I moved behind her in a couple of steps and brought the wrench around in an arc that ended with her head. She dropped like a rock and I was rewarded with a pile of brain matter on the end of wrench head.
Then I hit something on the ground, a rock or broken piece of crap from the house, and stumbled. My ankle twisted under me and I almost went down.
One of the Z’s turned on me and it was all I could do to fend him off. The guy was almost as big as me and dressed in khaki shorts with the remains of a black t-shirt clinging to his body. I took his attack and tried to turn him away by using his own momentum to toss him aside, but my foot screamed in agony and I ended up in a heap.
Fucker was fresh dead. He wasn’t like the slower corpses that had been hanging out for a few days. This guy was quick and his teeth gnashed in toward my shoulder like a viper. I got the wrench in the way and smacked him aside. I managed to get an elbow in and hit him hard enough to roll the fucker off me. Jesus Christ! He smelled horrible — and I’ve worked around sailors for most of my life, so that should tell you something.
I swung the wrench again, but I panicked and it crashed into his chest. Any normal man would have been crushed. It barely fazed this dead fuck.
The girl must have figured out how to get her shot gun functioning because it boomed again. I swore, hoping she didn’t mistake me for one of the dead. I rolled to my side and almost got my hands on the ground to pick myself up. Then I felt a claw on my shirt as the guy pulled me back down. I rolled and got a boot up. I lifted it high in the air and hit the Z again, but just in the chest, and all that did was knock him flat.
Where the hell was Joel?
“Get out of the fucking way!” Joel kept his voice low.
“About time!” I tried to echo his tone but panic rode my voice and I may have sounded like a scared six-year-old girl.
The Z grabbed my leg but I kicked free and rolled again. Joel’s boots came into view and then the AR-15 fired. The Z was blown onto his back. One more shot to the head and the guy didn’t move again.
I got to my feet and limped after Joel, ankle aching with every step.
“Are they dead?” The girl with the shotgun approached. She didn’t even look us in the face; she just studied the corpses on the ground.
“Yeah, all dead — need to clear this area before more arrive.” Joel said.
“I’ll stay here and hold them back. Thanks for the assist.” She said. Her voice had a slight Latino accent.
“Come with us,” I said impulsively. Or was it impulsive? Were we just supposed to leave another survivor behind while we made an escape?
Joel grabbed my shirt sleeve and tugged.
“We can’t leave her.”
“If she wants to stay, let her,” he said near my ear, but she was probably able to hear him.
“We can’t leave someone behind like that.”
“Since when did you grow a fucking sense of morality? We ain’t got the supplies for another survivor.”
“Just go,” the girl said. “That’s my dad on the lawn. The eaters in the garage killed everyone. There’s nothing left.”
“Oh, for fucks sake.” Joel said and stared at both of us.
The sound of something shuffling down the street sent a chill down my neck. I looked for shapes.
I grabbed the girl’s hand and tugged her close. “Just until we get free; then you can do whatever you want.”
“I don’t care. I just don’t care anymore. I got nothing,” she repeated.
“I need help, okay? I can’t run because I sprained my ankle.”
“Fine. Fuck! You helped me, so I’ll help you.” She lifted my arm and put it around her shoulders.
Joel swore a few more times and then took point. I gimped along behind him, holding the girl close.
“I’m Jackson,” I told her as I trained the gun all over the place.
“I’m Roz. Jackson your first or last name?”
“First. Jackson Creed.”
“Okay, man. Now that we got introductions out of the way, why don’t you shut the fuck up so we don’t get swarmed?”
“Me? You’re the one that came in with guns blazing. If it weren’t for my wrench you’d be one of them by now.”
“Keep your wrench in your pants and keep that gun aimed. Where we going anyway?”
“Fortress, I guess.”
“Fortress?”
“It’s just what we call home. Do you have any food?”
“Lots in my house. Before we were overrun we had a big stash.”
“How’d you get overrun?”
“They were making a lot of noise. Dad snuck out to see what it was. One of them saw him and that was all it took. They killed my sister and a kid we’d taken in. Dad made me go. He made me leave them, but I couldn’t just go without knowing, so I came back a few hours later. Eyes front so we don’t get killed out here.”
“Eyes front? Play a lot of video games?”
“I’m in the Army, dumbass. I was home on leave when this shit went down.”
“Would you two kindly shut the fuck up?” Joel whispered.
We’d covered a few blocks when Joel stuck his hand up, fist closed. I stopped and fought my twisted foot. We were in the backyard of a house with a dead lawn and a small fence. I staggered to the fence and lowered myself to my knees, then covered Joel as he advanced on the house. He paused in the middle of the yard and didn’t move for a few seconds, then ran toward the side of the house and planted himself in a deep shadow.
The back of the home had a shattered sliding glass door; the accompanying screen door was in shreds on the ground. There was a body sticking its legs out of the doorway. They didn’t move.
Noises near the street in front of the home.
Roz turned her gun to the side and examined it, then slid a few shells into the breech. Then there was movement out front; Joel faded from sight, but he wasn’t gone long. Like someone had set his ass on fire, he came running back.
“Thirty or forty of them on my three o’clock.”
“We’re cut off?”
“Worse, there’s lights in Fortress. We’re blown.”
I swore like the sailor I am for a few seconds.
“Back to my house. We have supplies and it used to be boarded up before Dad got himself killed,” Roz said.
“The house we just left? Could have told us that before we walked half the fucking city,” Joel said we moved around a fence keeping low.
“You asked for my help, man. You didn’t ask me for a place to stay, so secure that fucking attitude.”
“Well, yes ma’am,” Joel said. I could almost hear his eye-roll.
“It’s safe for the night, then we can try your place again.”
“No reason to go back there. It’ll be picked clean.” Joel said.
I wanted to punch someone.
“I don’t think we have a choice,” I said between clenched teeth.
Something shambled near us in the dark. I glanced up, almost too late.
A figure stumbled upon us, moaning, white eyes searching. Its mouth was stretched into a jagged grin of glee. Joel didn’t hesitate. He shot the fucker, but missed a head-shot in his haste. The shot nicked its throat, though, and spun it to the side. I hopped up on my bad foot and almost screamed in pain. I covered by swinging the wrench into the Z’s jaw. The blow arced upward as I stood, so it had the force of a fucking car wreck and lifted the Z off the ground. It flopped backward and didn’t move.