Jed reached for the grenade launcher again and Jo finally let him lift it out of her hands.

  “Get down and stay down. I’ll cover you, just in case. If anything comes our way, it should be me that gets one in my fourth point of contact.”

  Jo’s face softened. “I hope nothing comes our way,” she said. “But thanks, and rah.”

  She slid down to lie flat in the truck bed. Jed checked he had the right grenade loaded. They’d come away with five high explosive rounds, and one Willie Pete. “Gotta save that one for crowd control,” he said, showing the WP round to Jo.

  “What’s it do?”

  “Makes a smoke screen, but the shit burns forever. If we get swarmed, this’ll give us something to hide in, and if you land it in the middle of them, it’ll take out sucker faces quicker’n shit. These,” he said, holding up an HE round, “are what you use when you need to make a hole in a wall. Stay down now.”

  He lifted the thumper and had the sight flipped up. He aimed and was about to squeeze the trigger when Sergeant G shouted from the cab. The crack of an M4 drowned her out, then Jo screamed next to him and a pair of clawed hands clamped onto the truck bed just above her face.

  ***

  Gallegos gave up waiting for Welch. She put her eyes back on the ruins around them, and especially the mound of rubble they were using as cover from Tucker’s spotter. They hadn’t taken any more fire since they’d moved into this position.

  “He’s taking long enough,” Reeve said. “Fucking deke.”

  “Chill, Reeve,” Gallegos said. “Eyes out. That goes for everybody.”

  Reeve spit out his window but brought his weapon up and scoped the area for movement. The firefighters shifted in the rear cab. Gallegos turned around and checked out their version of keeping an eye on things. An easy smile spread across her face. Luce was tucked down in the middle with a handful of shotgun shells in his lap. He nodded at her and she gave him a thumbs up. Dom and Matty sat on either side of Luce, weapons up and watching the area outside the truck.

  The rear cab window was still open, and she could see Welch and Jo moving around back there. It looked like he was loading the thumper. She turned back to watch her zone of fire.

  If she’d still been watching out the back, she wouldn’t have seen the three sucker faces that low-crawled toward the truck from around the back of the debris pile.

  “Enemy at three o’clock!” she yelled and fired off a shot at the first of the monsters. It went down and the others scrambled off to either side, disappearing in Gallegos’ peripheral. Then Jo’s scream had her turning in her seat to watch out Reeve’s window.

  A trio of sucker faces darted forward from a broken section of the el-tracks. Reeve fired, taking down the lead of the three. A single shot from his weapon put another down. The third launched sideways and was instantly knocked back by a burst from the SAW.

  The street was quiet for a second. A truck motor rumbled down the block, followed by the squealing of tires and explosions sending a cloud of dust and debris through the already ruined street.

  In a flash, Reeve had them backing up and into the roadway.

  “Now’s our chance,” he said. “Welch! Make a hole in that roadblock!”

  Gallegos let him take the lead and focused on watching their flank for any of the sucker faces. As Reeve got them back into the roadway, she knew why Tucker had bailed out.

  The street one block ahead was a mess of blood and the shredded remains of sucker faces.

  A swarm of the monsters filled the street beyond the carnage, pouring out of the ruins and down from the el-tracks. Where the two streams met in the middle of the roadway, they crashed together in a frenzy of claws and blood. The sucker faces from the tracks were faster and worked in teams, taking down their enemies by joining up in twos and threes. The ones from the ruins were like a herd. They all moved as a unit, but individuals were always left off on the side, and these were taken down quickly by the stronger and faster monsters racing into the street from the el-tracks.

  Behind the melee, Tucker’s truck flew backwards and nearly rolled up on two tires as the driver whipped them around the corner in reverse.

  “Must be the other gangs,” Gallegos said. “We killed the leader that Tucker made a deal with. The others are coming in to claim territory, and the ones from the tracks are winning.”

  “Tucker knows it,” Reeve said. “He’s bugging out and leaving us here in between his minefield and this fucking cage match.”

  A roar cascaded around them. Gallegos looked left and right, trying to spot the leader that she knew had to be nearby.

