Outbreak Chapter 16

"Good work," Brendon said to the other two, "Now let's get out of here." As planned he lead the way into the hall. A quick look to the left and right showed that there weren't any other infected in the hallway. The three of them headed down the hallway to the right towards the stairwell that lead out front. Once they reached the doorway to the stairwell Brendon reached forward and turn the doorknob as quietly as he could. He saw Rebecca had her rifle ready to cover him and Aidan was a few feet behind them facing the direction they had already came to make sure that nobody snuck up on them.
Brendon swung open the door and nearly jumped out of his skin when he found himself face to face with young woman with blood smeared clothing. She jumped at him and before he had time to react she was quickly too close for him to be able to raise his rifle. He shot his left hand forward against her neck and pressed as hard as he could to keep her teeth away from him. She dug her hands into his back and attempted to pull herself close enough to bite him. He could tell that he was stronger than she was but he only had one arm competing against her two. She was slowly pulling herself closer and their faces were inches apart. Rebecca must not have had a shot from her angle so he reached down to his right hip and drew his pistol. They still weren't sure exactly how easy it was for the condition to spread and he really didn't want to splatter himself with blood and get infected but he really didn't have a choice. He put the barrel of his pistol up to her temple, closed his eyes and mouth as tightly as he could and pulled the trigger. He felt a little bit of a splatter hit his face but it wasn't as bad as he had expected. The woman went limp and fell to the ground. He jetted past her body into the stairwell pistol still in hand and checked the stairs leading both up and down to make sure there weren't any other surprises close by. Seeing that there were no more immediate threats he took the time to holster his pistol and raise his rifle back up to the low ready while the other two followed him into the stairwell.
There was only one flight of stairs that they needed to take down which would lead them straight to the front doors. The right side of the stairway followed the wall but the left side only had a simple railing so anyone in the hallway on the first floor could reach up and grab their feet as they came down the steps. "Rebecca, I need you to watch the hall to the left and make sure nobody reaches up, Aidan you keep watching our six," Brendon told the others. Both of them acknowledged him and he lead the way down the stairs making sure to keep his AK trained on the glass doorway at the bottom of the steps. Somebody had broken out the glass since they had last been outside so the door wouldn't even slow down anyone that came rushing into the building.
The three of them made it down the stairs without incident and Brendon and Rebecca stepped foot outside only to see that there were at least a dozen infected in the area. A nearby woman in her nightwear spotted them first and let out an excited wail as she started in their direction. The wail set off a chain reaction of other wails and moans as more and more of the infected in the area spotted what the first had been so excited about. Brendon raised his rifle and snapped off a shot that hit the woman in her forehead then moved on to acquire the next target. Rebecca opened fire next to him as they both worked to again clear out the immediate area.
Within moments Brendon heard gunfire behind them and glanced back to see Aidan firing on more infected that were both coming down the hallway behind them that lead deeper into the first floor. He was glad that his friend had maintained the discipline to keep watch behind them even with all of the action going on in front. They held position for nearly a minute but Brendon saw no end to the infected. No matter how many people they killed there were still more lumbering in their direction in the distance.
A man came stumbling out of the patio door of the apartment next to Brendon letting out a snarl as he came out. Brendon barely had time to line up a shot but managed to keep his calm anyways and dropped the man when he was just a few feet away. He was surprised at how calm he suddenly was considering how nervous he had been in the apartment. It was just like when he had been in the Middle East. He had always been extremely nervous just before going out on a patrol but his nervousness always seemed to wash away as soon as they left the gate allowing him to focus on the mission.
"We could stand here and kill them all day but they'll just keep coming, we're going to have to try to get everything to the car and clear out," he shouted to the other two as loud as he could figuring their ears were probably ringing as bad as his from the rifle fire. The three of them only had about twenty feet to cover to get to the pile of bags they had lowered from the balcony. As planned they took turns pulling on their packs while the other two covered then headed towards his Explorer. He kept them moving at a slow pace that allowed them to still fire accurately at close ranges or take quick halts to fire on farther targets without worrying about being left behind.
Once they reached the explorer he opened up the back hatch and each of them threw in their packs while the others covered. He really didn't want to make the short trip back to the other three bags but he knew that there was a good chance they would need the supplies and extra ammo in those packs later on. He estimated that he had dropped around two dozen infected and was sure that there weren't many rounds left in his magazine. "Reloading, cover me," He said to the others as he pulled the magazine and placed it in his drop pouch before inserting a fresh mag from his vest not bothering to work the bolt since there was already a round in the chamber. He had the others do the same since they had both snapped off enough shots that their magazines were likely running low as well.
With fresh magazines in all of their rifles they started to move back towards the remaining bags firing at infected as they went. It was hard to pinpoint the direction that one or two gunshots came from based just off of sound but by now they had fired off dozens of rounds and it was starting to look like every infected person within a few blocks had figured out where the gunfire was coming from. Brendon could see dozens of them all converging on their position, luckily most of them were far enough away that if they hurried they could make back to the Explorer and be driving before they were overwhelmed.