0145 Hrs.
Mason shoot the final three rounds of the magazine before it clicked empty. He reached down and grabbed another, ejecting the spent one in a single, practised movement. The full magazine slotted into the pistol grip and with a final push locked into position.
He flicked the slide release with his thumb and the weapon chambered another round.
He risked a glance at Mary just to assure himself that she was still there more than anything else.
She looked to be handling herself as well as could be expected under the circumstances.
An empty magazine lay at her feet, more on the bank next to her.
She stood in a classic shooters' pose; one hand supporting the other where it held the pistol. Just as he had shown her.
He was glad she was there.
If he had been alone he would probably have turned the gun on himself by now.
He looked back to the front just in time to catch site of one of the dead running at his position. The man, or rather, what had once been a man, held his arms out before him, looking as if he was going to embrace the soldier. It made it ten more strides before Mason shot. He fired two rounds quickly, both finding their mark, one entering its eye socket, the other catching the forehead. The top half of the things head popped like a rotten tomato. Brain matter and skull fragments flew in every direction, some acting as shrapnel to the other two things that were directly behind it.
One of them was hit in the face, its head snapping back for a second before it carried on its course, the other remaining unscathed for the moment.
Mason dropped these with a couple more well placed shots, the weapon bucking in his practised hands, and then took a moment to scan the area searching for more threats, the sound of the shots still ringing in his ears.
Seeing no immediate targets he walked over to where Mary was.
He reached out and tapped her on the shoulder. She spun her head around, the look of terror gone in a second as she realised it was him and not some dead cannibal come to chew on her.
She dropped the gun from where it had been pointed at him and breathed a massive sigh of relief.
'You think that was it? That was the last of them?'
Mason shook his head slowly.
'I doubt it. Those shots will have pulled every one of them for miles. We got a break is all. How long? … I'm not sure I want to know.'
He smiled and was surprised when she smiled back.
They had got to the place where he and the rest of the squad had set up.
It had been covered with camouflage netting and had been far enough from the village to have remained undetected by either the dead or anything else.
They were as safe as they could be with the remainder of the weapons that were there and the river at their back. From what they had seen so far none of the dead could, or wanted to, cross the running water.
Mason went to check the sides of the small camp to make doubly sure they were alone while Mary gathered up the empty magazines.
She sat down off to the side and started to slowly and methodically reload them one shell at a time.
The click as the casings slid in one at a time was somehow therapeutic in the middle of all the chaos.
Mason looked where she was once more. If it came to it he knew he would shoot her and then himself rather than let either of them be taken by these things. Of all the ways to go that one would be somewhere at the bottom of a very, very long list. He grabbed another box of shells and took them over to her.
He handed them over and went back to patrolling the area.
An attack could come from anywhere.
He couldn't believe that they were the last two people left alive.
0150 Hrs.
'I tell you they were this way.'
Philip whispered to Wilkes as they hunkered down behind a car, his son protected between themselves.
Wilkes hung his head and slowly nodded his head.
'I know where they are. But, and this is a big but...I reckon we may have an issue getting there.'
Philip stared for a moment and understanding hit like a hammer blow.
Of course, he should have thought sooner.
The pack that they had seen moving off through the village had been going in the other direction than the way they were headed, which is why they had chosen the direct route back to the colonels camp in the first place.
Now was a totally different matter.
The shots that they had heard would bring them from far and wide. They were now caught between a huge group behind them and however many were left in front. If they were going to get to camp they would have to be very quiet or very quick.
Wilkes was hoping for very quiet, he wasn't sure if he had the speed to be very quick. The fewer of them that saw them the better. He just hoped that whoever was back at the camp would see them coming and be able to help.
'Okay, this is how we are going to play this...I'll go first, then the boy. You bring up the rear. We need to be quiet and as quick as we can. Ready?'
They moved without another word, if all went as planned they would get to their destination in ten minutes or thereabouts.
0205 Hrs.
'Mason?...huh, Mason?'
He opened his eyes completely unaware that he had been dozing, mentally berating himself for doing so.
'Yeah?'
'I thought I saw something moving out there. By the cars.'
Mason grabbed his gun and held it out in front of him.
'Stay here, I may come back running.'
He stepped over the bank they hid behind, moving the netting just enough so he could get through.
Stepping off the grass verge he made his way as quietly as he could towards the parked cars a hundred yards a way, his gun sweeping every open space around him. Trying to take in everything at once.
He came to the bodies that he had put down earlier and gave the first a kick as he past it. The body rocked under the impact but that was all. He moved on mindful of the growing shadows around him. He wasn't sure if the infected could see in the dark but he was taking as little chance as he could.
Mason approached the car and ducked low starting to creep along the side closest to him. He held the gun ready and, after several breaths, moved around the side.
X-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x
Mary watched from where she was.
She knew at this range there would be nothing that she would be able to do. She would probably end up shooting Mason rather than anything that happened to go after him. At least she would be able to fire a warning shot if she saw anything.
At least she could do that much.
She was so engrossed at what she was seeing that she almost didn't hear the sound behind her. She spun on her heel and peered into the shadows behind her. She heard the river as it flowed by sluggishly in the dark, she heard the wind.
She edged closer.
She strained to see what had made the noise.
There...it came again.
A wet flopping sound as if something wet and heavy was being dragged along the ground.
Closer.
Closer still.
She was almost at the rivers edge when she found the source of the strange noise.
Her scream pierced the night.
X-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x
Masons' arm dropped at the sight that greeted him as he rounded the other side of the car. It had been the last thing that he thought would be possible, but there it was, or rather, there THEY were. 'Well, I'll be screwed. Where the hell have you been?'
Mary's scream wrenched him back to reality in a second.
'Oh crap!'
He turned on his heel and ran as fast as he could back to where she had been left.