tongue was even with the shed door.
“What are you doing?” asked Vic, nervously eying the zombies trapped behind the fence a dozen yards away.
“They might have people who are hurt, why carry them if we can haul them instead. Watch for the kids with Jerome.” Bill turned back to the lawn mower started and then drove it over to the trailer, where he killed the engine.
Vic started firing at something unseen by Bill, Jerome went down to one knee and took aim before firing a single shot. Looking smug he flashed Bill a smile, “Got one of the boys.”
“The other two are in the ditch where we were. You were right Bill, they went right over there.” said Vic, “You need a hand with that?”
“No I got it, put your packs in the wagon, I will be ready to go in a minute.” Bill looked at the mower, trying to figure out if he could get the grass cutting deck off of it. The riding mower he had at home allowed him to drop the deck off quickly and the machine would go faster if it wasn't carrying the huge metal mowing mechanism. This one looked like it released the in the same quick manner. Looking closer he spotted a couple of cotter pins holding the sides of the thing on in the front, in the rear there were two more substantial bars anchoring it to the bottom of the mower. Grabbing a pair of pliers off the workbench in the shed he pulled the front pins out and lowered the deck down, then got to work on detaching it from the back.
“Vic, look down the along the road, I think they are moving, we moved right? So they will too.” said Jerome.
“If they go too far they will get behind the shed where we can't see them!”
“I know, but maybe they will pop up too soon, so be ready!” Jerome said.
The mower deck dropped to the ground and with some effort Bill pulled it out from under the tractor. He was sweating profusely and after wiping his arm across his eyes he was startled to see a zombie woman rushing him through the open doorway. His rifle was in the wagon, too far away before impact. Bill had just enough time to get up from where he was bent over and shout a warning before the zombie slammed into him.
The thing immediately tried to bite him, Bill shoved the pliers towards the zombie's face, trying to put them into her mouth, he missed and the pliers slid into her eye, pushing beside it to lodge in the crevice where her eye met her nose, a clear liquid mixed with blood streamed down his hand as her eye was cut open by the rough edge of the pliers. This didn't stop the woman from biting at Bill, if it were not for the leverage of the pliers her mouth would have bitten off the tip of his nose. Vic and Jerome sprang up and came to Bill's aid. Vic clubbed the zombie in the back with his rifle barrel, Jerome went down on one knee and aimed at the woman, who was on top of Bill.
Remembering the wrestling moves he hadn't used in twenty years Bill bucked and tilted sideways as Jerome fired. The bullet clipped the back of the woman's ribcage, then spun sideways and into her torso before exiting her pelvis to hit the ground between Bill's legs a microsecond before that gap was closed by his rolling effort. The woman was young, perhaps seventeen and in good condition, as most of the super zombies seemed to be. She was also very, very strong, her arms, clamped around Bill's shoulders inexorably brought them closer together.
“I will eat you.” the woman whispered, causing Bill to lose his concentration and be pulled a couple of inches closer to her ruined face.
“She talked! She talked!” Bill yelled as adrenaline surged through him again.
“Fuck you girl!” Vic yelled swinging his rifle barrel overhead and smashing the woman on the side of the head. This dazed the girl and Bill was able to pull away enough to let Vic take a shot with his rifle, but when he did so there was an explosion near his hand and he fell backwards screaming. Bill rolled onto his back when Jerome yelled for him to get down. Another shot rang out and Bill felt a damp mist hit the side of his head, then the girls hands clenched tightly before letting go of him. Jerome stepped up and fired into the zombie's head again.
Behind Jerome, Bill saw the little zombie boy dart into the shed towards them, followed immediately by the girl, who came right at him. Bill yelled a warning to Jerome, but the young man was not able to get turned around before the boy hit him around the waist, knocking him back a few steps. Bill swept his leg around and took the zombie girl down before she leapt on top of him, then he kicked her repeatedly forcing her underneath the tractor into the space where he had removed the mower deck. He stood up, but when the girl tried to stand she found the tractor was on top of her and had to crawl out and around the other side. Vic was screaming on the ground writhing and clutching the side of his head and face, there was blood everywhere. In the seconds it took for the girl to get under the tractor and stand on the other side Bill turned and picked up the little boy by his ankles. The kid was strong, but still only weighted the same as any nine year old. The boy's head was streaming blood as Bill swung him around to force the little girl back. Jerome turned about and fired into the girl from point blank range, the bullet flew through her chest and ricocheted off of the cement floor, whizzing out of the shed and hitting a fat, bald zombie by the baseball fence in the eye.
