by RR Haywood
The first one goes straight for the bite, arms back and head forward he dives in. A scrawny, emaciated looking thing and I punch him hard on the nose feeling the crack as the bone breaks. Fresh blood bursts from his nostrils only to be quickly rinsed away by the rain. Another blow onto his nose , then another and I keep going. Hard, quick punches that batter his face senseless and probably cut my knuckles in the process.
One comes from the other side so I stretch out and get my hand round its throat, squeezing hard while I keep up the punches to the first one. Two more come towards my feet so I start cycling to batter them senseless with the hard soles of my combat boots.
Oh yes! This is fucking amazing. I’m fighting four at the same time. Unarmed and on my own and I’m punching one to the face, strangling another whilst kicking the shit out of two more. Only problem is, there is more than four undead in this horde and I’ve run out of limbs to deal with the others.
Bollocks, getting slightly overwhelmed now. The one being strangled is shifting his entire body weight onto my arm, slowly sinking down towards my face. The bastard being punched doesn't give in either, despite his face now being mangled he keeps coming in for the lunge, so I get that hand to his throat and start squeezing him too.
Shit, two being strangled while kicking at the same two down there and more still crawling in. Not good, not good at all.
With a yell, I drive my hands towards each other and smash their heads together. That does nothing other than apparently irritating them and causing them to start thrashing about in a rather unnecessarily violent manner.
The undead in my left hand drops down to smother my chest and in the confusion he bites into his mates shoulder. The bitten one starts thrashing more wildly and I think the one biting gets impression it’s me thrashing about, so he bites harder, driving his teeth into flesh.
Fuck me, they’re biting each other now. These things are pumped up like nothing I’ve seen before. Demented to the point they’re biting anything they can reach.
I realise there's weight on my legs, I'm being pinned by an undead sprawling in to join the feast. This time I go fucking nuts. Heaving, bucking, striking out, I throw myself in all directions so they can't get a hold of me. Sharp pain on my thigh as some rancid fucker bites into me. With the violence pulsing through my system, I wrench my leg up at the same time I bring my arm down to smash and batter the thing away. Old and decaying, the undead biting into me must be eighty years old and how the fuck it got over the wall I'll never know but here it is, chomping away on my leg. The pain is intense so I go full on nuts, thrashing and beating until I feel the flesh tearing and the bones breaking. Eyes clamped shut, I heave the thing away from me but the pain is still there. Scanning quickly I can see the body lying next to me but no fucking head. Shit, the fucking head is still on my leg. Screaming I grab at the old skull trying to prise it away, wrenching it free to throw at the next one looming in...if I don’t do something quickly, I’m going to be fucked.
More weight on my legs, more on my stomach. Completely pinned now and I’m starting to worry maybe I didn’t think this through properly.
Then she’s there. Meredith. A flying blur of wet, black fur that adds her weight to the pile already on top of me. She’s death on four legs, huge canine teeth lashing left and right, shredding any undead that gets near me. It’s almost like that scene from the film Crocodile Dundee when the Aussie man gets mugged by the thugs wielding a small flick-knife and he shows off by pulling out his own huge knife.
Meredith sees their lips pulled back showing teeth. They ain’t teeth. These are fucking teeth, she growls pulling her own lips back. Hers are far better, and far more deadly.
Within seconds they’re gone from the top of me and I’m able to twist round to start fighting again. The two of us go at it, fists, feet and teeth but with the space created, I can see one of them has broken away from the group and is almost at the group of petrified survivors.
As they still haven’t moved, I have no time to do anything than get up and try to reach him, before he reaches them. Once again on all fours crawling, Meredith works at my back keeping them away.
Diving forward, I grab at his ankle just as he grabs at the nearest person and starts pulling them towards his open mouth. Screaming wails erupt as the group start a tug of war trying to pull the woman away from the undead, who is now inching his teeth towards her foot.
