No Time To Bleed

“Go!” she screamed.

Her arm swung in an arch, spraying bullets at the people on the balcony above that were shooting at us.

We stepped onto the front lawn of the structure which was covered in trees, bushes, cameras, and all of the above. I reached into my belt and pulled the clip form a grenade. I’d never thrown one in my life, but I got it out of my hand quick.

It landed just clear of the front doors to the place where guards were rushing out. They were dressed in all black and held guns. It went off with a searing blast that catapulted them away.

Cece’s hands dug into my arm again as she turned to scream to Clarissa and Shatoya. “Cover us! We’ve gotta get inside! Go!”

Dirt and grass filled the air in a mist. Something went off a few feet from us. We flew back and Cece was thrust into a tree. I landed hard against a rock.

Men were running up from behind.

I lurched up and dug hands into Cece’s collar. “GET UP! THEY’VE GOT LAND MINES!”

I ducked as a grenade aimed towards my head. We bolted and the blast spiraled behind us. A heavy ball of fire hit a cement side of the white building. The men seemed disoriented as heavy fog went into the air.

I snatched my gun from my waist. From the look of it was automatic and shot off rounds like hell. We climbed our way up the hill to the main path. Cece sprayed her bullets ahead to break the front glass to the building.

“The map’s in your pocket! Once we get inside, we take the first right hallway and head down the stairs. The elevator’s one floor down!”

Clarissa and Shatoya were sending off more rounds behind us. Sirens were blaring like hell and I knew there’d be more people on us. We reached through main doors to the clean white walls and gray tiles of the inside.

Clarissa reached down and stole a pass from a dead guard. “There had to be at least 50 on the outside arming the place. Lucky we made it in.”

Shatoya dropped down a ball of something behind us. “Tear gas and fog, it’ll keep them off our track for a little bit.”

The ball made a hissing sound and we bolted down the first hallway. The halls were just clear white walls and that eerie gray tile for the floor. Doors went on at our sides in regular intervals. I reached the steps first and my feet went in a rushed blur down them. Shots could be hear from the main lobby.

“Where the hell did they go?! Check the cameras! We gotta take a full coverage of this area! Whoever these people are, we’re gonna hunt them down like dogs!”

Clarissa swiped the card at the door and it popped open. We all barged inside and slammed the door behind us. A large metal tool cabinet stood before us.

“Come on. Let’s move this to block the door.” Shatoya urged.

We all got on the opposite side of it and strained our muscles to get the thing to the door.

“That’ll fend em for a good 15 more minutes.” Shatoya said.

The long basement floor ahead of us stretched on for about another hundred feet with pillars at regular places. Off to the sides of the basement room where heavy looking vaults.

“What’s in those vaults?” I asked them.

Cece scratched her head. “Uh, money maybe? I don’t know.”

I looked to Clarissa and shook my head a bit fearfully.

We started the long walk to the freight elevator on the other end.

“I hope that elevator isn’t some decoy crap.” Clarissa filled in the silence.

Shatoya laughed. “No decoy. We had this place mapped out on a 3D level scale. Camping out in that RV the last month gave us plenty of time to scope things out. No worries.”

And as if Shatoya’s words were some kind of key, all of the vaults at once began to churn open with a puff of smoke.

“What’s that sound?” Cece’s voice quaked.

We all pressed our ears on. It seemed to be a low rumbling and…. Footsteps?

My eyes turned wide as I grabbed onto Clarissa’s arm and tried to pull everyone forward. “We’ve got to get to that elevator NOW!”

They all seemed shocked.

“What? Why?”

My jaw dropped at Cece. “They’ve got those things in there! We’ve gotta move!”

The vaults tore now opened all the way. There had to be at least seven of those vaults surrounding us.

“They’ve got zombies!” I yanked on Clarissa’s arm once more and for some reason everyone seemed frozen.

“What?” Shatoya murmured.

That’s when the first one came and tackled her to the ground, teeth barring and blood spewing. We had to get to that elevator.