All looked clear.
“Ok, keep the noise down. Let’s do this.” She reached down to grab one end of her burden.
The group moved towards their destination. At first, the group rushed a bit. Melissa reminded her charges to calm down and slow down the pace, and they did.
They arrived at the dig location with no issues and the team split into two groups as planned.
Ern and Nat carried the garbage bags about fifteen yards away and started digging.
Emily placed herself just ahead and toward the middle of both groups and continued to scan the area for threats as Keith and Melissa started digging a grave.
Nothing happened for about ten minutes. The group started to relax as they continued to work. Emily had drifted over to Melissa and Keith to check on their progress. But just then Emily’s radio crackled.
“Contact, contact. One bogie spotted. Northwest at treeline.” They froze as Bill’s static voice came over the small hand-held device. The three of them looked in the direction Bill had indicated. A naked man was lurching towards them. He had just emerged from the stand of trees and was still at least a hundred yards out.
Emily drew her pistol and flicked off the safety.
“Emily!” Mel whispered loudly. It got her attention. Mel turned to face the rest of the group. “It’s only one guy. Everybody knows what to do, right?” She didn’t wait for an answer. “Get into positions.”
Keith put down his shovel and pulled out his hammers. Melissa reached for her axe but changed her mind and hefted the shovel in a couple practice swings. Satisfied with the weapon, she moved with Keith away from the half-dug grave.
Choose the field of battle and half the battle is won. Or something like that. Mel reminded herself.
Emily had gotten Ern and Nat’s attention and the two jogged over. Melissa nodded to her axe, and Ern quickly swapped his length of pipe for the superior weapon.
Nothing was said as the five members arranged themselves in a line perpendicular to their target.
They had gone over this and knew what to do.
Keith stood in the middle and ahead of the line, and his job was to attract the zombie. He was supposed to backtrack, keeping the zombie coming at him, and allow the rest of the crew to attempt to flank and ground the target. Once the zombie was down, he would step in to finish the job. It all sounded good in theory. This was for real though.
The zombie was about fifty yards away. Melissa took a good look.
She figured that this was the same zombie that was spotted a couple of days ago. She wondered what drew him to those trees and looked at the woods. The answer became obvious to her. Even from here, she could hear the birds chirping. She imagined that there were probably a bunch of squirrels and other wildlife in there too.
She focused on the zombie. Thirty-five yards out. She could make out details of the corpse. He – It? It. Melissa decided.
It had scratched itself up significantly in those woods. None of the scratches bled per-se. More like oozed. The only thing that seemed to be really affecting it, however, was a damaged foot. The zombie nearly lost its balance every time its left foot hit the ground, which gave it a very lopsided gait. Its cock was hanging out, flopping like a grey worm with a life of its own. The whole thing was almost comical if it wasn’t so disgusting.
Twenty feet. Keith took another step forward and waved his arms. This had the desired effect, as the zombie homed in on the oriental man. Everybody else drifted a couple steps away. The zombie had eyes only for Keith, who had backed up a few steps.
Fifteen feet. Ten. Keith continued to back-track. The zombie was past Melissa now. She quickly stepped in, as did Nat on the other side.
Melissa swung her shovel, aiming low. Nat aimed higher with her garden hoe; a solid, nasty looking thing with two prongs on the reverse side.
The shock reverberated up the handle as Melissa’s shovel bit deep into the zombie’s leg, just above the knee. Nat’s weapon connected with the lower back of the zombie with a solid ‘thwack’. The zombie was sent sprawling forward and landed on its face, never even putting out its arms to catch itself. Melissa let go of her weapon for fear of being pulled down. She gasped involuntarily, and the zombie turned its head to stare at her. Its wide-open eyes were focused on Melissa as it worked its jaw open and shut like a fish out of water.
Melissa took a quick step backwards.
Ern and Emily stepped in before the zombie could move though. Ern swung the axe in a downward chop, connecting in the center of the zombie’s back. The axe sunk in nearly three inches and got stuck. Emily swung her long piece of pipe immediately after Ern had taken his swing. The pipe crashed into the back of the zombie’s neck with a sickening crunch. The zombie’s head hit the ground as it’s neck could no longer support it.
Then Keith was there. He stepped up to the zombie’s head and with one swing sunk his hammer through the back of the creature’s head. Keith let go of the hammer. It was stuck in the zombie’s skull. The zombie did not move. They stood around in silence for a moment.
“That. Was impressive.” Ern’s whispered comment broke the silence. He tried to sound calm, but Melissa could sense the excitement and tension in him.
“Yeah. Better than expected.” Nat added. She was shaking slightly with the rush of adrenaline. Even Emily looked slightly flushed as she radioed in the good kill.
The group had done
