Taking It Back by Joseph Talluto

through. I grabbed the chair and threw it harder, causing only a small crack in the glass.
    “Fuck this.” I said as dead hands started to pound on Rickerson’s office door, shaking the desk. I drew my SIG and fired two shots through the glass, the reports sounding unbelievably loud in the office and causing the Z’s to groan and scrabble at the door all the harder.
    I picked up the chair again and hurled it through the window, the glass finally shattering outward and cascading down like sharp rain. I looked out the window and ducked as Tommy raised his rifle at me. He didn’t shoot and I poked my head up again to see him raise a tentative hand in my direction. I waved back and climbed out the window as the desk gave way and ghouls started falling through the door.
    I hung down for a second, then let go, falling about ten feet and landing in a pile of leaves. I looked up to see three zombie heads staring down at me and I scrambled to my feet to get some distance in case they decided to follow me. I walked backwards towards Tommy and the two of us just watched as the office filled to capacity with dead people. They milled around the room, not really understanding where their meal went.
    “Find what you’re looking for?” Tommy asked, not taking his eyes off the zombies.
    “Don’t know yet. Got some binders that may have some answers, but there were some labs up there that might have some real interesting information” I said.
    Tommy raised his eyebrows. “Labs?”
    “Yeah, some strange things on the doors like Cross Contact and such,” I said.
    “Creepy.”
    “Yeah.”
    I checked my watch and we saw Charlie heading back our way. He was carrying a small bundle and moving quickly towards us. When he reached our position he stopped and looked back. Apparently what he saw was good news to him because he visibly relaxed.
    “Well, that was close,” Charlie said, putting the bundle on the ground.
    “What’d you find?” Tommy asked.
    “Ammo. About 600 rounds. You?”
    Tommy patted his find. “Got a small output generator here. Found it in the office of the garage over there.”
    I nodded. That was a good find. “What do you mean ‘That was close’,” I asked Charlie.
    I heard a crashing and looked back towards the barracks. Two soldiers, obviously dead, stumbled out of the building and lurched slowly towards us. They were dressed in full battle gear, complete with Kevlar armor and helmets.
    “Oh,” was all I could say.
    Charlie shrugged his shoulders and I pointed to the office window, which was nearly bursting with zombies. Two of them were being squeezed out the window and grimy handprints covered the glass and wall.
    Movement on our left caught our attention and we looked over to see Sarah, Martin and Rebecca heading our way and fast. On their heels were Jason and Casey and they were moving at a dead run.
    A couple of seconds later a horde of zombies came pouring out from between the two main buildings, stumbling and tripping, but moving forward, nonetheless. The graying mass surged forward when they saw additional victims , and we all gaped for a second before I found my voice.
    “Run! To the cars now!” I grabbed one end of the small generator and Tommy and I bolted for the cars, followed by Charlie and the rest. Sarah and Rebecca actually beat us to the cars and jumped into the driver’s seats, getting the cars ready for a quick exit.
    Charlie dumped his ammo into the back seat and climbed in, followed by the others. Tommy and I actually wound up bringing up the rear. As we passed the gate I shocked the heck out of Tommy by dropping the generator and running to the left, dragging the heavy gate into place. Tommy saw what I was doing and ran to the other side, swinging the right hand gate into place.
    The dead were advancing steadily with a particularly gruesome individual leading the way. It was a middle-aged man who had been eviscerated, his guts hung out of his body and dragged along the ground.