the Sheriff snapped, clenching his jaw.
Moans rose in the distance, and Dante looked past him, spotting ghouls down the street, pouring out of an alleyway and heading towards them. Ace lifted the bike, securing his weapons to him and kick starting it.
“We were,” Dante said, refocusing on the red-faced Sheriff, “but now you’ll never know.” He hopped on the back of the bike.
“Wait!” Brandt cried, staggering towards them. “You can’t leave me here! Please!”
“Shouldn’t have tried to sell me out,” Ace snapped, and then hit the throttle, leaving him in
