Rhino's fist smashed through the first bit of plaster. He pulled back, sending small pieces of white shrapnel through the air, and punched the top of the ceiling a second time, expanding the hole. "Careful, Aleksei," I warned him as he set himself for another blow, "looks like there's a light fixture to your left..."

The punch caught the edge of the setting with two knuckles. It was enough to rip the bronze fixture away from the ceiling. Rhino and I winced even before the chandelier smashed into the floor of the apartment below us. The light bulbs cracked almost instantly, and the glass beads clattered against the hardwood. The crash soon faded away, and as the sound dissipated, I realized I was holding my breath.

"Sorry, Herman," Aleksei said. "I didn't..."

"Don't worry. Come on, let's just get this hole opened up." I grabbed at the edges of the shattered floor with my gloves and started to pull on the planks of wood. On his side, Rhino simply swept a hand along the sides of the hole his attacks had just made. Between the two of us, the hole into the lower apartment was soon big enough for Aleksei to squeeze through. With a nod to my friend, I swung my legs over the edge, and pushed off. I fell for a second or two, before landing in a crouch in the living room of the apartment below us. It had the same layout as the one I had just come from, and probably the same interior decorator from the look of the furniture that I could make out in the dark. Aleksei's face stared down at me as I glanced at the hole, giving him a reassuring nod before heading to the front door. The deadbolt was set, along with the security chair. I moved the small table in the foyer to block the door, just in case, before moving back to the hole. "The security chain's set," I told Aleksei in the apartment above me. One hand reached out and turned on the lamp that sat on an end table. "Give me a minute to check the place out."

I swept the kitchen, living room, and dining room, lighting each room up as I moved. Nothing out of the ordinary. The master bedroom, however, was wide open, and light spilled through the doorway. Moving slowly and silently on the thick carpeting, I carefully made my way down the narrow hallway towards the open door, my back against the wall for safety, one gauntlet at the ready. I didn't hear anything from the room as I got closer. Once I reached the edge of the door, I stuck my head out past the frame, taking a quick peek inside.

The family of four had been laid out on the bed. The two young children were lying at the foot of the bed, and the parents were sitting up against the headboard. All of them were dead, and I mean that in the "shot in the head" sense of the word. The two children had small holes in their foreheads, while the woman's wound was in her temple. The husband still clutched the .38 in his right hand, and the effects of his self-inflicted gunshot were displayed on the headboard and the wallpaper just above the wood.

I closed the door quietly, turning on the hallway light and checking the bathroom (empty) before going back to the hole. Wordlessly, I raised my arms. Rhino was careful to use his long arms to help Sally avoid the worst of the splinters, and I managed to grab her by her hips, and gently set her down on the floor. "Sally, go sit on the couch, ok?" She nodded her assent to my request, and pulled herself onto the couch as it was Mark's turn to climb down through the hole with Rhino's and my assistance. Afterwards, it was Rhino's turn. I stepped back, holding my breath, as my friend, lying on his stomach, slowly slid down through the opening he had bashed in the ceiling. His massive legs dangled slightly as he lowered himself, trying to get as far as he could before gravity took over. The wood cracked as his torso began to put pressure on it, slowly building in volume as he shimmied. I was holding my breath again, an image of Rhino landing on the ground...and crashing through to the apartment below. And probably into the basement.

My visions of Rhino as a cannonball in one of Galileo's experiments were interrupted by a giggle. In the middle of this, Sally, her teddy bear sitting beside her, was laughing, pointing at my friend, his feet kicking as he took great care. "Rhino's Pooh Bear," she proclaimed brightly. "He's stuck in the tree!"

I couldn't help myself. I knew the story she was talking about...and her giggle just was a perfect ray of sunshine in the hell that had been this evening. "You know, Aleksei, I can probably find you some honey in this place."

A growl could be heard. "I will fall on you, Herman."

I laughed, and this got a laugh from Mark as well. "You got it, big guy?" I asked.

"Yeah, yeah..." He stopped kicking, and as gently as he could, dropped to the floor. As he impacted, falling about ten feet, the hardwood splintered...but it held. I could hear glass rattling in the kitchen cupboards, and a few books fell off a nearby shelf, but the floor didn't smash under the impact. It creaked slightly as Rhino brought himself back to full height, dusting a few splinters off of his chest. "I like going forward and backward better, Herman, not up and down."

