thought they were going to shoot him, they held back. Harry picked Aubrey up off of the floor and leaned close to whisper something in her ear. The woman's eyes met those of Ruben for a moment, then she finished getting up and turned to watch the fight between the two women. From her crouched position Ella launched herself at Stewart, who ducked sideways just as fast and landed another short blow to the other woman's ear as she went by. Ella screamed and lashed out with a kick sideways, Stewart took the blow on her thigh and had to backpedal to avoid falling down. This gave Ella her chance and she ran towards Stewart with both of her arms held wide. Stewart again side stepped and chopped her hand into Ella's elbow while trapping the woman's hand with her other arm, there was a sharp crack and Ella screamed in pain as her arm was broken.
Pulling the woman by her broken arm Stewart stomped down hard on Ella's foot, which caused the woman to scream again. Ella had one free hand and swung it around and connected soundly with the back of Stewart's head, causing the police officer to lose her grip on the broken arm. Pulling away Ella cradled her arm for a second, then pulled it straight out, while releasing another scream of agony. Stewart was dazed and stumbled into Ruben, who caught her and turned her around to face the other woman. The two gun toting zombies watching Ruben glanced at Harry, who shook his head slightly, indicating he didn't want them to interfere. Seeing this Ruben said “Go get her!” and pushed Stewart back towards Ella.
Bill got to the corner leading into the main galley of the Art Institute first and immediately pulled back when gun fire peppered the area.. Crouching down he risked a peek and saw a half dozen zombies with various pistols and rifles looking towards his position. One of the fast zombies came running around the corner firing two pistols, his charge was brought up short by Javier and Bart. Chen was back at the last corner they had passed, watching the hall behind them to make sure no one followed them.
“Grenade?” asked Javier, after a moment of waiting in vain for the other zombies to charge blindly around the corner at them.
Bill shook his head, “No, Ruben is up there. Max and Stewart too. It looks like they got Kirk.”
“How many?”
“Four guys watching the hallway, a couple watching Ruben, one wrestling with Max, Stewart is fighting some woman and there are a couple others standing against the wall just watching everything.” Bill said, running the images through his mind quickly.
“What do we do Sarg? We can't just sit here. They will bring more up behind us.”
Bill thought for a moment, then nodded. “Gimme a grenade. You take one too and follow my lead.”
Max could not get the goddamned zombie off of him. In high school and even in college he had wrestled for the schools he attended. He was never a top performer, but he liked the attitude and the way he could eat pretty much anything during training and not gain weight so he had kept it up until he got married. While he was not a champion by any means, he knew how to wrestle, something his opponent did not know. The problem was his opponent was very strong and didn't react to pain the way a living person would. The normal holds of any given match were fairly easy to apply, but the zombie was just using brute strength to break free from them. Then it hit him, he was fighting by the rules, the rules of a game that no longer had any meaning in his current context.
Stewart was seeing double, shaking her head wasn't helping. The two Ella's in front of her were only swinging one arm, but which one was the real one? A blow landed on her cheek and she tasted blood in her mouth, then she took a hit to the stomach, that one didn't hurt as much, her vest absorbed most of the blow. She used the opportunity to punch Ella in the throat, her follow up blow missed the 'other Ella', but the shot to the neck seemed to give the woman pause. Both fighters stepped back, Stewart blinked her eyes and tried to get the Ella's to merge. For her part Ella was only interested in landing a killing blow, her arm was causing her tremendous pain, it felt like there were a thousand worms burrowing through her muscles and bones. Experimentally she flexed her fingers on that hand, they moved! Bending her arm slightly only led to pain, however when she did so something seemed to twitch in her elbow and it didn't hurt as bad as it had a moment ago. Smiling she looked on as Stewart continued shaking her head.
“What's the matter bitch? Having vision problems? Just wait until I rip out your eyes!”
“Talk, talk, talk. Why is it all the goddamned zombies just want to talk?” Stewart replied, still she made no move forward, she was waiting, thinking of her Akido lessons and preparing herself.
“You want action? I don't think you really do? You're stalling.” Ella said, which, truth be told, so was she.
Stewart made a sudden step forward, causing Ella to move sideways, which caused Stewart to bark out a short laugh, “Made you flinch.”
Ella heard Aubrey laugh as well, which sent her into a rage, focusing she ran forward to Stewart and at the last second twitched herself sideways. Ella knew the other woman had some training and she was hoping to thwart any moves Stewart had planned. Her plan worked, Stewart had reached out to pull Ella sideways, but the last instant move had put the woman in the wrong place, the two crashed together and bounced apart. Ella had managed to catch onto Stewart's military shirt and ripped the tough fabric apart as they separated, revealing the bullet proof vest the officer was wearing.
“Hah! Bitch! I knew you couldn't have taken a punch from me and still stand.”
Stewart sighed and just gestured 'Come on' with her hands, her vision had cleared and once again there was just one Ella standing in front of her. Her opponent jumped forward and then ducked down low, sliding under Stewart. For a split second Stewart thought about jumping onto her, but then decided against it, she was not an expert at holds or wrestling and had done well enough using kicks and punches so far. She tried to spring away, but Ella's hand reached out and caught her above the right ankle, the other women twisted and squeezed, putting all her effort into it, but Stewart had momentum on her side and broke away to roll and regain her feet. Ella was up again like lightening and pounced on the now limping Stewart, who barely pivoted in time to take the punch on her vest instead of her hip. The blow lifted her from her feet and sunk her into Harry's chair, kicking upwards she nailed Ella in the crotch with her military boot. Ella stumbled and caught herself on one arm of the chair, putting her and Stewart's heads close together.
Stewart looked at her and whispered, “You know they will kill you. They are not helping you. Come with us.”
This shocked Ella more than anything, she felt a bubble of laughter well up inside of her and she said, “You? You? Where were you when I needed help? Where were any of you? I was left here! They saved me! They took care of me, gave me power!” Ella started punching Stewart in the chair, hitting the woman in the face and occasionally landing a blow on her arms or legs, but avoiding the vest covered area entirely.
Ella didn't go down that easy, her arm was working again and Stewart's move had caught her off guard, but she was not hurt. She grabbed the legs of the chair and pushed up with her legs, the chair lifted and flipped over, dumping Stewart to the ground. Raising the heavy piece of furniture over her head Ella brought it down on top of the woman on the floor. The chair shattered leaving a club like leg in Ella's good hand, Stewart, meanwhile was moving feebly on the cool tiles of the Art Institute. Risking a glance over at Harry, she was pleased to see Aubrey frowning, but Harry ever so gently nodded his head and Ella smile as she moved forward and hit Stewart in the head. Blood splattered onto the floor and Ella raised the chair leg to her mouth to savor the blood of her enemy. To Ella, nothing tasted as sweet as this.
Max screamed as he watched Ella club Stewart in the head, this seemed to give him the extra energy he needed to finished twisting the zombie's neck in his arms, the crack as it gave sounded like a gunshot, pushing his way to his feet he started towards Ella as she finished licking the blood off the end of the club. Ruben stepped forward in front of Max, “I can take her, you see to the cop.”
Max looked at the old man in disbelief. “What?”
“I got her.”
