“I don"t think it"s gonna matter all that much.” Blue gave me a sidelong glance, and he"d come to the same conclusion I had. We were completely overwhelmed.
The zombies pounded on the side of the car, the sounds echoing through the small space like thunder. That was interrupted by shattering glass, and I covered my face.
Before I could tell where they had gotten in, Harlow screamed. I looked up to see her being dragged out through the broken window, her fingers desperately raking on the felt ceiling of the car.
– 15 –
I went out the window after her. Glass from the broken window scraped my knees, and a long piece slashed across my stomach, but I barely noticed it. Harlow"s plaintive cries blocked out everything else.
As I crawled out of the car, a zombie greeted me. One of its ears had been bitten off, and its jaw hung by a piece of skin. It did some weird screechy howl thing right in my face, its breath smelling of death and rotten meat.
To shut it up, I punched it in the face. The skin gave way, and its head snapped back. It didn"t kill it, but it gave me a chance to slip by.
A hairy monstrous beast of a zombie had grabbed onto Harlow"s ankles and pulled her out of the car, presumably so it would be easier to eat her. She rolled onto her back and kicked at his face as hard as she could, and I finally saw the appeal of her combat boots.
Two more zombies came at her, rushing to the sound of her cries, but Ripley dove over her, tearing into one of them. The other one kept coming, and I had to get to it.
The zombie with one ear tried to come at me again, so I punched it even harder, aiming my fist on the soft skin of its cheekbone. It caved underneath my hand, covering my skin with disgusting gelatin that passed for zombie brains. Before I had a chance to vomit, I yanked my hand out and got to my feet.
Sprinting, I went for the zombie going at Harlow"s head. I tackled him in the back, slamming him onto the ground right next to where Harlow lay struggling. I knelt on his back, with his face smashed into the ground, and he wriggled and tried to get out from under me.
I had been hoping that he would be older, and his whole body would cave under my weight, but no such luck. I grabbed his head, my fingers pressing on his dry, patchy scalp, and I twisted it hard, snapping his neck with a sickening crack.
At least six and a half feet tall, the zombie attacking Harlow looked to be half a ton, not counting the grizzly dark hair running all down his arms and back and chest. On top of all that, he didn"t look that old. His skin hadn"t sagged or bloated. The only thing keeping Harlow alive was he was too stupid to think of a better plan than letting her kick him in the face, but eventually, he"d just snap her legs.
He was far too big for me to take down on my own, and Blue was trapped in the car with the only gun, holding zombies off as long as he could. Ripley had taken down another zombie right next to us, and she ripped into the meaty part of its belly.
Ripley still had that chain tied around her neck, since I hadn"t trusted her to let me get close enough to take it off. It might finally come in handy, and I grabbed it.
Holding the chain in my hands, I jumped up and wrapped it around the monster zombie"s neck, choking him. He made a gurgling sound, and I literally hung off him by the chain. After a second, he let Harlow go and stumbled backwards.
The chain yanked on Ripley, and she growled in protest, then jumped at his face. He fell backwards, with me landing roughly underneath him, and Ripley began eating him.
Under the weight of them both, I couldn"t breathe or move. I was going to suffocate under a zombie.
I felt Harlow"s hand, soft and small on my wrist, trying to yank me out. With her pulling, I pushed myself out. I was almost all the way out, except for one of my legs, when Harlow had to let go to fight off a zombie.
Her defense was to squeal, grab a rock, and hit it in the head with it. While that wasn"t exactly how I"d do it, it worked, and the zombie collapsed to the ground. Harlow jumped back to avoid zombie blood, and I got myself the rest of the way out from under the beastly zombie.
Ripley looked at me, licked her lips, and ran off to kill something else.
I could hear the gun blasts from the car, and Lazlo yelled something unintelligible. Most of the zombies seemed to be swarming around the station wagon, but they were catching onto the fact that we were here too. A few of them lurched towards us, and I didn"t even have time to catch my breath. Without any weapons, my best bet for survival was preempting their attacks.
We watched as they did that hideous jerky walk. In later stages of the virus, they moved as if they were always on the brink of an epileptic fit.
“We"re gonna die,” Harlow whispered.
“Not yet,” I said.