"You're gonna get your wish, Aleksei." I motioned for him to follow me, to the windows facing the street. The street was occupied by the living dead, but not in the numbers I had seen about fifteen minutes ago when I last looked. Most of the zombies were lumbering towards the front door, but the rest were scattered across the block. And only one or two crossed directly between where we currently stood and our Hummer. "Look," I said, pointing out the window. "There ain't that many of them out there right now. We can get to the Hummer and get the hell out of here."

Aleksei, rubbing his chin, peered out the window. "That's an awfully long run we gotta make, Herman. That'll expose the kids."

"Yeah, I know, but you carrying them's the quickest way to get over there. We get there, we throw Mark and Sally in the back seat, and we blow this pop stand." I motioned out the window. "They're starting to fill the streets up, Aleksei, especially since it looks like they know we're in here. If they figure out we're in this apartment, then we might never make it out alive."

After a few seconds, Rhino looked at me with approval. "Ok. If you think it's a good idea, Herman. So, we go down one more floor and climb out a window?"

I shook my head, surprising him with my reaction. "We can't go down one more floor. The lobby's right below us. And I don't want to take those kids through that massacre if we can help it. Plus," I said with another gesture towards the window, "they seem to be going into the lobby."

"Right, right," Aleksei said, getting the gist of the plan. "So, we break in the apartment next door, and then go down a floor, and then out the window?"

Again, my head moved side to side in disagreement. "Nope. No time for that, especially since we don't know what's going on in those other apartments. No, we gotta go now, and we gotta go fast." I reached out, and squeezed his shoulder. "Trust me on this one. Just do what I say and we'll be back in TriBeCa within the hour."

Rhino looked skeptical, but he nodded his assent. "Ok, Herman. What do I gotta do?"

"Just what you always do, big guy..."

X

Over my shoulder, I told Mark, who was riding piggyback. "Just hold on tight, and don't panic."

"Ok, Mister Shocker."

I looked down at my chest. Sally was wrapped tightly in my arms as I held her to me. Her teddy bear, Radar, was sandwiched between the two of us. "Sally, the same goes for you. Just keep a hold of me, and do what I say. Ok?" She nodded once, burying her face in my chest afterwards.

Needless to say, I was nervous. The contact plates in my suit and my vibro-smashers were voluntarily off-line, so I could hold the two kids without fear of anything going off and hurting them at close range. Being without my weapons and my defense made me feel like a fat guy walking naked into a starving lion's den. But someone had to keep a grip on them during this plan, and out of the two of us, I was the only adult here who could do it. Rhino was going to be too busy playing cannonball.

"Close your eyes, kids, and don't open them until I say so," I said to them. "Alright, Aleksei, do it!"

Aleksei was standing in the foyer of the apartment, as far away from the exterior wall of the apartment as he could. The furniture had been moved away. Directly across from him was nothing but bare wall. My friend took a deep breath...and charged.

He couldn't get THAT much speed running through an apartment, but he kept his head down, pushing forward, horn leading the way. The kids and I stayed tucked in a corner as Rhino did his best to go from 0-to-60 in a short distance. When he slammed into the wall, glasses shattered in the kitchen, and I could see the good china falling from the cabinet in the living room. The plaster and drywall were nothing more than dust hanging in the air as Rhino pulled his horn out of the concrete. Where his horn had impacted the wall, there was now a hole to the outside, made wider as Aleksei ripped his head away. Around it, the outer brick wall was cracked. "One more good run, Aleksei, we got it," I called in encouragement. With freedom so damn close, I didn't care who or what heard us. He quickly moved back to the front door, and set himself again. He rolled his large shoulders, squaring them like an offensive lineman with the wall. With a small roar, Aleksei pushed off again. This time, the wall didn't even stop him. And he didn't flinch, blink, or slow down. Driving like pistons, his legs carried him horn-first into the wall, and then right through it. He leapt into the New York night, shoving off like he was a pirate leaping for a hanging rope. Quickly, he fell out of sight as gravity overtook forward momentum. But I knew when he hit the ground from the loud booming noise his feet made slamming into the asphalt. "HERMAN," I heard him bellow at the top of his mighty lungs, "TEN SECONDS, THEN JUMP!"

