The doors bsted inward, spraying gss across the tiles and destroying what little security we had. Sam screamed from her fetal position as bits of gss flew into her hair, but the Humvee missed her on its arrival. I slid across the desk and to the ground, then rolled under the desk and covered the pup that was barking frantically in its high-pitched puppy bark. The zombie on the windshield was unched off the Humvee and rolled on the ground where it eventually came to a stop and wasn’t moving.

  Whoever was driving killed the engine, so I poked my head to see who sucked so badly at parking.

  “Becca,” I whispered to my still pouting AI. “I’m sorry about earlier. I mean, not really, but things just took a turn. How far out is the doctor?”

  Becca: Based on the GPS of her phone, I estimate the doctor is three minutes away, with a variance of seventeen seconds in either direction. Try not to die before then.

  “Right. We’ll see what happens,” I said to her and then stood up and held the pup close to my side under the leather jacket.

  The driver stepped out of the Humvee and waved the man in the passenger seat to follow suit. The driver was dressed in the same military getup as our friend from earlier, just without the weird skin and zombie eyes. The other person was not dressed in military gear. The driver was clean shaven with short hair, almost a buzz cut, but not quite there. He had on some cheap gas station bought sungsses that probably blocked less sun than a magnifying gss, but hey they looked cool, which was a vital need.

  He tossed his camo top into the Humvee and was wearing a sleeveless bck shirt to show off his many arm tattoos. One tattoo stood out above the rest, a dolphin with a unicorn horn on his forearm. That was kind of cool. I wonder if he would tell me where he got it done.

  His eyes locked onto mine and he gripped a rifle that was dangling behind his back and focused it on me.

  Alright then, keep your tattoo secrets.

  The rifle looked like an AR-10 from its size, but I wasn’t confident, nor did that matter at the moment. Also, probably not the time to point out to Sam that I was right about the people in the car.

  The man who emerged from the side of the vehicle had a simir outfit, but no dolphin with a horn tattoo. Without that tattoo, this man was no threat.

  He also pulled a rifle from behind his back and locked onto me.

  Welp, maybe he was.

  He gnced at Sam, who was still on the ground covering her head, and then looked back at me. I noticed left hand was bloodied, but from this distance and him holding the gun, I couldn’t identify the cause of the injury.

  “Hey, you guys can’t park there,” I said. I intended to gauge their temperament. If they were cool, then maybe they would ugh it off and lower the guns. If they weren’t, well, the zombies won’t be a problem for me when I’m riddled with holes.

  The driver spit on the ground without looking away from me. Gross dude, that was a nice tile floor. I specifically said I hoped that didn’t happen.

  Becca: What song would you like to listen to now?

  “Not the time, Becca,” I tried to whisper without moving my lips, but ventriloquism is a skill I have yet to master. Both men scrunched their eyebrows as I whispered to what looked like myself. The doctor needs to fix this communication issue real quick.

  “What’s with the hand?” I asked the hurt man, but he only sneered at me.

  A woman popped up from the gunner's seat and leaned forward against the weapon while smacking gum loudly. She grinned at me from her position of power, showcasing the pink gum in her mouth. Again, gross. No manners with this group.

  She was kind of cute, if you can look past the smacking gum habit. I was willing. I’m that great of a guy. She wore the same sleeveless bck shirt as the others and was also tatted up, but I was not in a position to see any of hers clearly. Raven-bck hair peeked over the top multicolored bandana. She seemed to be in good, if not great shape, but I could only see from the chest up. With the way she was resting her chest on the top of the car, that was good enough for me.

  “Hey, you’re kind of cute,” she said to me.

  “I think that’s my line,” I said back, and tried to give her a sly and cocky smile.

  Becca: Can you PLEASE leave it in your pants until you're out of immediate danger?

  “I was talking to your dog,” she said and returned my sly, cocky smile.

  I wish the two guys had just shot me from the start.

  “I thought that was you looking out the door!” She was looking at Sam now, who had been working on standing without making too sudden of a movement. Sam was eyeing the rifles the two men held and kept her hands raised around shoulder level. When the woman spoke, Sam forced herself to look away from them and at the woman. “Sorry about the sudden entrance. It’s a little chaotic out there. I told my idiot brother to slow down, especially when we couldn’t see.”

  “Lana?!” Sam’s mouth hung open and her eyes were as wide as the hole in the dealership. I mean, not actually that wide, obviously, but pretty wide. “I can’t… I can’t- how?”

  “I told you guys it was her! I couldn’t believe it when we drove by and I thought I saw you staring out the door. Where’s your fam? Your parents never let you out of their sight,” the woman climbed out of the Humvee as she spoke. She looked around to make sure the immediate area was zombie-free, then bounded over to Sam and threw her arms around her neck. After a moment of hesitation, Sam returned the hug and seemed to lean into it more and more the longer it sted, squeezing the woman harder with each passing second. Sam buried her face in the woman’s shoulder and I thought I could hear a soft sob. It’s… been a long day.

  “Our turn now. What do you say, boys?” I asked the two men and held out one arm, waiting for my hug. Not even a pity smile. These guys suck.

  “Let’s get you outta here,” Lana spoke in a low soft tone to Sam. Sam nodded and they held onto each other as they walked over to the Humvee. They must have been good friends before this went down. Still, I was worried about her going anywhere else besides the facility. Nothing else around here will be as safe. Lana opened the side door and followed Sam inside.

  “What about this one?” the dolphin tattoo-man yelled at the girls and jerked his gun in my direction.

