by Ky Tyrand
Now for the tricky part: How to carry a crap-tastic amount of them?
The answer she came up with was a backpack that would also hold her water bottle. She used Long Belt’s long belt, which seemed to go on forever, giving her enough material for two shoulder harnesses and still had enough to wrap around her waist! Lexi knew that the pack would be heavy when fully loaded, so she wanted to be able to get out of it quickly if the crap hit the fan. The design she came up with gave her a single buckle in the front to pop, and then she would just have to drop it off her shoulders and run like the wind.
Now, to attach the gear …
Lexi was certain that the water bottle would be most comfortable in the middle. It was the heaviest, and awkward to carry anywhere else. She tried to devise an easy way to take it off when she wanted a sip, and found a wide chunk of bamboo that would just barely sleeve over it. During the past few days, Lexi had gotten really good at weaving strands of thin bamboo together to make straps, so she didn’t have any trouble attaching it to the belts. It was like a great big cup-holder on her back!
Before going any further, Lexi gathered up as many of the zombie-darts as she could hold in her arms and carried them around the clearing to get a feel for the weight. It was awkward trying to hang onto them all without dropping any, but they weren’t as heavy as she had expected. Even with the water still on her back, it didn’t feel too bad.
“I couldn’t have done this a week ago,” she told herself with a grin.
Lexi began weaving the holsters together with fine strands of bamboo branch ends. After some experimenting, she decided that a bundle of six seemed to fit on each side of the water bottle, wound together in pyramidal stacks. Each bundle held three against her back, followed by two, and then one. She made a pair of identical bundles, which fit perfectly on either side of her water bottle, and somehow made the bottle more comfortably by how the holsters almost tucked behind it.
After some testing and adjusting, Lexi lashed it all together securely. It was comfortable enough. She actually did some of her exercises with it on. Lunges and squats, mostly, before moving over to her target.
The girl reached over her shoulder and found the end of the first dart. In one fluid movement it slid out of the holster, through the air, and into head of the dummy. Same thing with her left hand.
It worked SLICK.
Lexi could even toss two at once if she was close enough, but they lacked any real power that way. Twisting her body generated a much more solid throw, burying the darts into Dummy’s bouncing head.
Nevertheless, Lexi practiced throwing from different angles, just in case she got cornered in a less than ideal position.
Backhanded seemed to be surprisingly effective. She couldn’t generate quite as much power that way, but Lexi could still twist her body and whip her arms with a reasonable amount of force. It actually made her wish that she had more darts. Some that she could carry lower down, maybe around her waist.
It might be handy in case she had to ditch her backpack. But they would have to be much smaller, and less likely to do any real damage to the zombies. More of a distraction than a killing blow.
Twelve.
That would have to be enough.
Plus, one Zombie Prong, and one dagger.
31
Tree planting might mean different things to different people. But to Lexi Robinson, it meant killing zombies.
She had woken up with a hankering to begin clearing the jungle. If there were to be any chance of a rescue, she would need a signal fire visible from the ocean and sky. For that, she would need to retake the beach.
You never HAD the beach.
“Whatever.”
Just based on the conversations she was having with herself, Lexi knew that it was time. In fact, they weren’t just with herself. They were with Parma, her parents, birds in the trees, monkeys in the distance, trees that used to be zombies, a dragon flying overhead, a bamboo dummy – pretty much anything that would listen to her, and most everything that would not.
“Yup, it’s definitely time,” she told herself after suiting up.
Just like her last trek to the ocean, Lexi had a full water bottle and a bundle of dried fish. As well, she had: a spyglass, a dagger, twelve Zombie-Perforating Superdarts, a Zombie Prong, and a few extra spoils from foraging around the jungle – mostly berries and nuts.
The one thing that she did not have, was the one thing she would trade everything else for: The Imperative Rod.
Never mind. You don’t need it.
Lexi took a final look around to make sure she wasn’t forgetting anything, and then patted herself down to make sure her gear was secure.
“You got this,” she told herself. “Lexi Robinson, Zombie Hunter.”
The girl set off on her way, getting only as far as the exit passage before realizing she would need to take off her backpack in order to fit through the tightly spaced columns of bamboo.
Crap.
Shaking her head, Lexi removed her pack and wiggled through the labyrinth, dragging her equipment behind her.
After she got through the trail to the edge of the creek, Lexi put her pack back on, grumbling about how stupid she’d been.
Unsure how long she would be gone, Lexi decided to open the fish trap. She didn’t want to dismantle the entire thing again, but removed the funnel, which would be enough the keep any fishies from getting stuck.
The moment she pulled the side off, two swam out, making her jump.
Lexi laughed at herself for being frightened by the fish, when she was going off to fight monsters.
Everything around her suddenly went dark.
Oh crap!
