Page 196 of After the Burn

A scream tore across the yard, and I turned to see Caesar standing near the building that housed his office. Two enhanced men flanked him, all three of them holding rifles.

“What the fuck are you doing?” he shouted.

Apparently, he objected to losing one of his business partners.

Beck pulled out his gun, but Caesar shot first. With a deafening crack, the shot slammed into the column nearby, and Adrian's fingers dug into my arm, yanking me down.

Lucas crouched beside us; blood streaked across one side of his face. “You okay, Menace?”

“I’m not bitten or shot yet. So yeah, I guess.”

He smirked. “If you can still be a smartass, then I know you’re good.”

Another shot punched into the concrete above us, and Adrian turned his attention toward the east side of the compound. “Three shooters.”

“I see them,” Lucas said.

Caesar shouted, and his men spread out. A shot cracked from outside the fence, and one of Caesar’s men dropped.

Then another.

Additional shots came from deeper south, and from various points. The person firing wasn’t just shooting aimlessly.

Smoke suddenly rolled across the eastern side of the yard. Another metal canister bounced once across the gravel before disappearing beneath a truck.

White smoke poured from it.

“What the fuck?” Someone screamed.

Caesar’s men started firing blindly toward the fence.

Idiots.

The smoke thickened. Another shooter outside picked off the man on the guard platform, and his body toppled over the railing.

I looked at Adrian. “Who in the hell is helping us?”

His expression went blank.

Before I could ask, the western fence groaned, and every head turned in that direction.

Rotters piled against it. Dozens. Maybe more.

Bodies.

Hands.

Teeth.

The weakened section buckled, and the support post tore free.

Then another.

“We’ve got to get out of here!” Adrian shouted.

The fence collapsed inward, and rotters spilled through.

The compound ceased being a battle and became a slaughter.