Carlos didn't know how long they had been fighting, but he knew it was too long. After battling the undead for years, you begin to pick up on things, like how may shots, on average, it will take an experienced survivor to kill a zombie, and how long a fight will last based on the number of people with guns and the number of aggressors.
This fight just didn't seem to be ending. He knew that they would all be out of ammo soon, and the hoard of undead didn't seem to be getting any smaller. He quickly aimed at a zombie chasing after one of the young children and began firing shots. One, it didn't even slow down. Two, it staggered but continued forward. Three, it turned and howled with rage. Four, it started in his direction. Five, it staggered and slowed. Six, it fell to the ground, half of its skull laying a few paces back. Six shots. Normally, Carlos would only have to use three shots to kill an undead, and that was on a bad day. They were slow, and Carlos was a good shot. These things just seemed to move so much faster.
Not having any more time to analyze the situation Carlos spun and began firing into the melee again, fighting his way forward through the mass still surrounding the container they had come from. Somehow, Claire fought her way to his side.
"Something is wrong!" She shouted over the gun fire.
"You think!" Carlos shifted away from Claire and aimed at a few who had escaped the main battle and were heading for the truck where the kids were hiding.
"I meant that they aren't dying fast enough! I'm almost out of ammo! This should be over by now!"
"I know!" That was all the reply he gave before Carlos began to move away from the convoy leader. He knew that had they not been fighting for their lives, Claire would he sending him the glare to top all glares. He knew she wanted more of a response, some sort of plan, but he was more concerned with the screaming he heard from the direction of the vehicles, screaming that sounded an awful lot like K-Mart.
Alice heard the sound of the battle long before she saw it. She was still running, although not as fast as when she started out, because she didn't know how long she would be chasing the convoy. Her heart rose in her throat when she heard the faint sounds of gun fire in the distance. She sped up, running faster than she thought possible, faster than she had ever gone before. The wind tugged at her face, and she realized that she was crying. She was too late.
That thought alone made her legs pump harder. She was not too late. She was going to save them, or she was going to die trying.
She spied the convoy up ahead, bodies littering the ground. Whose bodies, she was still too far back to tell.
Carlos wasn't sure how he had ended up under the truck, but there he was, fighting three different undead with an empty gun. Excellent. He grabbed for the gun in his belt, kicking at the zombie at his feet and holding off the one lunging for his neck. Even as he fought for his life, he heard K-Mart's screams. He had to get to her. She didn't deserve to die yet.
Alice forwent her normal zeal for a grand entrance, instead coming in quickly and silently, picking off the undead trying to tear into the back of the truck containing the children. These were stronger, she noted as she rammed her machete through the last of the pack. But stronger, she thought with a smirk, was still no match for her.
She spun and began heading for what appeared to be the source of the fight, only to freeze in her tracks as she saw Carlos, sliding out from under the tech van with what appeared to be the bodies of not one, but three undead. But he didn't seem to be as concerned as Alice. He pushed them aside and was running to his truck faster than she would have thought possible for someone other than, well, her. Then she heard the screams.
She twisted on one foot and took off in the same direction as Carlos, reaching the truck just as he had throw the door back and tackled LJ, who was covering a still screaming K-Mart. The smell that filled Alice's nose almost made her vomit. Undead. LJ had been bitten. No wonder he had avoided her the entire time she had been at camp.
With lightening speed, she grabbed Carlos and threw him back, making a mental note to apologize later for landing him on his butt in the sand. LJ had already turned and was now lunging at Alice.
A quick jerk of her wrist, followed by a sharp snap, and she let LJ's limp body fall from the truck.
"LJ," Carlos's voice was sad and resigned. It made Alice's heart ache.
"ALICE!" K-Mart's screech brought Carlos's head rocketing up. He stared in disbelief as Alice spun and kicked, sending a now dead zombie flying back several pacing. She pivoted again and offered her hand, sending him a crooked smile as she hoisted him off the sand.
"I can't leave you alone for five minutes can I?" They shared a smile before reality crashed around them again. Carlos turned to shoot at the nearest undead, and when he turned back Alice was already running up the incline leading into a nearby building, chasing after the undead who were threatening his family. He smiled to himself as he ran to join Claire and the others. He counted as he shot at the next undead heading his way. One, it stopped, two, it was down, three, and he was moving on. Maybe these zombies weren't any different than normal. He jumped over the lifeless corpse.