The strain on Leo was growing; it was starting to show in her voice. She paused for another second and took a drink from her glass. We were all sitting riveted, listening to her tale.
She put down her glass and continued. “Kyle took a pistol from the glove box and handed it to John before walking around to the back of the truck. He opened the cover on the back and pulled out a black case, which he opened with a key from his key ring. Inside the case were a short black rifle and several boxes of bullets. He stuffed the bullets into a backpack, and then slung the pack and his rifle over his shoulder. I took my kukri out of the backpack, looped it around my belt, and placed the batons in the loops I had made in the back of my jacket. Wearing our backpacks, Johnny took us through backstreets around Leesburg, until we turned left into a suburban street.”
“It was the only way we could go,” said John, mirroring Leo’s sadness on his face.
Leo continued, “We stood there, frozen solid. There were at least nine zombies standing in a group outside a house. They must have heard our footsteps because they simultaneously turned to face us. We turned to head back down the way we came; but only our escape was short lived. Five or six more shambled around the corner, as if they’d been following us. I instinctively took my kukri out of its sheath, John raised his pistol, and Kyle shouldered his rifle. John and I stood back to back, each facing opposite directions. Kyle covered both of us, swinging his rifle north, where I was facing south where John was aiming.”
Leo took another sip of her water, and leaned back in her chair, her arms behind her head as she spoke. “The five behind us moved like hunters, spreading themselves out systematically. I had a moment to study them while they closed the distance. If it weren’t for body parts missing and disfigurements on their bodies we wouldn’t have guessed they were zombies. The other group, the group of nine, was slower. The larger group was moving in a pack, stumbling around, slowly but surely coming our way. I heard John fire a shot and watched as one of the faster zombies dropped, his brains staining the concrete. ‘Holy shit,’ I thought to myself. ‘He just shot someone!’ Followed by, ‘Someone, or something that is going to eat us’.”
Fear was apparent on Leo’s face as she spoke, “The adrenaline kicked in again and suddenly everything around me became much clearer, it felt like the zombies all slowed down, as if they were walking through molasses. One of the faster moving zombies jumped right at me, my kukri slashed upwards as he landed, almost acting on its own. I split his head completely in half. It happened so quickly; I almost didn’t even realize it was done. I remember John staring at me, probably wondering how I managed to kill it so easily.”
“I couldn’t believe how quickly you moved. The blade was a blur, I barely noticed you moving,” added John.
“The pack was still pretty far behind, so we all concentrated on the three that were closing in on us,” said Leo. “They moved almost in unison, matching each other step for step. Before I knew it they simultaneously reached in, one for each one of us. A pale woman with black short hair managed to dodge Johns’ shot and swerved around behind him. She tripped him off his feet, he landed flat on his back. I watched as much as I could, in between dodging the redheaded zombie who was trying to swipe my head off and ducking like a boxing pro out of her arm span. She was faster than the pack, in comparison, normal to a fully functional human being, but everything seemed to be moving slowly, except me. Kyle managed to get a couple of shots off at the big biker zombie that was after him. Four bullets hit that monster in the chest. He shrugged them off like they were nothing, barely even knocked him back a step.”
Leo sighed, finished the water in her cup, and continued, determined to get through the rest of her story. “I heard John yell, almost the same cry I let out when the blonde in the bathroom took a bite out of me. My skin felt tight and prickly. The redheaded attacker had me by the neck, blocking my view with her body. I remember feeling frustrated, and then with one strong thrust I ran the kukri upwards through her jaw and out the back of her head. Her blood splashed onto my face before I dropped her to the ground. John was struggling with the pale woman. She was on top of him, and had him pinned down, her face buried in his shoulder. I couldn’t imagine how a small thing like her could have so much strength.”
“She was incredibly strong, and in my defense, I didn’t know yet that you had to shoot them in the head,” said John defensively.
“Before I could get close to help him, John pressed the gun to her chest and fired twice. It didn’t seem to hurt her, but the impact jarred her loose, allowing him to roll her off backwards. John sat up, switched the gun to his good arm and shot her twice more straight through the head. Her corpse fell over in a heap.” Leo was gaining momentum in the telling now, speaking more quickly. Her accent was getting even thicker. “Kyle had moved on to the big pack now, killing three more. The big lump of flesh that used to be a biker was lying on the sidewalk beside him, his head blown off. The biker’s leather jacket had ten or fifteen bullet holes in it. Kyle finished them all off one by one, before the rest of us could have a go, each one shot to the head, they dropped like flies.”
We were all on the edges of our seats. Despite her accent and sometimes-odd phrasing, this was a riveting story.
“John cussed and yelled at his luck,” she said. “He kicked the corpse in front of him before turning around to face us. I didn’t say anything, I knew how he felt, if the movies or stories or zombie websites had taught us anything, it was that once you are bit, you become one of them. I watched as Kyle started to drag one of the bodies to the front yard of a house, dropping it and picking up another one. I didn’t understand why we were wasting time to pile up bodies on the side of the road, but I didn’t question him either, I decided to help him instead. Kyle was angry. ‘Fourteen of them, a couple of hours ago they used to be human, now they are just rotting flesh,’ his voice heavy with emotion. We’d all talked about zombies before, but no one really believed it could happen. Kyle continued, ‘I think we should clear up a house here, spend the night, reinforce it while there is still daylight, it seems the shit has hit the fan in the speed of light’.”
Several heads nodded their agreement at both the speed with which the outbreak occurred, and the need to find a safe place to hold up for the night.
“Two of us were injured and we were running out of ammo, it seemed like a rather valuable idea to me, and John agreed. We walked past a few houses, until we found one with the door standing wide open, a stain of red marked on the white porch. It seemed like a better idea to start by luring the zombies out, if there were any inside it would be best they came to us, rather than trying to fight them in a hallway or a bathroom. We made some noise and waited for a while but nothing came towards us, Plan B was to sweep the entire house, making sure it was clear of the infected. Coming past the living room, I noticed a pair of legs protruding sideways from behind a couch. I signed to John towards it and aiming his gun at it, he slowly approached it. The deceased’s legs once seemed to belong to a male, but it was hard to tell. There wasn’t much left of the corpse aside from the lower appendages. We cleared out the rooms one by one, locked the front door, dropped the blinds and closed the curtains. Kyle made sure that the back door and the garage door were also secure.”