S. Davis - 900 Miles

It was killing time, and I didn’t see a clear way to make sure we weren’t going to be on the wrong end of that equation.

Jumping to my feet, I stepped away from the tree ready for battle. Taking on three of the creatures was the least of my worries. Trying not to get shot by Gordon’s men… now, that was a different story. Kyle threw his hand toward me in a downward motion—Tomahawk Chop-style for the Atlanta Braves fans out there. All the while, he kept the shotgun scoped on where he thought Gordon’s men were hunkered down. He had my back, but I needed to cover my front.

Knowing there wasn’t another choice, I stepped toward the first creature to reach me. Bringing my hammer around in a vicious swing through its jaw, I watched as the Z’s mangled teeth broke out across the second monster, who relentlessly darted past its fallen comrade. Not having time to bring the hammer back up, I arched my back, wrapped both hands around the oversized handle and threw it upwards with every ounce of force I could muster. The curved sharp end of the hammer drove through the throat of the monster—causing its eyes to push out from the force of the blow.

As the creature dropped, I realized the hammer was stuck in its neck under the jawbone. Pushing my boot across its chest, I gave a good heave and yanked the jaw loose, flipping it into the sky over my shoulder.

Breathing heavily, I glanced toward Kyle. He was watching me with one eye while keeping a close lookout for the bastards across from us. As the final monster approached, I brought the hammer across it’s knee and quickly slammed my boot down through its face just as it hit the ground.

Kicking chunks of brain off my foot, I shot my gaze over toward where I thought Gordon’s men to be. For the briefest of moments, I thought maybe they had taken off, slipping away without us realizing it. We were the perfect distraction. How else could they just sit through all of this?

Across from us, a giant branch fell from its perch. Crashing down into the flames, it blasted tiny bits of dry burning leaves into the air. I watched in horror as they floated back down like tiny parachutes, setting another section of the forest ablaze.

The fire would have been beautiful if it weren’t intent on destroying everything in its path.

Just then, snapping me from the thought, I saw Jarvis lift his head up to look around the parking lot. Something had him spooked. Tuning my own senses to listen beyond the crackling of the flames, I dropped down as I suddenly heard it. Something, or rather some things, were moving at record pace just beyond the forest walls outside the parking lot.

It hit me in that moment… this fire would turn out to be the death of all of us. Turning into an unstoppable beacon for the dead, it screamed into the night, calling to the fastest creatures from the mega-horde, pulling them right in on our position.

We very quickly realized that the horde was not as compact at the edges as it had appeared from the sky. There were front-runners for sure, moving faster and more nimbly than the middle of the pack.

The first of the dead to reach the parking lot darted out of the darkness, hunched over, maniacally spinning around and searching for any signs of life. Digging my face into the ground, I peered through the tall grass, watching in stupefied horror as they moved between the cars and other fallen Zs. Somehow these creatures understood the flames, adding an amplified madness to their movement that I hadn’t yet seen. Any hope of it being a distraction like a good old spotlight might be was soon squashed as I watched them charge in toward the flames. They’d move in close enough to feel the heat, and then turn back and dart toward the black tar parking lot. They knew we were out here, and the bile coursing through their veins was boiling for the fight.

By the time I had crawled over to Jarvis and Kyle, there were six of the creatures running back and forth toward the fire. The crunching, snapping noises through the leaves behind us told me that there were more on the way.

“Did Gordon’s men takeoff? Is it clear?” I whispered above the roar of the fire, hoping that we could take off into the woods and away from this hell.

“No, I haven’t seen them move,” Kyle said without hesitation. “They’re out there.”

It was killing time, and I didn’t see a clear way to make sure we weren’t going to be on the wrong end of that equation.

A shriek, thirty feet from where we thought Gordon’s men to be, broke our conversation.

“Ohh God! No no noooo !” Two men jumped up, scattering out into the parking lot. Three of the faster monsters were descending upon the poor bastard they had left behind, who was calling out to the Lord Almighty. Screaming at the top of what his smoke-filled lungs would allow, he discharged his weapon into the air as the first Z caught hold of his leg, tripping him backwards while the other creatures dove down atop the unlucky son of a bitch, pinning him down.

I didn’t have the right vantage point to see everything that happened. However, I could see his arms flailing around trying to hold back the dead as he madly threw punches into the air. The bloody spray accompanying the dark flesh being torn from his body was the last thing visible before he finally stopped moving.

Wildly firing their weapons into the creatures surrounding them, the two men, now in the middle of the parking lot, stood at each other’s backs. They spun around, discharging a flurry of bullets into the dead circling up around them.

The chest cavity of one of the Zs blew out toward us. I could actually see the muzzle shot of the weapon through the dripping hole. Relentlessly, the monster continued to advance on the guy until he pulled his shit together and put a bullet into the thing’s skull.

We were knee-deep in death. Complete mayhem broke out as both of our two little groups stepped from our hiding places, ready to kill, or be killed. Gordon’s boys were less than twenty feet from us, and taking the bulk of the onslaught. Even with the light from the forest fire now engulfing everything around us, the gunshots still flashed brightly as each Z dropped around them.

The monsters were emerging from the forest in larger numbers now. Kyle appeared to be saving his rounds and was taking them down with the butt of his shotgun. I watched in amazement as Jarvis, dragging his crippled leg behind him, used the wrought iron fence post that Kyle had found earlier with spectacular precision. Not flinching for a moment, he dropped each creature that came within striking distance.

There was no hiding. We weren’t going to run up to the top of a building to get a break, or take off in our heavy duty Hummer to escape. We were in the open. We couldn’t even climb a tree to get away. They were all on fire.

For the briefest of moments, the parking lot was devoid of creatures, giving us enough time to look over at Gordon’s men. They were breathing deeply, awaiting the next wave of the horde. To my surprise, they both appeared young. Too young to be out here firing guns at us. I remember thinking that they looked no older than seventeen. When I was that age, I was fighting acne. These kids were out here fighting for their lives.

Making eye contact with us, both of the kids lifted their guns toward Kyle, who already had the shotgun pointed in their direction. The fire was blazing, weapons were drawn, and we had a giant horde of Zs honing in on our location.

Yet nobody pulled the trigger…

I watched as the kids looked at each other. Even through the smoke, I could see the fear in their eyes. This was a no-win situation, and we all knew it. Kyle nodded over toward the woods, while still making eye contact with them. In that moment, I realized that we had an unspoken agreement.