J. Knoll - Zoe, Undead

One of the men across the balcony who held an M-16 took careful aim and fired one shot that drove home right through a zombie's head. They all watched the zombie fall and the others just walk around him.

Tex looked down to Zoe and asked, "Do you think they'll come up after us?"

She shrugged and admitted, "I don't know."

The zombies began to stop beneath the soldiers and look up at them. Moans sounded from some of them, gurgles and coughs from others. One of them yelled something primal up at them.

Another soldier took aim and fired, and another zombie fell.

The corporal, who was on the other side of the food court, shouted across, "They have us a little outnumbered, Sarge."

Staring down at the mass of zombies below, Sergeant Morris just nodded, then he called back, "As long as they stay down there I think we're in good shape."

Several of the zombies looked to the stairs, then they started that way.

"You were saying?" one of the soldiers with him grumbled.

"Pair up and cover the stairs," he shouted. "As soon as they bottleneck on the stairs we can start picking them off, and don't waste ammo!"

Soldiers ran toward the stair cases and took their positions up, some kneeling, some lying prone and others content to stand. Tex checked to be sure that everyone was in position, then he looked to Zoe and ordered, "Get to someplace safe. This is about to get really loud."

"I want to stay with you," she whined.

He just stared back at her, then he shook his head and ordered, "Stay behind me then."

As the soldiers had fanned out, so did the zombies. This affect was unexpected, but the zombies seemed to be following their living intended victims and looked for the easiest way to get to them. More had joined them, more that kept looking upstairs to see what they wanted.

Morris shouted to his men, "Hold your fire until they're about halfway up, then fire selectively. Headshots are the only way to kill them, so make every round count."

The tension piled up as Zoe watched the zombies approach the stairs. The first to arrive at the closest stairs began a slow ascent, moaning a little louder as they climbed, and the majority of them seemed to be heading her way!

Tex took up a position beside those men, leaning over the rail and aiming his weapon down at the undead mob that slowly closed on them.

"Short, controlled bursts," he ordered in a low voice. "Princess, you might want to cover your ears. This is going to get a little loud."

She complied and covered her ears with her hands, watching with wide eyes as the zombies slowly ascended the stairs.

When they reached the platform that was about halfway up, Sergeant Morris said in a calm voice, "Let 'em have it."

Weapons fired with loud cracks and projectiles connected and exploded through heads and torsos. Zombies began to fall immediately. In a few moments, all of the teams were firing, zombies kept dropping, but they kept coming.

Zoe looked to the department store, seeing even more coming through those doors, then she looked to the entrance, her eyes widening as she saw more coming in through there.

One of the soldiers on Morris' firing team let an empty magazine fall from his rifle, and he looked back at the Sergeant as he reached to his belt for another, shouting, "We are in some deep shit here, Sarge!"

"Then shovel faster!" Tex yelled back.

"I'm down to three mags!" someone else shouted over the shooting.

Zoe's mouth tightened to a thin slit and she glanced around. She knew that the soldiers would run out of bullets long before they ran out of zombies. Looking to Morris' belt, she saw the radio there and reached for it, taking it from him and backing away. He was too distracted to notice and just kept firing, so she backed into a shop and keyed it up, calling, "Hello? Is anyone there?"

Long seconds of silence answered.

"Hello?" she called again.

"This is Colonel Halstead," a familiar voice finally answered. "What's the situation in there?"

"It's bad!" she shouted. "The guys are running out of bullets!"

"We're right outside in the Strykers," he informed, "But we have problems of our own. We'll get ammo to you if we can, but the outlook is doubtful. Tell Sergeant Morris to hold out as long as he can."

"Okay," she replied. She huffed a breath, feeling frustrated that the other soldiers could not come in and help. Striding back to Morris with long steps, she looked down to the steps to see that the bodies had really piled up on that first landing of the staircase, and others were climbing over them or moving them out of the way to continue to try and get at the men. Her mind was not well suited to figuring out such solutions, but she tried her best anyway. Something had to be done.

Looking to the other side, her eyes widened as she saw the elevator. Down on the lower level, no zombies were around it, and inspiration struck the girl. She patted the Sergeant's shoulder and shouted over the gunfire, "I'll be right back, okay?" Not waiting for a response, she turned and ran around the rail that overlooked the first level, toward the elevator, and once there she pushed the button.

And waited.

She beat on the door with her palm and shouted, "Come on!"

A few seconds later it opened and she darted in.

On the ground floor, she ran out a few steps, looking around her to see zombies everywhere. Gunfire erupted outside and she looked to the main doors. That's where the Colonel had to be!

Zoe ran outside to see three Strykers backed up to the mall. Each of them had a machine gun turret firing into the sea of zombies that mobbed them from every direction while other soldiers fired from ports in the machines and out the driver and passenger windows up front. There were far too many zombies for them to allow anyone to leave the vehicles safely. Without considering the danger, Zoe began to push through the hoard of zombies that surrounded the machines, and she shouted, "Excuse me! Pardon me!" as she made her way to the first Stryker.

Nearly there, she was pushing past a large zombie man when the back of his head blew apart and she shrieked as brains and blackened blood spewed out, and she watched him fall. Looking back to the Stryker, she finally realized that she was right in their line of fire, and only about twenty feet away from it. For the first time, she was afraid they would shoot her by mistake. As she made her way closer, she began to wave her arms and shout, "Hey! It's me! Don't shoot me!"

She finally arrived at the first one, somehow getting there without getting shot, and she climbed up on it on the driver's side and knocked on the window. Another zombie tried to climb up as well nudging her aside, and she barked, "Move!" as she pushed him off. She knocked on the window again and when she saw the driver looking at her, she waved to him and shouted, "Is Colonel Halstead in there?"

The driver was a little surprised to see her at first, but quickly regained his bearing and shouted back, "He's in Ranger One, on the other side."

Zoe huffed a breath and looked away, then she informed, "The guys inside need more bullets. Do you have any more in there?"

"Hang on," he said as he turned to go to the back.

A moment later he returned and lowered the window just enough to slide an ammo can out, yelling over the gunfire, "Here's two of them. Can you carry them okay?"

"I think so," she yelled back, dropping the first can to the ground. "I might have to come back for some more, is that okay?"

"Yeah, it's okay!" he barked. "Get these to Sergeant Morris! We have plenty more."

"Okay," she complied.

Holding an ammo can by the handle in each hand, she made her way back inside, back to the elevator, and once upstairs, she ran to Morris and set the cans down, opening the first one and pulling out a magazine. Tapping him on the shoulder, she asked loudly over the gunfire, "Do you want more?"