Rolling Thunder - 03 (7 page)

Dog had killed the female I had wounded and was waiting for
us at the intersection.  Not pausing to check the row we were crossing I ran
harder.  Rachel paced me at my side, Dog falling in on the other side of her so
she was between us as we ran.  More screams sounded, some behind and some to
our left, but it sounded like only a few voices.  The thought occurred to me
that the females were using the screams to communicate with each other, or at
least maybe the smart ones were.  I wasn’t really sure how that theory might
help at the moment, but I filed it away to think about later when I had the
opportunity.

We were almost to the next row when two more females charged
into the intersection only feet in front of us.  I couldn’t have stopped if I’d
tried, so I didn’t.  Instead, I changed my direction slightly and blasted into
them.  I was running with my rifle up and as I made contact with them I shoved
the barrel into the throat of the one to my right and pulled the trigger in
burst mode, the three rounds blowing out the back of her neck and head. 

I had lowered my left shoulder and rammed it into the face
of the one directly in front of me.  I had at least a hundred pounds on her and
was moving fast when I delivered the hit.  Her head flew back as she was lifted
into the air, landing flat on her back a few feet down the aisle.  Her head hit
the concrete floor with a loud, meaty smack and she didn’t immediately try to
bounce back to her feet.  Swinging the rifle I fired three rounds into her
heart as I ran past.

Behind us I heard a lone scream and glanced back but
couldn’t see anything.  When we reached the mid-point between intersections I
slid to a stop, turned to our rear and dropped to a knee as I raised the
rifle.  A single female was charging towards us, just leaping over the two I’d
killed at the last intersection and I took a moment to steady my aim then
dropped her.  The bullet struck her on the bridge of the nose, instantly
destroying her brain.  The body flopped forward to the floor and her momentum
continued as a slide for another half a dozen feet.

Aisle to our rear clear, I had just stood up when Rachel
gasped as a female landed on her, knocking her to the floor and trying to tear
into her throat.  I was stepping forward to help her when I was knocked down as
well, another female on my back.  When I hit the floor I rolled and we wound up
coming to a stop against the bottom cross piece of the shelving that defined
the aisle.  The female on me was strong and fast and I struggled to get a grip
on her, finally grasping her long, thick hair.  Controlling her head I slammed
it into the edge of the steel shelving once, twice then a third time.  On the
third impact she quit struggling and her eyes rolled up in their sockets.  Yanking
my right hand free of her hair I drew my knife and stabbed up through her mouth
into her brain before kicking the body away and rolling over to help Rachel.

Rachel had been attacked by a female that was larger than
she was and was not faring very well.  Scrambling across the floor on my hands
and knees I pivoted on my hip and used the momentum to kick the infected in the
side.  She was knocked off of Rachel and rolled a couple of times before
snapping back up onto her feet and leaping at us.  I met her in mid leap with
the blade extended and ended her battle.  Dog was a dozen feet away, engaged
with two females.  He had torn the Achilles tendon out of one of them and she
squirmed around on the floor, unable to walk, trying to reach Rachel who hadn’t
gotten back to her feet. 

The other female was a big woman, not fat, big like a man. 
She was fighting with Dog, but he was wearing her down with his speed and
power.  He had broken both of her forearms with his jaws and she was bleeding
heavily from bite wounds in her sides and thighs where he’d taken chunks bigger
than my fist out of her.  She might have been infected and in a rage, but her
body still had to obey basic biological principles.  No amount of adrenalin is
going to overcome blood loss, and she was bleeding out.  Moving slower she
lunged at Dog, her arms flopping uselessly, and he took the opportunity to leap
into her and knock her to the floor.  He had her throat in his jaws as she came
to a stop on her back and then he tore her open and locked his jaws on her head
until she stopped moving.

While he fought I had finished off the other female before
dashing to Rachel’s side to check on her.  Her face, chest and arms were all
bleeding from furrows torn into her skin by the infected, but I didn’t see
anything that looked too severe.  She was moving slightly, but didn’t look up
at me when I called her name.  Running my hands over her body I checked for
broken bones or other injuries I couldn’t see under her clothing, but didn’t
find anything.  Pausing my examination I raised my rifle and checked to make
sure we weren’t about to be overrun with infected.  First I looked up, but
there weren’t any females waiting to leap on us.  The aisle was clear in both
directions.

