Free Fighting to Survive by Rhiannon Frater Page A

zombies were trying to topple their table, Katie screaming
because the zombie was dragging her leg out into the open. It was
chaos.
    Travis
continued to slam the candlestick downward, blood and gore flying
everywhere. One of the zombies grabbed his arm and, for a horrible
moment, everyone panicked. Nerit put a bullet through the zombie ’ s
head, but more were grabbing at Travis ’ s
arm.
    “ Jacket
off! ” It was Katarina ’ s
voice.
    Travis
yanked his arm through the sleeve as fast as he could, Katarina
helping him pull the jacket off. It was ripped off him and dragged
into the mouths of the hungry zombies on the other side of the
barricade. Jenni grabbed Travis' arm and saw that he had escaped
without a bite.
    “ Shit!
That was close! You're fine! ” she said, and went back to firing at the very frustrated looking
zombies.
    Katie,
meanwhile, was on the floor and trying to pull her leg away from the
zombie. She had trouble getting leverage to yank her leg back.
    “ Some
help here! ” Katie tried to aim at the zombie ’ s
head, but it was out of view behind her captured foot.
    “ Keep
the tables in place! ” Shane roared.
    Beside
him, Charles and Ned struggled with a table.
    Mike ’ s
voice was fierce over the shots and screams. “ Hold
the line! Don't let them through! ”
    Nerit
kicked Mike in the shoulder. “ Katie ’ s
in trouble! ”
    Mike
looked over to see what was happening. “ Shit!
Travis! A zombie has Katie! ”
    Travis
turned to see what was going on and went very white. He grabbed the
first thing he saw on the bar. Falling to his knees, he began to stab
the dead hand as hard as he could with the corkscrew.
    “ Fuck! ” Roger was beginning to lose his fight to keep one of the heavy tables
up as four zombies growled and reached for him.
    Jenni
turned and fired as the table was righted. She and Roger ended up
staring over the table at the zombies.
    Katie
struggled to find anything to grip onto as the zombie kept pulling on
her foot and drawing her leg closer to the gap that would bring it
into the open.
    Katarina
picked up a chair and hurled it at one of the zombies trying to climb
over the tabletop toward Jenni and Roger. It was hit square in the
face. It rolled off the table and tried to crawl under it. Roger
shoved the table back over and pinned the zombie under it. Jenni
fired point blank into its head, then aimed over the edge of the
table at the remaining ones, firing a little wildly, but managing to
kill them.
    “ Someone
shoot this sonofabitch! ” Travis kept stabbing the grayish dead hand as hard as he could,
breaking bones and tendons. Still, it pulled Katie ’ s
foot. It almost had her whole booted foot in the open now and was
obviously aiming to get to the more tender calf.
    “ I
can ’ t
get a clear shot, ” Nerit responded.
    More
shots, more growls, more people swearing.
    Katie
grabbed hold of Travis, trying to pull herself free from the
unrelenting grasp of the zombie.
    Suddenly,
there was silence.
    “ That ’ s
it, ” Katarina whispered in awe.
    “ Gawddamn,
fuckin' zombies! ” Shane cursed and threw his table over onto the dead creatures.
    “ We
have this fucker left, ” Travis shouted.
    The
zombie ’ s
other hand slid through the gap, grabbed Katie ’ s
ankle, and yanked her leg out into the open with one swift pull.
    “ Fuck! ”
    “ Travis! ”
    Travis
shoved the table over onto the zombie. Mike and Roger grabbed Katie
and yanked her free.
    An
enormous zombie was growling, still after its prey as it reached for
Katie desperately. It wiggled back and forth under the table.
    Jenni
ran over and jumped on top of the table and began hopping up and down
on it. Roger laughed and joined her, the table seesawing dangerously.
Katarina got on the table, braced herself on the wall and jumped up
and down as hard as she could.
    Mike
added his weight as well, grinning.
    The
others joined in, almost hysterical smiles on their faces, as the
adrenaline rush in the veins spurred