In a word

We came around one of the last houses in the subdivision and there stood Jake, Albert and a few others.

The four we were with came to a quick stop, unsure of the situation. I took this moment to breath, and then spoke ‘Beat us back , huh?’

‘Yeah most of the Zak in this area is down seeing what the alarm was about. I sent Albert ahead and he came back with some reinforcements. We are to go to the north a bit and hit them from the north-west. Stir some shit and then the Major will start down the hill.’

‘You do know most of the damn zombies are between us and the stadium still, right?’ John spat and sat on the grass. I joined him, my legs both ached now. I’ve had too good for too long, too out of shape.

‘Are you going to get the people from the Warlord?’ The tallest and dirtiest girl, maybe 18 but I doubt it, asked. Her bleached blond hair slowly turning brown from lack of treatment, but her eyes were a strange shade of green. The others were looking warily back and forth between us. I forget my manners it seems.

‘Jake and company, meet our rescuers. They cleared the way from the fire station and got us back here. I don’t know who they are but they are all right in my book. ’

‘Yeah, thanks. We appreciate that.’ John muttered grumpily. I smiled at that and Jake laughed.

‘Thanks for the help you guys, what are you doing in town anyway?’ Jake asked as he stood watching them. They were students at EKU when this all started. They heard about it happening in the hospital here before the news from Cincinnati hit. They all were friends, one (James) was a studying horticulture, another(Rick) was going for his R.N. in nursing, he worked at the hospital and being a fellow paranoid got his friends who would listen to prepare for the worst. The not blond was Dana, she was studying to be a paralegal and the last girl, well woman, she was 26, Jill was doing some work to be a paramedic. They kept hiding and stealing so they could survive, between the zombies and the ‘Warlord’ they did okay on their own so far. Jake had us get off our asses and get up, we had a job to do. The four asked if they could come along to help, at first I was going to say no, but hell, they know the place better than we did and besides, everyone had a right to fight for themselves now. So we set off with James in the lead as scout, he would take Jake ahead (or Albert) and get a head of us while we moved as quickly and cautiously as we could. The other four men with us was Gary, Kirk, Jeff, and Sam, all from the Richmond Regulars, they knew the bandits habits enough to know when guards changed, etc.

We took maybe another twenty minutes to get to a vantage point where we could see the admin building and class rooms we could use for cover when we moved. The siren was started to get slower and softer this whole time. I was amazed it lasted this long. We never came upon a dead head the whole time. Kirk got us to stop and pointed on one of the buildings. Two guards were looking north and talking to each other we were to their left side in some shade between two houses. A few buildings lay between us and the stadium, but our objective was to keep the bandits busy, so we stopped and watched the buildings ahead of us. Jake spotted two sentries on the roof tops on the closest buildings, I think they said it was the Combs building. One to our left and one to our right. Neither one was more than a two hundred feet, across four lane road, up about forty feet of lawn then up maybe four stories of building. I almost think I could make that shot, but I didn’t have a big honking silenced rifle either. Albert and Jake got their timing down and with two gentle ‘coughs’ both sentries went down. Further on we could see a very tall, narrow building sticking up above other buildings around it.

‘That’s Common wealth , was a dorm building but they use it for target practice.’ Dana spat the words with disgust. I gave her a questioning look.

‘They shoot people on the street from up there. They are pretty good at it too.’  She explained. Jake said we should get moving and that is what we did. We were on the lawn heading for the building in front of us when Jeff from the Richmond Regulars went down. Half of his head just literally exploded, and then we heard the crack of gun fire. We all ran as fast as possible to get under cover. Once we all crashed into the buildings door and through inside we all skidded to a stop. The inside was trashed and littered with bodies, hopefully none would decide to stir and attack us.

‘Dammit!  I should have gave us cover!’ Jake grumbled to himself.

‘Doesn’t matter. What does matter is can you kill the bastards up there? ‘Kirk said, staring out of the broken windows at the road.

‘If he can hit us, I can hit him twice.’ Jake said and checked the magazine in his rifle.

‘Well we got their attention, by now they know someone is here.’ John mentioned as he found a set of doors leading to a stairwell. The plan was for Kirk, Gary, Sam, Dana and James to hold the ground floor as long as possible, while myself, Jake, Albert, John, Jill and Rick headed to the upper floors to cause some trouble. We got to the last floor, found the unlocked roof access and as soon as Jake tipped the door open slowly from a few steps down, a bullet crashed through the steel fire door and embedded itself in the ceiling.

‘Hate to admit it, they are good. They are waiting for that. Let’s go down one floor and try the corner windows. I may need someone to draw their fire so I can find them and take them out.’ Jake looked at the people around him. I smiled and looked at John, who said, 'You know I really hate you, right?'

