Free Fight (NOLA Zombie Book 2) by Gillian Zane

Maybe I could come up with a better name.  
    “What do you think?” I asked Zach and he just laughed and shrugged his shoulders.
    “What?! This is a great weapon for stabbing and slicing, but not getting up close and personal.   It’s like a spear. We should make spears.”
    “Spears are a good idea.”
    “Spears are an excellent idea. I’m sure someone knows how to make spears.”
    “We’ll find someone, but I didn’t really want to talk to you about weapons. I was thinking we should start working on some combat wrestling training. I know you can scrap with the best of us, but zombies aren’t fighters, they are just brute force. You need to start building your upper body strength and working on your brute force attack defense.”
    “Yeah, tell me about it.” My mind drifted to those zombies in the storage room a few weeks ago.  
    “Some grappling might help, it’s usually how the zombies attack and the defense moves could get you out of a bind.”
    “Grappling?”
    “Wrestling, basically. The point is to get your opponent in an unbreakable hold. I figured you could learn how to get out of those attack moves that a zombie might put you into, falls, grabs, that sort of thing.”  
    “That could work.”  
    “I also think you need to increase your workouts with Baby, get on some more intense weight training, up your cardio. Try and match her routine more.”
    “You would think I’m some out of shape weakling the way you’re talking and Baby’s full routine scares me. I’ve been trying to match her. She’s just got years on me. She kicks my ass when she goes all out.”
    “She’s 5 foot nothing. How much more intense could it be?”
    “Stop lying, you know she could kick your ass. You just dismiss her because of her petite hotness. You forget about how strong she is because that cute little baby face hides the fact she has the ability to kill you with two fingers.”  
    “She could try. I’m not too bad myself though. Petite hotness?” We both fell into a fit of laughter and it felt good to joke with him. I hadn’t realized it, but I had missed him. I hated how strained our relationship had been lately.   “Come get me when your food digests and I’ll show you some moves.” He said as he left the room.
    “Sure.” I was suddenly shy. I didn’t really do well with organized sports. My self-defense training was repeatedly kicking the punching bag.  
    But I did as was told and thirty minutes later I was out on the lawn with Zach and he was throwing out all kinds of crazy jargon that was going right over my head. Some of it got through though, like “fall, protect and bite.” I could get that.
    “The key is in the fall. If you’re going down, you have to go down right, bring your knees up and your arms up to protect against the attacker that is going to fall on top of you. Here, come here–” He went at me and I put my arms up in defense.  
    “Now, kick your leg out as far as you can get it, grab onto your attacker.” He placed my hand on his shirt. “And jump into the fall, landing on your side. You don’t want to land on your lower back. Then, with your momentum, you can hopefully push your attacker away from you. Get your knees up once you fall though.”
    I did as he asked and it hurt when I landed on my side. Was this supposed to be a good thing? Ouch!
    “Force air out of your lungs when you hit. This is when most martial arts students do a yell. It’s not for dramatic effect. It’s to force the air out.”
    It still hurt like a bitch the second time I did it, but this time Zach went down with me and scrambled over until he was on top of me. He was so fast I couldn’t get my bearing.
    “Knees up, use your forearm to keep my face away from any exposed areas.” I was struggling against his strength. I could barely get my legs up much less force him to move with my forearms. He was so strong. I just wasn’t that strong and soon he was slipping past my knees and had me