Dan is overwhelmed by a sense of exhilarated joy. It’s dead! He crushed it completely …
The zombie is lying dead, still where it landed.
The driver gets out of the car.
Selina lets out a gasp. “Jonas?”
The young guy doesn’t appear to hear her. He walks back towards the zombie.
“No, wait!” Dan calls out. “Don’t get too close!”
“Jonas!” Selina shouts, running after him. “Hey, Jonas!”
Jonas still doesn’t hear. It must be because of the shock. Or perhaps the rumbling of the BMW’s engine drowns out Selina’s voice. He walks up to the zombie and kneels down.
It’s okay, Dan tells himself, running after Selina as best he can on his hurting ankle. It’s dead. It has to be. It can’t hurt him.
But his thoughts are proven wrong in the very next second, as the zombie lifts its head—even from this far away, Dan can tell how the neck is twisted in a completely unnatural way—and grabs Jonas around the leg with a bloody hand.
Jonas, who is wearing shorts, lets out a yell of surprise and tries to pull back, dragging the zombie along. Most of the broken body seems to be put out of function as the bones are crushed. The free arm and both legs look like limp elastic bands, as Jonas jerks his leg back again and again in order to shake off the zombie. But the arm holding on to Jonas is still working fine, and the zombie isn’t intent on giving up without a fight.
Jonas trips and lands on his buttocks, kicking wildly at the zombie. “Let go of my leg, goddamnit!”
Selina comes to the rescue and starts kicking the zombie in the ribs. It doesn’t seem to have even the slightest effect, though, as the zombie just keeps on tugging at Jonas’s leg in its desperate attempt to reach it with its mouth.
“What the fuck are you doing, dude?!” Jonas shouts. “Stop that! Let go of me!”
Finally, one of his kicks connects, hitting the zombie squarely between the eyes. Its head is flung backwards, producing a crunching sound loud enough for Dan to hear over the rumbling of the engine.
A couple of uncontrolled twitches go through the body of the zombie, as the last circuits in the already damaged spine are cut. Then it lies down limply, as Allan dies for the second time in his life.
TEN
Jonas immediately jumps to his feet and backs away from what used to be a young police officer not many hours ago but now only bears a faint resemblance to a person.
Everything went by so fast, that Selina almost didn’t have time to take it all in. She acted out of pure instinct when she started kicking Allan, and not until now, as the immediate danger has passed, does she realize how easily she could have been bitten. Had Allan let go of Jonas and instead turned to the side, she might not have been able to act quickly enough to get out of the way.
But that didn’t happen. The zombie didn’t let go of Jonas, and now she’s staring at the bloody scratch marks on his ankle.
“What the fuck, man,” Jonas wheezes, glaring from the dead officer to Selina. “I mean, what the fuck! What just happened?” He raises his hands halfway to his head, as though not sure where to put them. “He fucking attacked me … You saw it, he fucking attacked me! I didn’t mean to … I wasn’t trying to hurt him, I just … I had to … holy shit! What the fuck …”
“It’s okay,” Selina says, trying her best to sound reassuring. “You didn’t hurt him, I promise you. He was already …” For some reason, she can’t get that final word out.
Jonas stares at her, his eyes wild. “Was already what? What the fuck happened to him, Selina? His eyes, man, I tell you … they were all fucked up … and where is his fucking foot?” Jonas’s voice is rising in pitch. It’s clear to Selina he’s about to have a panic attack or maybe even faint.
She wants to tell him it’ll be all right, but she suddenly can’t speak. Maybe because she knows it will be a lie. Jonas won’t be all right. Not at all.
Dan steps closer. Selina notices he’s still holding the hammer.
Like he was ever going to use it, she thinks, feeling a sudden violent anger towards Dan, like it’s all his fault. What a great hero. Keeps out of harm’s way until it’s all over.
“Did you get …?” Dan asks, but shuts up as his eyes fall on Jonas’s leg.
Jonas doesn’t hear the question. He doesn’t even seem to register Dan’s presence. He grabs his hair and repeats over and over again: “What the fuck … what the fuck …”
“Oh, no,” Dan sighs, rubbing his forehead. “What now?”
Selina just shrugs. She can’t take any more in. Can’t deal with any more decisions. Can hardly think. Allan is dead, but he managed to scratch Jonas before he went. Now it all begins over again. Another innocent person will die. And this time, it’s someone she’s known for more than a few hours. Someone she was kissing only last night.
What is he even doing out here? Couldn’t he just have stayed home?
Selina feels like crying and screaming at the same time. It’s all she can do to keep herself together.
The sound of another car engine makes her turn and look down the road. A police car is coming this way very fast, no lights or sirens on.
“Shit,” Dan says behind her. “We need to get out of here, Selina.”
He goes to grab her by the arm, but she pulls free. “Let go of me,” she hisses.
“But … we need to hide,” he says. “If we get arrested then no one will be able to …” He glances at Jonas, who has sat down in the middle of the road,
