Katie nodded and began to fire down at the other dead creatures. It was hard to look into those once-human faces and feel anything other than stark fear. The gapping maws, pale eyes, and decaying flesh were the stuff of her nightmares. As the crossbow fired, there was a satisfying thwank! as the bolts slammed through the skulls of the undead beasts below. Katie gave in to her grim duty and pushed away thoughts of who the zombies had once been.
“Let me see, Katie-girl,” Bill said as he lumbered up onto the platform.
Katie slid the crossbow away and stepped to one side.
Bill looked down at the dead man in the street below surrounded by his now truly-dead brethren. “Yep. That’s Phil. ”
“I like him better this way,” a voice called out from a nearby sentry platform. It was Lenore.
Jenni gave her the thumbs up.
Lenore nodded.
“Zombies definitely had a field day with him,” Katie sighed. “
Any ideas of what may have gone wrong?”
“Maybe Shane ditched him to lessen his load,” Bill said in a low voice.
“I would not put that past him. He is such a total shit,” Jenni said, and continued munching on her breakfast taco.
The sight of Jenni eating with that awful smell wafting up from below made Katie nauseous, but Jenni had a better defense mechanism built into her brain than most of them. It was probably because she was an abused wife. Katie knew from experience that abused women developed extraordinary coping skills to survive their abusive situations. Jenni was quite adept at disassociating herself. It was probably both a blessing and a curse at times like these.
Nerit joined their small group, her sniper rifle held lightly in the crook of her arm. She glanced over the wall and studied the scene. “I want a closer look at him. ”
“Me, too,” Bill said.
“Why?” Katie arched an eyebrow at them. “He's obviously undead now. ”
Nerit pointed to one of the legs. “I want to see that one. Something is wrong with it. ”
“Well, it is chewed down like a chicken leg,” Jenni commented.
“The way the bone is shattered doesn't sit right with me either,” Bill said.
“Put him down and let's drag him up,” Nerit ordered.
Katie dragged the crossbow back into position. It felt strange to put Phil down one last time, but somehow right. She fired once and watched his torso flop backwards.
“He so deserved that,” Jenni said with satisfaction, and shoved the rest of the taco into her mouth.
4. Ghosts of the Past
Jenni landed feet first on the street below Katie's sentry post and raised her pistol quickly. Bill scrambled down the ladder behind her, his big belly giving him a little bit of trouble as he went.
The bodies of the dead zombies were scattered around them, the deadly bolts from the crossbow having done their job. Jenni knew they were finally, truly dead, but she couldn't but be afraid. Every time she was outside the walls, she was terribly aware of her vulnerability.
Bill set his booted feet down on the street and heaved his belly upwards as he tried to get his belt hoisted up on its girth. His keen eyes looked around the street from beneath his cowboy hat.
Felix easily climbed down the ladder. Nerit followed more slowly.
Jenni and Felix took up positions to the left and the right, watching the road while Nerit and Bill moved over to the pieces of Phillip's body.
“That smell is enough to make me puke my tacos up,” Felix grumbled, and kicked a dead body in irritation.
Jenni looked down at the gray, decaying carcass at her feet. It could have been a woman at one point, but it was so badly eaten, it was hard to tell gender. There were no clothes on it and most of its hair had been pulled out. It wasn't the smell that got to her. It was seeing their empty eyes, like Mikey's as he snarled and clawed at the window of the white truck on the first day. She blinked hard and shoved that thought away.
“Mighty chewed up,” Bill said to Nerit. “Can't tell much about what happened before he got ate. ”