She swung her ax as hard as she could into the face of the zombie.
He grabbed her wrist just as the ax head buried itself into his skull.
Almost as soon as his fingers gripped her, they went slack. Jenni wrenched the ax out of his dead features. Bill tightened his grip on her hips.
“One more whack to be sure,” she said.
She swung the ax again and felt it cleave the zombie head in half.
Now she was sure it was over. Black goo slid out over the edge of the shelf.
“It's done!”
Her voice echoed.
A low moan from the back of the store answered.
“Sounds like we got another one,” Ed called out.
“I figured that. This one climbed up on a shelf to escape something,” Bill answered back.
A more desperate moan answered.
Jenni dropped off the stepladder and held her dripping ax tightly in her hands. She felt a little sick about the death of the kid. The first death, not the one she had given him. The world was just fucked and awful.
The next area was full of hanging clothes and bedding supplies.
Jenni and Bill made sure to study any shelving above eye level. The moans they kept hearing were from the back of the store, but they were very cautious as they moved on. They had to be. It was far too dangerous to let their guard down.
“Found her,” Felix called out. “She's on your side. And you won't believe this. ”
Bill and Jenni finally reached the back of the store and turned the corner.
A female zombie was reaching toward Felix and Ed who were approaching her from the opposite side of the store.
“You have to be fucking kidding me,” Jenni said and almost laughed.
The ground was covered in overturned trash bins of all sizes, plastic clothesbaskets, and plastic storage containers. They were splashed with blood and it was obvious a struggle had happened here. At some point, the female zombie had stepped
into a bucket and caught her foot in it. As she had tried to pass between the metal shelves and a support column, her foot in the bucket had become wedged. Unable to move her foot, she was simply standing there moaning. Jenni couldn't see her face, but her body looked slim and young. She wondered if this was the one who had bitten the boy.
“Kinda dumb, ain't they?” Ed smirked.
Jenni heaved the ax over her head and brought it down hard onto the zombie's head. It wedged halfway into the thing's skull. The zombie slowly collapsed down to the floor and Jenni yanked the blade out of the dead girl.
Bill leaned down and looked at the zombie thoughtfully. “There is a bite on her hand. Only mark other than her head being split apart. ”
“So, she gets bit, dies, attacks the boy here, he gets bit up, she gets caught, he goes and climbs onto a shelf. ” Felix nodded his head.
“And he dies. Makes sense. ”
Jenni frowned down at the body. “But who bit her?”
“They're both wearing vests and name tags. Boxes are open in the aisles. They were early morning stockers. Do you think she came in bit?” Bill looked thoughtful.
Slowly, they all looked toward the door to the storeroom.
“Great,” Felix moaned.