Lexi instinctively threw herself back, bouncing against the wall of bamboo culms as the dragon swooped by, skimming across the water in a gust of mist and spray. He flew right under the canopy of Braidbeard’s tree, which had grown all the way across the creek, before disappearing around a bend in the waterway.
Wonderful. I’m going off to fight zombies, while having to check over my shoulder for dragons. Sounds easy enough … if I had eyes in the back of my head!
Lexi stood there a moment, wondering if the aggressive flyby was a sign that she should change her plan.
The answer was no.
She had all of her gear, and was suited up and ready to go. The dragon could be a threat at any time. She couldn’t let it stop her from doing this.
Besides, the dragon went north. Lexi was going south.
She pushed herself away from the columns of bamboo and took to the stream.
Lexi was prepared to see a zombie, or five, around each and every bend in the creek. But she’d been walking downstream for quite some time, and hadn’t seen or heard signs of a single one. It wasn’t at all what she had expected.
By the time she reached Longbelt’s tree – which, of course, was growing like a bad weed – Lexi couldn’t help but feel like something wasn’t right.
The jungle was eerily quiet. Even the birds and monkeys were silent.
Something was up.
It made her want to find a place to hide and wait. To understand what was going on before going even a little farther.
Instead, she pressed on, cautiously following the creek as it wound toward the ocean.
The girl paused near the mouth of the creek, where she could finally see the coast. Still no signs of the zombies.
She had her telescope in hand, trying to look everywhere at once, wishing that her eyesight was better. The view through the lens was so limiting.
Lexi headed toward the trail that would take her to Miss Pirate Cove’s tree.
She didn’t make it two steps before the attack caught her by surprise.
Lexi heard a loud crack as she was thrown back by a powerful force, and then swamped under a wave of water.
She came up coughing, realizing that the Zombie Prong had been ripped from her grasp.
The girl reached for a pair of darts as she tried to understand wh
at was happening, noticing that the spyglass was still in her hand.
With only one dart out, she spun to look into the eyes of the dragon.
32
Holy crap!
The dragon opened its mouth with a roar, the heat of its breath causing Lexi to shield her face. With a jaw as big as her entire body, and teeth as long as her forearms, the monster could no doubt gobble her up in a single bite.
The Zombie Dart instinctively flew from her hand – straight into the dragon’s open maw.
The roar stopped instantly, and the dragon’s head reared up.
It made a terrible gagging noise, and then began to cough.
Lexi fumbled to get the telescope put away and more darts into her hands, as the dragon choked uncontrollably.
Unsure whether to fight or flee, Lexi found herself backing away from the huge beast as it convulsed like a cat trying to spit up a hairball. The Zombie Dart shot from its mouth, narrowly missing Lexi as she ducked to the water.
She expected the dragon to retaliate by chomping her in two, but instead he spread his wings wide. It felt like a storm suddenly came on. The leathery wings sounded like thunder and sent gusts of wind and water at Lexi. She was barely able to keep on her feet as the creature began to lift off.
Lexi spotted the end of her Zombie Prong sticking up through the dragon’s foot as it took to the air. The rest of the shaft was gone, only splinters poked out the bottom of its clawed feet. It must have landed right on the point and snapped the pole against the bottom of the creek.
So much for the Zombie Prong.
Either the spear saved her, or the dart did, Lexi wasn’t sure which. She was just happy to be alive.
But the moment the dragon flew off, the girl realized that neither of her weapons were responsible for the monster’s early departure.
The zombies had scared it off.
Holy crap!
They were on all sides of her, groaning as they approached with their clawed hands raised. Where did they all come from?
Six of them, all at once.
Lexi threw a dart at the closest one – and missed!
She backed up, but there were two behind her.
Her second dart hit one, but it glanced off his cheek.
This was bad.
Lexi’s mind raced trying to figure out what to do. Where to go.
She had to run.
But she was surrounded.
Groaning noises were coming from every side. Practically in her ear.
She tried not to panic, but it was impossible.
The girl threw another dart. And another.
She needed to break through the ring of hungry aggressors.
Finally, a dart connected – straight in the mouth, just like the dragon.
But instead of choking, White-eyes stopped dead in his tracks.
That was her direction.
The path of least resistance.
Lexi felt the brush of zombie claws against her skin as she charged forward and ducked under the rooting zombie’s arm.
She spotted three darts floating in the water – one was too far downstream, but two were right in her path.
The girl scooped them both up, happy to get them back.
The throng of pirate zombies was right on her heels.
Her first thought was to run all the way back to her fort. But her path was suddenly blocked by two MORE zombies.
What, are they multiplying?
If Lexi could get past these two, she could drop her backpack and make a break for it.
Lexi threw one dart. She threw another.
The second one landed, stopping one of the pirate zombies cold.
She tried to get around, but his companion was all over her.
The others were right behind.
This was not what Lexi was expecting would happen.
She had marched down here intending to kick some zombie butt, not get devoured by a dozen of them!