"Ok, Mark, Sally, I'm gonna start running. You guys take a deep breath, I don't want you inhaling brick dust." Sally's eyes were pinched closed, and I wished for a moment I had that luxury. Mark's arms clutched around my neck, but I still had plenty of room to breathe. "Alright, Herman...six...seven...eight...nine...ten!" I wasn't Aleksei, but I sprinted across the apartment as quickly as I could. The hole was easily big enough for the three of us to barrel through. Much like Aleksei, I pushed off, trying to get as far away from the apartment building as I could while we fell.

A two story fall normally entailed the risk of a broken ankle, which, this evening, right now especially, would have been the kiss of death. My boots, luckily, absorbed most of the impact as we landed on the sidewalk running outside the apartment building. My shins screamed in protest, but having concrete instead of carpet under my feet partially reassured me.

Seeing Aleksei use a Honda Prius like a baseball bat did the rest.

My friend stood in the crater where he had landed. In both hands, he held the front bumper of the small car, and swung in a 180 degree arc, clearing the area as several undead went flying away. "Herman," he yelled as one of the zombies broke its spine slamming against the stone banister of the apartment building, "let's get the hell out of here."

"Hold on, kids." Mark and Sally still hanging off of me, I trotted as quickly as I could after Aleksei. He turned to his left, hurling the Honda at the front of the apartment building. I could make out a sizable concentration of zombies on the stairs before the car slammed on top of them, pinning them, and more importantly, taking them out of the equation in a small collision of steel, glass, and masonry.

Rhino and I had worked together for so long, the next part was old hat. He led the way, keeping a slow but steady pace. His eyes scanned left and right, almost on autopilot. A strong backhand cleared away any undead who got too close, while I was right on his proverbial tail. The part I was worried about most, the exposed run from the apartment building to the Hummer, went as smooth as butter. Not one ghoul came close to laying a hand on myself, Mark, or Sally.

Rhino opened the back door, and peeked his head inside of the vehicle as I put Sally down. "Alright, Herman, it's clear." He bent down, and grabbed Sally. Strong hands put her firmly in the back seat of the vehicle. Behind us, the protesting moans of the undead trapped under the Prius were thankfully muffled. "You guys put on your seatbelts," Aleksei said gently as I let Mark down off my back, "and don't open the door for anything." They nodded, and Mark, after climbing in, helped his sister with her seatbelt as Aleksei firmly closed the door.

"Make sure the trailer's locked, Aleksei, and then we're gone." He nodded, and trotted around to the back of the trailer as I climbed into the driver's seat. Behind me, Mark was fastening his seatbelt, clicking it home. Giving a finger to every single horror movie cliché out there, the engine started on the very first turn, no sputtering, no complaining, just the reassuring hum of a Detroit engine block. "Thank you, God," I murmured in gratitude."

"The trailer's all secure, Herman." The creak of protesting shocks greeted Aleksei as he squeezed his way into the passenger's seat. He had to duck his head slightly, but his door closed without any trouble. "Let's ride."

"We are riding, my man." A few zombies, out of reach, still lunged for the Hummer as I turned it towards the west, and the Hudson River. But if they weren't in front of me, I ignored them, focused solely on finally completing the initial job before our impromptu rescue mission. The Walgreen's and that apartment building faded in the rear view mirror as I shifted gears across Lower Manhattan.

"We're clear, Herman," Aleksei said as he turned his head from the rear-view mirror. "No way those things are gonna catch up."

