Ace burst out the door, and a mercenary in the alley grabbed him by the throat and shoved him against the brick wall of the adjacent building.
“Got you, motherfucker,” the beast of a man snarled, squeezing the redneck’s throat tightly.
Ace thrashed about, flailing his arms in a vain attempt to break free.
Dante burst out of the door, lowering his shoulder and crashing into the mercenary’s back. The impact sent the large man hurtling face first into the wall, smashing his nose into the brick and allowing Ace to wriggle free.
Dante didn’t let up, not wanting his enemy to regain any composure, immediately going on the attack. He delivered a few forceful strikes to the side of the large warrior’s head, stunning him. The mercenary whipped around and threw a hook that Dante was able to block, though he stumbled to the side a few steps.
As they fought, Ace gasped for air, finally regaining his breath. He leapt to his feet and slammed the large metal door shut, throwing the thick latch down to lock it from the outside. There was a place for a padlock, but no lock to be found, so he snatched a chunk of metal from the ground and shoved it through the loop to reinforce it.
Dante exchanged blows with the large mercenary, finally landing one on the man’s nose, shattering it and sending blood down his face.
The man staggered back, rage in his eyes. “I’m gonna rip the pretty side of your face clean off, motherfucker,” he snarled.
“You’re welcome to try,” Dante replied with a smirk.
His opponent let out a grunt and lunged forward, throwing a forceful straight punch. Dante ducked to the side and managed to catch his wrist, pulling it and using the momentum to fling him into the wall.
As soon as he hit, Dante shoved his forearm into the back of the guy’s neck, wrenching his arm behind his back.
Ace darted forward with his pocket knife, rushing over and stabbing the mercenary in the side like a prisoner shanking a rival, in short fast strikes.
Their opponent screamed in pain, bracing his foot against the wall and shoving back. His weight was too much for Dante, and he staggered backwards onto his ass. The mercenary drew his handgun and turned towards the fallen man, holding his side with his free hand.
Before he could aim, Ace leapt onto his back, stabbing him in the throat. The mercenary threw an elbow, hitting the redneck in the side of the head and sending him to the ground. The knife stuck straight out of his neck, blood pouring out around the blade.
He put one hand to the wound, and raised his gun towards Ace, who reached out and grabbed his wrist, forcing the gun high. The bullets just missed the redneck’s head, and in the confusion, Dante rushed forward and gave the hilt of the pocket knife a forceful palm strike, driving it deep into the mercenary’s throat.
Blood spurted everywhere, and the large man staggered back, firing one more shot before collapsing to the ground.
The back door of the store began to shake violently as the men inside struggled to break out.
“We gotta get out of here,” Dante said.
Ace grabbed the fallen man’s handgun and shoved it in the waistband of his pants before grabbing the assault rifle and trying to get it off. It was clipped to the man’s vest, however, and he couldn’t disengage it.
“Leave it!” Dante barked, spotting a few zombies heading towards them from one end of the alley. He started moving in that direction, and Ace stood up, eyes wide.
“Where the hell are you going?” he blurted.
“We still need cover,” his companion replied, waving for him to follow.
They broke out into a sprint, pumping their legs hard, and Dante psyched himself up as he neared the trio of zombies in the mouth of the alley. He smacked into the first one, a smaller teenage ghoul, and picked it up by the shirt and belt, driving it back into the others. His momentum and added weight allowed him to push through to the open road.
He tossed the corpse on top of the others, looking both ways quickly. To the left was mostly clear road, and to the right was the back end of the horde that was headed towards the still-firing mercenaries. A handful of creatures turned and spotted them, moving their way.
“Come on, we have to get a few more blocks away,” Dante urged.
The duo tore as hard as they could away from the horde, and due to the slower gait of the zombies, they were able to pull away.
They made it up a block before cutting over, darting past ghouls as they went, none of which posed a significant threat to them.
Finally, after getting halfway across town, they ducked inside a store that had an open front door. They quickly swept the room, finding that it was empty before they ducked down behind the counter to regroup.
“Well, that was a whole lotta fun,” Ace huffed, sarcastic even through his exhaustion. “Can’t wait to do that again.”
Dante shook his head. “That’s good, because we’re not out of this yet,” he said.
“Pretty sure we’ve bought Lily and the others enough time, don’t you?” the redneck asked.
His companion nodded. “Yeah, but we still have to get out of here without them seeing us,” he replied. “And at the moment, we don’t have a vehicle.”
“There are some neighborhoods nearby,” Ace said, waving a hand above his head. “We can try and find us a ride there.”
Dante shook his head. “Would take too much time,” he said. “Even if we find a car, we’d have to find the keys to it, and there’s no guarantee they’re going to be in the house.”
“So what the hell you
