Dead Life (Book 4) by D. Harrison Schleicher Page B

too. Be careful.”
                  We got our gear together and got ready to head over. Each of us carried a pistol, Uzi machine gun, and a sword. I watched them pull away. Most of the zombies followed them down the road. From what I could see there were about thirty of the undead left. We waited about five minutes and started over.
                  “We're going to need to make this quick,” Al said.
                  I looked at him and he directed my attention towards the tanker. Some of the horde had lost interest in the fires and were headed back to the motel. A few sprinters were running in our direction.
                  “Did you see that?” I asked Gina.
                  “Fuck 'em. Let's do this,” she said.
                  “Spread out. Give each other plenty of room. Use the guns as a last resort.”
                  We left about twenty feet between each other and went to work. I took the center, Gina went left, and Al went to my right. I think there was a reason this group of zombies didn't go to the explosion or follow the Hummer. They were in pretty bad shape, not a sprinter in the bunch. They just shambled at us and we chopped them down. We didn't have one close call and in less than five minutes they were finished.
                  The glass doors to the office were shattered. There was no chance that anyone could be alive in there. Gina and I went in anyway. If her dad and Chong were in there our quest would be over. The office proved to be clear, no zombies, no dead bodies. Every door on the first floor stood open or was broken down so there was no reason to bother with any of those rooms. If her dad had been in any of the rooms he was long gone. Besides we didn't have time for a room to room search. We were pushing our luck as it was. The horde was moving back this way and time was running out.
                  The office was next to a breezeway leading to the back of the motel and the stairway was next to that. The stairs had been clogged with furniture and mattresses to keep the zombies from coming up. Someone had secured everything with rope and then somehow climbed to the second floor. Al began hacking at the ropes.
                  “Check the back, hurry,” Al said.
                  Gina and I ran down the breezeway. This was a big mistake. As I rounded the corner I ran headlong into three zombies that were in much better shape than the ones we had just finished off out front. I actually only ran into the first one. My momentum knocked the two of us back into the other two zombies, knocking the four of us to the ground. It wrapped it's arms around me and pulled my face to it's mouth. I got my arm up under the zombies chin and push the bastards head back. I was able to keep it's gnashing teeth from my face. The smell coming from it's mouth was horrible. Chunks of flesh were stuck between the broken teeth of the creature and some sort of black goo was drooling from it's mouth on to me. The only thing stopping me from vomiting in it's face was the on going battle I was fighting for my life. I held it's head back with one arm and pulled my pistol from my holster and started hitting the zombie in the face with it. Then Gina stepped up and gave it a good kick in the head knocking it off of me. She already had her sword out and she finished the three of them off before I could get to my feet.
                  “I should have stayed with Al and helped him clear the steps. I sure wasn't of any use back here.”
                  “Don't sell yourself short. You did a hell of a job knocking them down.”
                  “Thanks,” I said, then I slapped her on the ass. “Looks like it's clear back here. Let's go help Al.”
                  “Dad keeps a ladder back by the shed. We may need it.”
                  There