The group continued to walk through the destroyed streets some more intact than others with posters still hanging up about upcoming events long since passed. Out in front of the group was a couple people wielding aluminium baseball bats whilst the rest walked behind carrying boxes of weaponry and ammo. Joel and Sarah kept to themselves as much they could with the prying eyes everywhere all wondering who these new people were, until one broke the silence a older man with a lean appearance perhaps in his early sixties with a badly kept beard and comb over hair approached Joel.
"I see you've decided to stay and accept to job offer then" he said with a croak to his voice
"More like conscription we didn't have a choice" Sarah mumbled to which no one seemed to take notice
"What are we even carrying anyway" Joel asked the man
"Hehe Joshua's got us carrying a whole stash of shotguns and ammunition this should fetch a fortune in Boston" he replied grinning through his teeth
"But why not load these into a car it would be much faster" said Joel trying to keep his voice down
"Ah a good question with a simple answer, the only roads that are clear really are the patrol routes and we all know how they will react to smugglers" the man answered chuckling to himself in almost madness
It became obvious as the hours went on they were taking a different route into the quarantine zone and you could tell how close you were by how twitchy Joshua became. The group began to climb through old buildings thus bypassing some roads that were known patrol routes the two men at the front of the group scouted ahead occasionally some screeching could be heard and then the men would return with bloodied bats, it was a much quieter way of dealing with the infected this close to the zone.
The group began to walk through one building climbing up to the second floor of which looked to be an old office building which was badly lit and debris was strewn across the floor as if once there had been mass panic as the people who worked here were first faced with the infected.
"Watch your step" said Joel as he walked in front of Sarah
The group bean to take in their surroundings with one man reading old office notices and another walking off looking at old items that lay across desks before bumping into someone
"Hey watch where you're going" the man arrogantly said before shoving the person he bumped into
It immediately became clear that he was not part of the group when he turned round and leapt upon the man who had woke him snapping its jaws at him shrieking they wrestled for a few moments until a gunshot rang causing the infected to go limp the man threw it off him and climbed to his feet before shooting the infected twice more.
"What the hell do you think you're doing, you've likely woke every infected in the street and god only knows if a patrol heard" Joshua shouted
His fears were realised when two runners charged in through the door killing one person before being dispatched.
"More will be on their way" stated Tess
"Come on let's move" Joshua angrily bellowed
Joel and Sarah followed the group feeling safety in numbers were still their best bet both remaining silent as more infected poured out of stairwells the group barricaded themselves in a room of office cubicle's with people fanning out Sarah placed her box on a desk whilst she sat whilst others paced up and down.
"So what the hell do we do now" Joel yelled
"This whole plan is f*cked it was supposed to be a simple run" Joshua said loudly
"We can use the gun's they're weighting us down anyway why not make them useful" yelled Tess
Joshua paused for a few moments before realising he now had no choice which almost scared him
"Fine but I swear if I live through this someone is gonna pay" as he pulled out a large revolver before feeding large golden rounds into it.
The others began hastily unboxing the shotguns some new some old, a variety of weapons were now out in the open almost all different perhaps this way each weapon would have a higher price in Joshua's mind.
Joel opened the box he was carrying revealing a large shotgun with a rotating magazine and the words Armsel Striker written across one of the bits of paper that lay in the box. Joel quickly tried to understand how this thing worked but soon it became clear and he grabbed a box of 12 gauge buck shot out from the second box he was carrying and fed them into the rotating magaxine. But there was no time for second thoughts as runners charged through the barricade and bright flashes filled the dark room looking around all manner of shotguns had been unboxed an old Winchester repeater and a Mossberg 500 even an AA-12 that was spewing rounds faster than most thought possible but the infected kept coming, Joshua stood on a desk aiming his revolver sending each infected that came for him backwards at equal speed. Sarah who had been next to Joel managed to get her box off the desk and back to where Joel was.
"Stay down" Joel yelled at Sarah before hi attention immediately shifted to another runner.
Runners continued charging felling people as they had to reload the group was whittled down to just a few Joshua and even the old man from earlier were among the dead. Joel soon ran out and had to reload but there was no time for that as runner jumped at him, Joel knocked it to the side with the shotgun but a second tackled him to the floor jaws snapping at him. Suddenly its head explodes away from it Joel looks to his side and sees Tess pinning a runner down with one foot and firing a shell into it.
"Thanks" said Joel with a sigh of relief
"I didn't do it" Tess replied before looking away to check if there were any more stragglers left.
Joel looked to his other side to see Sarah standing there rolling her shoulder from the recoil from the KSG shotgun she was holding.
Before Joel could say anything Tess began yelling
"Hey you two come on were leaving, Robert grab that over there"
Joel and Sarah quickly followed but first they grabbed their bags that lay beside Joshua thus reclaiming their belongings.
"Thank you" said Joel as he grabbed the morphine before leaving with Sarah in the direction of Tess.
They ran down the stairs now overlooking the lobby they heard screeching tyres and then peoples voices as the military entered the front door
"Oh shit" mumbled Tess...