Jodi Lee - Ante Mortem

Napro sprang forward to stand side by side with his son, the females behind them, quivering with fright but not crying. Napro felt the pride return; despite being females, both Teva and Rani had more courage than some men he had known. That was good. He had a feeling they would need every reserve of bravery they possessed before this thing ended for good.

Thrusting his spear, Napro aimed at the belly of the creature Gel had just stabbed, thrusting the weapon deep, all the way to its hilt, before yanking it back out with a twisting motion. The creature stumbled, but did not fall. From the wound made by Napro’s spear came a trickling flow of black blood. The wound should have gushed, would have gushed if it had been on anything alive. Anything alive would have been downed easily; Napro knew a killing shot when he made one.

But the monster only looked down at its stomach, then back up at Napro, screeching at him, its mouth open wide enough to show that its tongue, along with its genitals, had long ago rotted away or been eaten by insects. Insects always consume the soft spots first.

Napro stabbed at it again, once more aiming for the stomach. Still, though he drove the spear with all his might, twisting and jerking it back and forth, the creature did not fall. Beside him, Gel had turned away to face another monster that was approaching from the right. It seemed that the surrounding creatures were growing braver once they saw that the humans could not hurt them.

Pulling his spear free of the monster’s belly, Napro groaned when the thing’s rotted intestines spilled from the ragged hole he’d created. Behind him, one of the females screamed. The dead man didn’t even glance down at his own entrails, but marched forward, fingers gray with decay wiggling as he reached for Napro.

“Run!” Napro yelled at the others, thrusting his spear at the zombie’s face. He didn’t understand how the thing could even see out of its milky white eyes, but some how it could. Unless it was relying on scent…

He dared a quick glance behind him and repeated his command, louder, with more authority. “I said, run! ”

His wife and daughter did just that, giving a wide berth to the group of zombies Napro and Gel were trying to fight off. A few of the monsters lurched in the direction the females had run, two actually giving pursuit, but they were slow and clumsy and Teva and Rani easily outpaced them.

Napro raised his spear over his head, both hands gripping it tight enough to make his fingers ache. He darted to the left, as though to follow the women and as the zombie turned towards him, Napro sprang back to his original position, slamming the spear downward at the creatures face. His aim was true, the spear impaling itself in the zombie’s right eye socket.

The thing screamed, tried briefly to grapple with the weapon, yanking on it at the same time Napro twisted, its good eye rolling skyward, and then it crumpled to the ground. Napro kept hold of the spear and grimaced at the slippery wet sound it made as it withdrew from the thing’s skull.

He stared at his kill for a brief moment, amazed that the zombie lay unmoving and seemingly dead. He felt a pang of pride, having defeated what surely must be a servant of demons, if not a demon itself.

“ FATHER!”

Napro’s spun towards his son’s voice and saw him struggling with four zombies, his spear lying uselessly at his feet. Two of the things had him by the arms, while the others clawed at his face and chest. Gel tried to twist out of the grasp of the monsters, but they held him fast and seemed to be—Napro could not believe his eyes—they seemed to be trying to bite him.

Crossing the distance between them, Napro charged forward, his spear pointed towards the one who held his son by his left arm. With all his strength, he plowed his weapon forward, straight into the monster’s ear, hard enough to cause the lance to snap in half.

The zombie howled, immediately releasing its grip on Gel, and fell first to its knees before flopping onto its side, dead.

One of the zombies clawing at Gel’s chest turned to face Napro, Gel forgotten. It clambered forward, thrashing its arms at Napro. Napro ducked, tossing away the useless stick he now held and bending for his son’s spear. Grabbing it, he shoved upward, catching the thing in the neck, just beneath its Adam’s apple. Dark blood oozed from the wound sluggishly, thick as animal lard, but the creature did not stop fighting.

Gel screamed and when Napro turned, he saw one of the dead things ripping into his son’s throat with its teeth, pulling out a chunk of flesh, blood spurting across its face as it reared back, chewing.

The man felt his soul collapse as he watched the life fade from Gel’s eyes and the boy drifted like a feather to the ground. No longer able to scream, Napro did the screaming for him, shoving past the zombies to kneel beside his son. His cupped Gel’s head in his hand, yelling, trying to get the boy to focus, and then he was being yanked away, pulled by countless hands, heads bending towards him with gnashing teeth.

“ No!” Napro wanted to remain with his dying boy, did his best to jerk free from the gripping hands, but there were too many of them. He felt teeth sink into his shoulder, his forearm, his cheek. The pain was searing and Napro’s vision grayed around the edges. He wanted to give up, let the monsters take him. It would be easy. Just relax, lie beside his son and close his eyes. He knew it would be quick.

But still he fought. Not for Gel, who was already gone, two zombies shredding his body, tearing the skin from his bones with a fierceness and glee that Napro had never seen before, not even in the most frightened and starving of animals.

He fought for his mate and the rest of their offspring. He knew if he died, they would have no chance.

Crawling now, he managed to shove one of the zombies back with a quick jab of his elbow into its face, but even as he did so, he felt more teeth clamp onto the back of his calf. Fumbling, he searched for the fallen lance, found it, kicking frantically to get the monster off his leg. He rolled to his back, spear pointing upward, stabbing at the decayed faces while tears trickled from his eyes and into the wound on his cheek. The stinging barely registered. He knew now to aim at the faces, the eyes. Get the spear to penetrate the skull and he might survive long enough to warn the rest of his clan.

Zombies blocked out the sky.

Napro stabbed when and where he could, but quickly realized he was vastly outnumbered. It seemed more of the monsters had gathered for the slaughter—the feast—and Napro was destined to die this way. Eaten alive, just as his son had been.

He wanted to take out as many as he could while he lived and continued to thrash, thrust and kick, his scream a constant now, like his agony, like his spilling blood…

Closing his eyes against those rotted faces, he prayed to all the gods in heaven, prayed for his family and for—

A deafening high pitched whine drowned out all other sounds and he opened his eyes, amazed to see the zombie straddling his legs on fire and screaming. Napro craned his neck, saw a flash of brown skin and dark tangled hair: Teva.

She had come back with the only weapon she could find—a torch—and now was systematically touching the flame to all of the zombies heads, what little hair they had left the only thing on their bodies that would easily catch fire.

The monsters rose up, making sounds neither Napro nor Teva had ever heard before. No living creature could have shrieked the way these things were shrieking now. It was a sound exclusive to the dead, dying once again.

Napro was finally able to struggle to his feet, though he immediately sank to his knees again. He cried out in pain and used his spear as leverage to help him stand once more.