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People had gathered at the doors of the warehouse, more of them arriving every minute. Major was at the front of the crowd with Clive and Ravi, using a crowbar to try to pry the doors open, and increasingly certain it wasn't going to work. Desperation filled him. To have come this far, this close, and be halted by a hunk of steel? If Liv died because he had failed …

The doors were moving, but agonizingly slowly. Too slowly. From somewhere appeared a longer pole of steel, stolen from a street sign or something like it. Seeing it, Major thought there might be a chance. If they could wedge that in the door … but they were going to need someone with a lot more strength. Someone like a raged-out zombie.

He caught Clive's eye and called his name. Liv's partner understood immediately and punched Major in the face. Maybe he had been waiting years to do just that. Major felt the rage building in him with the pain, the adrenaline rush that came with raging out. He grabbed the pole out of the hands of whoever was holding it and jammed it into the opening of the doors, using all his zombie strength on it. The doors creaked and groaned as they began to open. Ravi joined him, throwing his own weight against the pole. One of Liv's coyotes was there, as well.

Finally the doors slid open enough to admit a person. Ducking under the pole, Major was the first one inside, screaming with anger and fear and outrage. This didn't have to happen. None of this had to happen.

Inside, a cadre of Fillmore Graves soldiers stood in front of a central dais. Liv, thank god, was still alive, standing near the guillotine, but the weapon was prepared. Major and the others were just in time—minutes away, maybe.

Still raging, Major screamed "No!", the word echoing through the room and across the crowd.

Chase Graves moved to the front of the dais, screaming in his own turn. "Take him down!"

As one, Major's former fellow soldiers turned and lifted their guns and cocked them, aiming them right at him. It was an impressive display of training, he had to admit. Chase Graves shot at him, too, as Major ran toward him. His bullet caught Major in the shoulder before Liv threw her chained arms around Graves' neck and pulled him backward.

Behind Major, people were pouring in through the open doors. But all he could see was Liv, standing there in front of the guillotine, still in danger. She was grappling with Chase Graves, practically choking him with her bonds. He cried out, "Don't shoot!", even as Major used his zombie strength and agility to leap over the heads of his former brothers-in-arms, landing on the dais and knocking Chase over.

Major and Chase Graves landed on the floor behind the guillotine together, both of them spying Chase's fallen gun at the same time. Chase leaped for it, throwing himself over the base of the guillotine, even as Major grabbed his legs to hold him back.

At some point in the melee, someone triggered the anvil, and Chase Graves, once such an honorable man, was gone.

The thud of the anvil brought silence to the room. Major looked up to see Liv at the controls of the guillotine. So she had been the one to end it. He could feel the rage ebbing from him, himself returning to normal, even as Liv turned away from him.

He got to his feet, watching as Liv approached Justin with her hands held out. He took out the key and unlocked her handcuffs, freeing her, and she walked silently off the dais.

She was safe. It wasn't the way Major would have wanted it—even after everything, he had still hoped Chase Graves could be brought back to what he once was—but it was done, and Liv was alive, and that was what mattered.

Before anyone could move or react, a Fillmore Graves soldier came sprinting into the room. He stopped short, looking wildly around the room, and shouted, "Where's the commander?"

Major looked back at the guillotine, where Chase Graves' body still lay, and thought about making a snarky reply, but honestly, he couldn't think of one.

The soldier didn't wait for a response anyway. "Gate six has been overrun!" His voice was filled with panic.

Still, no one else said anything, and slowly, each head in the audience turned until everyone was looking up at the dais. At Major.

Behind him, he heard Hobbs' voice addressing him quietly. "Commander?"

Him? Commander? After everything?

Justin stepped up to him on the other side. "Major. What do you want to do about gate six?"

What Major wanted to do was have it be Chase Graves' problem, but that option had been thoroughly eliminated. "I want someone else to figure it out," he muttered anyway, in the vain hope that maybe Justin would decide he wanted to lead. Or Hobbs. Or anyone, really, other than him. Head of Fillmore Graves was possibly the worst job in the world.

"Too bad," Justin told him. "It's yours now, like it or not."

Everyone was looking at him. The soldiers, the coyotes, Clive, Ravi, Peyton.

So be it. Major took a deep breath and started issuing orders. "Shut every other gate down completely. Send all available personnel to gate six. Find us a Humvee and let's get down there," he added to Justin.

"Yes, sir!" Justin headed into the crowd, relaying Major's orders. Major glanced out at the crowd one last time before following him. Someone had to do it—if it was him … well, then, he'd do his best.