Throwing her machete into the footwell, Xian Mei dived across the front seat and scrambled upright. Sam climbed in after her, then immediately turned, pointing his gun up at the police station.
The oldest of the three guys was at one of the upstairs windows, albeit trying to keep out of sight, the barrel of his hunting rifle resting on the sill.
Purna was crouched down, trying to use the steps as cover.
Although the nearest of the infected was still twenty meters away from her, they were closing in from all sides.
'Come on, Purna!' Sam shouted, and fired a bullet towards the upper window of the police station to demonstrate that he was now in a position to cover her.
She needed no second bidding. Breaking cover, she ran across to the van, Sam scooting along the seat to give her room to dive in and slam the door shut behind her.
As she was doing it, the door of the police station opened and the tattooed guy ran out, keeping low, and quickly dragged the discarded boxes of food and the pack of water bottles inside. Seeing him, Purna wound down the driver's window a few inches and stuck the barrel of the shotgun out, but before she could fire, he was back inside the building and had closed the door behind him.
'Bastards,' she muttered.
'What—' Xian Mei began. But before she could complete her question, the gloating voice of the scrawny man called out from an upstairs window.
'Hey, thanks for the food, guys. We're real sorry that we're no longer in a position to offer you anything in return.
Oh, you can have your boy back, though. We've finished with him.' There was movement at the window and the dead or unconscious body of Dani was dropped out.
He hit the ground head-first, his limbs splaying in all directions. The men in the building cackled and whooped as though this was the funniest thing they had ever seen.
'Think we'll keep the girl, though,' the scrawny man said after a moment.
'We need us a little recreation.'
He sniggered again, then shouted, 'You folks take care now. Make sure the zombies don't get you.' The window slammed shut – and their sight of the building was blotted out by a middle-aged man with thinning hair and a punctured eyeball, who lurched into view and snarled in at them through the driver's side window.
Without hesitation, Purna pulled the trigger of the shotgun and his head exploded in a gory confusion of blood, bone, flesh, and brain.
Yanking the gun back into the van, Purna wound up the window and turned on the engine. With zombies moving in rapidly, she drove away.