"Alright. You watch the back, I'll keep an eye on the road." Right now, I wasn't concerned with speed and getting back to the hideout as quickly as possible. Resisting the urge to just jam the accelerator all the way to the floor, I focused on not hitting things with the trailer that was attached to the Hummer. Whatever had drawn all those ghouls to the apartment building, it had apparently cleared the streets for our journey back home. A few solitary ghouls stumbled about, and I had to turn a few times to avoid hitting some that were in the middle of the street, but it wasn't as bad as I had feared. I had worried that the streets would be clogged with the living dead, causing me to run them down and drive over their carcasses. But...maybe Osborn was on to something. The dead seemed to clump up wherever the living were, starting with the 7-11 earlier, continuing with the aftermath of the assault on Tombstone's SUV, and then the apartment building. Nobody except for me and Aleksei seemed to be dumb enough to wander the streets of New York City, after all. Who knew what was going on in all the buildings we were driv...

Focus, Herman. Action now, exposition later.

I turned on my comms. "Fred, you out there?"

"I ain't out anywhere, mate," the Australian's voice replied after a few seconds. "I'm sitting on a couch hoping I don't have to come pull your fat out of the fire."

"I never knew you cared, Fred. Don't worry, we're on our way back. We got everything we needed, we just had to take a little detour to find a trailer," I responded.

"Was starting to get a might worried, I admit, but don't assume that means I give a damn," he joked.

"Heads up, we got two kids coming back with us. See if we can scrape up something for them to eat, alright?"

"Two kids? All we need, rugrats running 'round. I'll see if Peter and Anne got anything handy. See you soon," Fred said before clicking off.

"You kids ok?" Aleksei did his best to half-turn in his seat, one arm resting on top, to bring the children into view.

Mark nodded. "We're fine, sir." Next to him, Sally, head bowed, lightly pulled and plucked at Radar's brown fur. "Where are we going? To a rescue station?"

"Not really...Herman has a warehouse. There's a bunch of other people there too. We made it safe so those zombies can't break inside. We're hiding out there until things get better."

"Are there police officers there? My Aunt Vivian was going to look for some cops before..." Mark trailed off for a second. "The adults had locked the front door to the building and said they were going to wait it out, but one of those things got inside somehow, and...Aunt Vivian was going to make a run for it and find some cops, or Army, to come rescue me. But..."

I took my eyes off the road, and stared at Mark in my rear-view mirror. "Sorry about your aunt, kid." Sounded dumb, but there really wasn't anything else to say in that situation. "No, there ain't any cops, but we're there, and there's another guy too like us. We'll keep you safe until...this all blows over."

Mark's features brightened at my words. "Another guy? Like who? Spider-Man? Captain America? Wonder Man?"

Aleksei shook his head. "Nah. Our friend Fred, Boomerang."

"Who?"

I chuckled at Mark's comment. "Just a good friend of ours. Sit back and relax, Mark. We'll be there soon." Mark settled back into the driver's seat. Like his sister, he kept his eyes in the car, not looking outside at the city as we drove past. Lights still burned in most of the buildings, but it was easy to tell that there were less of then tonight then last night. I wasn't a history buff, but a quote from before World War One came into my mind.

'The lights are going out all over Manhattan. We may not see them lit again in our lifetime.'

X

"We did good tonight, Herman." Aleksei's quiet voice held a strong hint of pride as we drove along. "Got the stuff, pulled off a daring rescue. If I had gotten a chance to punch out Wolverine, the night would have been perfect."

"No offense, Aleksei, but the last thing I wanted to see tonight was you and Wolverine going tooth and nail," I responded. "I think the hospitals aren't putting stab wounds high on the triage list at the moment." My eyes went to the white trailer behind us. "Yeah, though...yeah. We pulled a good job off tonight, even if things didn't go smoothly. We got what we needed, we got the way to transport it, and we're all still in one piece. That's win-win to me."

"The rescue was what did it for me," Rhino replied. Now, pride had given way to...a look of satisfaction on my friend's face. As best he could, he was leaning back in the front seat, his legs jammed against the dashboard, but a small smile etched on his face. "I mean..." After a few seconds, it was the second time in the evening he said something that shocked me. "...I think I get the whole hero thing now."

Somehow, I managed to keep myself from steering up onto the sidewalk at the statement. "Really," I said in a deadpan manner once I was sure the Hummer wasn't going to swerve towards the buildings lining the street.