Out of options again, I stand up and fight the wind to get one arm under his throat. A gust of wind so strong lifts me off the ground, my only anchor being the arm I have round the undead’s neck.
Stronger it gusts and gently he starts to rise, the wind lifting both of us from the ground. We rise that extra couple of feet and hit the strongest thermals. Like a kite we get pummelled into the air, me screaming while holding onto the undead round his throat.
Sailing over the heads of the others, Clarence glances up with a confused look on his face that quickly morphs into worry.
The edge of the wall is rapidly approaching and just for a fleeting second I wonder if the thermals over the alley are going to be different from the thermals over the top of the wall.
Yep, they are. There’s no thermals at all actually and we plummet as soon as we get gusted over the edge. Down into the darkness of the no man’s land between the walls.
We land on a pile of soft, squelchy bodies that burst open from impact of the drop. With the wind knocked out of me again, I writhe and keep writhing as I try and move to find out where I am. It’s so dark down here but with the walls so high the noise of the storm is muted a little.
With a sudden jolt I realise I’m still holding onto the undead I was grasping when we came down. He’s not dazed but already fighting to break free so he can turn round and rip my throat out.
Body parts scattered around me, corpses stacked against the wall as an ad-hoc climbing frame for the undead to use, the water level rising by the second as the sea batters at the front gates and pours through the gaps.
Gripping hard and I squeeze with every ounce of strength in my arms, he thrashes and bucks but he’s done for. Thirty seconds later I release the lifeless body. Struggling upright, I push against the water and floating bodies to figure out a way back up.
Apparently Clarence wasn’t the only one to see me coming down here. Several bodies drop from the top wall to land close by. Thuds and sploshes as the heavy bodies splash into the water or amongst the corpses.
I’m still surrounded by zombies and still without a weapon, and worse I’m waist deep in treacherous water covered in floating bodies and the debris from all of our vehicles.
The first one bursts from the water with a roar. How overly dramatic, I mean come on. Why roar? We’re all down here about to have a scrap, after god knows how many scraps over the last two weeks and this one has to give it large by roaring as it comes up through the surface of the water.
Mind you, he looks the part. Big and covered with thick muscles that stand defined from the sudden loss of protein shakes over the last two weeks.
‘Fuck you,’ I shout and give him the middle finger again, ‘I’m immune motherfucker…hear that…IMMUNE!’
Yeah, he’s going to beat the living shit out of me, and his mates are getting up now too. Backing away, I have to push the heavy, floating bodies out the way, bloated from the water and swollen to grotesque shapes that barely register as human.
They form a semi-circle coming at me, the big fucker front centre with his ugly mates ranged off to the sides. Hemmed in by the walls and the water surging in through the gates behind the and more of our vehicles floating further behind me.
Reaching out, my hand gropes something furry. Fearing a rat, I jerk it away and glance down to see the bearded face of Big Chris floating by, the skin of his torn and jagged throat now washed clean and deathly white. His features are bloated but there’s no mistaking who it is and the beard is still so black, glistening from the water.
Lightning overhead flashes, a trick of t
he eye and I swear for a split second he looks alive, like he’s about to open his eyes and laugh.
These bodies down here are from the estate, taken by these fucking things to be used as objects. Sarah will be amongst them, Terri too. Ted and Steven. Our lads from Salisbury, Tucker, Jamie and Curtis.
My mind snaps alert and I realise I’m not backing away now but wading forward. My eyes set on that big undead at the front. Fists clenched, my eyes unblinking as the water pummels down from above. Wind whips at my hair and stings my eyes but I refuse to take my gaze off him.
It surges up within me, that feeling I had a few minutes ago when I was fighting with Dave. I embrace it, feeling the strength that floods into my limbs, seeing my vision sharpen and focus and hearing my blood screaming for vengeance. Charging at each other, both of us hell bent on destroying the other. The infection knows I’m immune, it must know. It shoved a still beating heart into my mouth but here I am, fit, fighting and unturned. Lani and now Cookey too. Three of us that had that deadly disease pushed into our systems only to reject it, kill it and work on like nothing happened. Not just immune but untouched, unbothered, unaffected and un-fucking-remitting in our desire to stop them.
