When they gathered behind the tour bus, Duncan asked, "Are we falling back?"

"No. We're going to cut over to the walkway and follow Batchelder's team. Use the bus as cover so those things don't see us."

"Wait," said Ari. "What about Emily?"

"She broke her leg," explained Natalie. "She's going to draw the rotters' attention while we sneak away. We'll come back for her later."

"Enough chatter. Move out." Pandelosi pushed each of her team toward the western walkway. Once the others moved out, she caught Kim's attention and pointed to the southern edge of the bridge. When he nodded his understanding, the lieutenant set off after the others.

"Is she nuts?" asked Amy.

"The lieutenant knows what she's doing." Kim did not sound convinced.

"They're heading to the other side where there's more shelter, " argued Amy. "If we go this way, half the rotters on this bridge will swarm us."

Kim sighed. "I can't disobey an order."

"We can." Amy patted Sarah on the shoulder. The two ran back the way they had just come.

"s.h.i.t!" Kim hesitated for a minute, and then followed Amy and Sarah.

Climbing to the top of the tanker was excruciatingly painful and slow. Emily would clasp a rung with both hands before hopping up with her good leg. With each rung, her dangling bad leg would throb from the concussion of the hop or from banging against the ladder. The last time she almost pa.s.sed out from the pain. Emily paused three rungs from the top to catch her breath and let the throbbing die down.

"Hey! How about a southern hot meal?"

The horde moved quicker, especially those in the un.o.bstructed lanes. Emily heard their collective moaning despite the constant wind from the Bay whipping across the bridge. They were less one hundred feet away. Preparing herself for the inevitable, she hoisted herself up the last three rungs, grimacing against the pain and grinding her teeth to counter the agony in her leg. Once on top of the tanker, she placed her weapon on the walkway and unslung her bag of ammunition. Unbuckling her belt, she pulled it through the loops, threaded it under the metal railing that ran along the walkway, and secured the rest of the belt around her good leg so she wouldn't fall off if she pa.s.sed out. Dragging the bag of ammunition in front of her, she opened it. She had seven magazines left.

The horde had reached the propane tanker and swarmed seven deep around its rear, while others gathered along the sides. Hundreds of dead hands reached up to her, sc.r.a.ping fingers and palms against the metal tank. The cross winds from across the Bay helped to dissipate the nauseating stench of decay and the swarm of flies and wasps feeding off the carca.s.ses. It did nothing to m.u.f.fle the incessant moaning. More rotters approached from farther along the span.

Emily picked up her M-16A2 and took aim on one of the rotter's beneath her, a female in a short leather skirt.

This was going to be a long afternoon.

"Rotters," Sandy whispered, rushing up beside Batchelder. "Hundreds of them."

He turned and saw the horde making its way north along the bridge. He crouched so he would be hidden by the vehicles. Sandy and Doreen did the same, the latter crawling on her hands and knees to catch up.

"What do we do now?" Doreen asked in a hushed voice.

Batchelder didn't know. Common sense told him to proceed ahead while they still had a chance; however, his training told him not to leave the lieutenant and the others behind. But where were the others? They had to have seen hundreds of revenants heading their way. The Angels expected him to offer guidance. d.a.m.n it, basic training never prepared him for this.

"We're safe for the moment, so we wait here and hope the others catch up."

Duncan reached the guardrail first. He jumped over it and a.s.sumed a firing position, waiting for the others to join him. Pandelosi was the last one off the span.

"Okay," said the lieutenant, "stay low and head for sh.o.r.e. Don't stop for anything. Duncan, you lead. I'll bring up the rear."

"What about them?" he asked, pointing south.

Pandelosi saw Batchelder's team four hundred feet ahead of them. He waved to her. She held her hand over her head, pointed to the city, and mouthed the word, "Go."

She turned her attention back to her own team. "What are you waiting for? An engraved invitation? Move out."

Batchelder felt relief when he saw Pandelosi and the others jump onto the walkway. He especially appreciated the order to move out and get the h.e.l.l off of this death trap.

"Follow me, and leave ten feet between us," he said to Sandy and Doreen. "Stay low so you don't attract attention."

Backtracking to where the bus accident blocked the bridge, Amy and Sarah jumped the guardrail and crossed over to the western side.

"Wait up."

They stopped. Kim was following them.

Amy smiled. "I thought for a minute there you were going to head off on your own."

"Screw it. This is safer. The lieutenant can court martial me if we make it through this."