"Well...yeah. I mean...you see..." Aleksei struggled for the words. "It was like the 7-11 last night," he decided to say. "Helping the helpless. Using my suit to do something other than break down walls and...other jobs," he said with a quick glance at the kids in the back. "It wasn't...it didn't feel as goody two-shoes as I thought it'd be. And then tonight, we got all this stuff, we stopped Tombstone from probably going on an eating spree, and we rescued these two kids. It feels good, Herman. Don't get me wrong," he quickly added, "I still like hitting things, but...I don't know. Maybe there's something to being a good guy after all. It's like getting drunk on a Friday night and then you and I going out and rescuing a kitten out of a tree or something." He prompted me, asking "did you feel that way, Herman?"

"Yeah...I won't lie, I did after we did the 7-11 thing. But...I don't know, Aleksei. Don't go signing up for the Avengers just yet. Part of this is us being...somewhat altruistic, but we're also watching out for our own butts. Just..."

He was hitting a nerve. I know I'd been talking back and forth over the last seventy-seven thousand, five-hundred, sixty-six words about me, a long time criminal, going forth and doing good deeds. Altruism, some sense of a moral code, spiting Norman Osborn, outright stupidity, merging "good works" with "actions taken to cover my own ass," the mental image of Stilt-Man getting a kitten out of a tree...I've covered them all. But here's my longtime partner-in-crime, putting it in simple terms. I'm still getting to blast things with my vibro-smashers, make plans that involve people not dying, and getting to do these things with people I consider my friends. And, all the while, keeping my little corner of the world safe for humanity.

Huh.

I wanted to continue this conversation, but Rhino ended it by pointed out the front window. "Herman," he warned me in a low voice, "the road's blocked." I saw it too, and my foot found the brake pedal as I slowed the Hummer down as we approached the intersection. Blocking the way east, two olive Hummers, bright spotlights shining in opposite directions to the north and south, were parked nose-to-nose. Behind them, I could see several forms moving, too quickly to be the undead. But it was the three United States Army soldiers in front of them, as we approached, that had my immediate attention. The two on the edges of the little group held M-16 assault rifles, barrels pointed at the sky. The one in the middle has his rifle slung over his shoulder, staring up at us from a clipboard in his hands as we looked back at him. He leaned forward, as if trying to believe what he was seeing, before suddenly motioning with his hand.

In an instant, the two soldiers were pointing their assault weapons at our Hummer. And on top of the military Humvees, the .50 Browning machine guns turned to face us, the long barrels lowered by the gunners as they took aim at us.

"Alright, Shocker!" I heard the soldier in the middle yell. "Turn off your engine, and the two of you, put your hands where I can see them! You have ten seconds to comply!"

Oh, crap.

"Let's be cool, Herman." Aleksei said this as he lifted his left hand, holding it up against the windshield of our jet black Hummer. His right hand held down a switch on his door, and after the window lowered, he stuck his right arm out the opening, high into the air, his gaze never wavering once from the high-powered weaponry pointed in his direction.

"I'm ice cold, big guy." My left hand was already out the window on my side, as I, carefully and slowly reached down and shut off the Hummer's engine. The ticks of the cooling engine were the only sound as my friend and I warily eyed the soldiers.

"Mister Rhino, what's happening?"

"Just...be quiet, Mark, and don't make any sudden moves," Aleksei advised, not turning away from the front. The soldier in the middle motioned to the two flanking him, and they began to walk towards our vehicle. The riflemen kept their sights on the two of us as they split, one heading towards each side of the Hummer...one for each of us, and didn't I feel loved and special? My very own US infantryman with his finger on the trigger. The soldier with the clipboard tucked it under his arm, and walked with my infantryman towards the driver's side door. On the other side, the infantryman was up on the sidewalk, his back against the stone wall of the building there, his rifle aimed directly at the head of the Rhino. My friend didn't look like he was paying attention to him, though. He had first-hand knowledge what a 5.56 mm round would do to his armor; absolutely nothing. But a round fired from a .50 was a whole different issue.

My complete attention was on the soldier who was now standing about ten feet away from the driver's side door. My hand was straight up in the air, the weapon pointed well away from him to avoid any miscommunications. If it had just been me driving the Hummer, I wouldn't have been too concerned. One good blast to take out the soldier with the M-16, and I wouldn't even have to connect dead center to knock his aim off, another to put the clipboard soldier down, and then I'd be off.

