Flip This Zombie - Jesse Petersen [80]
The military zombie dragged his leg behind him as his rotten lips curled back over black teeth. He was missing an eye, too, the open socket just sort of gaping at us. But the one that still existed watched me with rabid intent.
“Indeed. Now… I suggest you fight.”
The speaker crackled off and there was no longer any background reverberation, so I had to assume Barnes had shut the system off so he could just watch our struggle in silent satisfaction.
“Remember the last kung fu movie I made you sit through before the shit hit the fan?” Dave asked from behind me.
I fought the urge to turn and stare at him and instead kept my focus on the snarling zombie still moving on me from the door. Black drool leaked from his waggling tongue and pooled at his feet like oil from a dirty engine.
“You want to fucking talk to me about Jackie Chan movies right now?” I asked, my voice cracking.
“No. I want to talk to you about killing zombies without weapons,” Dave responded through clenched teeth. “There was a move in that flick that involved two people back to back like we are now. Remember?”
I scanned my brain for what the hell he was talking about. I mean, when you’re fighting for your life on a regular basis, you tend to brain-dump a lot of useless shit. Or at least file it under “crap I don’t need.” But then like a shot in the dark, I remembered.
I looped my arms through his.
“This isn’t going to work,” I whispered.
“I know,” he said and then he lifted me up and started to spin.
I was wearing heavy boots and the first zombie I kicked got the steel toe right to the temple. He whined as he dropped down to one knee, half his rotting head caved in.
I would have probably taken more time to celebrate that fact, but Dave was still rotating, steering my flailing feet toward the next zombie. This one was too far away for me to catch his skull, but I did manage to press the bottom of my boot into his chest.
It sunk in a couple of inches and when I tugged to free myself, some flesh came with me as the zombie staggered backward toward the wall.
That left Sergeant Ugly, but by the time Dave made the 360 degree turn, the military bionic was already right up against us. As my boot came around to find a home in his side or his neck, he reached out and he caught it.
For a moment all of us stopped… or maybe it just felt like that because it was so fucking creepy. But there we were: Dave was looking over his shoulder. I was staring at the zombie. The zombie held my ankle and was staring right back at me. The frozen feeling might have lasted a second or ten minutes, I don’t know, but when it ended, it ended with a bang.
The zombie tugged and I slipped out of Dave’s grip. I slammed down on the floor on my back and the wind went out of my lungs as my head, still hurting from the concussion by the way, slammed on the linoleum. Dave pivoted instantly and threw a punch, but the military zombie dodged.
Yeah, you read that right. He fucking dodged.
With a moan, he tugged and I slid across the floor toward him. That woke me up and I kicked upward with my opposite foot. It caught him right between the legs and the zombie’s eyes widened just a fraction as he whimpered ever so slightly.
He flung my foot and I twisted into a half somersault and hit the ground again, this time on my stomach. Pain ricocheted throughout my chest, vibrating through my entire being as lightning exploded in front of my eyes.
Still, I fought through it, trying to find focus again, trying to remember that we were talking life and death here. I could whine about my owies later.
I managed to get up to my knees and then staggered up just about the time the second zombie I’d hit pushed himself from the wall and started after me.
I left Dave to deal with our uniformed friend and headed toward the other bionic with all my weight. We slammed back against the wall a second time and the zombie leaned down, his snapping jaws just missing my ear as I twisted out of the way.
I wrapped my hands around the back of his neck and joined them together in a tight,