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“It’s OK, she’s alive,” Angela said sounding very distant.  Walking over, Hodds saw why she sounded the way she did. 

Angela had one hand over the left side of her face; blood had seeped around her fingers and down her neck.

“I didn’t mean to!  I was scared!” the little girl standing with Angela said.

“Angela, I need you to move your hand.  Let me see what happened.”  The Commander took her hand and gently tried to move it away.

“What?” the other commando asked.

“Your hand, I need you to move it.”  As her hand came away Hodds could see the damage.  He sighed with relief. 

“How bad is it?” Angela asked.  “Can you see the bone?”

“It was a blank.  There’s a lump.  It’s going to hurt for a little while but nothing serious.”  He smoothed her hair back to look closer.  “Didn’t even break the skin.”

“Daddy told me it won’t kill someone.  It’ll just scare ‘em,” the girl said.

Angela turned a scowl to end all scowls at the girl, “Well you didn’t have to scare me; I was trying to help you.”  She got to her feet. 

“What’s your name?” Hodds asked the girl.

“Stacy.  My daddy was here but he went out.  He got bit by one of those people.”

“You can come with us.  We’re going north.”  Hodds took her hand and started to walk for the door, Angela already waiting near it looking at her wound in the mirror.

“No!  I have to wait for my daddy!  He said he’d be right back!” the girl tugged at his hand.  “Besides:  We came from the north.  Everyone’s dead.  Even Mommy!”

Angela turned to him, “Sir, you know the rules.  We gotta leave her behind.”

This time it was Hodds that gave a terrible look to Angela, “We take her with us, you got that Rodriguez?”

She slammed her fist against the mirror, “Yeah, read you loud and clear, sir.”  She spat on the ground and walked out.

“OK, honey I want you to listen to me, OK?  Your daddy is already gone.  We took him to somewhere safe and he wanted us to find you and bring you to him.”

“Is he OK?”

“Sure he is.  Come on and we’ll bring you to him.”  Hodds led the girl outside just as the sound of gunfire started.

“Sir, we got a situation on our hands!” Angela yelled to him.  More than one gun was firing.

“How many shooters out there?” Hodds yelled to her.

“Five or six, they got me pinned.”  A burst of gunfire came from close by and slapped the wall behind where she was hiding.  “Son of a bitch!” she cried.  “Hang on! What the fuck are you shooting at us for?”

“Step out of the bathroom right now or we’re coming in!” a voice yelled through a bullhorn.

“Bring it on, bitch!” Angela yelled.  “We’re SEAT!”

A chorus of laughs greeted this.  “SEAT, huh?  What the fuck is that, some gay little spick gang?”

“How’d he know I was a spick?” Angela asked Hodds who shook his head.

“SEAT:  Special Entry Assault Tactical.  We’re special forces,” he answered the speaker’s question.

“And this means what to us?”  A concentrated burst of gunfire disintegrated the tiling on the wall behind the two soldiers.

“It means bring it on you cocksucker and we’ll tear you to pieces!” Angela fired a burst around the corner.  “I say we take em, sir.”

“Hold on a second, I want to try to make peace first.  Hodds waved a hand, “Wait a minute.  Let’s try to be calm about this.  We- “  Bullets chewed the wall again as he yanked his hand back.  “OK, let’s take em apart, Lieutenant. 

The young woman smiled a predatory grin, “Finally, flesh and blood!”  She fired again and ducked out, heading for the nearby tree.

Hodds fired through the doorway covering her.  His assault rifle was a German super-weapon.  The rate of fire was around 2000 rounds per minute and it put out a lot of lead.  He kept the attackers occupied as Angela got to some cover.  She sent a burst at the people and Hodds moved for cover, running into one of the ghouls.  It grabbed at him and they both fell to the ground.  Bullets tore a line in the ground nearby as Hodds tried to push the thing away.  It growled and tore at his shirt; his protective jacket lay in the car unused.  The thing bit at his fingers missing by inches and tried to bite his face.  The sounds of fighting seemed far off and unimportant as Leroy Hodds fought for his life with the dead creature.  He pushed it off of him and at the same time grabbed its belt and tried to stand.  The thing was not as heavy as a human of the same height would have been and Hodds stood up, holding the creature in front of him.  He threw it to the ground and drew his side arms firing into its head.  “Angela, I’m coming!”  He turned to see many, many more creatures approaching from the woods.

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