Zombies! A Love Story by MAGGIE SHAYNE Page A

hugging the hoses, head toward us, and she pulled herself along, letting go only with one hand at a time to keep moving forward.
    It took only a couple of minutes, but we were running out of time. The second girl, copper skin and jet hair, was on the ropes before the first one got off, and she moved a lot faster. Then came the woman with the little boy, his arms and legs were tight around her neck, and she’d tied him there with what looked like a pair of men’s belts. She came fast, motivated, I thought, by having to save her child.
    She got halfway and I could see she was exhausted. But though she slowed, she kept coming. When she was within reach, I stopped shooting long enough to help her the rest of the way.
    That left Mr. Reynolds and old Mrs. Applegate. The old librarian looked at the hoses, then across at me. Then she shook her head slowly. “I can’t.”
    “You can,” I shouted. Dead creeps lay all around her. We were picking them off as fast as they could fall over the ladder and onto the roof, but our ammo wasn’t going to last forever.
    Mrs. Applegate just shook her head. Then Mr. Reynolds untied one of the hoses on their end, and was rapidly, frantically wrapping it around her.
    “It’ll never work.” I said to no one in particular.
    “My husband’s a rock climber. He knows what he’s doing,” the woman who’d brought her little boy across said. “Hurry, Bill! Hurry!”
    He got Mrs. Applegate all knotted up, and then picked her up and lowered her right over the side. “I’m gonna let her go. Pull her up fast, don’t let her hit the wall!”
    We had to put our guns down and grab onto the hose. No one to shoot now, and the creeps were surging onto the roof next door unabated. Mr. Reynolds let Mrs. Applegate go, and she dropped several feet, then swung toward our building fast while we hauled the hose backward. And yeah, she hit the wall, but it could’ve been a lot harder. We kept pulling until we saw her head near the top. Then Mom and I ran forward to help her up and over, while Chuck and Chief Mallory kept the hose pulled tight.
    I heard a scream just as I got Mrs. Applegate onto her feet, and spun with my gun drawn to see Mr. Reynolds kicking at a creep that was trying to tear into his leg as he was climbing onto the remaining hose.
    I fired without thinking, and the creature went down. Then Reynolds came across the hose, hand over hand, arms and legs wrapped around it. It only took seconds.
    When he got onto our roof, he limped to his wife, and she wrapped her arms around him and held tight, with the little boy in between them. Chuck untied the hose that still connected our two buildings, and tossed it over the side. The opposite roof was crawling with them now, all reaching over the ledge toward us, slathering and groaning, occasionally falling off the roof to smack down onto the pavement of the alley below. And then just getting up again, more bent and broken than before, but still moving, still hunting.
    Chuck came to stand beside me, looking just like I was. We were close, our sides touching, silent, staring at the hordes on the other building. I was wondering about our next move. I presumed he was doing the same. But when Mr. Reynolds extricated himself from his loving wife and son, and came over to us, my silence reached it’s end.
    “You saved our lives,” Reynolds said. “I don’t know how to thank you.”
    “You caused all this,” I replied. “We don’t want your thanks.”
    Chuck closed a hand around one of mine and squeezed. “You saved Mrs. Applegate’s life. Risked your own to do it. That was amazing.”
    I supposed it was. The man might not be 100% pure evil. Maybe he had a grain of goodness in him. One of the goons had been trying to snack on his leg. It could’ve been the end of him, all because he’d taken the time to save Mrs. Applegate. I glanced down at the leg in question as I thought it.
    The pants were torn, and the flesh behind them was, as well. Torn and