We were not going to make it on foot.

I sprinted left and saw the humvee thirty feet ahead. I shouted for the others to run for the vehicle just as the entrance doors burst open behind us, spilling the vectors out into the sunlight, haggard and ravaged. I quickened my pace and reached the passenger's side door first.

It was locked.

"Shit!" I exclaimed.

I could break the windows. It was protected by two feet of high steel plates and bulletproof glass. Even if I used my shotgun, I would leave a gaping hole for the vectors to come through. It would be a deathtrap. The back windows of the humvee were not like the civilian counterpart. Instead of sliding down, it slid to the side at about four or five inches, but no grown adult could fit their entire body.

I noticed that the turret hatch from the roof was opened. Though, there was no machine gun propped up there.

"Climb!" I said.

I was the first one on the roof, followed by Alfie. He didn't hesitate to crawl down the hole while I gave cover. Armas had a little trouble getting up to the roof, so I lent him a hand and lifted him. The vectors ran down the stairs, sprinting across the parking lot, and there were many of them. I shoved Armas into the hole before I jumped in, closing the hatch above me.

A woman reached the passenger side window, slamming her head onto the glass. It didn't break, but her skull surely did. Blood splattered onto the windowpane, and she made a gurgled squeak before she crumpled onto the ground. At least we had one less vector to worry about, but there were others following behind her. Soon, they swarmed the vehicle, trampling all over her body. Two managed to jump onto the roof, going for the hatch, but I already locked it from the inside.

They had no way of getting in, the vehicle acting like a panic room in a sea of monsters.

My heart was pounding as I slid behind the wheel. Armas sat next to me on the passenger seat. Alfie took the bench seat to the side, hugging his knees and covering his ears; He was not used to the vectors' screams yet.

"You have infected people here?" I sneered at Armas. "And you let it spread? You should have burned that fucking building to the ground instead of playing babysitter." A horrifying thought came to me. "You were staying and sleeping there with the infected right next to you? Are you crazy?"

"I...well..we was supposed to. Orders. Fuck. But—"

Armas fell quiet, a shocked stare at a particular older woman with black hair and sunken eyes hissing at me from the truck's hood. That must be his mother, I guessed. The soldier slowly sank into his seat as if the woman was smothering him.

"We? Who's we?" I asked.

"My unit."

"How many infected are there?"

"Seventy-six."

I groaned. We couldn't kill seventy-six vectors with our weapons and ammo. We had barely half of that number in terms of our bullets.

"You said a unit. Where are they now? Can you call them? Maybe they can help us?" I said. I did hope there were because it would make my job so easy.

Armas shook his head, and I frowned. He pointed to the infected soldiers outside, shrieking and seeing blood. "They're already here."

I wanted to scream. I saw one soldier had half his face torn off, another with nothing but his underwear and a shredded camouflage jacket. Other soldiers with bandages wrapped around their arms, legs, or around their forehead, which I determined must be where they had been bitten or injured.

I looked around the vectors, trying to make sure no children were among them.

"There are no children among them, right?" I asked Armas.

Armas shook his head. "No. The doctors took the children away."

That perked my ears, but I didn't have much time to probe who these doctors were or where they might have taken them. But I couldn't help but feel a little better that there were no infected children around to lead the horde. I chucked it to the back of my mind to ask later.

"Alright. Find the keys. It's bound to be here somewhere."

I found the keys inside the glove box a few minutes later, and I placed them into the ignition. The others should be by the Washington statue by now, and hopefully, they didn't wander around trying to find the noise. They'd know soon enough that it was us who made the ruckus since we were not there to meet them. I hoped the gunshots should keep them on full alert.

The truck roared to life.

I wouldn't be able to move forward with a tent and another car ahead of us.

I glanced back. Vectors blocked the back windows, and I couldn't see anything beyond them. I didn't want to accidentally hit another tent or a vehicle parked behind us, killing our truck. Luckily, humvees came equipped with backup cameras. I opened the screen port from the dash, and a view of the back appeared, inches overhead the clamoring vectors. I flinched when I saw their faces.

Oddly, I was fascinated that I got to see them up close on the screen without the threat of them killing me in a second. Bloodshot eyes were intent on finding their prey, bleeding from their mouth, nose, and ears, callous for the lack of hygiene. Not a lot of them blocked the camera, and I saw plenty of space to maneuver.

"This is gonna be bumpy," I told everyone.

I shifted gears and hit the gas, running over the vectors from the back, all crumpled under the four-wheel drive. I could distinctly hear their agonizing cries as they bled to death. I didn't know if it was possible for them to feel pain, but I didn't give a rat's ass what they felt right now. Although it was tempting to do it again, I feared that I might damage my engines. Blood had a nasty way of ruining things, coupled with flesh, bones, and other gore lodging its way into the machine beneath me, then we might not be able to make it out of the parking lot alive if the humvee sputtered up.