  “There,” Reeve said. “On top of the tracks.”

  “Damn,” Matty said from behind her. “It’s bigger than the one Tucker was fucking.”

  He was right. The sucker face standing on top of the elevated tracks was a lot bigger than the one that took Mahton. It easily stood seven feet tall and wore a shirt of what looked like bones all strung together.

  It’s collecting trophies.

  A clutch of at least a dozen smaller ones scrambled around the tracks near the big fucker. Several of them held onto the bigger one’s legs or hands, almost like children. The smaller ones were all wiry and covered in cuts and scrapes.

  As she stared at the grotesque sight, the big one grunted something, then turned to face the smallest of the group. It was leaping around to the left of the giant. The other small ones immediately snapped their heads around and locked onto the smallest one. In a flash, they swarmed it, and with slashing claws ripped it to pieces so they could eat.

  They’re starving and eating each other to survive.

  The big one stomped further down the tracks, and the smaller ones followed. They moved closer to the fighting by the mini-vans. Shrieks and screams split the air as the monsters clashed. The big one gave another roar and waved a hand. The small ones around it charged forward, racing into the swarm of others that were fighting.

  Gallegos nudged Reeve to raise his weapon.

  “Take it out, Reeve. Then we get back to the hide.”

  “Rah, Sergeant.”

  Reeve lifted his M4. Gallegos said a silent prayer for his aim to be true. She leaned forward as the giant on the el-tracks turned around. It waved a hand behind it, like it was calling forward reinforcements. While Reeve lined up his shot, Gallegos strained her neck to see around him. She quickly fell back into her seat when a swarm of sucker faces rose up from the el-tracks and poured over the side.

  Reeve dropped his weapon on its sling and had them in gear. He stomped on the gas and tore away from the flood of monsters descending from the el-tracks. Their claws scraped against brick, concrete, and pavement, adding to the horror of their howls and screeches of rage.

  Gallegos had to turn her attention to the road beside her. Sucker faces raced toward the truck up ahead, trying to take their flanks. Reeve dodged them around a clutch of the monsters that dropped down from the tracks and landed in the middle of the street. Gallegos picked one off when it latched onto the hood with its claws. Another leaped up from the street to replace the one she’d just killed. This one held on and got a foot onto the passenger door.

  One of the firefighters had a shotgun out the window behind her. A blast from the weapon ended the sucker’s attempt at climbing inside. Gallegos fired at two more that sped out of the ruins, putting them down. She checked her mirror and saw smaller groups drafting behind the truck as Reeve drove them ever closer to the melee. Welch was firing sustained bursts at suckers that followed them, but he wasn’t hitting consistently.

  He’ll run out of ammo before he gets them all.

  Gallegos put her attention back on the road ahead, firing at the onrushing sucker faces. “There’s a tunnel at the next block, Reeve! I think it’s clear!”

  “I hope to fuck it’s clear!” he shouted back.

  In the rear cab, Matty blasted at the suckers as they raced alongside the truck. Dom did the same on his side. The thunderclaps of the shotguns pressed in on Gallegos’ ears, adding to the constant chop of the SAW from the bed.

  A sucker face leaped onto the top of the cab and reached down to the window where Matty was firing from. The monster grabbed the barrel of his shotgun and yanked it out, almost pulling him out the window with it. He let go just in time as another clawed hand came stabbing down at the space in front of the window. Luce handed him the spare shotgun, but as soon as the barrel cleared the window, the sucker face up top slashed a hand down and yanked it away.

  Gallegos drew her sidearm and fired through the top of the truck. All she got for her trouble was a louder ringing in her ears.

  The monster came down to Matty’s window and reached in to grab his shirt. Its arms were still wrapped in sickly pale flesh and ropy muscles, but they were spindle-thin and ragged from cuts and scrapes. Matty swatted the grasping hands aside with his pistol. Gallegos turned in her seat and tried to get a bead on the monster.

  Dom had the last shotgun and rotated in his seat. He pushed the barrel into the sucker face’s eye socket, knocking the thing’s head back. It grabbed onto the door post with one hand and tried to yank the shotgun away with the other.

