Dead America: Lowcountry | Book 5 | Lowcountry [Part 5]

drum on a stand. He grabbed the metal base and then held it straight out in front of him, testing the darkness.
It finally hit the wall, and didn’t move, which meant he wasn’t poking the door. He moved to the left, where he could hear the moans, and finally slid the drum over the seam of the doorframe. Something grabbed onto the side of the drum, and it vibrated as hands smacked into it.
He shoved it over a little more, lowering it until it felt like the ghouls were pushing down on it, instead of the side. He braced his torso into the bottom of the stand and readied his crowbar.
Do I go with a swing or a jab? Eddie thought and then shook his head. Probably a jab would be best, hoping he hit a head.
“What are you doing?” Leo asked, closer now. “Don’t get bit, man.”
“Shut up, I’m concentrating,” Eddie muttered, and then froze at the sound of muffled gunfire. “What the hell?”
Zombies shrieked from outside, and some pulled away from the window, casting a tiny bit of light on the situation. Eddie stepped back, lowering the drum. The gunfire was louder now that the window wasn’t full of rotted flesh, and he moved out of the way to avoid catching a stray bullet.
“Looks like the cavalry has arrived,” he muttered, and if he were being honest, he hadn’t expected it. He’d been certain that the QXR were going to leave him and Leo in this room to die. Hell, maybe they still would, and were just clearing out the last of the zombies.
When the window was clear and the shots ceased, he carefully moved into the center of the room to peer out through the darkness.
“You alive in there?” somebody barked.
Eddie’s shoulders sagged with relief. “Yeah, we’re alive,” he called. “Can we come out now?”
“Come on out,” the man replied, “slowly.”
“Slowly?” he muttered under his breath. “Like we’re robbing a bank or something.”
Leo grabbed his arm. “I can’t go out there,” he hissed.
“What?” Eddie replied, shaking his head. “We have to go out there. We don’t have anywhere else to go, man.”
The man shook his head rapidly. “I can’t.”
“Why the hell not? I know it sucks man, but we’ve got to go back to our cells now,” Eddie said. “Grab some food, get some sleep, and then do all this shit again tomorrow.”
Leo blinked rapidly, and then rolled up the sleeve of his plaid shirt, revealing a crimson bite in his forearm.
“What the fuck?!” Eddie blurted, eyes narrowing. “You had that this whole time? When the hell were you going to tell me? And you were all pissed about me getting too close to the door, why?”
“It happened when that thing had me in the drums,” Leo hissed.
“Get out here!” the mercenary outside bellowed. “We’ve got shit to do!”
“Stay in here, then,” Eddie replied. “I don’t know what you want me to do about it.”
His partner shook his head rapidly. “They’re going to kill me!”
“You’re going to die anyway,” Eddie shot back, and though his chest tightened in a mixture of sympathy and pity, he didn’t know what he could possibly do about this situation. “It’s your choice whether you want to die slowly in here, alone, or quick from a bullet. I can’t make that choice for you, and I don’t know what else you want me to say. I’m not going to stay in here and get eaten.”
Leo backed away from him, shaking. “Just tell them I’m already dead.”
“And risk them finding out I lied?” Eddie shook his head. “You know I can’t do that, man. I know it sucks, but you have to own up to this.”
His partner crossed his arms. “I’m not going out there.”
“Hey!” the mercenary yelled, all semblance of patience gone.
Eddie shrugged and headed for the door, opening it slowly. He raised his hands, still holding his crowbar, and moved out into the store. Three mercenaries stood by the entrance, guns trained on him.
“Where’s the other guy?” one of them asked.
Eddie glanced over his shoulder, not seeing Leo following him. “He doesn’t want to come out,” he replied.
“Does he need us to drag him out?” the mercenary snarled. “You ain’t gonna like that, boy!”
For a second, Eddie wished that Leo was closer to death, so he could send these assholes into the room for a nasty surprise. But he shook it off. Nothing about this situation was good. He didn’t want an innocent man to die because of these guys. He didn’t want to be complicit in outing him for being bit. But the fact of the matter was, if they left him there, he was a danger to other innocents that would potentially be inhabiting this mall.
“He’s bit,” he finally said, and two of the mercenaries immediately stormed forward, brushing past him into the back room.
“No, no!” Leo screamed, and then two gunshots silenced him.
Eddie’s gut clenched hard, and he hung his head. He didn’t feel good about this at all. Any elation he’d felt from his revisit to his guitar heyday evaporated. He also felt guilty for being so angry that the man hadn’t said anything, and could have turned at any time while they were stuck in that room, killing them both.
“You’re clear?” one of the mercenaries asked him, eyeing him carefully.
“Did you even check him before you shot him?” Eddie ashed through clenched teeth.
The mercenary sneered at him. “He was holding up his bitten arm,” he said, tapping the flashlight on the top of his gun. “Do I need to strip you to check?”
“No, you can just take a look at me, asshole,” Eddie muttered, holding up his hands higher so they could see his intact clothing.
“He’s clean,” the other mercenary said, and then they ushered him out of the store. No Name approached them, pointing to a few off to the side and motioning for them to head back towards the department store.
“Where’s your teammate?” he asked.
Eddie clenched his jaw. “He was bitten,” he said.
“We took