If it wasn't for those pesky kids...well, mainly, if it wasn't for the .50 cals...

"Evening, Shocker." The soldier spoke with a New Jersey accent, northern end of the state. "Should have known you'd be out and about tonight. Pulling off another one of your daring rescues?"

It was his sarcasm that got to me. As a second-rate supervillain in the eyes of many, I used and was abused by sarcasm on a near-daily basis. Just one encounter with Spider-Man filled my sarcasm quota for weeks. Hell, walking, in costume, past a New Yorker usually invoked a smart comment. The soldier included the usual snark that went with a question directed towards me.

So, what other answer would I give?

"Yeah," I said, being honest. "If you look in the back seat, you'll see."

The guy blinked at my answer. I didn't expect him to actually do it, but after nodding to his soldier, the clipboard-holding soldier walked towards the rear-driver's side door. The soldier he left behind kept his rifle pointed at me, and I kept my weapon pointed at the sky. My eyes flickered to the rear-view mirror, where the clipboard soldier was peering through the window. I couldn't see her, but I could imagine Sally still playing with her teddy bear, not even paying attention to the man in the Kevlar helmet leaning in to stare at her. But hey, at least he wasn't pawing at the glass, trying to eat her.

"Huh," I heard him say. "You're being serious." He stepped away, coming back into my direct view. "Alright, guys, barrels to the sky. We got kids in here, so watch your shots in case those bastards show up!" The soldiers each stepped back, pointing their rifles away from the heads of myself and Aleksei, but more importantly, whoever was behind the .50 cals secured them, as the long barrels were now aimed at the night sky as opposed to the Hummer. "You guys can put your hands down. Just keep it cool and civil, alright?"

"Thanks, man," I murmured to the soldier as I lowered my arm.

"No problem," he answered, the sarcasm mostly gone from his voice. "Sergeant Rodney Wallace, 10th Mountain Division," he said with a firm nod.

"10th Mountain?" That was Rhino's voice, speaking from across the cabin. "That's Fort Drum. What the hell are you guys doing all the way downstate?"

"We were rotating back from Iraq through Delaware when Osborn ordered us up here last night," Sergeant Wallace replied. "We put our feet on the ground this morning and have been going ever since."

"Christ," I said. To come back from the sandbox, right into the crucible that had to be a zombie-infested New York City had to be one of the furthest damn things from pleasant possible. "How are you guys holding up?"

Wallace's response was an exasperated chuckle. "Hell, I'd rather be back helping the Brits in Basra. At least the insurgents there have the decency to keel over when shot. What about you guys? Hoping to get on the evening news again?"

"Um...not exactly..." Honesty had, surprisingly, worked before. Might as well see if it keeps working. "We went on a shopping trip, Sergeant. We got a whole bunch of people holed up back in my hideout, and if we're gonna weather this storm, we needed food and medicine."

"Huh. You know, Shocker, that's looting. And if you're sitting in a building somewhere, you're also violating Osborn's Order," Wallace said in an easy tone that I easily recognized and related to.

Smirking under my mask, I casually responded. "We left them a credit card. It ain't our fault the clerks didn't show up to work. As for Osborn's Order..." Carefully, I shrugged, using my hands for emphasis. "...I never was a park going guy. Far as I'm concerned, Central Park can come to me."

That drew a smile from the Sergeant. "Hell, I'm right there with you. I'd rather be at my folks' beach house with the rest of my family. The damn thing's on stilts, pull up the ladder and we'd be fine as long as we had food." He looked to the east, at the soldiers working behind the parked Humvees. "Instead, I'm on sweep-and-clean duty in the middle of New York City. It's a damn miracle I haven't lost anyone in my squad yet."

Without having to divert my eyes to stare at aimed weapons, I looked in that direction. The soldiers, I could see, were dragging dead bodies towards a central pile being built in the middle of the street. It had to be more than fifty corpses being set on top of one another, and more were being dragged out from the block's building. "Jesus," I breathed as I watched two soldiers swing a body on top of the pile. "Are you guys going on bug hunts?"

