daughter's horrified whisper brought me up short. I didn't have time to explain all this to her, but I knew I had to try.
"She's already dead, Michele." I looked her firmly in the eye. "They all are. Take a look around you."
Michele looked around and saw the two zombies at the other end of the restaurant as they began to shamble in our direction. The large gaping wounds all over their bodies combined with their complete lack of pain said more than an hour's explanation possibly could have.
"Oh my God." She whispered.
While she stared at the approaching creatures, I silently finished off sweet Hannah with an ache in my heart that I feared would never go away. I had watched her grow up, seen her giggle and plot with my daughter, heard her dreams for the future. All gone.
****
Keeping Michele safely behind me, I approached the two zombies slowly. Both were dripping in the blood of their victims. We needed to get out of the shopping centre as quickly as possible, before the noise we were making attracted all the remaining zombies in the area. I did some quick calculations and then without further thought, launched myself at the nearest zombie, bowled it over, staked it through the eye, spun up on my feet, kicked the other zombie over as it started to turn, and dispatched it with a minimum of fuss. As I stood up and shook the blood off my stake, my daughter stared at me with her mouth hanging open.
A bit discomforted by her expression, I muttered a hurried 'come on' and headed for the balcony. From the corner of my eye, I saw the wide-eyed glances Michele was sneaking at me. I couldn't blame her. I had always been squeamish about killing anything. But, in truth, after the number of zombies I had faced this morning, it would take more than two or three zombies to faze me now.
Mike stood calmly within a circle of dead zombies, wiping clean a metal picket he had acquisitioned from the nearby potted tree. I raised a questioning brow, to which he shrugged. "Didn't seem worth wasting my bullets on just a few zombies."
I couldn't help it; I threw my head back and laughed out loud.
3
In the few minutes that we had been preoccupied in the restaurant, the situation in the city centre had deteriorated markedly. In the street in front of us, people struggled desperately with implacable corpses. A zombie pulled a clueless driver out through his car window. Terrified mothers dragged their young children through traffic trying to evade the ever-increasing numbers of walking dead. Vehicles honked as they tried to make their way through the confusion.
Scattered amongst these scenes of desperate struggles were the heartbreaking images of battles that had been lost - a father shooing a toddler away from him as zombies tore into his body; a large middle-aged woman clawing her way along the pavement as a corpse gnawed at her leg; a mother with a baby still clasped to her chest as blood pooled beneath her senseless body.
The zombies crouched over their spoils like jackals at a lion's kill, squabbling over intestines and fleshy chunks. And then, to me, the most chilling image of all - the newly dead figures slowly standing up and moving off in search of new victims.
Mike whistled slowly. "This thing is moving quickly, Lori."
Finally, he's stopped calling me ma'am. He pointed to smoke spiraling into the air several blocks away. It seemed a good bet that it was related to this catastrophe.
"We'd better try to get ahead of it," I answered grimly. "or we might find ourselves trapped in town."
The ambulance, with its lack of obvious occupants, remained largely unbothered by the zombies. The three creatures that blocked our way proved no deterrent to Mike's picket and my stake and we were soon back in the vehicle.
I slipped into the passenger seat after Michele, allowing Mike to take the wheel. Having got my oldest daughter back, I just wanted to reassure myself that she was really here. I grabbed her hand tightly.
"Oh, so kind
"She's already dead, Michele." I looked her firmly in the eye. "They all are. Take a look around you."
Michele looked around and saw the two zombies at the other end of the restaurant as they began to shamble in our direction. The large gaping wounds all over their bodies combined with their complete lack of pain said more than an hour's explanation possibly could have.
"Oh my God." She whispered.
While she stared at the approaching creatures, I silently finished off sweet Hannah with an ache in my heart that I feared would never go away. I had watched her grow up, seen her giggle and plot with my daughter, heard her dreams for the future. All gone.
****
Keeping Michele safely behind me, I approached the two zombies slowly. Both were dripping in the blood of their victims. We needed to get out of the shopping centre as quickly as possible, before the noise we were making attracted all the remaining zombies in the area. I did some quick calculations and then without further thought, launched myself at the nearest zombie, bowled it over, staked it through the eye, spun up on my feet, kicked the other zombie over as it started to turn, and dispatched it with a minimum of fuss. As I stood up and shook the blood off my stake, my daughter stared at me with her mouth hanging open.
A bit discomforted by her expression, I muttered a hurried 'come on' and headed for the balcony. From the corner of my eye, I saw the wide-eyed glances Michele was sneaking at me. I couldn't blame her. I had always been squeamish about killing anything. But, in truth, after the number of zombies I had faced this morning, it would take more than two or three zombies to faze me now.
Mike stood calmly within a circle of dead zombies, wiping clean a metal picket he had acquisitioned from the nearby potted tree. I raised a questioning brow, to which he shrugged. "Didn't seem worth wasting my bullets on just a few zombies."
I couldn't help it; I threw my head back and laughed out loud.
3
In the few minutes that we had been preoccupied in the restaurant, the situation in the city centre had deteriorated markedly. In the street in front of us, people struggled desperately with implacable corpses. A zombie pulled a clueless driver out through his car window. Terrified mothers dragged their young children through traffic trying to evade the ever-increasing numbers of walking dead. Vehicles honked as they tried to make their way through the confusion.
Scattered amongst these scenes of desperate struggles were the heartbreaking images of battles that had been lost - a father shooing a toddler away from him as zombies tore into his body; a large middle-aged woman clawing her way along the pavement as a corpse gnawed at her leg; a mother with a baby still clasped to her chest as blood pooled beneath her senseless body.
The zombies crouched over their spoils like jackals at a lion's kill, squabbling over intestines and fleshy chunks. And then, to me, the most chilling image of all - the newly dead figures slowly standing up and moving off in search of new victims.
Mike whistled slowly. "This thing is moving quickly, Lori."
Finally, he's stopped calling me ma'am. He pointed to smoke spiraling into the air several blocks away. It seemed a good bet that it was related to this catastrophe.
"We'd better try to get ahead of it," I answered grimly. "or we might find ourselves trapped in town."
The ambulance, with its lack of obvious occupants, remained largely unbothered by the zombies. The three creatures that blocked our way proved no deterrent to Mike's picket and my stake and we were soon back in the vehicle.
I slipped into the passenger seat after Michele, allowing Mike to take the wheel. Having got my oldest daughter back, I just wanted to reassure myself that she was really here. I grabbed her hand tightly.
"Oh, so kind
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