Broken Lands (Benny Imura 6)

“The entrance,” cried Nix.

The two dead soldiers reached for them. Benny took one; Nix took the other. Identical flashes of silver and then heads fell with melon wetness to the concrete. They went inside. A third soldier lay on the floor, undead, but crippled by a spine injury. Lilah quieted him.

The door was one-half of a big set of double doors about eight feet wide. Benny and Chong took positions with their hands on the handles. Nix sheathed her sword and drew her pistol, and Lilah did as well. Nix nodded to the boys and they pulled the doors wide.

Behind the door was a corridor ten feet wide that ran on and angled down. Electric lights showed the way, and they showed the damage. There were bodies everywhere. Soldiers, zoms, and the leather-clad ravagers. Blood spatter marked the spots of individual deaths. It was a diorama of bloody destruction.

From far away, down deep in the tunnel and out of sight, they heard a few sporadic gunshots, plaintive screams, and the relentless moans of the hungry dead.

Benny studied the tunnel and then went outside to examine the landscape. When he came back, he said, “The soldier was right. This tunnel goes right toward the town.”

Even from nearly two miles away they all heard the sounds of gunfire and screams rolling across the night-darkened desert. They could see the lights of New Alamo.

“You want us to go running down there?” asked Nix.

“No. I want us to go driving down there,” replied Benny. “I think we can get the quads in there pretty easily.”

“Only single file,” said Chong. “We can’t drive and fight at the same time. Not even Lilah can keep that up.”

“Then we double up,” said Benny. “One person drives, the other shoots. Nix and Lilah are the best shots, so you and me’ll drive.”

“I don’t like it.”

Lilah snorted. “Too late for that, Town Boy.”

“We have all these guns we took from the prison,” said Nix. “We can clear the tunnel and have plenty left over for the people in town. Bet they could use some.”

Chong sighed, nodded, and turned around to go fetch his quad. The others ran to catch up. They buddy-checked each other’s armor. Nix gave Benny a tight hug and climbed onto the back of his machine. Lilah kissed Chong hard enough to make his knees weak, then laughed while he fired his engine.

Benny leaned close to his friend. “That’s what you’re fighting for, dude.”

“Yes,” said Chong, managing a smile. “I know.”

91

GUTSY HAD NO IDEA WHERE the shooter was who had saved her life twice now. From the way the ravagers’ bodies jerked as they died, she was almost certain the shots came from outside the walls. But that made no sense.

Everything around her was madness, and it made it hard to be sure of anything at all. Screams and moans competed to dominate the air around and above New Alamo. Shouts, too. And the grating, mocking laughter of the ravagers.

Alethea and Spider were working as a team, each of them covered in gore, dripping with sweat, and wild-eyed with fear. Alethea caught her looking and gave her a manic grin. She blew a strand of hair out of her face, straightened her tiara, turned, and bashed a fast-infected in the face.

A scream pulled Gutsy’s attention, and she raced to the other side of the catwalk and looked down to see something that chilled her to the bone. Five of the shamblers were closing in around a girl who backed away, holding a length of black pipe like a baseball bat, but caught in a moment of indecision, clearly uncertain which enemy to attack first. Aware that the others would fall on her at once.

The girl was Alice.

“No!” bellowed Gutsy, and before she knew she was going to do it, she was running for the stairs. Sombra following, barking furiously. Gutsy jumped down the last few steps, landed running. Sombra shot past her and leaped at one of the shamblers, slamming into its back to send it crashing face-forward to the hard ground. He did not bite the creature, though, and jumped at another, knocking it down.

That was when Gutsy understood that the coydog had been trained for this. Trained for combat with the infected dead. It sent a thrill of excitement through her, and she caught up and smashed the heads of both los muertos with her crowbar.

The other dead turned at the sound and movement, and Alice took that moment to hit one with her pipe. It was a very hard shot, but the monster was too tall and the pipe hit its shoulder, bounced up, and only grazed its skull. The thing turned and grabbed for her, baring its teeth for a bite.

Gutsy bashed reaching arms aside and hit another living dead in the forehead, driving it to its knees while beside her Sombra knocked the fifth one down. Gutsy ignored that one and attacked the monster who was clawing at Alice’s clothes.

She hit that one very, very hard.

Its shattered skull snapped sideways on a broken neck and it fell away into a motionless heap. The fallen dead thing hit in the forehead started to get up, but Sombra bit down on its pants cuff and jerked it backward. It fell on its chest, and Gutsy smashed the skull.

Five seconds, five dead.