by Zoe E. Whitten
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We found the freezers on the second floor, and when we opened the door, we found nothing but flat, dead bodies. No one moved, but then, they would eventually.
Jake started to shut the door, and I stopped him. Handing Kate my torch-arm, I reached over to the thermostat dial beside the door and cranked it up.
Jake's face filled with confusion, and I said, "When they wake up, they'll hurt themselves trying to beat down the door."
Jake's voice was soft and sickened as he moaned, "Oh, fuck, G."
I shook my head, not willing to entertain a debate in our present surroundings. "From now on, We treat the zombies like we would lab animals. We treat them ethically, and we favor clean kills. There will be no torture, and no killing just for the sake of doing it."
"But they'll take over if we don't," Kate said.
"No, they won't. There's other people like Jorge, people who go out every day and wipe out a hundred bodies here and there. But we aren't zombie hunters. We're the scientists, and we're supposed to be looking for a cure. So, right now, we make a vow. We're life makers, not life takers."
Jake and Kate exchanged a worried look before they both nodded their agreement.
I never expected how fast I'd be willing to break my own vow, but it only lasted until we got into the hall, and Blaine turned a fire hose on us.
He hit me with a burst of water from the fire hose first. The stream hit me in the chest. One second, I was standing upright, and the next, I was sliding back through the hallway. With the floor wet, it was like riding a Slip n' Slide chute.
Except Slip n' Slides don't end with a cinderblock wall knocking the sense out of you.
When I recovered, the sound of moaning was too close, and I opened my eyes, screaming at the zombie standing over me. He dropped to his knees, his hands reaching out to grasp my arms.
I sat up fast and slammed my forehead into the zombie's chin. Stunned, he let go of me and stumbled onto his back. Before he could recover, I got to my feet and slung a kick that caught him under his chin. He dropped to the floor, his jaw smashed.
But he wasn't dead, and I had to stomp his head. I almost slipped in his brains when the top of his head exploded under my boot heel.
All of my humane good intentions belonged to my human side, and I'd just turned that part of myself off.
I shouldered aside another man who was reaching for me, and then I grabbed his arm, stepping behind him and pulling his arm around. I bent it up and over his head and yanked down. I didn't need much force to bring him down, and them I stomped his head too.
The next woman was too close to grapple, so when she swung her head in for a bite, I mirrored her, driving my forehead into her nose. She was still reeling back when I grabbed her arm, spun and slammed her into the wall head-first. The top of her head exploded, and she slipped out of my hands, her water-slicked skin impossible to hold.
And so it went; a bloody, ugly fight that I couldn't afford to lose. In between zombies, I glanced around the corridor for signs of Jake or Kate. But I couldn't find them, or Blaine either.
The thought of that nutcase Atheist made my blood boil. He was so wrapped up in his own conspiracy theories that I and my friends were now enemies. The social checkpoints that might have reined in his insanity were gone, and now the only way to deal with him was to kill him.
~end
Excerpt from Zombie Punter by Zoe E. Whitten
© 2011. All rights reserved.
by Zoe E. Whitten
~-~-~-~-~ guest ~-~-~-~-~
by Zoe E. Whitten
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