The girl screamed and launched herself at Jerome, smashing a foot down on Vic's head as she went. Bill swung the boy around and up, hitting his head on one of the low wooden supports of the shed roof. He made one more spin and tossed the kid out of the shed, aiming for a pile of broken cement. He didn't have time to see if the little zombie was dead again or not as he turned to help Jerome. The younger man had his rifle wedged between himself and the girl, but she had one hand on his throat, it looked like she was wedging her fingers underneath his skin. Blood was staring to seep out from under her fingertips when Bill grabbed her by the head and twisted her violently to one side, a sharp, wet crack sounded as her neck broke. She was not dead again, but started twitching so violently that Bill couldn't hold onto her, the girl fell to the floor and vibrated up and down like a child's windup toy. Bill sat Jerome down on the edge of the wagon and got the first aid kit out, pulling out bandages while the man tried to hold in his lifeblood. Jerome fell over backwards into the wagon before Bill could get the blood stopped.
“Goddamn it! God damn it!” Bill repeated to himself as he tried in vain to staunch the flow of blood from his soldier. Several minutes had passed when the bleeding finally stopped, Jerome was obviously dead. Turning from the dead soldier Bill looked towards Vic taking a step towards him to help him up. He had thought Vic was not hurt that badly, but the other man too was laying deathly still. “Oh Christ.” Bill said as Jerome started moving again behind him.
As Jerome sat up on the wagon it creaked, alerting Bill to the movement, he whirled to see the man getting up, his face lit up with a smile, thinking he was only mistaken that his soldier had died. The joy died as he noticed the opaque eyes and dead stare of the zombie that had been Jerome. This zombie was not fast, only a shambling shadow of a human. Bill picked Jerome's rifle up from where it lay on the ground and put a bullet through the zombie's head.
“Damn, damn, damn.” Bill watched Vic closely, then knelt to feel for a pulse, as he had been taught in the first aid class the army had given him five days ago. Nothing. And Vic wasn't coming back, either. Checking for wandering zombies outside the shed Bill didn't spot any, the zombie boy's body was not there or anywhere else he could see. Bill turned his attention back to Jerome, rolling the body over to look for bite marks. He recalled the boy's face being bloody as he pulled the kid off of Jerome and sure enough the soldier had been bitten just above the hip where the little beast had grabbed onto him.
“Now what?” Bill said out loud. A shot rang out from the concession stand, seemingly on cue to give him direction on where to go from here. Shaking his head Bill reloaded both his and Jerome's rifles, putting one in the wagon and bracing the other on the tractor. Vic's rifle was badly damaged, it looked like part of it had blown off and into the man's head when he tried to fire it, so Bill left it there, but he did pull all of the clips of ammunition off of the soldiers along with their id tags before driving the tractor out of the shed.
As he passed under the overhanging roof he leaned back to try and get more comfortable in the heavy plastic seat, when he did so the small zombie leaping onto him from the roof missed and hit the steering wheel of the tractor, bending it until it almost touched the dashboard. A pair of small, scabby legs was thrust into Bill's face, he swept them aside with one arm, but the little boy latched onto the tractor's steering wheel with one small hand. Before the last day Bill may have hesitated, now he just struck the boy's head with his fist repeatedly until, dazed, the zombie fell off and was run over by the tractor's rear wheel. Bill grabbed his rifle from where it was propped up and fired three bullets into the kid as he slowly appeared from under the tractor wheel.
Stopping the tractor Bill looked around for any more immediate threats and when none appeared he sat down the rifle again and used both hands to correct most of the damage to the steering wheel. Starting up he kept
