J. Knoll - Zoe, Undead

Drawing a deep breath, Zoe yawned and stretched, then she took her rifle and leaned it against the wall beside the couch, right beside Zachary's, and padded over to him. Lifting one side of the blanket, she slipped under it with him and snuggled up to him, drawing her legs up beside her as she laid her head against his shoulder and closed her eyes. She felt him settle the blanket over her shoulder, felt his other arm slip around her and he shifted, laying his cheek on top of her head.

Both of them drifted off to sleep in a couple of minutes.

"Zach," someone said in a low voice.

Zachary and Zoe both awakened to find his arm laying over her. She had settled into his lap at some point and had curled her arm under her head as she slept soundly across his thighs. They both drew deep breaths and Zoe pushed herself up, sitting somewhat upright beside him as she rubbed her eyes and tried to awaken. When they both looked ahead of them, they found three of the soldiers, including Private Higgins, standing in front of them with their weapons in their hands, and they were all staring down at the two.

One of them motioned toward the door with his head and said, "Okay, lovebirds. We need you out front. Sun's up and we have movement out there."

They both nodded and Zachary pulled the blanket from them. Neither spoke as they stood and looked for their weapons.

Once outside, they discovered everyone but the engineer was already out there and it was safe to reason that he was attending the generators. The door faced east, the sun was still low and seeing into the distance and what was going on out there against the early morning sunlight was difficult at best as everyone shielded their eyes against the sun to see what was moving.

"See how those in front are moving?" Alfred asked. "Those are mad-dogs. I count at least eight of 'em and a whole crew of others behind 'em."

One of the soldiers, a corporal who had been one of the survivors, shook his head and grimly informed, "We have thirty-two rounds of two two three apiece."

Higgins vented frustration in a hard breath and observed, "And there are a lot more of them out there than that."

"You guys should get back inside," Zoe insisted.

Alfred's eyes slid to the girl and he said, "Those mad-dogs'll be on you directly, sweet thing. It's best you come in with us."

Zoe looked down to her M-4, and she pulled the bolt back and allowed it to chamber the first round with a loud clack. "I'll shoot them first. When they're gone there won't be any left to bother me."

The Corporal took her shoulder and demanded, "What happens when you're out of ammo?"

Hesitantly, she shrugged, her gaze fixed on her weapon. "I still have my pistol. Maybe Colonel Halstead will come back by the time I'm completely out of bullets."

"I'll stay with you," Zachary assured.

Zoe shook her head. "Thanks, but they'll try to eat you. I'll be okay." She finally looked up from her weapon, toward the advancing zombie hoard that numbered in the hundreds, and the handful that charged ahead of them. "You guys have to keep the power going for the hospital and you have to keep them away from Edward while he works on it." She looked over her shoulder to the Corporal. "I have to do what I can to help. I don't want to see anyone else I like eaten by them."

He met her eyes with hard eyes of his own, and he could tell she was frightened as she looked bravely up at him. With a nod, he ordered in a loud voice, "Everybody pick a target. We're taking out the mad-dogs before we fall back." With that he raised his weapon to his eye and took careful aim.

The charging mad-dogs were less than fifty yards away and closing the gap rapidly.

Ten people raised their weapons, and when half of that fifty yards was gone, they all fired almost at once.

Six of the eight mad-dogs were dropped immediately with that first volley, and the last two advanced only another three or four steps before being cut down as well.

"All right," the Corporal ordered. "That's them. We'll fall back to a choke point at the end of the hallway and hold 'em as long as we can." He looked to Zoe again and ordered, "If it gets too intense out here then I want you to fall back, too. Find a safe place and wait for Colonel Halstead and reinforcements. We'll take care of business in there."

"Yes, Sir," she complied. Turning to the threat as the others retreated inside the building, she held her rifle with a tight grip as she watched the rest advance on her with a relentless purpose. There were hundreds and she stood no chance of stopping them all, and she did not know if there were more mad-dogs among them. She raised her weapon and took aim at the first she saw, one that was just over eighty yards away. Perhaps she could not stop them all, but maybe all she needed to do was buy time.

She squeezed her trigger.

The round hit one in the shoulder, spinning him almost halfway around, but he recovered and kept advancing.

"I need to be closer," she said aloud to herself. Fearlessly, she strode toward them, keeping her weapon at the ready. About twenty steps later she stopped and looked around her. They were coming from both sides as well, an undead hoard she could not hope to stop.

That familiar growl sounded from the left and she looked that way, then swung around, planted her feet as she had been taught and took careful aim, waiting until the charging mad-dog was about ten yards away before she fired.

Her round hit his cheek and spun him around. He collapsed, but scrambled back to his feet and charged again, this time with the side of his face and part of his head missing.

Slightly panicked, she aimed quickly and fired two more shots, hitting his eye and forehead, and this time he went down and stayed there.

Four precious bullets were now gone. The rest of her shots had to count!

Aiming carefully for foreheads and noses, she fired and dropped one, then another, and another. Though some of them stumbled over the fallen, they just kept coming! She backed away and looked to her right, seeing one walking faster than the others and right toward that open doorway, and he was only a few yards from her. Raising the weapon to her eye, she shot him squarely in the forehead, then watched as he dropped to his knees and slumped forward to the ground. Killing them was easy, but she knew she was running out of time and bullets.

Zoe retreated slowly, firing and felling zombie after zombie, and soon her rifle made a final empty click. Her last magazine dropped to the ground as she lowered her weapon, then she crouched down and laid it on the ground as she watched the horror continue to advance. Standing again, she pulled out her revolver and aimed carefully with both hands. Once again she fired with precision and at very close range, making every last bullet count, and slowly she found herself retreating toward that doorway. She reloaded and shot six more, reloaded and did it again, reloaded and turned to cut off those from the side that were almost at the door. Her pistol ammunition was going just as fast and soon she would be out of ways to fight them.

Loading her last six rounds, she did not fire right away, instead backing up to the doorway and looking around her as the zombies closed in from all sides.

A gurgling growl alerted her and she drew a gasp, looking to her right to see something pushing through the crowd of zombies, and moving very fast. She pushed one zombie back, and the mad-dog that charged shoved another aside, saw her, and bared its teeth. This one was a woman in a white blouse and skirt, and she bared her blackened teeth as she sounded a horrible yell and launched herself at the zombie girl.

Zoe fired and missed, then fired again when the mad-dog was almost on top of her and finally connected, hitting the mad-dog between the bridge of the nose and the eye. She backed away, into the door jamb as the ferocious zombie fell, then she looked to the hundreds that mobbed in on her from every side. They could smell the people within just like Zoe could, and they were determined to get inside and feed.