I recognized the voice, but it didn't sound friendly. By the way, I noticed something strange - A bullet had used to take 40% of my charge, that time it took only 30. Either I had been hit sideways somehow, or my energy field was getting stronger. I hope it was the latter.

- Paul! - I called through the door. - It's Matt! Don't shoot!

- Who the hell is Matt? - he shouted.

Meanwhile, there were claps from the street, indicating that they were picking people off. And even if some of them had survived the first attack, Arthur's group would be forgotten.

- The one you and Vikki pulled out of the police station!

- What are you doing here? - Paul asked. His voice was more confused than angry.

- Surviving! Can I come out? Won't you shoot?

- Go ahead.

- There are two of us, just in case. We're on our way.

As soon as I got outside, I saw Paul standing there surrounded by eight fighters with M16s in their hands. Despite the fact that the bearded man and I knew each other, no one was about to relax.

- Shall we step back and talk? - I offered.

- Go ahead. Keep this one on the target - he showed on the Amir.

- Matt, why are you in the city? What about your family in Sent Louis?

- They are all dead - I answered briefly. - And why did you attack us? I do not remember such aggressive actions from your group.

- I'm sorry - he replied to the news of my family's death. - Times have changed. Why the hell did you kill our people at the Walmart yesterday?

- Are they some of yours? We didn't want to touch them, but the guy was very brazen and started to fuck off with a group of armed men, covering himself with others. He's a real idiot. We would have just taken some of the food and left.

- And what did the girl do to you?

- She's alive. She's in the apartment, we even left her some food.

And just as we were thinking about her, she ran out of the entrance and ran to her group.

- They raped me!!!! They made me do things! They threatened to kill me! - she screamed.

- Are you out of your mind? - I was stunned by her insolence, - Paul, she almost threw herself on our necks, by God. What a nonsense.

Judging by the way he wrinkled his nose, my words didn't surprise him much, and he had already put the girl out of his mind.

- Take her back to the apartment! She'll bring the whole neighborhood here, - he ordered.

- By the way, can we go inside? They've already spotted us, - I said, pointing at the dead bodies approaching from the distance.

After we had settled down in the flat, a couple of fighters took up positions by the windows, and Paul and I sat down in the kitchen to try to understand what had happened here.

- The day before yesterday, one of our groups was cleaning out a grocery store and some other small stalls, - the bearded man began, - but in a moment they just stopped communicating. And when help arrived, all the men were dead, and the girls had apparently been kidnapped.

- Was Vikki with them?

- Yes.

- Not good. And did you think it was our group?

- What else should we think? When we arrived at the shop this morning and saw our man dead, Max immediately picked up your scent. In fact, we were just waiting for you to come out. By the way, you didn't say you were 'special'.

- I wasn't at that time. So, do you have a bloodhound? The military calls guys like me psionics, by the way.

- We call him a sensor, - he nodded, confirming my words. - Wait, where's Mary?

- She killed herself. Just a few days after you and I separated. She wrote that she couldn't live in such a world.

- So, we all keep losing people. Were this group your friends?

- I wouldn't say friends, but they were good people. Believe me, I've met worse.

- So have we.

- Paul, I had a question. Maybe you know, your group is big. Why are there so few zombies in this area? No, there are zombies in the buildings, but there should be a lot more on the streets.

- You haven't been downtown. Zombies tend to gravitate towards tourist areas for some reason. We launched a drone for reconnaissance. Times Square is full of dead people, as is Broadway. All the shopping malls, cinemas, cafes, hospitals. I'm not even talking about the metro. I don't think we can really clean it up. Unless we use napalm.

He took a sip of the tea, wiped his beard with his hand and continued.

- Besides, there are a lot of dead people in blocks, schools, flats, again. Those who were bitten ran home first. There they turned into and ate all their relatives.

- Hm..... So, it turns out that we and the region are safe? Should we just leave the city to the dead?

- If they don't start moving to find food, - he said. - We have no idea what can affect their behavior. Besides, there are still many survivors trapped in their flats around the city. Thousands, tens of thousands, I think. We see small columns of military evacuating people every day.

- Yes, well, I've worked with the military before. All right, so what do we do next? I hope there are no more complaints about us.

- And us? - Paul replied.

- Never mind. I still need to talk to Amir; he's been with these guys longer than me.

