Thankfully, Hawkins obeyed.
We followed the general deeper into the city as more of the Elderwood contingent poured in. A number of Hammond’s men were carrying heavy equipment: extra weaponry, radio stuff, and more bits and pieces they’d usually tuck away in a truck or other support vehicles that had probably long since stopped functioning. Poltava flagged a couple of them down and filched weapons for us.
We received pistols and—most important of all—a walkie-talkie.
Hammond looked over us and nodded in approval. “Much better. Now get moving.” He pointed in the direction of the smoke plume. “I’m not losing another city.”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
I kept the axe with me, not out of any lingering fondness for it, but because I only had a pistol to my name right now, and running out of ammunition seemed like a very real possibility.
Also, what can I say? It looked really cool, even if none of the undead actually appreciated or feared it.
Fortunately, Tony remembered the way to our fantastic prison cell, even if I didn’t. We hustled down a street clogged with confused civilians, all of them clearly trying to migrate away from the recent blast. They would probably wind up crashing into Hammond’s group, which I was certain would be one of the more entertaining moments of the apocalypse.
The handful of soldiers amongst them seemed more concerned with calming people down than actually maintaining order, which worked out in our favor. No one paid attention to three random people trying to go toward the explosion.
Find Durkee. Fix the wall.
Small things, really. They only seemed like tall orders.
“Good to see you,” I puffed to Poltava. I was riding high on adrenaline, but I was pretty sure I’d soon be feeling the effects of my zombie killing spree. “So you’ve been here all day?”
“Hammond sent us in to scout this morning,” she said. “We were going to try to take things quietly, but one of my men saw what was going on in the stadium and the general decided to make an entrance.”
Judging by the look on her face, she would have preferred to take things quietly.
We closed in on the eastern side of the city, making our way toward Durkee. We passed more and more citizens, most of whom were not actually fleeing but instead rubbernecked in the street, looking toward the plume of smoke—that kept getting bigger and bigger. To my horror, I realized the makeshift prison had to be located on the east side, and probably right near the wall that had been knocked down. We were headed directly toward it!
“He must have had the wall rigged, right?” Tony puffed, limping along as fast as his leg would allow. “He can’t have set all that up in five minutes.”
“He had it rigged,” Poltava said grimly. “Or someone did. Someone wants this city to burn.”
We reached the would-be prison complex itself in good time. The soldiers had probably run as soon as they realized the fence was down; really, who wouldn’t? Thousands of revenants were lurking in the Quarantine Zone, and all of them would be drawn to the sound of the explosion.
We ran into the main lobby. An awful lot of blood was smeared across the floor. We followed it to the back of the building, toward the actual holding cell.
“Shit,” Tony said. “Give me your axe, Vibby. If there’s more of them—”
“I’ll do it,” I said.
The smear led us straight to a dead man. He pounded ineffectively at the door, then spun around when I whistled at him. He wore a uniform, though its camouflage pattern was utterly wrecked by the blood spilled across it.
Something had ripped his lower jaw off. Poor dude.
I slammed the axe into his head. It dug into his skull, though I hadn’t swung hard enough to actually smash through the bone entirely. I was about to pull the axehead free to try again, but Poltava stepped in front of me and slapped a bullet through his face.
He slumped against the wall, then went over.
I pried the axe out of his head. “You know, I’m starting to like this thing.”
“You do make it look good,” Tony said. He started unlocking the many deadbolts that had been installed on the door, and then hauled the door itself open.
Poltava held up a hand, indicating she should go in first. “Captain Durkee?” she called. “Are you in there?”
Durkee appeared almost immediately, his toes still sticking out of his jovial-looking socks. “I’m Durkee,” he said. “Was that you trying to chew your way through?”
I pointed at the zombie.
“Ah, good. Well, it’s always prudent to ask. What’s going on out there?”
“General Hammond sent us to get you.”
Durkee’s mouth fell open a bit. “Hammond is here?”
I pressed on, not letting him ask any follow-up questions: “There’s been an explosion. One of your soldiers said the Chapman Barrier is down.”
“Chapman? That’s almost…that’s practically down the street…”