Free The Renegades 2 Aftermath (A Post Apocalyptic Zombie Thriller) by Jack Hunt

as she shoved it off only to find herself wrestling with two more. I fired two rounds and they dropped, covering her like blankets.
    “There’s too many,” Izzy yelled.
    It didn’t matter how many we killed, ten more took their place. The alley was filling up fast. The noise of their moans was horrendous.
    “Get in.”
    I lifted the metal lid on the dumpster and Izzy and Ralphie jumped in. On the opposite side Dax had already climbed into one and was providing cover to Baja and Specs. One of the Z’s had managed to grab a hold of Baja’s pants and they were now halfway down his legs exposing his naked ass. My heartbeat felt like it was pumping a million times a minute. I didn’t have a chance to see what happened to Jess. The lid slammed down and then it was like being inside a casket. Echoes of meaty hands and knees slamming up against the dumpster were only made worse by the sound of their snarling.
    It had spiraled out of control real fast.
    There must have been thousands turned in the city. While they weren’t all together in one spot, there were enough of them to make Castle Rock’s attack look like child’s play.
    Ralphie had his hands pressed over his ears. Izzy must have expected the lids to open any second as she had her assault rifle aimed up.
    The clatter didn’t ease up. I thought it would never end. How long we were inside was anyone’s guess. Time ceased to exist. The smell entering my nostrils was beyond anything I had ever experienced. It wasn’t just the aroma of trash. It was the smell of death.
    All I could think about was Jess. Her body covered in three Z’s, blood all over her as more Z’s piled over the top clawing their way forward, eager to sink teeth into flesh.
    As we waited for the living dead to move on we stared at each other in the darkness. Our eyes had adjusted. The only light came from the end of our guns. The glow lit up the inside and brought home the reality of what we were sitting on. It wasn’t just bags. It was dead bodies. Izzy screamed when she saw a hand. Ralphie’s cry wasn’t much different. Instantly we thought the worst. Were they Z’s, or humans about to turn?
    Any second now I was expecting one of them to bite my nads. But in the whole time we’d been trapped in there, none of them moved. I swept light down on the face of one of them. A dark hole penetrating its forehead brought a wave of relief. Someone had killed them and tossed their bodies inside. Why? They weren’t Z’s? Had they been bitten? Had they attempted to clean up the streets? Perhaps they knew that the entire city was about to turn.
    What had they experienced? I thought about what it must have been like to have been in a city full of Z’s.
    Ralphie laid his gun down and reached into the pocket of one of the dead. He pulled out a wallet and cracked it open.
    “Fifty bucks, well how about that?”
    He tossed it to one side, then retrieved the victim’s ID.
    “A Michael Wentworth. He was a medic.” Izzy and I just listened in as he continued to rattle on about some stranger that none of us knew or even cared about. But someone did. Were they dead too?
    As Ralphie continued rooting through the man’s pockets, I moved up and cracked the lid ever so slightly. I wanted to get a better look at where Jess was. I could see the Z’s but not her. She was gone.
    “Psst! Hey,” I tried my best to call to the others who were in the green metal dumpster across from us. A zombie turned and fixed its milky eyes on me and started shuffling over.
    “Guys, is Jess in there?”
    The lid went up a little. It was Dax. He just shook his head.
    I didn’t need to close the dumpster lid as a Z fell against it. I caught my finger between the lid and the rim. I shook my hand, grimacing in pain, and began to chuckle at my own stupidity.
    “What are you laughing at?”
    My head dropped. That’s when I heard a knock. From below us, it occurred twice.
    “You hear that?” Izzy asked.
    It was muted by the layer