- OK. Actually, we do know who's done this. We've had a few run-ins with them. As soon as we've finished patrolling, we're going to go out there. Are you coming with us?

- I'm definitely with you. But we'll have to talk to my mate separately. And I vouch for him personally, OK? He's a very positive guy.

- You talk to him, and we'll start packing.

- By the way, where are we going?

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

We were going to the big grocery base. According to Paul, a joint group of Mexicans and Cubans had settled there, and for some reason they were catching groups of survivors. This was what we had learned from those who had managed to escape the "attention" of the kidnappers. And since they had been seen very often in the area, it is easy to put two and two together. So, we wanted to find out why they were doing it.

Amir immediately agreed, saying that it was Allah's will and that Arthur's group was obviously destined to die. When I told him where we were going, he just pulled himself together, ready to fight. He didn't care that we were probably going to have to fight co-religionists. There were humans and non-humans that time. The rest didn't matter. So, he was definitely with us.

We stopped about half a mile from the place we needed. There were a lot of zombies. Many many zombies. True, their attention was focused on the ones in the grocery base.

Only ten people landed. Three psionics and seven fighters. The rest rode nearby, trying to make noise and distract the dead.

As we crept closer, Amir stepped in. He had already managed to control four zombies. Amir was a proponent of the idea that our abilities were like a muscle that could be pumped. The more you use it, the stronger you get.

He took control of the four dead men and had them scout the area around the walls. Max, the bloodhound, aka Sensor, made sure we weren't caught off guard.

Amir couldn't see the dead's eyes. He was just looking for a hole in the enemy defenses and directing the zombies to different parts of the walls. We had to check which areas were being actively shot at by the posts, because we could see that they were killing zombies that came close to them. Strangely enough, they were wandering around, but they weren't getting very close to the walls. As if waiting for more of them to gather and begin their deadly assault.

- What are they? - I asked Amir in a whisper.

- Three have been shot, one is still wandering around. Don't distract me, - he replied intently.

Of course, we were unlucky with the weather today. There were clouds, heavy storm clouds. And there were more dead than usual.

- Max, can you see anything from here? - I heard Paul's voice behind me.

- No. But from the side of the road, there are clear auric tracks leading to the base. There are a lot of prints, so I can't give you any more information. We need to get closer.

- We can try the left side, - Amir said, opening his eyes. - If we come in from the edge. There are a lot of bushes and trees, so for some reason the zombies don't go there. So, they didn't leave a post there, it seems. But it's all at our own risk, they just couldn't shoot.

- So, I'll go first, Paul said. - My sister is there.

- Sit down, immortal - I stopped him. - I'm going to reconnoiter, and you watch my signals. Amir, show me exactly where to go.

At first, I thought about crawling, but then I decided that if there was a post, we'd be spotted anyway. No matter how we got to the wall. So, I moved at a brisk dash. In about five minutes I was leaning against the wall.

There was a big enough gap in the concrete fence that I could see everything that was going on inside. And I didn't like what I saw.

There seemed to be some sort of deep rear area. Military patrols were walking between the hangars, but they weren't looking our way. But a group of women of various ages were being roughly led into one of the hangars. I even managed to make out two children. But there were definitely no men among them.

Even if Vikki and the other girls from Paul's group weren't there, we figured they were kidnapping survivors. At least they didn't show any signs of excitement about being in that area.

With a wave of my hand to the men, I started back.

- So, look, the captured girls are definitely there. The patrols are walking around, but inside they hardly ever look this side of the yard. So, I have an idea. Someone should distract them with an attack about 500 meters from here. The rest of us will go the rear when they are distracted by the attackers.

I said. Then I took a breath and continued.

- This someone will be me, as the most survivable person.

- Matt, there may be shooting.

- I will hope that a man with a Tyre iron in his hand will allow them to let me in to be a prisoner. Then I'm going to start fighting and shoot. It's a distraction. Paul, get the boys over here, we're going to attack. I'm sorry. Is it all right if I give the orders?

- It's fine, - he said seriously and started to radio for help.

Coming in from the other side, I ran headlong into the wall, trying desperately to keep a look of panic on my face. On the way, I had to kill a few dead people, which I really hoped not to do to conserve energy. At the same time as I was doing this, active shooting started from the opposite direction of where Paul and his men were hiding. Obviously, they were using additional diversionary tactics.

