A hand grabbed me and pulled me farther from the vehicle. The person was breathing hard and muttering under their breath. Not the typical undead actions, or so my addled brain told me. I almost giggled when I thought about talking zombies. Then a vision of the ghoul in the back of the truck blossomed in my mind.
A fist blocked out the sun and aimed at my temple. I jerked aside, but it still caught me on the side of the head and made my ears ring. Feebly, I kicked and made contact with something. Then the hand holding me down withdrew, so I grabbed hold and helped myself up. This was no zombie I was fighting.
The sun was bright and high in the sky. When I came to my shaking feet, I couldn’t make out the figure. It was like they had a big yellow halo around their head. A fast jab shot toward my head, but my body worked on instinct. My right hand came up close to my side then flattened, palm up to take the blow along my arm and redirect the force along the side of my body.
My other hand snaked over and did a check, felt a shoulder, then I used my close quarters training to raise my right elbow up high and clock the attacker in the head. But it wasn’t where I expected it to be, and all I ended up hitting was the side of its neck.
I pivoted on one foot and came around with my hands in the air to block. When the sun was at my back, I got a clean look at his bloody face.
It was Lee, and he was pissed. “I’m gonna shit you into tomorrow.”
He grimaced and threw a big haymaker that would have laid me out for the rest of the day, but I crossed my body with my right hand and barely deflected the blow from my head into my arm. My left shoulder went numb, and I staggered to the side. A left hook came next, and it wasn’t as strong or accurate as the first. That told me he wasn’t used to fighting off-hand. I turned my weary body just a tad to the side, and his punch missed. Then with what little strength I had, I whipped my hand up like a viper striking, first knuckle closed so that my hand formed a half-fist, and drove my hand into his face. Thank you, Katherine.
I struck him below the nose, feeling his lips mash and split around his teeth. He fell back with a groan of pain, and had I been in any kind of fighting condition, I would have followed and finished him off. But I could barely stand, let alone step into his guard and finish him.
“You’re an idiot, Lee. You know that?”
“No one fucks me. No one! I’m gonna wear your carcass like a jacket, and then when it’s dried out, I’m going to set it on fire.”
So much for pleasantries. Here we were, in the middle of a camp full of the zombies we had both sworn to kill, and all we wanted to do was murder each other.
He came in swinging, so I got my hands up, dropped down low, and put a quick right foot into one of his legs. It wasn’t much of a strike, but the heel of the foot to a thigh could be devastating. Score one for me. He grunted but got a blow over my guard, smashing it into my cheek. Getting hit in the face hurt a lot worse than one might have thought. Guys didn’t just roll with it, like the movies. This one made my eye start to water right away. It blurred my vision, and my head rang.
I dropped to my side, dragged one foot up, and kicked low, hoping for a knee. I must have struck his shin, because he moved away and gasped in reply. He ran at me and kicked, then his foot stomped down. I rolled toward the truck again, but my attempt to get the gun was pretty pathetic. I could curl up in a ball and hope he got tired of beating on me soon, but I wasn’t sure how long it would be before Scott came too. If he had his gun ready, he could drop this jerk for me.
Moans nearby informed me that the dead were closing in. If Lee didn’t finish me off soon, they would.
A foot caught the inner side of my calf. If it had been angled, I’m sure it would have broken. I lashed up with my other foot and caught his leg, then hooked and pulled. He went down in a big puff of leaves and debris, and I wanted to turn my head and cough out a mouthful of the stuff. It felt like I was eating it instead of trying to breathe through it.
Dizzy and in pain everywhere, I sat up and tried to get ahold of a pant leg. He kicked out at me, but I got my hands up in time to keep the blow away from my face. Instead I took the shot on my already sore arms and hands. I balled my fist and hit him hard in the thigh with just two knuckles. A Charlie horse wasn’t exactly fair fighting, but I was more interested in living than offering him a chance to take my own life.
I went to work, using every memory of training I had acquired over the years. Ground fighting was tough; one had to keep his balance and work the big muscles in the thighs.
His arm came up as I moved close. I nearly hovered over him. Smashing aside his strike, I drove my straightened fingers into his shoulder, then took a blow on my arm. Turning just in time, I jabbed fingertips at his eyes, almost making contact. He looked away long enough for me to get another strike in, but it brushed his ear, and another knuckle struck close by his nose. He retaliated with a snap punch to my gut. Not much power, but it rocked me back on my heels.
I fell on him and batted aside his hands as he reached for my throat. I weighed about as much as he did, but my hope was that he was as weak as I was.
He bucked his hips up with a grunt and tried to turn to the side. I gathered what I had and smashed his nose with my fist. This time it was a full blow that knocked his head into the dirt.
I didn’t stop. I went for his eyes, his throat, then slashed toward his temples, grabbed his hair and smashed his head into the ground. Then I hit him a few more times, even getting a throat strike in that hit his Adam’s apple and made him gag. Smashing his already pulped nose, I hit him one more time.
He stopped moving.
A gun opened up, and I ducked in fear, but one glance told me that Scott had come to his senses and was mowing down the zombies with a purpose. Thank God for Scott! I was going to hug the man if we got out of this alive.
They were everywhere. I hit Lee again and decided to just leave him for the dead to finish off. After diving for the truck, I scrambled around until I found the big handgun and came up shooting. Zombies were all around us, but I dropped a pair, even though they weren’t badly wounded.
“Shit shit shit!” I yelled as I made for the truck. The AK was on the floor, and when I picked it up, I caught a glimpse of the ghoul laying still, his eyes ablaze, and I swear he was smiling.
“Just shoot them!” Scott gave the gun a break.
I opened up with the Soviet weapon and dropped several, then I moved into the driver’s seat and tried to turn over the engine, but it would have none of that.
“The other truck!” Scott yelled.
“I won’t leave you!”
“Just go start the fucking thing and stop acting like a bitch. I got this.”
I had to grin as I tried to jump out, nearly falling to the ground in my beaten condition. I limped the short distance to the rear door of the military transport. It was open, thankfully, so I walked up the short ramp and into the warm confines.
Some of the seats were gone. In their place sat a bunch of cardboard boxes filled with all sorts of gear. I maneuvered past them and toward the front. I didn’t know anything about this particular transport, so I just hoped for the best.
The driver’s seat was hard as I sat down. It might have been cushioned at one time, but someone had ripped out the material and covered it with a blanket that smelled like horseshit.
There was an ignition button with a big smiley face sticker on the top. When I hit it, the vehicle roared to life. I looked all over the inside for a way to release the back door. That would explain the shots from the end of the road. But where were his other men? I was sure he wouldn’t have come alone.
I didn’t know a hell of a lot about the army’s newest transport. While it was top of the line, this one had an awful lot of gear removed. The gunner station was open on top, but a large weapon of some sort was attached. Tubes led down the hole to blue barrels on the floor. I would have expected a big M2 browning .50 machine gun or even a grenade launcher. Who knew where Lee’s men got the damn thing to begin with? It was a pretty scary world where weapons like this were just left for the taking.