I remember a big bastard like you. Two weeks ago one your size came at me in the street. I was scared and tried to drive away, panicked and flapping. I only just survived and that was nothing more than pure luck. I remember being wedged almost upside down in the car, trying to operate the foot pedals with my hands. Terrified and incompetent, bumbling from disaster to catastrophe.
But that was two weeks ago and a lot can happen in a fortnight. No fear now you fucker, no fear at all. Just pure, blind rage that drives me on with savage ferocity.
The impact is like running into a tree. Punches and kicks will do nothing to this one and he knows it. His arms wrap round my body and lift me up at the same time as he starts crushing me. The pain is immense as the air is driven from my lungs. With my arms pinned to my side I can’t fight out or do anything other than flail my dangling legs about.
He roars with victory, stretching his head back to scream into the sky, bellowing that he alone will defeat the annoying little prick Howie. Fuck you. I’ve got a mouth too and you ain’t the only one that can bite so I drive my face into his big meaty neck. I pull my own lips back and take a huge bite into the big adams apple poking out. It is the most disgusting and foul thing I have ever done. The flesh tears with amazing ease as I bite and gnash. Copying Meredith I thrash my head side to side while biting in deeper and deeper. Blood bursts and pours down my throat, hot and metallic but I keep going, tearing his fucking throat out with my teeth, widening the bite to go further left and right until I get an artery and tear the thing apart with my teeth.
He releases then, as the sudden pressure loss from his once sealed system drains the strength from his arms. He goes down and I remain standing, victorious. You like biting people? Well I can bite too.
As he sinks beneath the waves I glance up to see the undead staring at me. Not advancing, not retreating, but staring and I can feel the fear coming off them.
‘Did you like that?’ I growl. Locking eyes on the closest I can feel the hot blood pouring down my chin. ‘Guess what?’ I ask with a glance round from face to face, ‘rules just changed.’
I’m up, bursting from the water as I lunge at the closest. He flinches and tries to pull away which is something I have never seen an undead do before, but it’s too late and I’m on him. No weapons, no knives or axes, no guns. Just me with two hands, two feet and a mouth.
Landing solidly I take him off his feet, driving him down beneath the water. Plunging beneath the surface, I grope for his face and use my thumbs to drive into his eyes while I savage his throat with my teeth. Like a wild animal I fight and I kill. Surging back up, I use my feet to stamp down repeatedly on his head while screaming into the sky.
They change as the fear is replaced with pure, demented fury, a visible reaction to whatever dose of chemicals being used to drive them is increased dramatically.
They come at me as I go at them. Wild, unabated and furious we fight. Teeth biting, fingers gouging, hands strangling. Teeth bite into my right shoulder but I don’t feel the pain now, the blood lust of battle is too strong.
They take me off my feet and it’s my turn to get driven down beneath the surface of water. Dark and tidal, the waves are getting stronger buffeting us all left and right. We slam into walls, vehicles and bodies. The salt water gets into my mouth making me gag and swallow more. Eyes stinging so much it renders me blind.
Something lands amongst us, something very big and very heavy, that starts hauling bodies away with the ease of a Nordic giant. I feel a hand grip the back of my shirt and launch me several feet away to land on the top of a floating car.
I cough and gag as the salt water is puked from my body. Slowly, my vision clears to reveal Clarence battering them away. More undead must have come down, for their numbers are greater now. The giant swats and breaks necks. Lifting one up he goes for the human battering trick as he fends them off.
A streak of darkness, a splash of water that plumes up between Clarence and the undead. Dave bursts from the surface with his knives drawn and instantly they are upon him.
Sod this, I’m not missing out, so I slide off the car, find my feet and start heading in towards the fight.
