he said, “Done.”
“Good. Some of them like their meat tender, but I find all this punching makes my hands hurt.” Calling around the corner the woman yelled, “Harry? It's me! Ella! I am coming out, I got these guys, three of them, plus the one you shot. Send some help down here to carry them along would you?”
“You got it.” a masculine voice called back, “You only left three of them alive?”
“So far, there are a few stragglers outside, but the gang will bring them in.” Turning back to Max, Ella said, “Move.” while gesturing for him to go around the corner. She bent to grab Ruben and Kirk's arms, but Ruben shook her off and lifted himself to his feet.
“I can walk myself. Let me get him.” Ruben said, while pulling Kirk upright and putting the man's arm around his shoulder.
“That leaves me on body duty. No, fuck that. You!” she pointed at Max, “Grab her and lets….are you bleeding?” she said, breaking off suddenly and looking at his arm, she reached towards it tentatively and Max pulled away. “You are! That is just…lovely…”
Ruben and Max stared at her as she gazed at the blood dripping from Max's sleeve.
Max looked down at Stewart, then at his shotgun which lay between him and her, he stepped around the corner bent down, then felt a body next to his, looking up he saw Ella standing over him, “I wasn't born last night, buddy.” One of her feet was on the barrel of Max's gun. He sighed and grabbed Stewart by the arms and pulled her up. She was heavy, her rifle clattered off of her body to the floor as Max tossed her over his shoulder and stood up.
Grunting Max moved in front of Ella, along with the other two men. Ella reached down and grabbed both of the guns from the floor, where a few drops of blood marred the surface, why this gave her pause, she couldn't say, instead she shrugged and herded the men towards the front of the building.
Stewart's hand kept bumping into Max and he was very aware of her pistol digging into his shoulder, Ella hadn't said anything about it when he pulled her up, she had been too focused on the guns laying on the floor. The troop of them slowly moved towards the main hall and the two intelligent zombies who had been waiting in ambush for them. Max tried to keep up with his surroundings, he was thinking furiously, trying to find a way out of the mess they were in. The side passages looked promising, but he wasn't going to outdistance Ella with Stewart on his back. Her hand bumped into him again and seemed to claw at his pants. Finally it hit him, she was alive. He hadn't seen any blood from her wounds and she, unlike him, had been wearing a bullet proof vest. The vest was on under her military clothing. Max had taken a helmet from the soldiers, but it was now sitting around the corner behind him, a lost artifact from Ella's punching.
Max shrugged his shoulder twice and squeezed Stewart's leg where he was carrying her. She responded by tensing the muscles in her leg.
“You okay Ruben?” Max asked, immediately followed by “Yes?” as Stewart squeezed the muscles of her leg again.
“Fine as a Turkey the weekend before Thanksgiving Max. You?”
“Well my face feels, hell Ruben I don't know how to describe it. I think my cheek is broken. I have all my teeth though.”
“Then you're doing better than me.” the man replied.
“Can you can walk okay?” Stewart tensed her leg once.
“Sure, I was just a little beat down is all, she got to me first outside. I wore her down for you. After Kirk wore her down for me.”
This prompted a laugh from Ella behind them.
“Geezus, if that was her wore down I don't think I'd want to see her at a hundred percent. Can you fight again?” Stewart tensed her calf once.
“Maybe in a couple of weeks, this little bronco wore me out Max.” Ruben answered, then asked, “How is your arm?”
“Feels fine. I think they just winged me.” Max said nodding to one of the smart zombies on the floor as they passed. “I think it was lefty there.” he said, turning slightly to look back down the hall. The zombie on the floor smiled up at him as if to say, 'nothing personal'.
Looking back at Ella, Max asked, “How'd you get in behind us so fast?”
“Does it matter? Less talky-talky, more walkie-walkie.” She made a pushing motion with her hands, as if shooing them forward. Both guns were slung over her shoulder by their straps.
“Are we that easy to take down that you don't even keep a gun on us?”
The woman smiled, “I didn't need one the first time and won't need one when I smack you so hard you fly into next Tuesday. Stop stalling and walk.”
Max turned back and stepped into the grand hall, “You are fast, I'll give you that.” Then a thought struck him and he looked back at the woman. He stopped dead in his tracks and said, “You are alive!”
“So?”
“But you…you're so fast! And you're on their side!” Max said shouting.
“So?” she asked again. Ella stepped around Max and made her way to a large chair that was set up on one side of the room. A middle aged zombie was sitting there, Max could tell he was a super even without using his special sight, the other woman to one side of him was younger, perhaps thirty when she died, she was slim and beautiful, with brown hair that verged on red and dark eyes. Both of these undead had sun browned skin and wore business attire, her in a conservative skirt with a white blouse and matching jacket, he in a tight fitting black suit.
“Harry, I brought you the prisoners as you told me to.”
“Only three alive, plus one half dead.” the woman sneered from one side. “We told you to bring them all back, I hope you had the rest of them turned at the very least.”
Ella gave the woman a dismissive glance and said, “You know the zombies don't like following my orders precisely, there were more causalities than expected.”
“How many did we lose?” Harry asked. He seemed distracted to Max, as if his focus wasn't here or that he didn't really care what the answer to his question was.
Shrugging Ella said, “I don't know, they came in through the park, the runners on the street broke too soon and we lost a bunch out there. No cover, I told them to wait.”
From the hallway that Ella had taken them down the two zombies on the floor started firing their rifles at an unseen foe. After a moment a line of bullets riddled the floor of the hallway, stitching across one of the zombie's head and neck, but only hitting the other one in the shoulder. The damage to the second one was enough to make it impossible for him to fire his rifle and bullets flew down the corridor in such profusion that for a moment the single prone zombie was obscured by the dust raised from the rounds chipping holes in the floor.
Stewart regained her feet and pulled out her pistol before Max even realized she was moving, turning she started firing from the hip at Harry and continued to walk her gun up towards his head as she went. Only Harry wasn't there, he started moving as soon as Stewart and had ducked behind Ella. A fast zombie jumped towards Stewart, attempting to hit her blind side, but she spun and shot his teeth though the back of his head. Max finally felt in control of himself, he ducked sideways into another smart zombie, catching it by surprise as it rushed Stewart. They both fell backwards and Max had just enough time to see Ruben and Kirk separate and crouch down. Kirk leaned towards the zombie Stewart had killed and wrested an ancient revolver from its belt as the next wave of minions approached. Stewart turned to get a bead on Harry only to have her hand knocked brutally down by Ella's fist.
“Fuck!” Stewart yelled while punching the woman in the face. Ella's head rocked back and blood flew in a spray behind her, she continued to fall back in a roll and ended up spinning sideways in a crouch facing Stewart. Aubrey and Harry had stopped and were just watching. Ruben was in the best position to see all of the fighting, he noted Bill's arrival with some of the boys, he saw Max wrestling feebly with the smart zombie at the foot of Harry's chair and he saw Kirk take the first of three shots at Harry from his crouched position by the corpse nearby. The first shot rang out and a picture behind the zombie sprung a hole in it, shot number two hit Aubrey in the chest and splattered the wall behind her with gore. Then Kirk fell sideways, shot by one of the gun toting zombies headed their way. Even on the floor Kirk was a soldier to the end, he lined up one last shot and winged Harry in the right leg. The zombie hardly flinched and another round of gunfire stilled Kirk forever.
Ruben raised his hands to shoulder height and two of the zombie aimed guns at him, though the old man
