Outbreak Chapter 31

All of the weight on his back caused him to fall more than step onto the balcony below. He ended up on his hands and knees but aside from a throbbing knee was fine. He was about to start climbing over this level's balcony when a pounding noise from inside the apartment made him turn around. On the other side of the glass door was a middle aged woman and a young girl that couldn't have been more than eight years old, they were both pounding on the glass door but he could tell that they were both already dead. The woman threw herself against the door and a huge crack appeared on the glass letting Brendon know that the door wouldn't be holding them in for much longer. He would have preferred just climb off of the balcony and leave them there, especially since he wasn't sure if he would have the heart to shoot a child, even if she was already dead but he couldn't afford to have them break through while he was vulnerable climbing over the balcony.
He lined his rifle up with the woman's head first since she was probably the faster and stronger of the two and squeezed the trigger. The round had no trouble passing through the window leaving only a small hole and spider webbing the rest of the window before striking the woman just above her left eye.
Brendon had expected the window to shatter allowing the little girl to get through and had his AK aimed at her before he noticed that the window was still standing. He hesitated for a moment as the little girl continued to pound on the door and throw herself against the weakened glass. She was the first child zombie that he had seen, shooting adults hadn't phased him at all but even in death a child seemed so innocent.
He heard pieces of glass falling out of place and landing on the balcony as the window started to give way and he realized that he had to deal with the girl immediately. It took a lot more will power than usual but he worked up the courage to pull the trigger. It was a clean hit and the impact of the bullet caused the window to finally shatter and fall out of place. The interior of the apartment was dark so Brendon squeezed the pressure pad on the rifle's fore grip and a beam of light shot into the apartment. He took a quick look around to make sure there were no other threats that were going to come rushing out at him but only saw bloodstains on the walls and carpet.
Once he was satisfied that no more zeds would be coming out of the apartment he turned around and started climbing over the railing not wanting to waste any more time. The longer he took to get down the more rounds the rest of his group would have to expend and every second more and more undead were appearing in the distance and moving towards them. He lowered himself from the balcony in the same manner as before but this time there was no lower railing for him to get a foothold on once he was hanging down from the ledge. He guessed that his feet were only about four feet above the ground so he let go of the balcony. This landing was somewhat more dignified than before since he only stumbled a little from the weight of his gear and managed to stay on his feet.
Around him the other ten members of his group were doing a good job of keeping the undead back, so far they were only approaching in small groups and there had been no signs of the large hordes of dozens of zombies like they had seen on the news in other parts of the city. "Everybody mount up," Brendon shouted as loudly as he could knowing that by this point everybody’s ears were probably ringing as badly as his from all of the gunfire. A few people in the group didn't hear him but taps on the shoulders from other group members let them know it was time to get into the vehicles.
Brendon hadn't closed the moonroof to his Explorer when they had arrived at the apartment earlier so instead of crawling through the vehicle he ran up the front of the vehicle and lowered himself into the vehicle. He didn't bother to take off his ruck since he would just have to put it back on once they arrived at the dorms, in the meantime he would be able to crouch down and rest the ruck on the roof of the vehicle to take the strain off of his shoulders. Once he was set up on top he resumed firing at the closest zeds in hopes that he would be able to keep them back long enough for everyone to get into the vehicles.
The others three members of his team threw their bags into the back seat and below him he heard Aidan hop into the driver's seat and turn on the vehicle while Rebecca got into the front passenger seat and Leslie got in back. It was a little awkward having both his ex and current girlfriend in the same vehicle but he decided it was the least of his current worries and probably wouldn't be an issue. Next to his vehicle Griffin's team was loading into the Grand Cherokee, James had volunteered to drive while Megan rode shotgun and Tom sat in back. Brendon saw the moonroof on the vehicle slide open as somebody inside of the vehicle hit the switch and Griffin slid through the top leaving his ruck on as well and taking up a firing position similar to Brendon's. "We're ready to move out back here," Brendon said speaking into the mic for his radio as he held the transmit button.
"Rolling up front," came Wiggins' response over the ear piece that Brendon had linked to his radio as the Tacoma took the lead. Brendon could see that Ethan was behind the wheel while Brian sat in the passenger seat and Wiggins stood behind the cab in the box of the truck with his left hand gripping the cab's open rear window. Brendon wasn't particularly happy that his friend had opted to ride in the back of the truck, granted it made it a lot easier for him to fire in every direction but with the number of wrecked cars on the streets combined with roaming zombies they were bound to be doing a lot of swerving and Wiggins had nothing to hold him in place, plus it wouldn't be difficult for the zeds to climb into the box and drag him out if they came to a stop.
Brendon's vehicle pulled in behind the Tacoma while Griffin's vehicle took up the rear of their three vehicle convoy. The university campus was about eight miles directly to the north just past the state capitol which would take them directly through downtown. Just outside of the apartment complex was a four lane street that took them north through a business district. The roads were even more congested with car accidents and abandoned vehicles and there were a lot fewer moving vehicles with breathing people to be found. There were sporadic pileups that often forced the convoy to either jump the median to the clear lanes on the other side, on a few occasions they were forced to drive down the median since there were times that both the north and southbound lanes were blocked off. The area didn't have a terribly large concentration of undead yet, likely since the nearest residential areas were about a half mile away and most people hadn't made it to work in the morning.