"Hell, no. What we're doing is sweeping buildings looking for civilians. Any place where someone might be holed up, we gotta go in and grab them to take them up to Central Park." Wallace looked up at the building his men were currently exiting. "So far, nothing. Not a single damn civilian alive in three square blocks. This thing spread fast, and that's down here where practically no one freakin' lives."

"Sergeant, I live down here, and I agree," I told him. "No one?"

"No one. But we gotta go floor-by-floor. It's a damn waste of time, but we got our orders. And to make things worse, any of those zombies we kill, we gotta burn." With a thumb, he gestured to the growing pile. "Supposedly, it's to stop the spread of disease...not whatever's bringing them back, but chlorea and stuff like that. But...it takes time and manpower. And right now, I'm low on both."

"Wait...burning the corpses? Who the hell said that?" I knew the answered before the Sergeant could get it out. Shaking my head, I spat. "Osborn. Damn it, what the hell is Norman Osborn thinking? If anything, you guys should be up at Central Park, not out on some stupid search-and-destroy mission where you gotta burn the bodies."

"Shocker, just between you and me..."

"Contact!" Behind Wallace, the infantryman was taking aim. A hobo was staggering across the sidewalk from the south, turning his body as he walked. As he closed, the soldier pulled the trigger once, and his weapon stuttered three times in rapid succession. The back of the zombie's head exploded like an overripe watermelon, and the hobo fell to the ground. "Cover," the soldier yelled. From the north, the soldier who had originally covered Rhino stepped forward as the first soldier ran up and grabbed the collar of the fallen corpse. We watched as the second soldier kept watch while the first soldier pulled the corpse towards the Humvees and the pile beyond.

"...between you and me, I'd be getting people out of the city and into the country. Keep the zombies in the city and let the damn things rot. Every building's a damn death trap," Wallace told me with fire in his voice. "But I got my orders. Search, destroy, impress, and burn."

Here was a guy just doing his job. Forgive me if I get a little strawman for a moment, but guys armed with nothing but M-16's, body armor, and a couple of reinforced vehicles...well, they had just as much brass ones as Rhino and I. Especially if they were going building-by-building and clearing every single damn room. Hell, just going over to Iraq for a couple of years...more respect in my eyes then Iron Man or the Sentry, I'll tell you that much.

"Well, I got some bad news for you, Sergeant. A couple of blocks up the way we're coming form, there's an entire building full of zombies. We just pulled those two kids out of harm's way when a bunch of them tried to break in to their apartment. There's a Prius blocking the front door, but if you guys go up that way, there were still a bunch on the street. They might be coming this way." I sighed, and spread my hands. "Sorry to be the bearer of bad news."

Wallace shook his head in response, giving a dark chuckle. "Christ...well, you got those two kids out, that's the important thing. That's more success than a lot of us are seeing right now."

"Sergeant...you ain't gonna take the kids, are you," Rhino's gravelly voice asked. "You said any civilians you found, you were gonna take up to Central Park..."

Oh, great, now there was a dilemma I hadn't thought of. The soldiers...well, they had the guns. They could serve and protect these kids, and this Wallace guy had a good head on his shoulders. But, Central Park. Which would be crowded, and run by the government, and Norman Osborn was showing himself to be a worse leader then Jimmy Carter. And these kids...who knew where their parents were? Not that I was a parental figure...nor was Rhino...and definitely not Fred...but there were adults in my warehouse. And...I had rescued these kids. Me. My responsibility.

Luckily, after a few seconds, Wallace shook his head. "I didn't see you guys. You got a better track record at rescues then we do. You got, what, 3 people out of that 7-11?"

I laughed, wearily throwing my head back. "Man, did everyone see that video on ABC?"

"ABC? Shocker, the damn thing's on Youtube," Wallace replied. "The news stopped running in this morning, but the Internet picked it up." He leaned to the side, smiling directly at Aleksei. "They even did an edited version when you shot that news copter a look. They call it 'Dramatic Rhino.'"

"Sergeant, we're ready to light it up!" One of the soldiers sitting behind a .50 cal waved at their leader. "Just give your word."

