Chapter 45: The Motel Drowns
"Kenny! Start the RV!" Hanks's roar cut through the chaos as he prepared for the worst.
"Lee! Use the pickup's headlights on the gate—give us visibility!" Hanks barked the next order.
After the raiders left, they'd lost all light sources. Now they relied entirely on the blood-red moonlight for vision.
"Got it!" Both men immediately split up.
Kenny crouched low and sprinted desperately toward the RV's driver's seat.
Lee quickly dove to the pickup, yanked the door open, and twisted the key hard.
Vroom!
The pickup's engine started smoothly. Two thick beams of light instantly tore through the darkness, illuminating the gradually warping gate.
The light massively dispelled the fear darkness brought and provided critically important visibility.
"Now! Suppress them!"
Hanks stood at the edge of the light beams, his figure like a boulder anchoring the defensive line. He raised his P226.
Suppressive Fire. American Quick-Draw. Quick Draw. The maxed Police profession talents fused perfectly in this moment.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Gunfire erupted at an incredible rate—almost no interval between shots.
Every muzzle flash was invariably accompanied by a walker's head exploding.
Not burst fire—near fully-automatic rapid fire. Every bullet seemed to have eyes, drilling precisely into the eye sockets, temples, and foreheads of running walkers.
One walker lunged at the chain-link fence. Its head snapped back and it dropped.
Another stepped on a companion's body trying to climb. A bullet instantly blew off the top of its skull.
A third opened its gaping maw to roar. A 9mm round shot straight down its throat and out the back of its neck.
Hanks entered a state of absolute focus. The world seemed to slow.
Only targets remained in his vision. The sight. The trigger.
His right wrist was mechanically stable, efficiently absorbing recoil with minimal muzzle jump.
A 20-round magazine emptied in just six or seven seconds.
Click. Slide lock.
Almost the exact instant the gunfire stopped, Hanks's left hand had already drawn a fresh magazine.
His thumb hit the release. The empty mag dropped as the new one precisely slid upward into place.
His left hand swept up. The slide snapped forward.
Click. Round chambered.
The entire reload was breathtakingly smooth, taking absolutely no more than a second and a half.
The shooting barely paused.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Deadly gunfire erupted again like popping beans. More walkers fell like wheat before the scythe.
"Come on, come on!"
Kenny yanked the RV driver's door open and dove inside, his hand trembling with tension as it gripped the key.
"Damn it, old girl. You better start for me this time!" He twisted the key hard.
Click... The starter motor gave a feeble groan. Dashboard lights flickered weakly a few times.
"Shit!" Kenny's heart sank. Unwilling to give up, he tried again.
Lee saw Kenny's predicament from the pickup and shouted to Hanks. "Hanks! Kenny can't get it started! I'm going to help him!"
"Go!" Hanks roared without looking back, his P226 emptying another magazine. He reloaded at maximum speed, continuing to suppress the seemingly endless horde at the front. All the pressure now concentrated on him alone.
Lee immediately jumped from the pickup and, braving the increasingly close walker roars, sprinted toward the RV in a crouch.
"The side! They're on the side too!" Lilly's terrified scream came from the second floor along with her hunting rifle's boom.
"Back yard! They're climbing up from the back yard!" Carley's shout came from inside the RV, accompanied by Duck and Clementine's crying.
Walkers surged from every direction.
They slammed their bodies against the wooden boards at the motel's rear wall, clawed at windows, and even formed human pyramids attempting to climb the not-too-high side fence.
One walker smashed through the kitchen window and climbed inside grotesquely.
Another squeezed half its body through the bathroom's narrow vent window.
The impacts from the back yard grew more frequent. The wooden fence groaned under the strain.
Pressure at the front didn't let up at all. Piled corpses even became stepping stones for those behind. They trampled over their companions' remains, lunging upward even more frantically.
Hanks continued his efficient killing, emptying magazine after magazine and reloading at astonishing speed.
But his heart kept sinking.
The light illuminated the main gate but also made them the most obvious target in the darkness.
Ammunition consumption was extremely rapid. Pistol rounds were manageable, but shotgun shells couldn't sustain this kind of expenditure.
And the walkers seemed endless.
Under the blood moon, this defensive battle was destined to be unsustainable from the start.
They needed to move. Needed to leave this island about to be completely drowned.
Hanks rapidly cleared his magazine and roared at Kenny. "Kenny! Get that thing running!"
"I'm working on it!" Kenny shouted back without turning his head.
Lee reached the RV and yanked the door open. "Kenny! What's wrong?"
"Battery's probably still low on charge, or the starter motor's worn out!" Kenny was sweating bullets, trying over and over.
"Try this!"
Lee suddenly remembered the portable jump starter they'd found the other day. It should be in the passenger seat.
He quickly climbed into the passenger side, fumbling around until he touched the heavy metal box.
"Catch!" Lee handed the jump starter to Kenny, then ran back to the pickup's driver's seat to help suppress fire.
Kenny grabbed it like a lifeline and quickly popped the hood, deftly connecting the battery clamps.
"This has to work!" He dove back into the driver's seat, took a deep breath, and twisted the key hard.
Click... click... vroom—ROAR!
The RV's massive engine finally gave a powerful roar. A thick plume of smoke belched from the exhaust.
"Yes!" Kenny shouted, immediately switching on all the RV's high beams.
FWOOSH!
Light beams even larger than the pickup's burst forth like a miniature sun, illuminating the entire courtyard—especially the gate area—bright as day. Almost blinding.
"Hell yeah!"
Hanks roared. The powerful light source drastically reduced his pressure, making his shots even more precise and efficient.
But then—
"Behind us! They're getting in from behind!" Carley's terrified scream came from the RV's rear.
Kenny, Katjaa, and Carley leaned out from the RV with their weapons, firing in all directions.
The RV looked like a porcupine, repelling all attackers from the outside.
Clementine and Duck were assigned rear support duties, helping load loose rounds into magazines.
Several walkers had already smashed through a rear window on the motel's first floor and climbed inside, charging straight for the second floor and the RV.
The side fence was also making teeth-grinding cracking sounds. It could collapse at any moment.
The motel was about to be completely overrun.