Seeds Of Hunger

Chapter 9: Separation Anxiety

Carter fought the urge to panic as they infected started toward the car, the ones closet already clawing at the car's exterior. Carter looked at Casey who was frozen in place, his mind trying to deal with the situation at hand. Carter turned slightly around to look at the man they picked up, he was holding his rifle close to his chest, staring out the window, watching the infected and giving them a look he didn't want to be on the receiving end of.

"Casey, back us up. Full throttle." Carter ordered, trying his best to sound calm. He grabbed his shotgun and held it close.

Casey licked his lips before answering, "Okay everyone hang on!" He put the car in reverse and stomped on the pedal. "I can't see anything!" The car caught on the bodies underneath the tires, jerking the wheel out of Casey's hands, and propelling them back towards the building. The car crashed into the building behind it, nearly sending Jameson through the back windshield. Carter looked and saw that they were indeed away from the infected, far enough to where they could get out.

"Bail out!" Carter said he pushed his door open, raising the shotgun sighting in on the nearest infected and firing. The infected's head exploded and he fell to the Earth for the last time.

Casey slung open his door and leveled his shotgun, shooting two zombies and unlatching the back door to let their new friend out. Jameson flipped the safety off on his M4 and starting taking shots at the closet infected.

In front of the totaled car was a wave of infected, arms outstretched, wanting to rip the three apart. Carter noticed that the group was cutting them off; half going for him and half going for Casey and the soldier. Casey's shotgun spit fire and the soldier's rifle barked and more bodies fell but Carter knew they didn't have enough ammo for a prolonged fight. He shot the infected grabbing at his boot and caught Casey's attention.

"We're getting split up! Head back to the station! We can regroup there!" Carter shouted, as he turned and started to run down the alleyway, dodging a crippled infected.

"Alright! Let's go!" Casey fired on the last shell and started to run towards the intersection.

"Right behind you!" Jameson shot two more of the infected and started running for his life.

Carter kept running until he was sure he had maneuvered past as many obstacles as he could. He let the shotgun lean against the building as he struggled to catch his breathe. He leaned against the wall as well and closed is eyes, mentally bringing up a map in his head. He had came up this alleyway through the intersection. Another few minutes and he'd be back at 22nd Street. From there he had to go through Albertson Avenue and continue up that road for a few miles before getting to the middle of 1st Street. It would be a lot easier if I could find a car, but then if I did, what kind of luck would I need to find the keys in it? Carter hissed at himself. Satisfied with a plan of some kind, he checked the shotgun and loaded a few more shells into the magazine tube under the barrel. He slung his shotgun and pulled out his Glock, checking his ammunition count. He had two full mags in his belt and had fired four shots with the Glock, for a total of forty seven rounds for the pistol.

Carter checked his watch, five pm. Three more hours until sunset. He felt the need to hurry; he was used to not having a partner but now he was grateful for the company. He fast walked to through the alleyway, trying to not create as much noise as he could. He reached 22nd Street and saw a few infected shambling their way around. One of them found another infected and started to feed. Carter did his best to not throw up but he felt drawn to watch. The infected crotched next to the dead on, well deader one, Carter thought with a smirk that disappeared as he watched the zombie bring what looked like an eye to its mouth and started feasting. Carter ran crouched up the sidewalk  and settled behind a brick stoup. He didn't know what the infected was capable of, their sight, their sense of smell, he knew nothing about what they could do. So far he was glad to see that they lacked basic motor skills like going up stairs or opening doors. He ran up the better part of 22nd Street until he got to the intersection of Albertson Avenue, 22nd Street and Milwaukie Way. He took a moment to bring up his mental map, remembering that  Albertson Avenue had a bus station and a homeless shelter. A small one way street in between the bus station and the homeless shelter put him right in the middle of 1st Street, barely a mile away from the station.