  “You want it?” Dom yelled as he fired.

  The blast filled the truck cab and a spray of gore coated the back of Gallegos’ seat. Matty had his arms up in time to catch most of the mess on his clothing.

  The sucker face slid off the top of the cab and fell to the street. Reeve gunned the motor, launching them up and over a debris mound and back onto the roadway of Park Avenue. In the back of the truck, Welch fired sustained bursts at the horde that spilled from the el-tracks like a tidal wave.

  “Keep up the fire!” Gallegos shouted, grabbing for a loaded magazine from the pile they’d made in the back. Luce was funneling shotgun ammo to Dom in between loading the last of the magazines they’d collected.

  The swarm from the tracks had to be at least three hundred strong or more. Even though they were concentrating on taking out the ones coming from the ruins, it wouldn’t be long before the truck was completely surrounded.

  We have only two boxes left for the SAW and maybe three hundred rounds up here, if that. Salve nos Dios.

  — 21 —

  Jed sprayed down the sucker face that latched onto the truck. He got the first wave that rushed off the el-tracks, but then his sight picture was a blur of pale flesh and ropy muscles, bulging lips, spiny teeth, and claws. Every round hit something, but Jed couldn’t be sure his shots were effective. Blood sprayed and then vanished as the monsters clambered over their own fallen to race behind the fleeing truck.

  Jo fired at them with her pistol. She hit two of them square in the chest and they dropped, but the weapon was empty after a few more shots. Jed saw her throw it out of the truck in anger.

  “Willie Pete! Use the Willie Pete!” he shouted, still firing sustained bursts into the swarm. He knocked them back again and again, but every wave he took down was quickly replaced by another.

  The truck swerved sharply and crashed against a small car in the road, knocking it aside. Jo rolled away from him and slammed against bed wall. Jed reached for her as a dark shadow covered the truck. Black walls surrounded them and Jed felt the world closing in from all sides.

  “Shit, where’s he taking us? Shit!”

  Next to him, Jo was steady again and scrambling to load the thump gun. Then they were out in daylight and leaning up as Reeve took them over something in the street. Jo lost her grip on the weapon when she reached for the bed wall to steady herself. The truck angled away from a ruined building and Jed feared they would go over onto the side, but they leveled out just as fast and raced on.

  Reeve cornered hard and Jed pitched over onto his side. He slid into the bed wall and just grabbed a hand hold before they were swerving sideways again. The wheels barked and squealed against the pavement, but Jed could still hear the scraping of the monsters’ claws. Their snarls and hisses grew louder as they came, hungry for the squad’s blood.

  A pair of claws grabbed the tailgate, and then another. Two suckers rose up, flicking thick tongues and drooling spit. Jo brought her foot up and slammed her heel into one’s face, knocking it off the truck. The other grabbed hold of her leg and yanked, but Jed had his hands under her arms and pulled back, tugging the sucker face into the truck bed. Jo kicked at it and Jed did the same as let her go and tried to get the SAW around. It bit at his feet. He kicked once more before he had the muzzle against the monster’s cheek and squeezed the trigger, feeling a single round spit out before the weapon locked up.

  The sucker face fell dead against his boots. Jo kicked at it until it was at the rear of the bed.

  “Fuck! Jammed up again!” Jed screamed as he went to clear the weapon. He held it aside and covered Jo with his body as he lifted the feed tray cover.

  She pushed away and raised the grenade launcher, firing it over the tailgate. The explosion made the truck lurch to the side and Jed lost his grip on the SAW as the street filled with a cloud of smoke.

  “That was HE! Where’s the Willie Pete?” he yelled, searching the truck bed for the belt of grenade rounds. It had slid down to the back, and was under the body of the dead monster. Before he could move, Jo had jumped forward. She grabbed the belt just as another sucker face latched onto the tailgate and raised its clawed hand to swipe down at her.

  ***

  Gallegos picked off as many as she could from inside the truck cab. She had to stay back from the window or risk getting grabbed and yanked out. Reeve swerved them left and right through the bloodied remains of the sucker faces taken out by the mines.