Blood dripping from his muzzle, Dog trotted over and stood
on the other side of Rachel, watching down the aisle.  With his superior eyes
keeping watch I turned my attention back to Rachel and was dismayed to find her
unconscious.  That was when I remembered the medic who had checked her out just
after our escape from Murfreesboro.  He’d warned me to keep her from hitting
her head again for a few days.  With a sense of dread in my gut I unclipped the
small flashlight from my rifle, pried Rachel’s right eye open and flicked the
light across it.  Her pupil responded, but very sluggishly.  I repeated the
process with her left eye.  Its pupil responded normally.  Shit!  I didn’t know
what this meant medically, but I sure as hell knew it wasn’t good.  Carefully,
I slipped my hands under Rachel’s head and felt a swelling just a few
centimeters from the bump that she had gotten from being knocked out in
Murfreesboro.

Dog’s growl warned me and I spun, snapping my rifle up and
sighting in on four shambling males that had just rounded the corner into our
aisle.  I dropped all four of them, scanned behind them then turned to scan in
the direction we needed to move.  Clear for the moment.  I scanned the upper
shelves again which were thankfully clear.  We needed to move before more of
them found us.  The problem was, how was I going to move Rachel?  The cart we
had used for Dog would have worked but it was several intersections behind us
and I wasn’t about to leave her unprotected to go get it.  Dog was a ferocious
fighter, but he couldn’t fend off a group of infected by himself.

Clipping the light back onto my rifle I tuned it on and
scanned the aisle section we were in, hoping to see another cart, but there
wasn’t one in sight.  Extinguishing the light I said a couple of curses under
my breath as I removed Rachel’s rifle sling and looped it over my neck.  Next
to come off was her pack.  I knew there were items in there we needed, and took
a moment to salvage all of her spare magazines and ammunition before shoving
the pack out of the way against the bottom of a shelf.  Swapping for a fresh
magazine in my rifle I moved into a squat, straddling Rachel’s hips.  Gathering
her upper body in my arms I pulled her to me, held tight and stood up with
her.  Using one arm to hold her up I turned and slid down her body until my
shoulder was just above her belt, pulled her upper body onto my back and
straightened up again with her draped over my left shoulder.  My left arm was
raised and over her hips and the best grip I could get to balance her weight
was by grabbing hard onto her ass.  I made a mental note not to tell her about
this when she woke up.

I took a couple of steps and bounced her weight to adjust to
a more comfortable position, then started staggering forward.  I still had my
pack on, coming in at over a hundred pounds, had both of our rifles plus
Rachel’s weight.  Not my idea of a pleasant stroll, but there wasn’t an
alternative.  I walked with my pistol in my right hand, unable to handle the
rifle and keep Rachel’s weight balanced on my shoulder.  I had no peripheral
vision to my left due to her body pressed up against my head and moved Dog to
that side to keep watch.  I almost paused when there was another clatter of
objects hitting the floor to our rear, but I could tell that whatever had made
the noise was far enough away that it was out of pistol range.

Lightning flashed again, freeze framing the aisle to my
front and the five males that stood in a loose group at the upcoming
intersection.  I paused to check the shelves in front of us and didn’t see any
females lying in wait so continued forward.  I hoped I was only dealing with
warehouse employees who had turned and become trapped in the massive building. 
Never having worked in a warehouse I assumed that one this size would have half
a dozen or so clerical employees which are typically women and that most if not
all of the laborers and forklift drivers would be men.  If all my hopes and
assumptions were correct then I might get out without encountering any more
females.  Small groups of males didn’t particularly concern me as long as I had
room to maneuver and a weapon to put them down. 

I reminded myself to not get complacent or over confident
when it came to the males.  They might not have the speed and agility of the
females, but what they lacked in those areas they made up for in sheer
strength.  They could also bunch up and if I got cornered by even a small group
of them I could be in serious trouble.  Turning my upper body enough to see Dog,
I verified there wasn’t anything else in the immediate vicinity that was
presenting a threat.  Telling Dog to stay beside me I walked forward and came
to a stop ten feet from the group of males.  They had heard Dog’s nails
clicking on the floor and were turning their heads trying to locate the source
of the sound, but none of them could tell what direction it was coming from. 

