Ripping it open, she stepped out into the rain. Looking back, she saw the zombie was coming. She slammed the door shut and backed away from the French doors.
The zombie growled in fury and stumbled over the edge of the bed.
Jenni spun around trying to figure out what the hell to do. The white metal furniture was a possibility for a weapon, but he was so big.
He hit the door with a resounding crash and began to beat hard on the glass.
Jenni backed up against the stone railing and looked around once more. Her heart was beating so fast it literally hurt. Gulping down breaths of air, she tried to steady her nerves. To the left was another balcony, maybe six to eight feet from the one she was on.
The zombie’s fist busted through one of the panes and it reached for her.
With determination, Jenni moved to the far end of the balcony and slid carefully onto the wide railing. Looking across the gap, she saw that she didn’t have any room for error. She would have to fling herself across to the other balcony and hope she could catch onto the railing. The wind buffeted her body and she tried hard not to look down and see how far she was from the ground.
Mexican’ts can’t fly. Just swim across the river, Lloyd’s voice laughed in her head.
“Lloyd, shut the fuck up,” Jenni said through gritted teeth.
Another loud crash. Glass shattered behind her.
Near tears, she lowered her feet until her heels were resting on the floor of the balcony between the ornate stone slats that held up the railing. Her butt rested on the edge of the rail and her hands held tightly to the slick stone.
This was not how she had planned to die. Falling to her death trying to escape a zombie was just not acceptable to her. Hell, dying period was not acceptable to her. Things were finally changing for her. Yes, the world was dead, but she was alive.
Not for long, Lloyd reminded her.
The zombie was breaking apart the door behind her.
Looking over toward the other balcony, she whispered a silent prayer and flung herself forward as hard as she could.
Her chest impacted with the stone rail and her arms grabbed hold of it. The pain of impact ripped through her as she managed to knock most of the air out of her lungs. Struggling to breathe, she pulled herself up and over the railing. Falling onto a metal chair, she gasped at the pain, and rolled off it onto her feet. She looked back to where she had come from.
The zombie stood on the balcony looking confused. It gazed straight ahead, as if searching for her in the clouds. Slow, it turned and saw her. With a raging growl, it ran straight toward the rail. To her horror, the zombie leaped onto it and through the air toward the balcony she was on.
He was much heavier and did not quite make it. His chest also hit the rail and he fell back, his torn hands gripping the cold stone.
“Gawdammit,” Jenni screamed at him as he managed to hold on.
Picking up one of the heavy metal chairs, she struggled forward toward the monster. She began to bash his hands as hard as she could.
She was screaming as loud as he was growling. As he struggled
to pull himself up, she hit his huge hands with the leg of the metal chair. It was heavy and it was hard to wield, but she used it the best she could to batter the damn thing.
“I’m gonna fucking bash your gawddamn skull in,” she hissed at him.
Lloyd’s voice was quiet inside of her head now.
“I choose when to die,” she screamed at the top of her lungs. “And it's not now!”
The zombie kept trying to pull himself up, but she kept smashing him as hard as she could.
Davey appeared on the balcony. His face was completely stripped away and his bloodied, fleshless face stared toward her. Only his eyes remained and, comically, his ears and a flap of his skull. With a desperate hiss, he ran toward her as well.
“Bring it on, fucker,” Jenni shouted at him, and kept bashing the other zombie.
Davey flung himself over the rail and didn’t get very far at all. He managed to grab onto the other zombie and they both hung suspended over the street far below. Davey began to rip at the other zombie’s arms as he tried to pull himself upwards. The assault from above and below was too much. With a hungry growl of rage, the large zombie lost his hold and slipped out of sight.
Holding the chair tight in her hands, Jenni stood with her chest heaving, listening intently, and didn’t relax until she heard the impact of their fall. Looking over the edge, she saw both of them on the pavement below. Davey was trying to crawl away with only one good arm. The other zombie was impaled on an old fashioned street light, its arms and legs pumping in vain to escape it.