“No worries,” yelled Billie from the truck. “Priest.”
St. George drove his hand into the hair-eater’s throat and felt the bones shatter. He held the dead thing by its limp neck and swung it, knocking down two more exes. A backhand throw landed it on top of the wiggling pile under the tree.
“Headlights,” bellowed Cerberus. She pointed at the faint glow past the overpass.
“About fucking time,” growled Ty, lining up a shot. “Military-wannabe.”
“Everyone get ready to move,” said St. George as he walked back to Big Red. “All your gear, all the supplies we found, anything that rides in the truck. We leave nothing. Not a piece of rope, not a band-aid, nothing.”
The rescue truck was Big Blue, a cobbled-together twin of their own vehicle. It surged up over the hill, engine growling, and crushed the exes beneath its tires. The men in its bed added their weapons to the hail of gunfire knocking down exes.
“Marines,” howled Ilya, “we are leaving!”
Big Blue squealed to a halt a few yards away. “Somebody call for a lift?” shouted the driver. Johnny K leaned out the window and grinned at them. “Load up.”
Luke bounded over the cab, sliding down next to Jarvis. “Gate to gate,” he yelled. “We’ve got wounded and supplies. There’s too many exes to walk it.”
Johnny K nodded and threw his vehicle back into gear. Big Blue swung into position near St. George and the hero lowered both lift gates to create a walkway between the truck beds. The scavengers dragged bags and crates across. Lady Bee and Ty carried Mark.
Luke slid into Big Red’s cab through the window and started handing things out. Fire extinguishers. First aid. Ammo boxes. Flares. Jarvis and Lee ferried them to the other truck. Luke crawled out, clutching a police radio to his chest. “We’re clear,” he shouted to the armored titan.
Cerberus crushed a skull in her palm and nodded. She batted a few away and pushed through the swarm. They clawed at the armor and chipped their teeth on the metal plates. She trudged forward, dragging them with her as they filled her screens.
“Drop the gate,” shouted St. George. He batted exes away, clearing a path for the battlesuit. Jarvis, Lee, and Lynne fired into the crowd while the others stabbed down with their pikes.
Cerberus swung her arms, shaking off the undead, and the pikes knocked them away. St. George peeled them from her, hurling them into the swarm. Bodies vanished beneath the shambling horde.
She stomped onto the metal lift gate and Luke flipped the switch, raising her up with a whine of hydraulics. “Hop on,” he yelled to St. George.
The hero cracked an ex across the jaw and shook his head. “I’ll slow the lift. Get her on board.”
“Damn it, boss--”
“Give me a pike!”
Someone tossed the flagpole down to him and he swung it like a bat, cracking half a dozen exes in the skull. He pulled back and swung again, knocking down another handful before the shaft cracked. He rammed the broken pike through an ex’s skull and kicked the corpse away.
Cerberus stepped up onto the bed of Big Blue and the lift gate gasped with relief. Luke toggled the switch and the metal plate swung up to block them in. “All aboard,” he hollered.
Johnny K gunned his engine and brought the truck around, crushing exes as it made a wide turn.
Dozens of hands pawed at St. George, grabbed his clothes, his hair, his limbs. He lashed out, felt them fall even as new hands reached for him. They pinned him with sheer numbers and he felt a swarm of teeth across his body.
This would be a good end, he thought. Overwhelmed saving my team. A good way to be remembered.
There was a roar of automatic fire and skulls exploded around him. Bullets slapped his head and shoulders like hailstones. His sunglasses shattered and his headset twisted into plastic scrap. The weapons barked again and exes sprayed blood and meat over him as they slumped and fell.
In the back of Big Blue, Lady Bee stood with Jarvis, Luke, and Ilya. Their weapons coughed up smoke. Jarvis dropped his empty magazine and reloaded.
St. George wiped gore from his face. The rounds had cleared a wide arc round him. “What the fuck are you doing?!”
“You’re bulletproof,” shouted Bee with a grin. “Stop whining and get in the truck.”
He landed next to the stripe-haired woman. “You just wasted a ton of ammo.”
“Maybe we just wanted an excuse to shoot you,” said Ilya with a smile.
“Thanks.”
“No worries, boss.”
NOW
Nine
The pipe clanged down across the gate, and the dead resumed their eternal grasping though the bars. The clatter of their teeth trembled in the air.
St. George stood and watched them. Big Blue was getting unloaded behind him. Lynne had just punched Jarvis hard in the back of the head. Mark was already halfway to the hospital.
“She wants to see you,” said Gorgon. “First thing.”
“I’m covered in shit,” the other hero said without looking away. “Infected blood. Rotted meat. I think some actual shit.”