coming outside hastily, a third trailed behind them. The first two were Ruben and Javier, men from Iowa who were unlucky enough to be in Bill's platoon when he volunteered to help Max and Stewart get to Chicago. The third was Bill.
'Bill!' Max yelled, bring all three of the men to a halt.
'Max. What's going on?' Bill asked, fatigue lined the three men's faces.
'Zombies are attacking from the east, thousands of them, but there are more being held back to the west, way more than are attacking us now. We gotta get out of here! Even with a thousand soldiers we won't be able to hold out.'
'We'll see what the military decides Max, guys with guns can hold off a lot of zombies.'
Shaking his head Max said, 'Not this many.'
The group of them was standing near an open field used by the recruits for physical training, as Max finished speaking an explosion threw dirt up into the air, followed by another one closer to them, then a third.
'Let's go!' yelled Bill running east as the line of explosions grew closer. They made it to the edge of the buildings when the barracks Bill had been sleeping in blew apart. 'When did the zeds get mortars?'
'When the soldiers that came back from the dead showed them how to use the damned, things.' said Ruben with a scowl on his face. The old man had seen action before, in Vietnam, and was well past his prime, but he had been pressed into service alongside of thirteen year olds back when the governor of Iowa issued a general call to service. He was not the fastest of Bill's soldiers, but the man knew tricks that the others had not had time to learn.
'What now?'
'We get the fuck out of here before some bright boy drops more shells on our heads.' Ruben said.
'Seems smart.' Turning to Max and Stewart Bill said, 'You guys don't have your weapons.'
'I was just going to unlock Stewart…didn't think I needed them.'
'You always gotta keep a gun with you Max.' Pausing he asked, 'Why were you still locked up Jane?'
Stewart shrugged, 'The blood tests, something was wrong and they took another sample, they said it didn't appear that I was infected, but they wanted to be sure, so I got to spend another night on the hard bed.'
'Dang. Are you feeling okay?'
'I am not infected Bill!'
'Didn't say you were. I was thinking maybe….'
No one said anything for a moment and the screams of the living carried back to them from several blocks away where the fighting was going on.
'You ain't going like that one bird in the Art Center are you?' asked Ruben bluntly.
He was referring to a living woman, Stella, who had been encouraged to kill zombies, by her handlers, the woman had become an abomination, fast, strong and remorseless….and a killer of the living. Stella had eaten living flesh of the uninfected and seemed to grow stronger for doing so, she had also been stunned into inaction when Ruben shoved his cut hand into her mouth, which resulted, ultimately, in her death.
'No, nothing like that. I've killed a lot of zombies, but not that many Ruben.'
Javier had been quiet so far, now he chose to speak up, his voice completely without accent he said, 'What about Chen? He is in the hospital.'
'As good a place as any, lead the way Javier.' Bill said. They trotted along quickly towards the hospital, trying not to listen to the sounds of young men and women being overrun to the east.
The hospital was a hive of activity, with men carrying stretchers into the hospital and wounded lying on the sidewalk in front of the place. Technically it wasn't even a hospital, just an infirmary, but the Navy had changed its designation after the extent of the crisis had been realized.
To the east a roar sounded about the same time that more mortar shells dropped near the west end of the campus. One, by chance or intent, landed at the corner of the hospital, sending shards of metal fragments through the air and literally obliterating those unfortunate enough to have been on the sidewalk next to where it landed. Stewart was thrown into Max and both of them tumbled to the ground in a heap. Ruben didn't break stride, he picked up Stewart and hauled her into the building, leaving Bill to do the same with Max. In the lobby the stretcher bearers were cringing on the ground afraid to move from the lucrative cover they found in the lobby of the building.
'You men, move! Pick up the stretcher and carry him in further, get away from the glass doors!' Bill bellowed with authority. The men hastened to obey and Max's group took shelter in a hallway away from the front, where Ruben stood Stewart up and leaned her against the wall to assess her injuries.
The old man let out a low whistle as the three men looked at Stewart, she had a pistol butt sticking out of her chest over her heart. Stewart looked at the men, then glanced down and slid sideways a little, only to be propped up by Ruben on one side and Max on the other.
'That…looks bad.' she said.
'It must have been blow off of one of the soldiers.' said Javier.
'Yeah, unless there is a new kind of mortar shell I ain't familiar with.' said Ruben with a touch of sarcasm.
Stewart reached up with her right hand and grabbed the pistol butt.
'No, leave it, a surgeon will have to take it out. Can you walk?' asked Max.
A loud crash in the entryway drew their attention as a squad of men pushed their way into the building. The sergeant yelled, 'We couldn't hold! Evacuate! The officers said to head west! Move people!'
'Sergeant! There are zombies there, waiting for us!' Max shouted. Stewart grasped the butt of the pistol and pulled it out of her, with Ruben watching. Her blood didn't gush out, it seemed to solidify as it touched the air and her wound sealed.
'Perv. You just wanted to see my boob.' Stewart mumbled as Ruben held her up.
'Well….yeah.' he replied, the tone of his voice showed that wasn't his intent at all.
'Officers said to head west, set up a new line of defense around the barracks, to cover the rest of the men, who will be heading this way in less than three minutes. Anyone who can fire a gun needs to head out now, this building will be overrun. Let's go!' The sergeant didn't wait to see if the people in the lobby would follow he turned and ran back outside and headed towards the barracks Max had just come from.
'We, we can't go that way!' Max sputtered, closing his eyes a moment he let go of Stewart and sought out the zombies he knew were there. 'They are coming!'
'From the west?' asked Bill.
Nodding Max said, 'And the east. Bill I don't see many of our guys retreating, no living. I see a lot of isolated groups, surrounded by the dead.'
'What do we do, Sarg?' asked Javier.
'We head south, of course.' All of them knew that Chicago was lightly inhabited, but north into Wisconsin, was more of a crap shoot, there were pockets of heavy zombie populations dotted with uninhabited regions. 'First we get some weapons, and food if we can find it.'
'So the armory or the px?' asked Ruben, who undoubtedly knew the way to both by heart, the man was good at knowing where to find things.
'Armory. We can pick up food along the way if we have to. Stewart can you walk?'
By way of an answer Stewart let the pistol butt drop from her hand and stood up.
'They are here.' Max said, pointing to the front door.
A trio of zombies rushed by the doorway, followed by some slow, shambling zeds in a motley assortment of clothing.
'Max get that rifle!' Bill said, pointing to a rifle left by one of the wounded who had fled the lobby. 'Javier, Ruben, each of you give him a magazine. The armory is that way, right Ruben?' Bill had gestured out the front door, where there was a block sized chunk of lawn with a flag pole.
'Yeah, maybe we could go west a little and try to work our way around…'
'Max?'
Max shook his head, 'Too many, I don't know Bill, I don't think we can make it.'
Slow zombies started shuffling into the lobby.
'Goddamn it. To the stairs, get upstairs now!'
'Bill.' said Max pausing, 'We can't go anywhere from there, if we go up we'll die.'