"Don't worry. We'll make it," said Amy. She hopped the guardrail onto the pedestrian walkway. "We've seen worse."

"Really?"

Sarah joined her friend. "Yeah."

"Wow." Kim vaulted the guardrail and followed the two women.

A few seconds later, he heard gunfire. Off to his left, one of the leather-clad women sat on top of a propane tanker truck firing into a swarm of revenants ma.s.sing around the vehicle. He admired her courage, and thanked G.o.d it wasn't him stuck up there.

The three raced toward the southern bank.

With so many rotters surrounding the tanker, Emily could not possibly miss. Still, she lined up each shot, the mental exercise taking her mind off the throbbing in her leg. So far she had fired ten rounds and achieved ten head shots. Pulling out the empty magazine, she dropped it in the bag and removed a full one. That left her with six remaining. At this rate, she would expend the rest of her ammunition in half an hour, which should be more than enough time for the others to escape. Then she would wait for them to rescue her.

Emily did not notice that several of the rotters at the back of the truck kept b.u.mping their arms against the distribution valve on the back of the propane tank, a metal fixture that had been corroded by nine months of exposure to the wind and salt air. The repeated jostling broke the valve, allowing propane to escape. Emily didn't see the spreading cloud of gas, nor could she smell it because of the stench of the living dead. She slammed the magazine into her M-16A2, pulled back the charging handle, and aimed at a rotter in a jogging outfit with its bottom jaw missing. When she fired, the muzzle blast ignited the propane cloud. Flames engulfed the rear end of the tanker, incinerating Emily. It also set ablaze the first few rows of rotters. The fire followed the cloud through the valve and inside the tank.

Ten thousand gallons of propane ignited.

A giant fireball billowed into the sky and spread outward. Those rotters not vaporized were ripped apart by the blast. The shockwave spread down the bridge, wrecking nearby vehicles and scattering them in every direction. It also blasted through the span, tearing it free from its suspension cables. The section of bridge underneath the tanker collapsed, plunging more than two hundred feet into the frigid water below, and ripping loose several of the spans on either side of it. One by one they broke free, some twisting off and plummeting into the water, others dangling for a few moments before breaking free. Vehicles and rotters rained into the Bay. The last section to separate was four to the south of the initial blast. The southern and eastern supports broke loose first, and it dropped vertically, spilling its contents. It swung back and forth for several seconds before its weight tore it free. It fell into the Bay, pulling a lengthy section of the western pedestrian walkway with it.

Sandy had no idea what had happened. For a split second she thought the world had ended. The shockwave had dissipated by the time it reached them, having been absorbed by distance and the surrounding vehicles. However, the concussion and the collapse of the center sections set in motion a chain reaction throughout the rest of the structure. The span swayed several feet in each direction, accompanied by the unnerving sound of straining steel. Someone screamed. Sandy was so terrified she couldn't be certain if it was her or someone else. She fell onto the walkway, her fingers clutching the wood, praying it didn't give way beneath her.

For Kim, it was the end of the world. One second he was rushing toward the southern bank, and the next everything around him exploded, knocking him off his feet and deafening him. He felt the bridge swaying. Rolling onto his side, he saw the center sections break away and drop into the Bay. When the last piece of bridge collapsed, it pulled several additional sections of walkway with it, like a piece of yarn being unraveled from a sweater. Kim scrambled to his feet and raced forward as the section under his feet gave way. He plummeted two hundred feet into the Bay, his body splattering when it impacted against the chunks of walkway underneath him.

Sarah's section of walkway collapsed beneath her, but did not break free. She had the presence of mind to drop her weapon and grab the outer guardrail. It stopped her fall, nearly yanking her arms out of their sockets. Sarah hung on tight and kicked her legs forward until she got a foothold on the slats in the outer guardrail. Pausing to catch her breath, she climbed the guardrail like a ladder. With each movement, the dangling piece of structure gave way a little more.

Amy was ahead of the last section of walkway to collapse. She continued running until she noticed that neither Kim nor Sarah were behind her, and went back to check. Cautiously approaching the end of the walkway, she leaned forward. Sarah clutched a dangling piece of guardrail ten feet below her.

"Climb up. I'll pull you to safety."

"I can't. Every time I move, this thing loosens up."

Amy lay p.r.o.ne on the walkway. Holding on to the guardrail with her left hand, she stretched her right as far as possible toward her friend.