I put all my weight on the gas pedal. The humvee violently lurched forward, taking two more vectors under the wheels as I drove out of the parking lot. One of the vectors was the woman with the sunken eyes, and I heard a choked cry from Armas as she went under.

The other abled vectors ran after us, ignoring how much blood was leaking through their holes and gashes. I didn't know how long they'd survive with so much massive trauma. Frankly, I had never stayed long enough to find out.

I glanced back again. Alfie sat on one side, trembling. I could hear the chattering of the gun in his hand. He didn't know how to use it, but I didn't scold him for it. I grabbed the rifle out of his hand and gave it to Armas. He looked at me in surprise.

"Keep that safe, will you?" I said.

Armas merely nodded.

Two vectors pounded from the roof. I tried to shake them loose, but they had a firm grip on the handrails screwed to the side of the roof and by the turret nest. I am not sending these two stowaways after the others waiting for us up the hill.

"Take over for me," I nodded to Alfie. "Washington Statue. Should be on the right and then continue ahead."

Alfie nodded. I slowed down a little, and he slipped past behind me and occupied the seat, replacing my foot on the gas pedal. I tapped on Armas's shoulder, wanting his help. He nodded, and we both crowded below the hatch.

"Their blood is not infectious," I told Armas. "I think their saliva is, like rabies. So, don't worry if some blood gets on your face. It's not airborne or anything."

"Are you sure?"

"I've got blood on me since day one. They only turn in hours, so do the math."

I didn't want Armas to freak out if there's blood all over him. I had no idea what the army brass told the soldiers about the disease, but I realized Armas knew very little. A pained look crossed his face, realizing something. I told him of my plan. He was hesitant to go along with it because it involved opening the hatch, but I had no patience to argue. So, I slapped him hard, and he got angry, and fortunately, he didn't slap me back.

In Armas's mind, too many drills and lessons probably clamored inside, a thousand voices telling him what to do to secure his status. He was the soldier, trained to become a respected high-ranking officer, and we were these two armed civilians who just strode into his hideout and kidnapped him. He needed to assert his station, so I made sure to bring him down a peg. Follow me, and you'll live.

I hoped he got the message.

I got into position behind Alfie's seat, aiming my shotgun at the hatch. Armas bent down from the side, his hand on the lever, waiting for my signal.

I nodded to Armas, and he pulled the lever.

The hatch swung open. In a second, a vector peered in, snarling. He saw me first and was about to come in when I shoved the shotgun right on his chest and pulled the trigger. I never learned my lesson. Discharging a weapon in close quarters was never a good idea, especially inside the humvee. Now, my ears were ringing.

I saw the vector flew back, losing grip of the railing as he tumbled off the vehicle. The last one crawled to the hole, undeterred that his companion flew off of the roof. He let his other hand go to reach for one of the turret's handle.

I shouted, "Alfie! Now!"

Alfie hit the brakes.

With the vector's balance off, he jerked forward, tossing him down to the pavement headfirst at fifty miles per hour, and the poor fool broke his neck. From the back window, the other vectors just narrowed the bend out of the parking lot.

Alfie didn't waste a second to run over the twitching vector and continued driving up the hill.

Armas looked out of the window and patted Alfie on the shoulder. "What are you doing?" He asked. "You're going the wrong way. This is going to Washington Hall. Lonesome Road is our way out to the highway," Armas said when he realized we were not going for the exit road, heading deeper into campus.

"Our people are in Washington Hall. We need to save them," Alfie said.

"The exit will already be behind the vectors once we do."

"We'll take the other road heading into the village. We have people there too. We're not going to the highway," I said.

Armas kept shaking his head. "No. We need to go to Albany."

"Yes, yes, we already gathered. That's where everyone is going. Is that where all the cadets are?" I asked.

He nodded. "And a couple of other cities."

"Then, why are you here?" Alfie asked.

"We...um, two of my friends were from the nearby towns. We had family who went here when the evacuation was announced. Some of the sick were our family, but the army up and left. So, we decided to hide, waited a bit, try to protect some folks that got left behind. We didn't know until we got to the building that all of them were infected. I escaped and guarded anything that comes out since then."

"You went AWOL," I said.

Armas bit his lip and looked out the window. "I didn't want to abandon my mom and my girlfriend."

"You know we're gonna have to kill them, right? We can't risk letting them run loose with us around campus. Are these the only infected in the area?"

"Yes."

"There's a horde numbering by the thousands at least thirty miles south of here. In a few days, they'll reach this town. I need to know where the school's armory is so that we can fight back."

"The armory?"

"Yes. Do you know where it is?"

Armas gave a small nod. "You're already heading toward it."