  “I’m going for the tunnel,” he said as they raced away from the horde that kept coming from the elevated tracks. Gallegos gave a quick glance at the road ahead of them. A burned up Volkswagen Beetle had been shoved into place in front of the tunnel.

  “Reeve—”

  “Hold onto your asses!” he yelled as he aimed them at the little car’s fender. They swerved hard and smashed the car aside, sending the truck rocking as they shot into the tunnel. Gallegos whispered a prayer as they flew under the tracks and burst out again. She turned and fired behind them at the swarm of sucker faces pouring down from above and joining the others in the chase. Gallegos kept firing, one shot at a time, picking her targets and dropping them.

  Aim, squeeze, aim again. Aim, squeeze—

  She put a hand out to brace herself when Reeve took them over a mound of debris to avoid a horde that sped at them from the left. They cleared most of the suckers, but a trio launched into the air and landed on the hood. Gallegos finally risked it and leaned out with her pistol, cracking two of the sucker faces with head shots. The third lost its grip and was ground under the truck tires as Reeve stomped the gas and they sped forward. On the other side of the truck, Dom had the shotgun out the window and was taking the monsters down as quick as he could fire.

  The shotgun blasts were nothing more than thumps in her ears now. And then they stopped.

  “Out! We’re out of ammo!” Dom yelled.

  ***

  Jed recovered his grip on the SAW as more clawed hands grabbed onto the tailgate above Jo. She’d rolled to the right and dodged the monster’s claws, but now she had three of them looming over her and reaching for her legs.

  “Help!” Jo screamed.

  The truck spun to the side and Jed frantically swiped at the feed tray, clearing belt links and an empty brass casing from the weapon. He slapped the cover down and charged the SAW as the truck slid up against a ruined wall, scraping the fender against the shattered stone. The sucker faces caught flecks of concrete and sparks until Jed sent a burst at them. Two went down with holes in their heads. The third caught a round in its throat and still it came forward, leaning over the tailgate to swipe at Jo’s retreating boots. Jed fired again and it fell backwards with its limbs flailing.

  Jed kept a watch in every direction, scanning around them to watch for any monsters that had closed the distance from the main pack to the truck. Next to him, Jo was reloading the thump gun.

  “Willie Pete this time?” he asked.

  “Rah.”

  The truck took a hard bank and lifted up as they came over a debris mound again.

  Jo lifted up onto her hip and sighted. Jed raised up and covered her with burst after burst, but he knew he’d have to swap boxes soon.

  “Take the shot!” he yelled. “I’m almost out on this box!”

  Reeve swerved them in an arc across the street, sending Jo back on her heels against the bed wall. She kept the thump gun tucked in and put a hand out to steady herself.

  Jed fired his last burst at the sucker faces that were coming in a wide wave, aiming for the cab and truck bed.

  “Changing ammo! Take the shot!”

  Jo looked back at him, then turned to face the onrushing swarm. She aimed and fired the thump gun.

  ***

  Dom used his empty weapon to jab at any sucker faces that came close. Gallegos sat back into her seat, holding her M4 ready at her window. She turned to look out the windshield in time to see the barricade ahead. She braced herself with her legs while Reeve spun another tight circle, bringing them around to straddle the road. A fresh swarm raced at them from the direction of the el-tracks, and it stretched across the road, filling her sight picture no matter where she aimed. Others poured over the barricade and out of the ruins of the neighborhood behind them.

  We’re surrounded. And we’re almost out of ammo.

  “What do we have left?”

  “Nothing,” Matty said. “Just pistols. Y’all?”

  “On magazine, half gone,” Reeve said.

  “Less than that in my weapon, plus one full,” Gallegos added. “Make every shot count. If this is our time, then this is our time. We make it hurt, for Mahton and Leigh and everyone we couldn’t save.”

  The squad replied as one. Gallegos lifted her M4 and sighted on the sucker faces running toward them from the el-tracks. A loud thump sounded from behind the cab. Gallegos counted the seconds until the horde vanished in a cloud of flaming smoke.