“Got six zombies dead on this side of the car,” Ed called out. “And another box of gravel. ”
“Someone sabotaged them,” Felix exclaimed.
“Why is the car abandoned? Why did Phillip head back to the fort?” Bill stood back a few feet from the car and peered in, while Ed hunkered down to look under it.
Jenni saw the zombie lunge for Ed out of the corner of her eye.
“Ed!”
The older man scrambled backwards quickly as the zombie reached for him. It was terribly mutilated and missing a good chunk of its torso. It's feet scrabbled at the ground, trying to find purchase to push it toward the grizzled old man. Ed got to his feet and kicked it in the face, knocking its head back. Yanking his hatchet off his belt, he motioned to the others he had it under control.
“Hurry up and kill it,” Jenni exclaimed, trying not to yell and draw more zombies to them.
Ed slammed the hatchet down on the fearsome growling face lunging toward him. The zombie shuddered. Its skinless fingers clawed at Ed's boots. …like those tiny fingers pressed under the door on the first day…those tiny little fingers…
Jenni shook her head to break the memory.
Ed slammed the hatchet down one more time. The thing's fingers finally stilled.
“And here we go,” Felix sighed as two badly decomposing zombies appeared from around a nearby building.
“I hate company,” Jenni grumbled. Her head was throbbing. She felt off kilter. Seeing the zombies' fingers straining to reach Ed had sickened her. She tried hard not to think of Benji.
“Especially the kind of company that wants you for dinner,” Felix agreed. “I hate zombies. I hate them. I really, really hate them. I wish they would just go away. ”
Bill popped the hood behind them while Nerit walked slowly around the car. Ed joined her. They studied the area together.
“No one likes zombies. ” Jenni frowned as more staggered into view. “But at least they're slow now. ”
The shambling dead were a strangely reassuring sight. Jenni preferred them slow and relentless to fast and relentless. The zombies were a mess now, often indistinguishable as male or female. Not only were the zombies mutilated from the attack that killed them, but from wandering around looking for the living.
Four months of rot, the elements, and wear and tear had the walking dead in bad shape. Their skin was dry, cracked and shredded. Their limbs were mangled and twisted. The zombies felt no pain, so they had no concern for their bodies. They struggled through brambles, bushes, and low fences, wandered off elevated areas, tripped down inclines, and, sometimes, rammed themselves repeatedly against obstacles. On her trips outside the walls, Jenni had seen the undead do extraordinary damage to themselves trying to get the living.
“They're getting closer,” Felix called out.
“Almost done,” Bill answered.
Jenni felt uneasy despite the slow advancement of the zombies. Her rage had dissipated at some point to be replaced with a low pulse of fear. But she couldn't let it get to her now. One of the zombies, a female in a truly tacky pink tracksuit, was drawing too close.
“Ax time!” Jenni moved toward the female zombie reaching for her, moaning that terrible sound, and forced back her fear.
The zombie snapped and lunged forward. Jenni slammed the flat of the ax head hard into the sternum of the creature and knocked her flat on her back. She quickly pinned the creature down with one foot placed solidly on the dead thing's chest and heaved the ax over her head. As the zombie grabbed at her boot, Jenni brought down the ax as hard as she could and cleaved its head in two.
“One down!” Jenni yanked her ax out of the zombie's head and took a few steps back.
“I got visitors,” Felix yelled. He used almost the exact same moves to take down a zombie near him with his double-bladed spear. He miscalculated how far away the second zombie was, and it lunged at him from behind. Felix shoved the spear back hard behind him and impaled it before it could grab him. Jenni moved to help him. The zombie began to push its body down the spear to grab Felix, but the young man turned and shot it in the face.
“I got it, Jenni, I got it,” he said, and grinned.
Jenni nodded. “Good job. ” She held the ax at the ready, her eyes scanning the approaching dead, trying to figure out her next moves.
“I would really like to go now,” Felix called out as more dead stepped into view around them.
Bill motioned to Ed. The two men talked in soft tones.
“C'mon, guys! Hurry up!” Jenni's voice was full of exasperation.
The limping, gruesome dead were drawing ever closer. They were too clustered together to take down individually.