I’d used a quarter of a sheet, but it was enough to shatter all of the windows in the back of the bus.

“Oh . . . fuck,” I said. “Step on it, Top.”

Chang rose up and began firing, but the lurch of the truck made her stumble and two shots went into the roof. She corrected and fired at a white face that filled the rear window. It burst apart and as it fell I yelled, “Frag out!” and threw another bomb.

The force flung bodies everywhere, but the noise was louder than what the truck was making and the fire drew the eyes of the infected. A third of the crowd turned toward the detonation point.

I threw another. And another. With each explosion more of them hurried toward the noise. I saw dozens of them on fire, stumbling into each other, spreading the blaze.

“Coming up on the gate,” yelled Top. “Get ready.”

“On deck,” said Bunny.

I wheeled and hurried over to the side door, where Bunny and Torres crouched, ready to go. I slapped the big man on the shoulder.

“I saved a couple of cold ones for when you two get back,” I said.

Bunny’s grin was a familiar one, the kind I’d seen him wear on battlefields when the shit was raining down. He was in that zone now, past ordinary fear, operating on the highest level of combat awareness. Torres, on the other hand, looked terrified beyond speaking. Her face was slick with sweat and there was a fever brightness in her eyes.

“You’re a cop,” I told her. “Remember your training. Do your job and trust Bunny to watch your back. You’ve earned enough combat points to make you a full-fledged badass, Torres. You can do this.”

“Thank you, s-sir,” she said, tripping over the last word.

“Enough with the pep talks,” yapped the president. “Tick-goddamn-tock.”

I gave Torres’ arm a squeeze, nodded to Bunny, and then opened the door.

The truck was still rolling. I drew my Beretta and shot four infected in the head. Dropped all four.

“Go!”

Bunny was out first, firing his shotgun before he even landed on the ground. He blasted six rounds and then reached up, took hold of Torres and pulled her down like she weighed nothing. He brought his gun up and fired. I crouched in the doorway and fired. Top rolled to within inches of the door, stopped, then opened his window and fired.

Chang was behind us, killing anything that tried to crawl in through the shattered windows. Thunder deafened us all. I took my last fragmentation grenade, leaned out the door and threw it in as high an arc as I could over the crowd. It dropped to about chin level before it exploded, killing at least a dozen of the monsters and drawing every single dead eye.

Torres stuck the blaster-plaster around the lock and then they began running toward the door. They were both shooting; Top and I gave them cover, but something went wrong almost at once. I don’t know if Torres accidentally pulled the detonator cord or if maybe somehow it malfunctioned, but the plaster exploded too soon.