"Hold up! Move those Humvees, and let these guys through before we throw the match!" Almost instantly, the engines on the vehicles roared to life, and they swung to the side, giving us plenty of room to carefully get the Hummer and trailer through. Hey, when given an order, these Army guys don't screw around. Wallace motioned with his hands towards us. "Head on through, guys, and get the hell out of here."

I felt like I owed them something. "Sergeant, I don't know if it can help, but the trailer back here belonged to Tombstone, the crime boss. There's a whole bunch of weapons in the back. Shotguns, assault rifles, submachine guns, the works. I really can't spare the medicine and food, but if you need guns and ammo, you guys are more than welcome to it."

Wallace's eyes lit up. "Hell yeah, Shocker, we could use that stuff. You got any shotguns back there?"

"Couple crates of them, along with boxes of shells. I don't know if Tombstone was getting out of the city or prepping for a war, but he stacked enough firepower to fight one. Anything you guys want, take. I'll write it off as a toll for the gate," I joked.

"Move it forward. Park next to the pile," Wallace said, "and we'll offload it." The Hummer's engine turned back over smoothly, and I maneuvered the SUV and trailer through the opening the Humvees had made. A soldier guided me, motioning me forward. I kept my focus on the road, trying to avoid running any infantrymen over, but also trying not to stare at the pile of corpses that had been stacked on one side of the block. The bodies had been separated into three different groups, each one a small pyramid. Soldiers were soaking the bottoms of the piles with gasoline, it looked like as we drove past.

"Oh," I heard a tiny voice squeak from the back, as Mark looked out the window at the dead people.

"Don't look, kid," Rhino said, a bit too late.

The soldier didn't call for a halt until we were well past the stacks, for which I was grateful. Staring out the side window at a pile of dead bodies waiting to be immolated was not my idea of a good time right now. "Alright," I heard Wallace bellow from behind the trailer as only an Army Sergeant could, "I want that trailer open! I want those shotguns, the shells, and all the 5.56 ammo we can carry. And do NOT touch the food, medicine, or anything else that's back there, it's private property!"

"That was a good idea, Herman." Rhino was watching in his rear-view mirror as the soldiers unlocked the trailer. "We ain't gonna use those guns. Might as well give them to someone who can."

"Yeah...let's just hope they don't ask questions about the other stuff back there."

"What? The medicine?"

"No. The artwork and money."

Rhino looked confused a second, but then nodded. "Oh. Well, hell, that's stuff isn't ours. It was there when we showed up."

My laugh was almost the very definition of 'scoffing.' "Yeah, and how many times has a judge bought THAT excuse, Aleksei..."

Surrounded by soldiers of the 10th Mountain Division, Aleksei, Mark, Sally, and myself patiently waited as they unloaded the weapons and ammunition. Aleksei was right. Aside from the energy weapons, there wasn't anything back there I would have found a use for besides bartering. I wasn't a gun person, and knew of very few supervillains who were. The soldiers could definitely put them to much better use then I ever could.

After a few minutes, the trailer door slammed shut. Sergeant Wallace appeared by the driver's side door, smiling as he nodded to me. "Those shotguns are going to be a huge help, Shocker. It's a damn good thing we ran into each other."

"You guys can get more out of them than I could," I told him.

"Hell, yeah. They're better for room clearing against these things, since they don't shoot back. With what you gave us, we can outfit a couple of units and have plenty of ammo left over. Looks like you didn't make out too badly yourself," he said, all but winking at me. "You're pretty set money wise for a while."

"Right now, the money ain't important." Did I just say that? Yeah, I did, and it was true, but hearing the words come out of my mouth still gave me pause for a second. "Getting home without getting my ass bitten off, that's priority number one."

"Right, right. Well don't let me keep you." Wallace slapped the side of the Hummer, and motioned me forward. "Get out of here, and stay safe, Shocker."

"You too, Sergeant." The Hummer pulled away, finally back on our trip home. Behind us, I could see the Sergeant grabbing a road flare, the harsh pink glow visible for a moment before he tossed it into the nearest pile of corpses. By the time I crossed over to the next block, I could see the ring of fire spreading around the bottom layer, dozens of New York's citizens becoming fuel for a funeral pyre.