by SD Tanner
He thought they were wasting ammo and needed a decision. Shouting loudly enough to be heard over the sound of the gunfire, he asked, ‘Whatdaya wanna do? Shoot through ‘em or risk the alley?’
He heard TL say optimistically, ‘Alley might be lucky.’
Pax countered jovially, ‘Seriously, ladies? When are we ever that goddamn lucky?’
‘We’re outgunned and wastin’ ammo,’ he told them both bluntly.
He was right, but he knew close combat with the hunters was risky. They were fast and getting in a brain stem shot was never easy. Blowing their entire heads off did the job, but with their jerky and vibrating movement, any shot was difficult. Glancing back at the alley, he tried to guess the length of the dark corridor. All they had to do was clear the corridor. Ducking, he dug around in his pack while the car continued to take fire for him. He found his headlamp and his shotgun shells. Both Pax and TL saw what he was doing and copied him, while automatically timing their actions so they continued to return fire.
TL, who was closest to the alley, cracked a flare and moving low to the ground, threw the flare deep into the alley.
He asked TL, ‘What’s it look like?’
TL replied, ‘I can see two hunters, but there’s probably more.’
Irritatingly, Pax started singing, ‘I’m so lucky, lucky, lucky, lucky.’ It was a bad rendition of an already bad pop song.
In unison, they both shouted, ‘Shaddup Pax!’
Pax laughed and then said in a conversational tone, ‘Ladies. We can only go in one at a time.’
He cursed. Pax was right. As they ran for the alley, they would need to give one another cover from the shooters.
As if he was telling the old Abbott and Costello baseball joke, Pax intoned, ‘Who’s on first? What’s on second?’
He shook his head at Pax’s antics and growled, ‘Ya such a dumbass, Pax.’
Woman thinks: Why do they stay with danger near? Why is it they have no fear? It is our deaths the bad men seek. The road is there that they must take. I will lead for I am weak. They must follow and safety seek. I cannot fight, but I can run for I am fleet.
TL ignored their squabbling and shouted, ‘Cover me.’ He then half ran and half crabbed towards the alley. Before TL could reach the alley, the woman took flight from behind their parked car and disappeared into gloomy corridor. He figured the woman must be crazy running into the alley unarmed, but it was too late to help her now.
He roared at Pax and TL, ‘Go! Go! Go!’
TL ran for the alley and attracted more fire from the shooters. He saw his window to go and launched himself back towards the alley, without breaking his rate of fire. The shooters must have thought there were only two of them and they ceased firing. Pax saw his opportunity and managed to clear the ground into the alley before the shooters had time to react.
The dark alley was about eight feet wide and eight feet high with about six feet of daylight at the entrance, which dissolved into pitch black the deeper he looked. He was directly behind TL, flattened against the wall and he couldn’t see the end of the tunnel. Pax flew in behind him and threw himself against the wall.
TL muttered grimly, ‘This isn’t good.’
Peering into the darkness, he hoped to find the woman in the entranceway to the alley, but he couldn’t see her. He figured she must be dead and already a meal for the hunters.
Still breathing heavily, Pax suggested, ‘Maybe we could jus’ stay here?’
‘Oh yeah ‘cos the sun does not orbit the earth, dumbass,’ he replied bluntly.
As the sun moved, they would lose their little patch of light and be plunged into darkness where the hunters were. It was not an option, but it quickly became a moot point. They might have found a small footprint of safety between the shooters and the hunters, but the shooters could move and they did. Having repositioned themselves, the shooters were now trying to fire directly into the alley where they were standing.
As bullets thudded into the wall in front of them, Pax muttered through gritted teeth, ‘Determined assholes.’
They were out of options and he shouted, ‘Gotta go! Gotta go now!’
All three men launched themselves into the alley, shoulder-to-shoulder, firing buckshot into the darkness and moving swiftly to avoid the gunfire coming from behind them. Despite the flickering light from the flare, he couldn’t distinguish any single shapes in the surrounding gloom, but he could see a lot of movement deep inside the alley.
Early on in their military careers, the army decided the three of them fought best together and often assigned them to work as a team. Over the years, they gained complimentary specialization. Pax was by far the best shot, TL had medical training, he knew guns and explosives, and all three of them were mechanically minded. They usually fought in combat using few words and today was no exception. He knew they had to clear the alley quickly. If they were lucky, and he didn’t expect them to be, there would only be a few hunters. As usual, his expectations were fully met, and the alley was teeming with them.
They fell into formation with TL shouldering the left wall, him shouldering the right wall and Pax following behind, preparing to cover their six, but also still able to step forward to shoot straight ahead if he had too. It wasn’t a great formation, but there weren’t too many plays to be had in the tight space. Their best chance was to stay close together, covering as many angles as possible without shooting one another. With most of the problem in front of them, they put more firepower going forward. He knew later that might not be true, but in this kind of situation, you only survived one moment at a time.
The shotgun was a bad choice. They had limited shells and they were going to need a lot of firepower to clear the alley of hunters. He quickly swapped weapons to his M4A1. Switching it to full auto, he aimed straight ahead, firing left to right at roughly head height working on the assumption a hunter was directly in front of them. TL and Pax immediately understood what he was doing and switched to their M4A1s.
