Discovery

“Got his shit kicked.”

“Bitten?”

Bill shook his head, “DamnedifIknow.”

“He ain't bleeding.”

“Good.” Bill replied gruffly.

“Any sign of…”

“No.”

They got Ruben into the courtyard at the same time that the rifles opened up behind them. A man started screaming and Bill said, “You guys stay here, get into the building, I am going to fetch my men back.”

“Bill…”

“Just go Max.”

Max turned and headed through the doors that Kirk and Larry had opened, Stewart followed right behind him, reloading as she went. The passageway looked like it would bring them towards the front of the building, where Max could sense several powerful zombies near where he thought the street was.

In the courtyard Ruben leaned against a bench and tried to catch his breath. He had lost his rifle and unlike Max and Stewart he didn't have a sidearm, only a combat knife. Larry came over to help him, leaving Kirk holding one of the doors open and listening down the corridor as Max and Stewart left.

“You okay Ruben?” asked Larry.

Ruben looked up, his face red and covered with sweat, “I dunno Larry, might be I am having a heart attack.”

Larry's face paled and he was at Ruben's side in an instant. “Shit. What do I do?”

Shaking his head, Ruben said, “Nah, tough old bird like me? I am just messing with you, help me over to the door, I think we'll be heading that way soon enough.”

Larry pulled Ruben's hand over his shoulder and turned around in time to see a woman drop from the ornate side of the building onto Kirk. The fall alone toppled the old guy to the ground where he moaned in agony clutching his leg.

Pushing Larry away, Ruben said, “Shoot her!”

The fast moving zombie woman stepped forward as Larry struggled to bring his rifle up. Ruben, unbalanced by pushing away from his friend, fell to the ground hard where he tried to get to his hands and knees. The woman slapped the rifle away from Larry and grabbed him by the throat with her other hand. Lifting the old man by the neck she shook him like an old rag until his neck snapped with an audible 'pop'. She stood there, as if in a daze for a moment, just holding the now limp body in her hand. Larry's feet twitched once or twice and Ruben crawled quickly towards Kirk where he tried to wrestle the other man's rifle away from him. Kirk was half out of his head with pain and fought to keep Ruben from taking it. Ruben had just gotten to his knees with the gun when a voice rang out behind him, “Old man, what are you going to do with that?”

Ruben turned slowly to see the woman standing behind him, she still had Larry in her other hand, the man looked frail and thin in death, like a stout breeze could blow his corpse away. With her other hand the woman reached out and grabbed a hold of the rifle barrel as Ruben tried to bring it around, she twisted her hand and the barrel of the rifle bent when he didn't let go. A look of shock crossed Ruben's face as the woman shoved him backwards on top of Kirk.

“You are lucky Harry said to bring as many of you alive as possible.” she tossed Larry's body to the side of the building, where it landed behind a shrub. “Well? Can you walk or do I have to drag you?”

When Ruben didn't respond, the woman reached down and grabbed him and Larry by the scruff of their jackets and started pulling them inside, going the same direction that Max had taken.

When Bill left Max he felt a pang of fear and regret almost instantly. He was torn between going after the other men and going with his lifelong friend. He hoped he was doing both: going to get the men, then catching up with Max. While he was worried he did have to admonish himself silently, 'Max made it all the way from Denver to Iowa alive, he can take care of himself.' Knowing even as he thought it, that he would still hold himself responsible if something happened to his friend.

The gunfire up ahead had been cut down to one rifle, Bill headed towards the noise to see Javier firing at a group of zombies in front of him. This put Bill in the perfect spot along the path to see the super zombie about to launch itself onto Javier's back. Bill raised his rifle and fired off a three round burst that vaporized the zombie's head into a fine mist.

“Javier! Fall back! We gotta go!”

Javier immediately started walking backwards towards Bill who added a few shots to keep the encroaching slow dead at bay.

“The others?” Bill asked.

“That way. One of them has a gun. They shot Chen in the leg, he fell back, but a bunch of them went after him.”

“Aw fuck.”

“You were on the end of the line?” Javier nodded, “Okay let's head that way and see if we can find anyone else.” said Bill pointing towards the rail line.

They didn't go directly towards the fence that separated the train tracks from the park, but veered at a slight angle so they could keep firing at the few zombies who were following them slowly. Javier paused when they came to a trail of blood that was heading towards the art building. “Do we follow this or keep going?”

Bill shrugged, then said “Follow it. Fast. Let's see if we can get some distance on these guys behind us.”

Javier turned and went up the well defined path which led them into the bright courtyard Bill had left just minutes before. Ahead of them two men in fatigues were on the ground and several corpses were laying around them. Bill raised his rifle pointing it at the men on the ground, they looked like they were fighting. Javier put the palm of his hand against Bill's rifle barrel and pushed it sideways gently. Looking closer Bill could see that Bart was busy trying to bind up a wound on Chen's leg. 'I almost shot him'. Bill thought with some alarm.

“Chen'll live.” said Bart.

Behind them a gun fired and Bill saw a puff of dust from where the bullet ricocheted off of the building ahead of them. He quickly ducked down, as did Javier. They both turned and fired blindly back through the overgrowth, as far as they could tell their bullets didn't hit anything, but the other gun stopped firing.

“We gotta get out of here. Let's move into the building. Bart, can Chen move now?” Bill asked.

“I think I got the bleedin' under control, he can move.”

“The fuck I can! I gotta hole in my leg!” the man on the ground replied, clutching a crudely bandaged leg that was still leaking blood.

“Fine, then I guess you stay here. Bart, Javier, let's go. Chen, hold 'em off as long as you can.” Bill led the other two men towards the building door. He had an itch between his shoulder blades, a feeling that at any second a bullet would hit him as he moved forward, he had to get out of the courtyard.

Chen shouted, “Wait!” and scrambled to his feet. He winced as he limped after the other men, but had the presence of mind to grab his rifle from the bench as he went.

Bill looked back at him, “All better? Good, lets go, maybe we can do this yet.”

A moment after they disappeared into the building a group of zombies came into the open courtyard, four of them shambled slowly towards the building door, urged on by another, faster moving zombie at the edge of the vegetation. The slow zombies made it to the door and the faster one stepped out into the courtyard to follow them. There was a quiet sound like a watermelon being dropped onto a concrete floor from a counter top. The zombie took a hesitant step forward then dropped, it's head had been turned into a hollow sphere, with a small hole on one side and a huge opening on the other, where a bullet had passed through.

Chapter 45