Lexi suddenly found herself out of the water, dodging swatting claws as she scrambled onto a muddy trail.
She quickly discovered that she couldn’t both flee and attack at the same time. The one-time Lexi tried to turn and throw her darts, she missed entirely and the zombie behind her gained so much ground that the girl thought she was dead for certain.
Somehow, she was able to stay ahead of him as he crashed through the jungle behind her.
Barely.
The jungle trail reminded Lexi of her experience with Scarface, and the moment a low branch crossed her path she took full advantage.
Except this time, White-eyes was right behind her.
She pulled the branch back and let it go right away, and then turned and threw herself on him.
He was caught by surprise by both the branch and the girl, and Lexi had his head pinned with a dart before he could even react.
For an instant, Lexi thought his rooting corpse might block the trail entirely. The jungle was so dense here that getting around him might be difficult for the others.
But her hopes of creating a barrier were dashed when the monster right behind bulled him over before he had a chance to take root.
Lexi jumped back with a scream.
Threw a dart.
It landed perfectly. Finally.
This time she didn’t stick around to see what became of him.
She was back on the run.
After a sharp corner, Lexi found a wall of black rock ahead of her.
The trail was a dead end.
What the…?
That didn’t make sense. The pathway was too well travelled for it not to lead somewhere.
Lexi kept running.
What choice do I have?
The wall seemed to get taller as she neared it. Too flat to climb.
The girl ran right up to the rock face, slapping it like it was a door that someone might open.
Behind her she could hear the other zombies fighting their way past the sprouting trees.
The jungle was thick, but Lexi realized that the trail continued along the bottom of the rock face, it was just difficult to see.
The girl pressed herself against the black rock and slid between it and the foliage. Leaves and branches tried to snag her backpack as she forced her way through, but after a short distance the trail opened up and she could run alongside the base of the cliff.
Partway down, Lexi began to feel something … weird. It was hard to describe – almost a tingling sensation. She had no idea what it meant. All the girl cared about was getting away from the zombies that she could hear pushing through the bushes behind her.
They wanted to eat her, and she did not want to be eaten.
Blue sky began to peek through the trees ahead.
Lexi heard groaning behind her, and suddenly … groaning ahead of her!
A pirate zombie appeared out of nowhere, catching her by surprise.
No time to throw.
She stabbed – up, under the chin.
But not before the zombie slashed her belly, nearly gutting her.
Lexi screamed out in pain, unaware that her latest kill wasn’t alone.
As she heard the horrifying sounds of the zombie’s bones beginning to snap and transform, a hand reached around him and gouged her arm.
Another scream. She hadn’t even seen that one.
Too soon to tell which injury hurt more.
Lexi could hear more zombies approaching from behind.
NOT good.
She wacked the hand that kept clawing at her, ultimately stabbing it so hard that the dart pinned it to the expanding roots of his partner. The rest of him was trapped behind the rooting zombie tree. Lexi couldn’t reach to kill it; nor could it reach to kill her. So long as she could get by…
Loud groans behind her were the only incentive she needed.
Black rock loomed over her, but no longer a vertical wall.
She could climb it here, get around this mess…
And she did.
Clenching a
dart in her mouth, Lexi stepped up and caught a grip with her hand. She could now see around the growing zombie tree – more White-eyes coming from that direction as well!
Now what?
She had nowhere to go but up, onto the black rock.
A sharp claw dug into her calf, trying to get hold of her.
She kicked her leg, banged her knee trying to shake him off. The pain was excruciating.
The girl struggled for the best grip she could muster with one hand, and snatched the dart from her teeth with the other.
She could see a zombie trying to sink his teeth into her ankle.
The angle was awkward, but Lexi twisted and threw the dart as hard as she could.
It bounced off his forehead.
Not a killing blow, but a distraction. She kicked free of his grip and clawed her way up the rock. Her only hope was to drop down the other side and make a break for it.
It couldn’t be worse than this side, could it?
But as soon as she got to the top, Lexi realized that she was wrong.
33
Lexi immediately recognized the rocky ridge that she stood on: It was the same lava rock that led down into the peninsula that formed one side of Pirate’s Cove. She was just a little higher up than the spot she’d crawled to the last time she was here.
Though some of it was hidden by the jungle that ran alongside the ridge, Lexi could see part of the beach where she’d washed to shore. There was a gnarled tangle of twisted wood in the spot where she’d fought Miss Pirate Cove. It didn’t look healthy or thriving like the other zombie trees she’d planted. No leaves whatsoever. Perhaps because of the salty waves that washed against it.
There were several zombies near the tree, and on the beach. A bunch more trying to climb onto the rocks beside her. Lexi hadn’t expected more than ten of them – at the very most – to have gotten around the peninsula. But she’d already spotted at least double that. And they could be anywhere in the jungle right now.