Flip This Zombie - Jesse Petersen [81]
He bent at the waist with the weirdest whining screech and I threw my knee upward with all my might. It connected with his forehead and there was a wet squishing sound as the skin exploded against my jeans. Instantly I felt the wet sludge seeping through the cotton fabric. I threw the knee again and the bionic’s head caved beneath the force of the blow.
I let him go and backed up as he collapsed forward, face first on what used to be the clean floor, but was now far less stark.
I spun around. Dave was grappling with the military bionic. The two of them staggered around the room together in almost a dancelike fashion. I’m sure Dancing with the Zombies will be a big hit once we all get television back.
Admit it, you’d watch it.
I would have rushed to Dave’s aid at that point, but the grunting moan to my right stopped me. The first zombie I’d hit, the one whose head was half caved in, was starting to get up.
I stared in utter disbelief at what I was seeing. Normally once you broke any part of their brain, zombies were pretty much toast, but this one could clearly still function only partially intact. The brightness was gone from his stare now, but the bloodlust remained.
I dodged as he swung one clublike arm toward me and staggered in my direction. He was really pissed now, if a zombie could feel such a thing, and he still had pretty good speed even with only half a brain.
I glanced around the room as I dodged a second attack. It was barren, devoid of anything that would even remotely pass as a weapon against the hideous creatures bent on our destruction.
In short, we were fucked. I mean, even if we got past these three sweethearts, we were still locked inside this room, just waiting for Barnes to use us in another “test” of his minions.
So not only did we have to kill these fuckers, but we had to get the hell out of Dodge. And fast.
The zombie lunged for me and this time I couldn’t quite get out of the way. He hit my shoulder and the two of us fell back. The window where Barnes was watching took the brunt of our weight and as I sucked in for air and grabbed for the zombie’s shoulders, I heard a sound.
The sound of glass being strained. It was faint, but it was there. And it gave me an idea.
I shoved back, sweeping my feet against the infected beast’s legs, which sent him staggering wildly. I shuffled to the side and his sludge-y, brain-leaking head smacked the glass a second time. This time, in the corner, a hairline crack appeared.
Barnes must have noticed it, too, because through the glass, I saw his eyes widen. He backed up and stared, first at his zombie, who was trying to claw his way back up to his feet against the slippery barrier between them, and then to me.
I smiled at Barnes and then took off across the room, hoping the bionic would follow me. He spun around, this time slower as his body and brain became more and more damaged by my attacks, and faced me. For a moment he wobbled and I held my breath, hoping against hope that he wouldn’t keel over quite yet. I was strong, but I needed his increased weight and power to shatter the treated window.
Finally, he shoved toward me. He moved like Frankenstein’s monster as he lurched across the room, one arm dangling uselessly at his side, one reaching for me, clawing at me.
The zombie lunged and I dropped down and slid, face first between his legs. I hit the wall below the window and got to my feet just in time to see the zombie come around like a big, dopey ship. He had woken himself up a little and he lumbered across the room with ever-increasing speed.
“Sarah, don’t,” Barnes’s voice came through the speakers.
Dave jerked his head toward me as he kneed his own zombie in the gut. He stared at me, then at the freight train of a zombie coming my way.
“Be careful!” he cried.
I didn’t look at him, just kept my eyes on my prize as it got closer.
“I know what I’m doing,” I said and prayed for once I was right.
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