Endworld #28 Dark Days
Page 14
The head was a weak spot. You could slit a zombie’s throat and it would keep coming. You could stab it in the heart or drive a spear through its gut and it wouldn’t stop trying to bite you. But kill the brain and you killed it.
Gabe swung at the next one’s neck. His battleaxe sheared through skin and bone and the head plopped to earth, the mouth opening and closing spasmodically.
Gabe spun. Another zombie was almost on him. He thrust the battleaxe at its chest to keep it back and had the satisfaction of hearing bone crunch. For most adversaries that would be enough to take them down but the zombie wrenched free of the blade, and with its arms outstretched, lurched at Gabe anew.
Ringo’s six-shooter boomed. A hole appeared above the zombie’s nose and it teetered, let out a rasping moan, and collapsed.
“Wahoo!” Ringo whooped.
Cochise had held off using his shotgun for fear the Warriors would hear, but now that Ringo had gone and announced to the world where they were, he saw no reason to hold back. He blew off the head of a zombie on the left, racked a new shell into the chamber and blew off the head of a zombie on the right.
More appeared, with the suggestion of additional shapes in their wake.
“The woods are swarmin’ with these critters!” Ringo hollered.
“Shout a little louder, why don’t you?” Cochise yelled. “The zombies in St. Paul didn’t hear you.”
Then none of them had time for talk as zombies converged from all over. Gabe swung his battlaxe with fierce force. Ringo worked his Colt as fast as he could, which was nowhere near as fast as his father but faster than most . Cochise’s shotgun boomed nonstop.
Zombie after zombie fell. Yet more were always there to take their place. More slavering, shambling, horrors, their teeth gaping wide, their fingers hooked into claws. More and ever more, driven by their insatiable craving for raw flesh.
They weren’t silent, these zombies. They growled and grunted and hissed. They snarled and gurgled and spit. Gabe split them, Ringo cored their brains, Cochise blasted them apart. And still they came, until the slain were piled in a ring around the three youths.
“We can’t stop them!” Cochise cried. “There are too many!” His shotgun was hot and his hands hurt and he was running out of shells. Only half a dozen were left in his bandoleers and he would be at their mercy.
“Eat lead, you smelly varmints,” Ringo yipped, and shot another between the eyes.
Gabe was tiring. He had swung until his shoulders throbbed and his arms ached, and he didn’t know how much longer he could keep swinging. Cochise was right. There were simply too many.
Suddenly a new element was interjected into the fray, a streak of gray-brown fur that flowed among the zombies with lightning speed. Each zombie it passed crumpled, a temple pierced by iron claws or its head dangling from a nearly severed neck. Within seconds the last of the walking dead were truly dead, and their destroyer came to a stop and turned to face Gabe, Ringo and Cochise.
“Well, what do we have here ? Three chips off the old blocks out for a secret stroll?” The creature had a high, mewing voice. Barely four feet tall, he was naked save for a leather loincloth. His eyes were a startling green, his ears pointed, his features that of his feline namesake.
“Lynx,” Gabe said in relief.
Ringo was reloading. “Now we know who was supposed to be standing guard.”
“Thank you for coming to help us,” Cochise said.
“I got tired of watching,” the hybrid said. “I couldn’t let you kids have all the fun.”
Gabe glanced at his friends and then at the cat-man. “You were watching over us the whole time?”
“Who do you think left that rope for you to find?”
“Wait a minute,” Gabe said. “You helped us sneak out of the Home? Why would you do that?”
“They wanted to teach you a lesson.”
“Who did?” Cochise asked.
Lynx turned and pointed at the west wall. Atop it stood Warriors bristling with weapons. Prominent among them was a giant in a black vest, bowie knives in sheaths at his hips. Next to him was a blond man in buckskins, his holsters sporting a pair of ivory-handled Pythons. Beside him was a muscular man dressed all in green, his black hair and features showing his Blackfoot heritage.
“Oh, Lordy,” Ringo said. “It’s our dads.”
“They knew what we were up to?” Gabe marveled.
Lynx nodded. “They were ready to lend a hand should it be needed. But I had you covered.” He gestured. “Come on. Time to take your medicine.”
“I’m to blame, not them,” Gabe said. “It was my idea. I wanted to prove there were zombies near the Home.”
Trudging gloomily along, Cochise remarked, “We’re in hot water up to our necks.”
“That you are,” Lynx said. “I hope your little adventure was worth it. Did you learn anything?”
Gabe held out his gore-spattered battleaxe and smiled. “I learned I want to be a Warrior more than ever.”
Cochise tapped his bandoleers. “I learned I need to carry more ammo.”
Ringo, sauntering as if he didn’t have a care in the world, chuckled and said, “Me, I learned killing zombies is a piece of cake.”
“Like I told you,” Lynx said, and laughed. “Three chips off the old blockheads.”
FINI
Table of Contents
Chapter1
Chapter2
Chapter3
Chapter4
Chapter5
Chapter6
Chapter7
Chapter8
Chapter9
Chapter10
Chapter11
Chapter12
Chapter13
Chapter14
Chapter15
Chapter16
Chapter17
Chapter18
Chapter19
Chapter20
Chapter21
Chapter22
Chapter23
Chapter24
Chapter25
Chapter26
Chapter27
Chapter28
Chapter29
Chapter30
Chapter31
Chapter32
Chapter33
Chapter34
Chapter35
Epilogue
A Special Treat For Endworld Fans
Boys Night Out
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