'The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.'
Jimmy held the gun ready, there were at least ten of them coming down the tunnel and he knew that he didn't have enough bullets for all of them. He glanced at Roland who had dropped his flashlight and was clutching the axe in both hands, by the looks of things he had been having a lot of practice with it down in the sewers.
"You know how to kill them right?" Jimmy asked.
"Yeah," Roland replied," smash in their skulls right?"
"Yeah," Jimmy said.
They were still some distance away when Jimmy took careful aim and fired the first shot, it struck one of them and they fell, causing another two to fall over the first, but that still left six or seven more coming their way. Jimmy fired again as they came into the light, dropping a women covered in grime. She stumbled a few more steps before falling down and taking another zombie with her. Jimmy felt the metal gate at his back as the two men pressed against it, the last round in the gun he was going save for himself.
Suddenly the tunnel flooded with light and Jimmy was blinded for a moment as a circular hole appeared some ten feet above them. In the light a silhouette of a person appeared, waving at them.
"What are you waiting for?" a women's voice said," come on!"
Roland was way ahead of him, he swung the axe hard, severing a zombie by the neck as it closed in and he used the momentum of the swing to bring it around his head and slash another across the chest, which staggered from the blow. Roland leapt onto a ladder that led towards the light above Jimmy grabbed it as he scrambled up too. Something grabbed his shoulder and he fired at the face inches from taking a chunk out of him and it fell back into the darkness. He climbed the slippery ladder as fast as he could, kicking back to make sure nothing had the chance to drag him back into the abyss. As he pulled himself up, a familiar face appeared in front of him.
"I would hug you," Cass said," but your covered in shit,"
"What happened in there?" Jimmy asked looking around at some back alley they were in, but Eric wasn't with them," are you ok?"
"I'm ok," she said," I climbed out and heard shooting from a drain, I came up a few drains down. Luckily none of those things were around,"
"And Eric?" Jimmy asked.
"I haven't seen him," she said.
Jimmy checked the gun, but it was empty. Roland still had his axe and was wiping the blood from the blade. Now that they were in daylight, he could see that Roland had a slightly greying beard that didn't look as though it had been shaved in some time.
"So," Jimmy said," what's the plan?"
"First you guys need to get cleaned up," Cass said," then we should think about some food, I mean real food,"
"That supermarket is near here," Jimmy said," let's head there,"
"What about your friend?" Roland asked," Eric isn't it?"
"Eric?" Jimmy said into his radio," you out there?"
There was no reply and Jimmy looked at the small screen, the battery was dead. He discarded it and put the gun next to it on the ground. He pulled a piece of sharp metal from a garbage container and examined it. It had been broken off halfway down and the point was sharp enough to kill one of those things.
"Ok let's move," Jimmy said.
………………………………………………………………………………………
"My brother owned a place like this," Roland said as they stood at the front entrance to the supermarket.
The front doors were blocked by a shelf, but the windows were mostly broken. Someone had obviously tried to hide inside and the zombies had broken through, there were blood stains covering the floor inside with footprints leading in all directions.
"Keep you eyes open," Jimmy said.
"We should grab as much food as we can carry," Roland said," then find us a car and get the hell out of here,"
Jimmy went first through the broken window, stepping down onto the broken glass he looked around at the silent rows of shelves. At the entrance to one of them was a body, it's head blown clean in two. The other half lay by the next row of shelves in a pile of sludgy blood. Jimmy kept the spear like piece of metal in front of him and looked down the row where the body lay, there were another three bodies sprawled out with similar head wounds, someone had been shooting at them.
There was a rustle of something behind him and Jimmy turned with the spear outstretched. Roland stopped and lowered his bag of food.
"Sorry," Roland said, taking a cookie from the packet, making even more noise.
"You guys stay here," Jimmy said," this area looks clear, I'm going to check the back office,"
Jimmy reached the door and found it was slightly ajar, bloody stains on the door handle. He entered the room, which gave off the stench of death and he cautiously looked around. It didn't take long to see what was causing the smell; on a chair was a man, half of his skull blown away. At his feet lay a shotgun with dry blood over the barrel. Jimmy picked up the shotgun and cocked it, a shell fell to the ground and he did so again. He searched the man who had committed suicide and found a box of shells in his pocket. All in all, he had eleven shotgun shells. He knelt by the man to get a closer look and noticed a blue flak jacket on the floor with Swat written on it.
"One of Eric's guys," Cass said from behind him.
"Yeah," Jimmy said," must have got away,"
"Well at least we have another gun," Cass said.
"Yeah," Jimmy replied, searching the man for his radio, but it was dead like Colin's one. He had no handgun either, and no clips on him.
Roland appeared at the doorway with a bag full of food and Cass showed Jimmy her bag, which contained bottles of water.
"I think we have enough food for a while," she said," but I'm still worried about Eric,"
"He's Swat," Jimmy said," if anyone can take care of themselves, it's him,"
"We should get moving," Cass said.
"I think I saw some cars in the alleyway behind here," Roland said," I think I can hotwire one,"
"You know how to hotwire a car?" Jimmy asked.
"I didn't always do repairs you know," Roland said.
"Ok," Jimmy said," you guys start loading the supplies into the car and I'll check the area, have either of you guys noticed that none of those things are around?"
"It's strange," Cass said," but it's better them being anywhere but near us,"
Jimmy sat by the front window, using a pair of binoculars he had found on the swat guy, there were one or two of the things across the water, but no where nearby. He wondered if something had scared them off, there was nothing nearby to suggest that they were anywhere close by. While he was sitting there, something glinted off the light and he turned to look at a row near to him. On the floor were some bullet shells, but they weren't shotgun or 9mm. He knelt by them, turning them over and thinking. They were from some kind of assault rifle, and he didn't need to look far to see what kind. Two empty magazines lay by a pile of bullet laden bodies at the end of the row. Jimmy looked closer and realised that very few had bullet holes in the head, they were ordinary people who had been murdered, gunned down by someone.
"Hey guys," Jimmy called.
A few seconds later, Cass stuck her head around the office door.
"Something isn't right here," Jimmy said," these people were murdered, they weren't crazy,"
"How can you tell?" Cass asked, keeping her distance, she obviously didn't want to see the gory details of the remains of the people.
"At least ten," Jimmy said," and two have been shot in the head, someone killed them all,"
"The car is no good," Roland shouted from outside," I'm going to have to try another one,"
"Someone might have killed them by mistake," Cass said," they probably thought they were crazy and just panicked,"
"And had time to reload and fire another clip into them?" Jimmy asked," and what's with these boxes, it's like someone has been moving the food from here and-,"
A gunshot rang out from the street and Jimmy turned to look outside, in the distance he could see a truck moving towards them with people hanging out the side. They were some three hundred metres away and hadn't seen Jimmy and Cass yet, more shots rang out and Jimmy used the binoculars to get a better view.
The zombies were attacking the truck, around twenty or so. On top were two men with MP5s shooting at them, on the front of the truck were the words Swat, but those inside were not swat members.
"What is it?" Cass asked.
"We got trouble," Jimmy said," Vigilantes,"
Now Jimmy understood, they had shot the people hiding here and had been moving the food to another, more secure location. They had stolen the swat truck and it's weapons, and were coming back for more food.