And it seemed to work partly, because I ran towards the wall without a single bullet coming my way. A few moments later, I was inside the base myself.

As I had hoped, they had noticed my approach and were waiting at the spot where I was going to jump off the wall. They were hoping to catch me.

As soon as my feet touched the ground, the young Mexican began to point his gun at me. I put almost two percent of my energy into the blow with the Tyre iron. Only that time I did realize that I was doing it on an intuitive level.

My weapon went through the base defender's body like a red-hot knife through butter, cutting his body in half.

The guy didn't even seem to realize what had happened, as his upper body began to separate and fall to the ground. It was a good thing he didn't get shot. Although with all the gunfire in the neighborhood, it probably wouldn't have mattered.

Picking up his Glock, I looked out from behind the warehouse to assess the situation. From the side of the main entrance to the base, there was a lot of shooting going on, and it didn't look like a diversionary attack at all. Something was clearly going on there.

Slipping out from behind my hiding place, I sneaked up to the man guarding the entrance and held a gun to his head.

- If you make a sound, I'll pull the trigger,' I whispered quickly. - Nod if you understand.

He nodded. He even dropped the gun, although I'd forgotten to tell him that. Good for him.

- How many of you are there?

- I don't know, - the Mexican said with a heavy accent, - there were about sixty of us. People are dying.

Badly, very badly. We only had 27 fighters. We would hope for a surprise.

- Why do you kidnap women?

- Men are many, women are few, he replied briefly.

- Where are they being kept?

He pointed to the hangars where Paul would come from.

- I see. Thank you for the information.

I put the gun down, straightened my arms and snapped the prisoner's neck. I'd never done it before, but I wanted to try. Just like in films. I thought it worked, at least something snapped.

From the side of the entrance, I could hear shots, screams of pain and the sound of orders. It didn't bother me, though, because I was heading in the direction where they were supposed to start releasing the prisoners.

And I was right. As soon as I reached the hangars, I heard the crackle of machine guns, indicating that the two patrolling fighters were about to be taken out.

By the time I came, the girls were being taken outside. Even with the naked eye it was obvious that there were at least a hundred of them.

- Fuck..... - I summed up what I'd seen - how are we going to get them out?

- I've already called for lorries. They'll be here in ten minutes, - Paul replied.

- We just have to hold out for those ten minutes. Have your fighters started a riot at the main entrance?

- No. At first, I thought you were making a fuss. But that's a lot of noise for a one-man attack.

- It's true. I'll go and see what's going on.

Keeping close to the wall, I walked slowly in the direction of the gunfire. The further I got, the more I realized I didn't see any patrols. But the shooting had become quite indiscriminate.

Through my own stupidity, I relaxed, and as soon as I came out from behind one of the warehouses, I was attacked by two dead men, and it took me a few seconds to kill them. If I hadn't been shielded, they would have eaten me.

I hadn't even had a chance to throw the bodies away before a dozen more zombies appeared in my field of vision.

- Holy shit, - I exhaled.

At least it was clear what was going on at the entrance to the base. And that was too bad. If we could contain people with fire, give them time to evacuate, then that method would not work with these creatures. Especially if there were a lot of them.

I rolled over and stood up, preparing for battle. But I only had to deal with five dead men. Four of the zombies that had fled towards me were attacking on their dead allies.

I looked around and saw Amir hiding not far from me.

- I'll cover you, - he shouted.

I came up to him and, catching my breath, patted him on the shoulder instead of answering.

- We should warn the others to get moving. It looks like the base is fucked up.

The evacuation had already started, and the girls were being tossed over the fence.

- It's taking too long, I said aloud. - Too long!

I ran up to the wall, strengthened my arms again and started pounding on the concrete fence, hoping to create a gap through which people could escape.

5%......10%.......20%.....It worked!

It took most of my defenses down, but after three hits there was a hole through which it was quite possible to get through. That time the girls were evacuating through it as well. I hastily ate the food I had prepared and restored my energy field. I even had a moment's hope that everything would end safely.

- DEAD!!! - Max shouted as he ran out from behind the hangar.

With one hand he fired somewhere off to the side. With the other he clutched the bleeding wound on his neck. Dozens and dozens of corpses began to appear in our field of vision, rushing towards us. And they just kept coming.

We didn't manage.