“Something has changed.” Max said, bringing the group to a halt with an outstretched arm.
“What?” asked Stewart, taking bullets out of her borrowed police belt and reloading her pistol.
“The local zombies are not acting like anyone is really controlling them. It is more like a mob again. Some of them, up ahead of us, seem to be getting it together, but the ones behind us aren't doing much more than standing there.”
“So we go back?” Stewart asked skeptically.
Shaking his head Max said, “No. Even moving like typical zeds there are more than we can handle.”
“So why are you wasting our time stopping us?” asked Stewart taking aim and shooting a zombie that was getting too close. “That is the place up ahead of us, I think. The Art Institute?”
“Hey Ruben!” called Max, “Are they in place yet?”
“No word. I will ask.” said Ruben, the old man was huffing and puffing from his exertions in keeping up with the squad. He and the three other old men, all over sixty, were red in the face and while Max hated to admit it, they were slowing the entire squad down. Behind the soldiers on the street the mob continued to press forward slowly, like an ocean of rotted humanity. Every once in a while a faster zombie would launch out of the crowd behind them, a couple of times these zombies had come within feet before being shot.
Slinging his rifle, Ruben pulled up the walkie talkie and sent out a coded signal, it was responded to immediately, “Yes! They are in place.” Listening intently for a moment Ruben waited for the sounds to end, then keyed back a brief message, “They think he is in the Art Building, they saw a woman and a bunch of supers heading our way. Plus there are a bunch in the park ahead of us.”
“Alright, let's go, we run by, fire into the art institute, toss in a bunch of grenades and high tail it out of here.”
“We are slowing you down.” Ruben said as much to Bill as to Max.
“Yeah, you old geezers better suck it up and get moving, we can't afford to coddle you anymore.” Bill said.
Ruben looked at him for a moment, the laughed, “You're one to talk sergeant!”
Behind them several fast zombies made a break for them all at once. The three older men, Dan, Kirk and Larry were tired and caught off guard by the rush. Dan went down with two zombies tackling the man as he fought to cock his rifle, which he had just reloaded. Stewart gave a yell and charged back into the whirling melee, shooting her pistol as she went.
“Keep those motherfuckers back!” She yelled at the other men, “Fire now, fire!”
The other members of the squad crouched down and started firing into the walking dead that got close to the four people fighting in the street. Dan came up, he was missing his helmet and had a stream of bloody pouring down one side of his face. He still had his rifle and finished cocking it then let loose with a fully automatic stream of bullets at the zombies closest to him.
Ruben pushed Max, spinning him around to face up the street in front of them.
“Goddamn.” Max said softly. “They were just fucking with me. They must have known I could see them or something.”
Ahead of them running at full tilt towards the two men was a crowd of zombies.
“It's the goddamn zombie Chicago marathon!” Max said.
Ruben grunted and went to one knee and began firing into the crowd, “Shut up and shoot, there are only a few hundred.”
Max raised his shotgun and aimed before firing when the first zombie was twenty yards away. His shot was close enough to put a few pellets into the zombie nurse's brain and she tumbled heels over head, her white stockinged legs briefly flying into the air at head height. Max laughed, “Did you see that?”
“I saw.” Ruben said, picking his targets carefully, “Feel free to talk about it when we get our shit out of this mess Max. Fire faster.”
Bill turned and saw the group heading towards them, then yelled, “Into the park, now!”
The four older men were free of the zombies behind them, but most of the squad was still firing in that direction before Bill's yell.
“Bill, we can't go that way! There are a ton of zombies in that direction!” Max shouted continuing to fire his shotgun. The men of the squad were already disappearing into the well spaced shrubbery, Bill grabbed Ruben and Max by the shoulders of their jackets and pulled them off the street, over the sidewalk and into the greenery with little help from either man.
“Bill! Zombies!” Max said between firing his gun at targets behind them.
“I know Max, how far?”
“Two, three blocks maybe.”
“Good. What the fuck?”
Bill slowed down, which gave Ruben and Max a chance to reload and evaluate their situation.
“Another goddamned train track? How many trains does this place have?”
“Look!” Max said pointing to the west, “We can get to the building under the street there.” The street between the park where they were at and the art institute was raised to clear the train tracks and the designers had left the area underneath it open, the paths from the park led to another area of greenery next to the building.
“Where did all those fuckers come from Max?” asked Ruben panting heavily.
“They were moving slowly to fool me, I thought we had enough time to get clear of them, when they all started moving quick I knew I'd been had.”
The squad was starting to move west slowly, with many members looking north through the chain link fence at the rail road beyond. Dan was a step behind Max when the woman leaped out of the park and tackled him. Following her came a pack of silent zombies heading right for the rest of the squad.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck!” Max yelled, shooting his gun, his shots were wild, as were those of Ruben and Bill beside him.
“Back! Get under the street and into the building!” Bill screamed, firing at the zombies closing in on them.
The woman was young and in the prime of life, Max tried to get a bead on her as she dragged a screaming Dan away from them. '
Max moved into an open aired courtyard, where Bill and some of the other squad members were, he stopped and looked back for Ruben, who was not right behind him as he had thought.
“Who is missing?” demanded Bill.
“Just Dan.” Max said, “Me and Ruben saw this woman…”
“Where is Ruben!” Bill shouted, “Goddamn it!” He went charging down the sidewalk back to where they still heard a rifle firing. The other soldiers looked shocked, then started after Bill.
Stewart yelled, “Kirk, Larry, stop! You two go and get a door open into the building.” She had called out to the oldest men left in the squad, who did as she told them. The younger men went tentatively towards the east to help Bill.
The twisting paths of greenery provided an illusion of seclusion this close to the building, but under the street was bare, providing and alley of sight. Max was at the fore front of the men heading back to get Bill and Ruben and stopped at that line bisecting the plant life.
“You two! Stay here and watch our backs.” Max said, stepping forward with Javier and Chen.
Max caught a glimpse of movement ahead of them and then saw Bill, half carrying Ruben. He went forward and met them, picking up Ruben's other arm to help drag him forward. The old man had a silly grin on his face that was out of place with his situation.
“Chen, Javier, you guys set up a line of fire here with Bart.' said Bill, as the other soldier appeared from a side path, 'Keep them off of us for a few minutes. Where are the others?” Bill asked Max.
“Stewart is up ahead with them in the courtyard. What happened to Ruben?”