He shouted, ‘We gotta shoot our way through!’
TL shouted, ‘Try not to shoot me in the ass, Pax!’
The sound of gunfire was deafening in the confined space. Tracers lit the alley and, as the tunnel lit up, he saw he was right and there was a deep cluster of hunters in front of him. Their heads were exploding and their bodies pushed back under the barrage of firepower spewing in their direction. He quickly ran out of ammo. There was no way TL could hear him call to reload, but the fact he ceased fire was enough for TL to take up where he left off.
As they fired, they carefully paced forward. Pax monitored their feet using his headlamp to target anything left moving as they started to slip in the black greasy goo hunters leaked like blood. The barrage of bullets was ripping them open, tearing limbs from their bodies and leaving an ungodly mess in its wake. If they slipped and fell onto the greasy floor, it was unlikely they’d ever stand up alive again and Pax was making sure no hunter was able to grab them from the floor.
They reached the end of the alley and it turned them left under the hill they’d been trapped in front of in the car park. Over the endless firing, he thought he could almost see the end of the alley and it was at least the distance of six lanes of road. He assumed the alley was an underpass for the main road in front of the mall.
‘Shit!’ He muttered to himself as he reloaded for the third time. He realized if they were going to make it out alive they would need every bit of ammo they had. The rest of the tunnel was filled with hunters, and they were pushing towards them like a fast moving wall of vibrating teeth. He and TL fired simultaneously, unloading massive firepower into the tunnel. The tunnel was filling with body parts and slimy gore, and moving without falling was becoming almost impossible. The stench of gunfire, smoke and oozing hunters was suffocating. His gun was so hot, he decided he was grateful for his heavy gloves after all. Hands not calloused enough for this kinda shit, he thought absently, as he maintained his rate of fire. TL dropped low as he reloaded for the fo
urth time and Pax maintained the rate of fire over his head, while expended cartridges fell on and around TL.
‘I’m out,’ he shouted, and then realized it was pointless as no one could hear a damned thing.
He was out of ammo for his M4A1, and he flattened closer to the wall, allowing Pax to move forward to take his position. He pulled out his handgun and took over from Pax, monitoring the ground for anything that was still moving with a “fire first and ask questions later” approach. When he ran out of bullets, he switched to his shotgun. It wasn’t as effective and he could only fire behind them, but at least it cleared the alley on their six.
Sliding their feet forward and using the wall to hold themselves upright, they inched forward, hardly able to breathe. They were running perilously low on ammo and they felt rather than saw hands grabbing at their legs. These hunters were down with massive damage, but still clawing at them. Despite the physical destruction, their brain stems were still connected inside their broken bodies.
By the time they almost cleared the alley, all three were down to their shotguns. Pax and TL were taking turns firing their shotguns into the alley ahead. Although dumb like dogs, the hunters were smart enough to cling to the walls and each shot had less effect. When they ran out of shells, they switched to their handguns. They were even less effective, but they slowly inched towards the daylight at the end of the alley. As they cleared the alley, Pax and TL turned around and continued to shoot down the alley behind them. There was always the risk an overexcited hunter might launch into the daylight in search of its lost prey.
Having put enough distance between themselves and the end of the alley, they stopped and looked at one another. They were half-blinded by the tracers, with grit in their eyes and on their faces. He wanted to rub his eyes, but thought better of it. There was simply no clean part of him to use to wipe them. He briefly wondered if the shooters would know where they were and decide to chase them.
Craning his neck, he scanned across the main road to see if he could spot the shooters and his face creased as he frowned in disbelief. Sitting on the low wall next to the alley watching them was the woman, and although he couldn’t see too well, he thought she was smiling at him.
Woman thinks: The three are here, but they had fear. What did they see? Why did they flee? The man is here and he is relieved. Relieved for me, I can see his mind and what it tells. Why does this man care for me so well?
CHAPTER TWO: A light in the dark (TL)
His ears rung with a high pitch static and he tugged his right glove off, then reached for his all-purpose rag to wipe his eyes. They felt gritty and his vision was fuzzy. His right shoulder tweaked at him and his whole body felt jarred. He looked back at the alley for any hunters braving the daylight. Gears was standing stretched tall, looking across the six-lane road in the direction of the shooters last position and Pax was spitting and hacking up onto the tarmac. He did a visual check of them to see if they had any obvious injuries. Although dazed and half-blinded by the sudden daylight, everyone was on their feet. They were filthy and covered with streaks of black slime from the tops of their heads to the caps on their boots, and they stank so badly even he was offended by his own stench.
He saw Gears look down and followed his gaze until it rested on the woman. She was sitting on a wall by the alley watching them and he wondered how she got through it alive. It’d taken most of their ammo to get through it and yet she had gone through the alley unarmed. She was smiling at them, appearing content and maybe even slightly amused. He thought that was an insane reaction to an alley full of hunters and he made a mental note to check her for head injuries.
Pax batted Gears on the back to get his attention and said loudly, ‘Gotta go! Gotta go!’
