Chapter 32: Completely Exhausted
Glug glug glug...
Clear gasoline pumped upward, pouring into the drum with a pleasant sound.
The process was extremely taxing, especially after the series of battles and explosive exertion.
Hanks's arm and shoulder muscles ached. Fine beads of sweat dotted his forehead. But the speed and rhythm of his pumping remained steady.
His ears stood alert like radar, vigilantly catching any abnormal movement in their surroundings.
The first drum filled quickly. He swapped in an empty one and kept pumping.
The second drum gradually filled to the brim. The smell of gasoline permeated the air.
He switched to an empty drum and began extracting the third barrel. Physical exhaustion was enormous. His breathing grew labored.
"Officer! Watch your left!" Glenn's terrified shout suddenly came from across the street.
Hanks's head snapped up. Through the sweat and his progressively blurring vision—
He saw two walkers that had somehow circled past the front lot's abandoned vehicles.
They were shambling out from the corner of the car wash area, less than fifteen meters away.
Their cloudy eyes locked onto him. They howled hungrily and charged faster.
Hanks had burned through massive amounts of energy. His exhausted body dragged down even his perception abilities, which plummeted rapidly.
Right now he could only rely on visual observation. He spotted the walkers drawn away by the empty drum noise in the distance seemed to have lost interest in the sound source.
They were beginning to disperse in twos and threes. Several had already noticed Hanks pumping fuel.
A pincer formation was taking shape.
"Shit!" Hanks cursed under his breath. His right hand instantly released the pump handle, reaching for the P226 at his waist.
But he didn't fire immediately. Gas station. Open flames. Stray rounds. Too risky.
His gaze swept rapidly around, instantly locking onto the completely deformed screwdriver at his feet.
No hesitation. The instant the two walkers from the left lunged close—
Hanks's body slid sharply to the right, barely dodging the first walker's rotted arm.
Simultaneously, he snatched up the cross-head screwdriver like lightning. His body used the sidestep's rotational force.
His arm muscles tensed. He hurled the screwdriver with all his strength at the second walker's skull.
WHOOSH—THUNK!
The screwdriver became a deadly streak of light, piercing the second walker's eye socket with perfect accuracy.
The massive impact made its body lean back, crashing heavily to the ground.
Almost simultaneously—
Hanks's gun muzzle pressed nearly against the chin of the first walker as it turned after missing its lunge.
BANG! A muffled gunshot.
The bullet entered through the jaw, exited through the crown, carrying out a spray of foul blood and brain matter.
The walker's motion stopped abruptly.
Clean and efficient.
Instant elimination of the immediate threat.
But the gunshot was like kicking a hornet's nest.
HISSSS!
More walkers were drawn by the sound, howling as they converged from all directions. Front lot. Convenience store direction. Even distant street figures moved.
"Glenn!" Hanks rapidly retreated while seeking cover, bellowing toward the street. "Radio! Call Kenny! Now!"
He couldn't conserve ammunition anymore.
Bang! Bang! Two consecutive shots.
Dropped two walkers charging from directly ahead, temporarily clearing a small area.
Then he returned to the siphon pump, using maximum speed to yank the rubber hose from the third drum and jam it into the fourth empty drum's opening.
He frantically pumped the handle several times, keeping the gasoline flowing to avoid losing all his progress.
"Kenny! Kenny! This is Glenn! Get to the gas station right now to pick us up!"
Glenn's tear-choked shout came through the radio, filled with terror and urgency.
He finished speaking and pocketed the radio, gripping his baseball bat with both hands, expertly swinging to knock back a walker.
His loud shout had exposed his position. Scattered walkers were already closing in.
Hanks maintained the pumping motion while firing selective shots.
Bang! A walker rounding the other side of the pump island had its head explode.
Bang! A bullet hit the knee of a walker rushing from the convenience store, making it topple, temporarily slowing it down.
His shooting remained accurate, but the frequency visibly dropped. His arms trembled slightly. Sweat nearly blurred his vision.
The gasoline in the drum rose slowly...
The walkers... kept increasing.
They poured from every corner, howls rising and falling, forming a semi-circle.
The nearest ones were less than twenty meters away.
Hanks leaned back against an abandoned sedan door, gasping violently, chest heaving like a bellows.
The P226's muzzle wavered slightly, burning hot. Only the last few rounds remained in the magazine.
VROOOOM! A familiar, wild engine roar approached from the distance.
Kenny's emergency-repaired pickup truck charged out from the street entrance like an unleashed stallion.
Lee gripped the Glock pistol tight, braced against the passenger window frame.
Bang bang bang!
A spray of suppressive fire made the three or four walkers gathered to Hanks's right front spurt blood.
"Get in!" Kenny's roar carried over the engine's bellow as he grabbed the shotgun beside him to help suppress.
The pickup executed a brutal sliding turn, tires shrieking against pavement, stopping sideways next to him.
Hanks didn't hesitate. He erupted with the last of his strength.
He hefted the ten full fuel drums with force and hurled them into the pickup's bed.
"Go! Around back to get Glenn!" Hanks gasped, simultaneously leaning out to help suppress walkers approaching from the rear.
Bang! Bang!
Two more walkers went down.
"Hold on!" Kenny floored the accelerator.
The pickup lunged forward like an enraged bull, directly running over two walkers in the way, charging to the shop entrance across the street.
Glenn already waited there dragging the last two full drums and the backpacks, face deathly pale.
Hanks jumped down. He and Glenn worked at record speed, frantically throwing the final two drums and all supplies into the truck bed.
"Get in!" Hanks shoved Glenn into the truck and dove into the bed himself.
"Go!"
Kenny wrenched the wheel, flooring it.
The pickup roared under the burden, trailing black smoke, smashing through scattered walkers, racing madly toward the motel.
Leaving the gas station and that suffocating tide of howling walkers far behind.
"That direction... is that the motel?"
A heavily tattooed man lowered his binoculars, watching the departing pickup.
"Yeah, boss!" A young guy with a nose ring responded, face wearing a sleazy grin.
"Heh heh, that's where we dragged out those two girls! Her old man's skull was real hard—took me so many hits before I finally cracked it open!"
The nose-ring guy's smile suddenly filled with madness and killing intent. "We found a fire axe in that wrecked car!"
"I saw it at the motel, so it's definitely them who killed our guys!"
The tattooed man raised the binoculars again while speaking. "Send someone to watch them. I want to see what tricks they try to pull."
"Yes, boss!"
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