Mark Clodi - Undead Advantage, a Zombie Chronicles Novel

Nuke seemed to benefit far more from his meal than Dave, the pure amounts that he consumed amazed Dave and by the time he was done eating he could not only talk coherently, but his little belly was so distended that Dave was tempted to call him 'Ethiopia', instead of 'Nuke'. That was a couple hours ago and Nuke had vomited a vile ichor and shat more of it out, once in his pants, which disgusted Dave so much that he beat the boy and had made him go naked until he was sure he was not going to go any more. Now Nuke had on some loose sweat pants, easy to get down in emergencies, plus a pair of Nike's which seemed to fit him well enough, on top was Rockies t-shirt two sizes too big.

Answering his question, Nuke said, "Boy, no girls."

Dave smiled cruelly and said, "Shows what you know stupid. The girl can open doors your wanker never will. Adults go ape shit for girls in distress. I'll take them both. No, you'll take them both and if either of them winds up dead, so will you. I got no use for people who don't do as I say. Got it?"

Nuke nodded and they continued to watch as the group outside had a discussion, about eighty feet away at the end of the block. One of the girls had a bow, a goddamn bow and arrow. Dave smiled. "Christ, girlfriend, this isn't some sort of stupid game." Still it would pay to be prudent, what if she knew how to use it. Shoot her first, or at least at her, then take out the bigger boys. Six shots for six people, and Dave knew he would miss. At least once, probably; he would be lucky to hit three of them, they were not slow zombies he could throw rocks at. Yeah figure on getting three of them down, then either re-load and shoot the rest of them or just go mano-a-mano, there was no way in hell they could win, Dave was feeling very, very strong right now.

Turning to Nuke Dave said, "Get the kids knocked out or break a leg or something, so they can't go fast, then make sure any of them I shoot stay down, then jump anyone I am fighting from behind. You are not to run away, you die out there to keep me from dying, got it?" Dave put an extra mental push into his words, it gave him a feeling that Nuke could not disobey him, he was not sure if it would, time would tell.

Ah good, the group was making a decision, the right decision, to investigate the motorcycle and gun. The group came forward warily, at about forty feet from the motorcycle two of the heavily armored guys and the boy came forward, the rest of the took up a holding position. The third guy with a shield and the ax had a revolver, he took it out and held it down along his body. He looked inexperienced holding it, funny really he looked more confident when he had been holding the ax. 'Target One' changed to him in Dave's mind, revolver guy gets two bullets, girl with the bow, gets one, two guys in front each get one, then whoever looks most threatening gets the last one. Plus there would be misses. The boy in front had a long dagger out, probably nothing to worry about, he was half Dave's size. "Watch the boy he has a big knife.", Dave said to Nuke, who stood quietly watching with big eyes as the trio approached the cycle and gun.

Dave had told Nuke earlier that the signal for the attack was when anyone touched the gun. His reasoning was that anyone who grabbed the gun would be distracted by it, try to get it to work and in those crucial seconds where they figured out it didn't work, they would be dead.

The three guys stood there looking at the bike from about fifteen feet away, Dave could not quite hear what they were saying, but they were pointed to the blood on the ground where fatty had died. 'Shit' , thought Dave, 'I should have moved the fucking bike twenty feet away or so, it is so obviously a trap they will never fall for it now.'

Yet they did, the older guys stopped and looked around, they sent the boy up with his knife, he approached the bike, and flicked the gun off the seat. Dave said, "Good enough, go!" to Nuke who looked confused as to if flicking the gun off the seat with a knife was the same thing as touching it with their hand. "Go!"

Dave pulled his revolver out and got a bead on the kid with the gun. Meanwhile Nuke scrambled towards the group out the front door of the building they had been hiding. Dave watched him go and also watched as the older boy with the gun raised it and prepared to fire. Dave pulled the trigger and fired until the young man went down, 'Was that two shots? Or three?' he thought to himself, 'Goddamn it! I am too far away!'

Pulling himself up Dave burst out of the front of the store and watched as the girl with the bow put an arrow into Nuke from about twenty feet away, Nuke was running for the little girl first and the arrow, which went through his forearm and pinned it to his neck, not slowing him up in the slightest.

'Gotta get closer to the chick with the bow!' this was Dave's only thought as he charged towards the 'rear' group to get a shot off, ignoring, the three people closer to his motorcycle, who were about fifteen feet away. Nuke slammed into the little girl, an all pro football star could not have done a better job of knocking her on her ass. As they went down Dave closed to within 'accurate' pistol range, or about thirty feet from the young woman, he sighted down the gun, going for a torso shot and just as he was about to pull the trigger he hand was knocked aside and the gun went flying. Staring in amazement at his arm Dave saw a long sliver of metal sticking out of it, about eighteen inches long.

"Sonuvabitch!" he cried, it was the little kid's dagger, sticking through his arm! Dave had expected the trio to run away, not stand there facing down a guy with a pistol. Turning Dave saw the little kid looking smug and worried at the same time, obviously happy with his throw and afraid of what was coming. Only he was not alone, the two larger boys jumped in front of him and stood shoulder to shoulder, one of them yelling to the boy, "Stay back Matt!" and the advanced on Dave.

Giving them his full attention, Dave mimicked them, "Oh yes, stay back Matt! And stick around, me and you are gonna have a long talk once I get rid of these bozos!" As he said this an arrow appeared out of his shoulder. "Fucking Christ!" Dave yelled, a little higher and the arrow would have hit him in the head. To prevent any further bow shots Dave jumped forward into the two young men, 'let bow and arrow girl get a shot off now.' he thought, thinking she wouldn't risk firing for fear of hitting her friends.

As he slammed into the taller boy's shield both of them took swings at him with their swords. One sword bit deeply into Dave's lower leg, breaking the bone, however as he spun aside he was able to dodge the other blow entirely. Not quite breaking through the two Dave jumped back, keeping them between him and the archer and trying to buy time for his leg to heal to the point where he could use it again. The boy Matt had picked the Glock up off the ground was trying to figure out how to use it. Dave saw Nuke running at him from the side, Nuke had sprouted two more arrows, one in his back and another in one of his legs, neither of which stopped him from tackling Matt into the Harley.

While this by-play was going on the taller young man had lumbered forward and tried to hit Dave, they were talking quietly to themselves, planning their moves and Dave figured he had better just handle them one at a time. Behind the young men the bow woman was trying to get a shot on him or Nuke, the other two in that group were bent over the guy on the ground and the little girl, checking to see if they were alright.

Dave feinted back at the smaller boy, then jumped sideways into the larger one, knocking his sword aside with ease. Once close in Dave smashed the kid in the face three times, then swept his hand down on the kid's shield arm, probably breaking it, the kid was tough and spun away from Dave and stayed on his feet, shrugging off the pain of his broken nose and split lips and trying to bring his shield back up into line. He did get his sword up and between them, which put all three of them in a line giving the archer another shot, which took Dave right in the neck, he gurgled and pulled at the arrow. He felt, then saw the slender blade of the other kids enter through his back and come out of his stomach, with Dave impaled the bigger boy stepped up and swung at Dave's head, trying to end the combat. Dave's gestures were a ruse however, the neck shot hurt like hell, but was not a blow that slowed him down, and the impalement? Well the kid in back should have taken a head shot, not stabbed him through the chest.