Mark Clodi - About a Woman, a Zombie Chronicles Novel

"What? Easier to hit a standing target…" Dora started as she brought the shot gun up, she stopped aiming when she noticed the barrel was bent sideways, "Goddamn it! Is nothing easy?" the other zombies came around from behind the car and got up when no more shots were fired. Two, including the one with no foot, ducked under the hood to go after Willy.

Dora raised the gun up anyway and aimed for Andi, but tried to imagine where the shot would hit given the bend in the barrel, the zombies laughed as she fired, until a young zombie woman next to Andi went down missing everything above and to the right side of her nose. As the girl tumbled to the ground like so much meat the other zombies again jumped in, Dora fired once more, hitting an Hispanic woman who looked eerily similar to Mary in the stomach.

After that it was a chaotic melee where she used the shotgun as a baseball bat to break bones while the zombies pummeled her from every side. Andi stayed back and yelled, "Don't kill her! Don't bite her! I get the Dora! Bring her to me."

Under the hood the zombie's reached for Willy and he kept his hand with the screw driver buried in the ground until the last second, then he whipped it out and put it through the first one's head with enough force to pin the thing to the hood of the suburban. The one footed zombie didn't back off, instead he reached forward with his hands and latched onto Willy's wrists. When he started pulling all Willy could do was scream.

Dora fought to keep from letting the zombies get a hold on her; two of them had come forward with their gut shot companion lagging a few steps behind. Andi seemed content to wait the fight out, the three to one odds would have scared Dora even a week before but in the last two minutes Dora has already killed three super zombies and hurt two others badly. The zombies she was facing were all about her age physically, in their mid to late twenties when they died, the gut shot woman was African American with prominent belly, that woman had Beth's arm and was still carrying it as she came forward, the other two were both white, one was a woman about five ten with scraggly strawberry blond hair, a darker complexion with a face scarred by acne. The man was taller and more muscular; he was pushing six foot, three inches tall and weighed well over two hundred pounds.

"My you are a big boy!" Dora said as he stepped up and swung at her. He missed and looked confused that he had not hit her, Dora responded by swinging the shotgun barrel over and around, landing it on his forearm as he blocked her attempted head shot. His wrist broke with a sickening sound and the barrel still smashed him in the head, sending him reeling to the ground.

The zombie was not out, but he was twitching around and would need a few moments to mend, by that time the fighting might be over. Dora immediately moved backwards again, this last step took her back onto the solid footing of the pavement. As the two women approached Andi screamed at them again, "Get her! Now! I want her now!"

The women looked dazed for a second, as if the girl's shouting had more power than that of an annoying six year old. Seizing the chance Dora thrust the bent shotgun barrel at Fatty, hoping to catch the still hurt zombie off guard. The blunt end of the barrel struck the zombie right through the left eye and Dora screamed primordially as she shoved it home into the woman's skull. The zombie fell backwards ripping the shotgun from Dora's hands.

Still thinking on her feet Dora turned and ran towards the zombie's vehicles, the Ford Ranger was still running. She had just made it to the door when Willy's scream sounded from behind her, causing her to stop and turn around. The one footed zombie had the boy out from under the suburban and was dragging him to Andi. Willy didn't look very good at all, both of his arms looked longer than they should and his left leg ended in a bleeding stump at the shin. He was crying and letting out a low moan punctuated by screams as the zombie jerked him left or right on the way to Andi.

It was Dora who was struck off guard this time, as the blond slammed into her in a waist high tackle, knocking them both into the ranger's side door and leaving a dent six inches deep. Dora couldn't breathe, her ribs were broke, she just knew it, either that or she had been torn in half. For the zombie's part it didn't fare much better than she did, it had tackled her with its shoulder and a large part of the dent in the truck was from where the thing's head had slammed into the door.

Both women, dead and living, rolled around on the ground trying to recover before the other did. The blond rose to her feet first, as Dora rolled under the truck to get away. However, she was not fast enough; the zombie caught Dora by the ankle and pulled her back out into the open. Once the zombie had her out, it grabbed Dora's other ankle and started swinging her around by her feet, a motion that ended abruptly with Dora being smashed through the tailgate of the truck.

Dora was partially able to cushion the blow with her arms, but the impact left her feeling like she had snapped her left wrist, she ended up in sitting cross legged with her back to the cab of the pickup, one hand clutching her head, the other cradled on her lap as she sat up. The blond zombie was gawking at Dora over the smashed in tailgate of the truck.

"What the fuck are you? You look human." said the blond.

"Yeah, you do too."

"I'm not, but I can see you in a different way, you look alive. You can't be, otherwise you would be dead." the zombie gestured at the crushed in tail gate, "That would have killed anyone."

"I was a stunt woman before z-day. I can take a fall real good." Dora quipped trying to buy time to get her second wind.

Willy screamed again causing both of them to look over at the boy where the other zombie had dropped him next to Andi. The girl picked Willy up by his upper arm, his elbow bent sideways and flopped his wrist and hand down towards the ground, eliciting another scream. This caused the girl to giggle and shake him a little harder.

Andi pulled Willy up until his screaming face was next to hers and then she said in her little girl voice, "Don't play with your food Andi. Don't leave food behind Andi. Don't listen to Dora, she is a potty mouth Andi. Don't tell anyone Andi. Don't do this Andi, don't do that Andi. Andi, Andi, Andi!" Her voice grew louder and she started shaking the boy more with each mention of her own name. Dora could only watch, there were no weapons or anything else in the back of the truck for her to even try throwing at the little girl to distract her. Fortunately the blond seemed just as mesmerized by what was going on and didn't use the moment to attack Dora.

"I can do what I want!" the girl screamed into Willy's face, "I can do what I want! No one can tell me what to do! I make you do what I want, you don't make me do what you want! You're all mine. I get to make rules not you!" then slowly she leaned in and took a bite out of Willy's neck, his head lolled sideways and his eyes stared directly into Dora's as the girl bit down, he was no longer screaming and mouthed the word 'Go' at her, tears streaming down his face. This broke Dora's infatuation with the scene and she slowly pushed herself up near the back window of the ranger. The blond was looking at Andi feed on the boy and the one footed zombie had not been paying attention to Dora in the first place, with a shotgun Dora was certain she could have put an end to all three of them in a matter of seconds. The fourth zombie, the tall muscular one, was still shaking in the tall grass by the shoulder of the road, no threat to anyone yet.

The high pitched pining of a motorcycle broke the silence, it arced up out of the ditch and straight into the blond zombie. Dora saw Jake and Becka riding double on the bike, which slowly crashed after smashing into the zombie woman. Becka bailed off from behind Jake and rolled into the median while the tall lanky man tried to regain control of the motorcycle and steer it towards Andi. He fell short of that goal and flipped over the handlebars as the wheel dug into the grass, Jake ended up on his back with his head at Andi's feet. Even from where Dora sat in the back of the truck bed she heard him say "Fuck."