Gears grabbed the woman’s arm and pulled her with him. There was a row of low two and three-story buildings ahead that looked like they’d been used for light manufacturing and car repair. They ran into a lane that led them behind the buildings. It took them less than five minutes to clear the alley and he was hoping the shooters would give them up for dead.
Pax waved his hand in their faces to get their attention and asked, ‘Ammo count?’
They each did a quick count. They only had twenty bullets between them for the handguns, so they divvied up what they had. With so little ammo left, it was obvious the alley had been a close call and he said grimly, ‘That was not good.’
Gears looked at him as if he was seriously stupid and drawled, ‘Ya think?’
Shaking his head, he said in a worriedly, ‘I don’t know how we got into that shitstorm.’
‘Huh. I’m impressed we got out of it alive,’ Pax replied and then he rambled on. ‘Maybe we didn’t. Maybe this is the Twilight Zone.’ He started to hum the theme song to the TV series.
Gears shot him a filthy look and grumbled, ‘Oh we are very much alive, ‘cos your annoyin’ ass is still here.’
Laughing at his misery, Pax said happily, ‘Aww, cheer up, Gears. Maybe ya in heaven right now.’
Glaring at Pax, Gears replied rudely, ‘I would disprove that theory by shootin’ ya ass where ya stand, but I’m short on ammo.’
He was used to Gears and Pax sparking at one another. He figured it kept them amused and he ignored their insults and said, ‘We need to get back to the trucks.’
They usually parked their trucks somewhere secure while they foraged on foot for what they needed. Preferring to travel light, the trucks had all their additional supplies. They always carried loaded packs that would keep them going for a few days, but today they dumped their packs to get through the alley. It didn’t matter. Strapped to their SPCS tactical vests and belt was everything they needed to survive for another day. They were trained in the principle of ‘belts and braces.’ Lose the truck and you have your bug-out packs. Lose your bug-out packs and you have an arsenal strapped to you. If you plan well, then you get to live to fight another day.
He always thought they’d survive the end of the world and they did. In his view, it was both their nature and their jobs and survival was a given. Their training in the army had only added to the survival training Pop had given them as young boys. That reminded him of Mom and Pop and he sighed deeply. They agreed to head over to the Ranch, but never seemed to get any closer and he thought he knew why. They didn’t want to know the truth. Not knowing was easier, so they wasted time getting themselves into one scrap after another.
They lacked direction and they had no focus. They talked about heading to the Ranch, but never did. They talked about finding any operational army and reporting in, but hadn’t really looked. Pax had suggested they head for the hills, but neither he nor Gears wanted to. He thought they should be helping survivors, but Gears seemed happy enough having no plan, which surprised him. Of the three of them, Gears was usually the one who insisted that they knew what they were doing.
In their aimless wandering, they met other survivors. Sometimes they would stay with them for a few days and swap stories, share food, commiserate and have a few laughs. Often they found themselves rescuing people from attacks by the dead or the living. It was never any trouble to deal with the shamblers, but even with their skills, the hunters were extremely dangerous.
Over the past month, he felt armed vagrancy had become a way of life for them. He knew they were just moving from one skirmish to the next, enjoying the brief focus every combat engagement offered them. He suspected that they, like other survivors, were suffering from shock. For the three of them, combat was a coping mechanism that stopped them from having to remember that the world they once knew was gone for good.
Having finished arguing with Pax for the moment, Gears asked, ‘We got two hours of daylight left. Do ya wanna hunker down or go for the trucks?’
He noticed Gears was obviously worried the woman might run off again and he was holding the scruff of her filthy dress. For her part, she wasn’t paying any attention to them and seemed to be off in her own world.
Shaking his head, Pax said b
luntly, ‘We won’t make it to the trucks in two hours. The trucks are at least a four-hour hike from here. We need to find somewhere for the night.’
At night, they would find a basement or room with no or few windows. They would lock down, gear up, sleep in shifts and wait for morning. It seemed if one hunter found you, then so did all its buddies. They had tactics to bring down a hunter. They used flashlights to blind them briefly in the dark and then grab them from behind and shoot out their brain stem. If many hunters attacked, they’d funnel them into a room, one at a time to control the flow and shoot out their brain stems. If all else failed they’d unload a shedload of firepower at them, just as they had in the alley. However, all their tactics relied on good luck, good guns and a good supply of ammo.
Agreeing with Pax, he added, ‘We don’t have enough ammo to defend a foxhole. We’re gonna need somewhere that’s already well-defended.’
Nodding, Pax flicked his head in the direction they’d last seen the shooters and said grimly, ‘And away from them assholes.’
Sighing, Gears said, ‘Okay, let’s head in the direction of the trucks and look for a decent place to hunker down for the night.’
Pax glanced at the woman Gears was still holding onto and said, ‘What about her?’
Looking curiously at his charge, Gears replied, ‘She don’t look too with it, so we gotta bring her with us and I wanna know how she got past them hunters.’
Using the buildings as cover just in case the shooters were watching them, they started walking at a steady clip in the general direction of their trucks and the woman seemed content to walk beside Gears.