The undead move in, spurred on by the burst of action they charge for Clarence. I grab one and take him down under the water, gripping his throat while I squeeze the life out of him and ram my knee into his stomach. I know that won’t hurt him but the reflex action is to breath in, and what with him being under water and all…well he kind of drowns quicker.
That tactic worked well, so I try it again, grabbing one as he lunges in and using my body weight to pull him down. Clarence is splashing about somewhere nearby, cracking skulls with his hands.
Hands to throat, knee striking stomach, but this bastard keeps his mouth shut and finds his feet, pushing us both up and out of the water.
Using the flat part of my palm, I strike his nose, it breaks so I keep going. Right and left, hard blows that stagger him backwards. I feel his cheek bones break and use my left hand to grip his thick hair while my right hand builds power as I get used to the action.
Pulling him down with my left as my right hand pummels him, I get his head back under the water and hold him down.
Something hits me hard, a heavy weight on my back and a sharp, searing pain on my shoulder. Sinking beneath the waves, I twist and feel the teeth biting into me. Unable to generate power under the water, I have to fight every instinct not to breath in or open my mouth.
It’s a woman with long hair and I try getting a grip to pull her head away. She twists and contorts, getting on top of me using her body weight to hold me on the ground well beneath the surface.
Knees striking up, kicking, thrashing as I desperately try to get her off me. Another searing pain as she bites me again. Fucking idiot must be on autopilot.
Reaching up, my hands feels something. I grab and pull hoping to pull myself up. Whatever it is I grip comes down instead so I pull it harder, realising it’s one of the bodies floating on the surface.
Twisting, I manage to pull it between us. She bites down again and again but this time her teeth sink into the rotten flesh of the corpse and give me a chance to beat my way out.
Feet stamping down I feel the beloved ground and push up, driving my legs to push my head out of the water.
The corpse is still between us and she tries to leap over it. A flash of lightning gives a split second of light to the scene, once again it flashes over the features of Big Chris as he gently bobs between me and the female undead, proving that even in death, he can still save my life.
As she comes over him I reach out and grab two fistfuls of hair and simply pull her head under the water while moving backwards. Unable to gain her feet, I keep jerking left and right while holding her face down in the water.
�
��MR HOWIE,’ Dave shouts and throws a knife. It strikes the body of Chris with the blade sinking into his chest. Wincing, I realise Dave had no way of knowing he just used Chris as a dartboard.
Handle gripped and I pull it out, this time nodding an apology at the corpse of the big man. Just in time too as the last one charging at me comes in quick. Diving forwards with a howl I stab out, driving the point of the blade deep into the chest. Twisting the handle, I pull the knife out as it keeps the forward charge up. Puncture wounds pucker his side, in and out the blade sinks deep into his stomach and chest before I finally get a clean shot at his neck, stabbing through the main artery.
With his life blood pumping high into the air I let go and move out of the way, watching as he folds up and sinks beneath the water.
The water is deeper now, above my waist and almost at my chest. Glancing up, I see both Dave and Clarence have finished and are stood facing towards the gates.
I wade towards them but there is a tide now, the water is streaming past me with more power than a few seconds ago.
Thunder still rips through the sky but between those booms and the crackles of lightning, another awful noise of grinding metal reaches me. The gates bow from the force of the water on the other side and the vehicles jammed into that space are now being lifted and crushed, unable to resist the ever increasing force and weight of the sea.
If those gates go this whole alley will be flooded within seconds. With the sea claiming the flatlands, the fort is getting battered from all sides and suddenly the threat of death doesn't come from the infected undead, but from the very thing that saved us just minutes ago.
Unbiased she is, Mother Nature holds no allegiance to man nor beast, giving life and taking it without fear or favour.
‘CLIMB,’ Clarence shouts, wading across the width of the alley. Dave and I respond the same, wading with effort to reach the side of the inner wall.