We got to the next floor, most of the windows were already broken in the rooms we checked, the corner room was a pig sty, but we could not be sure if it was that way before or after the zombies started attacking everyone. Jake said this would do, and kept low and in the corner. He slipped a dark cap/filter like device on his scope so no flash could be seen from it and waved us on. John and I found a room big enough to move around in and not so dirty we would trip over debris. We slid to the window ledge, keeping near the floor. I looked over the edge and could see the building and where I thought the snipers were. I was not sure my AR could even get that far. We both nodded and stuck our guns out the window and fired several rounds at the building, peppering the upper windows. The wall next to me exploded as bullet crashed through the concrete block. We decided to move after that. We moved to a room two doors down.

‘Keep getting their attention; I think we know where they are at now!’ Jake yelled from down the hall, as we skidded through the trash to another room.  We were just in place near the window when gunfire erupted downstairs. We were getting hemmed in already. Where the hell was everyone else? As that thought crossed my mind a clanging alarm started off in the direction of the stadium. 

It took us about 3 minutes to get the snipers to show themselves and Jake, with Albert’s help eradicated them. We were moving toward the stairs when our guys came pounding up them, ‘Get back! We got company.’ They pushed their way to either side of the hallway as gunfire erupted from the stairs, chewing up the walls and ceiling.

‘How many?!’ I yelled over the gun fire, Gary looked up from across the hall way, ‘Maybe a dozen?!’

F’ing great. Bullets ripped past my face and bits of plaster filled the air. I stuck my rifle around the corner pointed down and let loose a few shots. Someone screamed. No shit I hit someone. Gary and the rest did the same thing. Gun fire came back up the steps again. I motioned for Jake to get the rest to the roof, since he was sure the snipers were gone. I placed a new magazine in my rifle and did the thing I said we shouldn’t do, I switched to auto fire and showed this to John behind me. He nodded and did the same thing. I tilted my head back the hallway and we both moved down the hall. I pointed across the hall and John went into the room across from the one I shuffled into. We both got on the floor and closed the door far enough that we could see out and the rifle barrels did not stick out. I even gathered some trash and placed at the bottom of the door. The gunfire in the hall died down and we could then hear more gunfire outside. Apparently the cavalry had arrived finally. We could hear boots on the stairs and we could see people stick their heads up around the floor level and look around. I was hoping John would let some of them come up the steps before opening fire. I got my wish. Several men dressed in fatigues and carrying AK-74s, AMD65s and all sorts of Russian junk, stomped into the hallway. They swiveled their heads all around as they looked around the hallway, not noticing us thankfully. I counted nine in the hall way when they started to spread out and check rooms. Two of them stayed in the center of the hallway and kept watch. They were the first to die. We used short bursts and took out the two guards and three more of those searching. That left four that made it into adjoining rooms in the hallway. Bullets riddled my door and wall I had sought refuge behind at about 3-5 feet in height. Our saving grace is we did not stand behind the doors like idiots when we opened fire. These guys were good, but not that good. I hoped that John was okay and reloaded a new magazine in my rifle. The gun fire stopped and I could hear trash being moved and people ‘trying’ to be quiet. I saw a the door next to Johns’ creep open and could see a dark shape standing behind the crack in the door. I let loose a burst at about belt level through the door and frame. The steel core ammo hammered home and riddled the door, the shape falling away from the crack. Bullets chewed up the floor near my rifle barrel and tore through my door making me real uncomfortable. When they stopped I scooted back as fast as I could by ‘snaking’ on my belly. I heard John’s AR go off across the hall and heard something heavy fall to the floor in the hallway. I placed my last magazine in my rifle and let the firing pin snap shut in it, making a loud noise in the suddenly quiet floor.  

It was several minutes and no gunfire and very little noise. Did they leave? Time to do something stupid. I moved to the other corner and toed the door open with my boot. As the door swung inward, bullets once again tore through the wood. When the noise died down I could hear faint boot scuffs in the hallway. A large man in fatigues came through the doorway firing his rifle where I*should* have been.

Better Lucky than Smart, that’s me. But, not this time. The man saw me out of the corner of his eye and started to turn towards me. I pulled my trigger.

*CLICK*. 

That is the loudest damn sound in the world. My rifle had jammed or misfed.  I levered the charging handle back again but the bullet was seriously fouled in my gun. Shit. Talk about things happening in slow motion when you think you are going to buy it. I opened my arms wide, holding the rifle in my left hand and smiled at him. What else could I do? My pistol would have taken too long to get out before he gunned me down. So I thought to buy myself a few precious seconds.

‘Hey, it’s me remember?!’ I said as he brought the rifle up. This confused him and he hesitated. He who hesitates, dies. I stood there smiling, he stood there looking puzzled. He suddenly made a decision in his mind and grinned, bringing the rifle up to kill me.