The explosion threw Natalie off her feet, flinging her to the right. She hit the outer guardrail and bent over the top, staring down into the dark gray waters of the Bay. As the bridge swayed, she experienced the sensation of falling. Natalie closed her eyes and clutched the railing tight, praying the end would be quick. After a few seconds, she realized she was not plummeting to her demise. She was not going to die, at least not at this moment.

Turning behind her, Natalie gasped. A major portion of the center span had collapsed, including the section where Emily had been. She also saw Amy p.r.o.ne on the walkway, talking to someone. Natalie called to the others. "I need help!"

"I'll go," said Pandelosi. She caught Duncan's attention. "Get these people off this bridge. Now!"

The two women ran off to help Amy.

The explosion disoriented the ma.s.s of living dead. One minute they were shambling toward the sound of gunfire, which they now a.s.sociated with food. The next, their primitive senses were overloaded with loud, unusual noises and strange motions. Many of the rotters close to, but not destroyed outright by the blast, had been knocked over by the shockwave. In the eerie silence that followed, every rotter on the bridge looked around aimlessly, not knowing what to do. Then they heard yelling and screaming, sounds a.s.sociated with food. The horde tried to get their bearing, until a female rotter in a gore-encrusted "Keep calm and leave your heart in San Francisco" sweatshirt realized the noise was coming from the edge of the bridge. It staggered toward the sounds. The rest of the living dead followed it, maneuvering between the four lanes of stalled vehicles, swarming toward the western pedestrian walkway.

Duncan stepped between the members of his team. "Let's move."

Ari knelt on the wooden walkway, her eyes closed tight and her arms clutched around a lamppost. "I'm scared."

"We're all scared, ma'am. You need to move your a.s.s."

Opening her eyes, Ari could only focus on the Bay more than two hundred feet beneath them. "I can't."

"Then give me the backpack."

Her eyes widened. "What?"

"You're not important. What's in that backpack is. If you want to stay here and be revenant bait, go ahead. Just give it to me."

"No."

Duncan grabbed the shoulder strap. "That backpack is coming off this bridge. Either you carry it or I will. I don't care."

"a.s.shole." Ari's fear of being left behind overrode everything else. She stood up and secured the backpack on her shoulders, and then met Duncan's eyes. "Thanks."

He smiled. "You can buy me a beer if we live through this."

When Natalie and Pandelosi reached Amy, they saw her trying to save Sarah. Sarah saw Natalie and smiled, knowing everything would be all right now.

Pandelosi knelt down and called out to Sarah. "Come on, kid. Climb up."

"The guardrail will give way if I move."

Without hesitation, the lieutenant stepped over to the guardrail and clasped the last rung of the uncollapsed section. "I'm going to lower myself down. When I do, climb as fast as you can and grab my hand. Got it?"

Sarah nodded.

Pandelosi swung her body over the edge of the walkway, planting her left foot on an exposed metal beam for support, and leaned as far to the right as possible and stretched out her hand. Three feet separated her and Sarah.

"Now."

Sarah climbed. The steel groaned and twisted. As Sarah wrapped her right hand around Pandelosi's wrist, the guardrail snapped free and spiraled into the water. The lieutenant still had a hold on the woman, who dangled in the air, kicking and screaming.

Pandelosi felt her grip loosening. "Hold still!" she yelled to Sarah. Then to Natalie and Amy, "How about a little help?"

The two surged forward. The excess weight caused the section of walkway to buckle, and it tilted at a thirty degree angle toward the Bay. Instinct took over, and Natalie and Amy rushed back.

"Natalie, don't leave me!" Sarah cried, a heartbreaking plea in her voice.

Pandelosi knew she had a chance of saving herself if she let go of Sarah, but refused. She tightened her grip and pulled the woman up. Sarah let go of the lieutenant's arm with one hand and used it to grab for the rungs of the portion of guardrail. When her fingers wrapped around it, she let go of the lieutenant with the other hand and began to pull herself to safety. Pandelosi felt her muscles loosen with the excess weight gone. She also grabbed hold of the rungs and climbed.

They had made it only a few feet when the section underneath them broke loose and tumbled into the Bay.

Sandy got to her feet and looked behind to see what happened. Her mouth fell agape when she saw a huge portion of the bridge missing. She spotted two of the other teams farther down the walkway, and wondered who they had lost.

A hand grasped her shoulder. She yelped and spun around. Batchelder stood behind her.

"We have to get moving."

"What about the others?"

"If this bridge collapses, there's nothing we can do to help them. Our best chance of surviving is if we all get off as fast as possible."

Not waiting for a response, Batchelder turned and headed for the southern bank. Sandy and Doreen followed.