Raising my right arm I shot the closest one to me in the
back of the head.  The pistol was shockingly loud after the suppressed rifle
and all the hard surfaces in the warehouse reflected and amplified the noise. 
As soon as I fired the shot the other four males snapped their heads in my
direction, snarled almost as one and started towards me.  Standing fast, I
methodically fired four more shots, dropping each of them in turn.  When I
could hear again after the crash of the pistol fire, Dog was growling and there
were snarls from behind.  Turning carefully so as not to unbalance myself and
drop Rachel on her head, which was about the last thing she needed right now, I
saw seven more males shambling down the aisle towards us.  The leader of the
group was twenty yards away and I decided to give him another few seconds so I
would have an easier shot.  Hey, you try shooting accurately with a hundred
pound pack on your back and a full grown woman balanced on your shoulder!

He had closed almost half the distance and my finger was
tightening on the trigger when a sound from above my head reached my ears.  I
didn’t hesitate or look to see what the noise was, I just moved backwards as
fast as I could with my burden.  The instant I moved a female landed on the
floor in the spot I had been standing.  Before I could shoot her Dog was in
motion, taking her to the ground, and I refocused on the closest male and shot
him from five feet away.  OK, maybe I didn’t need to let them get so close. 
His buddies were right on his heels and I worked my way through the group with
headshots until there was only one still standing.  I had shot him and seen the
bullet strike his forehead, but he was still coming.  What the hell?  He
stumbled over one of the bodies on the floor as he came towards me, falling
flat on his face.  Taking advantage of his bad luck I stepped up and shot him
in the back of the head at point blank range.  The body spasmed then lay still. 

Dog had killed the female and I took the moment to satisfy
my curiosity.  Using the toe of my boot I hooked the body under a shoulder and
flipped it over.  There was a long tear in the skin of the forehead from my
first bullet.  That didn’t make sense.  Bullets only do that to flesh if
they’re travelling at an angle.  I had shot him straight on and the round
should have penetrated directly into his head.  While I was standing there
looking down at him lightning flashed again and in that instant of brilliant
white light I saw the metallic glint inside the wound.  Son of a bitch.  He had
a metal plate in his head.  All the first round had done was ring his bell. 
Probably quite literally.

Screams from deep within the warehouse snapped me back to
action, but first things first.  Shifting Rachel’s weight I leaned against a
shelf so I could let go of her body without dropping her.  With two hands in
action I changed the magazine in the pistol and pulled my rifle around to the
front of my body.  With females on the way I wanted to be ready.  Grabbing on
to Rachel again I turned and headed off, stepping carefully over the infected
bodies in the intersection.  Lightning flashed again and four intersections
ahead I could see the back wall of the warehouse.  Unfortunately the screams
were getting closer, fast, and I was running out of time.

Looking around I found a shelf at waist level that was only
partially full.  Sidling up to it I worked Rachel off my shoulder and onto the
shelf, shoving her arms and legs back into the darkness.  I took ten seconds to
pile boxes in front of her so she was hidden from view before stepping out into
the middle of the aisle.  Without her weight I felt light on my feet and Dog
and I stood in place waiting for the females.  Screams to my right and in front
of me, all of them sounding close but they weren’t visible in my rifle scope
yet.  Keeping the upper shelves as a part of my scanning I paused when I
spotted movement 15 feet off the floor and halfway between my position and the
last intersection.

There were more screams from the same positions as before,
but I kept my attention on the two females I had spotted.  They were working
their way down the face of the shelves, feet on the platform 15 feet in the
air, using their hands to hold the next higher shelf rail as they moved
sideways towards me.  Others were screaming, but again didn’t sound closer. 
Suddenly I realized they were distracting me while these hunters were sneaking
up.  Not hesitating any longer I shot the closest one that was clinging onto
the shelves.  The second one reacted immediately and started climbing, going
for the top, and she was fast.  So fast she nearly made it before my bullet
knocked her off and she crashed to the floor with the sound of breaking bones.