  “He saved me several times. He’s a good guy, he should come with us,” I heard Sam holler from the Humvee. Then she asked Lana, “where did you guys get this thing?”

  “My brother was in the city fighting with his unit, but those creepy monster things overran them. He was able to escape with the Humvee then he picked me and his best friend up. We’re going to some safety meetup point. Wish he would let me shoot that big gun some, though,” Lana replied.

  Approaching groans had brought me back to the reality of the situation. The car smashing through the doors and the guns aimed at me had distracted me from the zombies still roaming around outside. The Humvee onsught had taken most out and drew others away from the dealership door, but now there was nothing distracting them from heading in here.

  They had reached the front of the dealership and had started piling their way in. Several decayed were scraping against the jagged edges of the broken css where the doors used to be. The sharp gss was slicing into their skin, but they kept pushing through unabated. Clumps of flesh were cut from the zombies and plopped to the ground with a sickening spt.

  “It’s time to go! She says he’s cool, so just leave him, no reason to hurt him,” Lana yelled.

  “Wait, Sam! Hang on!” I said and Lana smmed her door shut as the zombies approached the back of the vehicle. If Sam had said anything else in my defense, I could not hear it.

  “I don’t want to go with you guys for long, but with those things pouring in, I wouldn’t say no to a ride out of here,” I said and held up the puppy for some extra sympathy.

  The dog whimpered after I spoke. Perfect timing to really sell it, good dog.

  “You’ll be fine,” the driver said and blew me a kiss before he went back into the car. What a flirt. He fired a couple shots into the closest zombies to give him space as he climbed in and smmed the driver's door behind him.

  The other guy followed suit and when he turned to go back to the car, I got a good look at his injury. A bite. I could see the teeth marks that broke the skin on the back of his hand.

  “Sam. Sam!” I yelled while his door was still open. “He’s been bit! He was bitten! He could end up like the soldier we saw, get away from them!”

  “Hey! Shut up, man. Or I’ll shoot you, anyway!” The man hesitated at his door and brought his gun back up to aim at me.

  “You told him your name was Sam?” I heard Lana ughing from the backseat. “Smart. People are crazy out here!”

  The man looked like he had more to say, but a quick gnce behind him changed his mind and he jumped into the Humvee. I heard the person formally known as Sam start to shout something but the loser without the cool dolphin tattoo yanked his door shut. The engine roared to life and took off in reverse, plowing through several of the zombies and spraying decayed flesh and blood from the ones caught under the wheels all over the tile floor of the dealership.

  The humvee sped off out of the parking lot and onto the road, out of sight and, for now, out of mind. Because there were now at least two dozen zombies, probably more, shuffling into the Humvee sized hole in the dealership.

  “Shit. Ah. Shit. Shit!” I looked around the dealership for any other way out. My neck was snapping my head around so fast I could feel the soreness of a strain building. “Becca! Doctor’s ETA?!”

  Becca: Calcuting.

  The only other doors were locked, but maybe I could break the windows and unlock them. As soon as the thought crossed my mind, zombie faces pressed against those locked door windows. I guess the employees didn’t all make it out.

  “Time is running out!” I climbed on top of the receptionist's desk. The high ground never fails! The puppy, still held securely to my side, growled at the zombies closing in, but it didn’t seem to dissuade their attack.

  Becca: Now pying Time is Running Out by Papa Roach

  “What?! Not the- alright good song- but not the time!” I kicked the first zombie to reach the desk in the face. It fell back with a groan and knocked two others over. I pulled out my handgun, six shots left and twenty-four or more zombies. I may not have been great at math, but that didn’t seem to be a great situation. Two more reached the desk and their nasty little hands started grabbing at my feet. I stuck my gun in the face of one and blew a hole in it. Then I stomped on the fingers of the other that grabbed at me.

  “Ah-roo?” the zombie grabbed its fingers like it actually hurt.

  “Oh. I’m sorr- wait, no I’m not! Fuck you, zombie!” I kicked it in the face and sent it crashing to the ground.

  I shot another one as it reached the desk. Four shots left and more zombies were stumbling into the dealership. I needed to save at least one shot for… well, a st resort. I would not get eaten alive by some zombie. I’ll leave it at that.

  A deafening bst erupted from just outside the dealership. It sounded almost like…

  “Becca, did she take my-”

  Becca: Yes. She said you wouldn’t mind.

  “Well, I do mind! Those are mine!”

  Becca: Well, go walk out there and tell her. Go tell the woman, who rushed on foot directly into the middle of the apocalypse to save you, that you don’t want her touching your toys.

  “... Maybe I will!” I shot a zombie that was slobbering on my feet. Whatever started this zombie mess better not be spread through saliva. Three shots left.

  Another bang that sounded like cannon fire. Blood and bits of zombie were bsted into what was left of the windows. Maniacal ughter could be heard from outside.

  One zombie had made it around the desk unnoticed and was pulling herself up. A shot to the back of the head put an end to that, but left me with only two shots left.

  “I’m sorry I dragged you into this, pup! Maybe I should have joined you under the car outside instead of pulling you out.”

  A bst sounded and zombie guts coated the front of the dealership.

  A tall, tanned, and messy dark brown-haired woman in her te-thirties or early-forties walked in radiating confidence in a white doctor's coat, now spttered in dark red and looking like a child's finger painting. She had on grimy bck pants and was in, now, blood red high heels. Hell yeah, Bryce Dals Howard style.

  With ear-shattering bsts, she eliminated most of the zombies left inside. She pced two massive handguns on her shoulders and fshed a dazzling smile.

  “The doctor is in!”