"Cray, get the hell back here!" Steber shouted. When the doctor ignored him, Steber ran forward. As he drew nearer, the smell got even more intense and Steber had to fight to keep from choking. Finally, Cray seemed to realize the truth and stumbled backwards, scrambling on his hands and knees to get away. Steber disarmed the safety on his machine rifle and pulled the trigger. An explosive burst of shells sprang forward, shooting the knees out of the abomination. The thing lost its balance and fell over, still twitching.

Steber took a breath of relief but all sense of victory left him when he heard the characteristic ka-chunk of a pump-action shotgun behind him. His heart started pounding in his chest, as he knew full well that no one on his team carried that kind of weapon. Before he could turn around, a second zombie stepped out of a dark alcove and fired its shotgun. The pellets that hit Steber’s upper chest were deflected by his armor, but the majority of the shot hit the marine in the neck. Clutching at his wound, Steber tried to wave the rest of his team back, but just before he lost consciousness, he could see that three more zombies had come in from the rear and were attacking Mitchell and Porter. Taking one last labored breath, Steber collapsed to the floor, praying that his friends would do better than he had.