Free The Black Death by Aric Davis

rifle as a gun and was instead using it as a club, apparently unable to find time to take the Glock from its holster. Matt was busy as well, felling and killing two more of the men, before the hookers, johns, and pimps from the whorehouse were upon them.
    As deadly and bloody as the battle already was, Matt saw two things that were far worse, and they were running ahead of the pack on all fours, with black eyes and faces twisted by the flake.
    The two junkies split before they hit Matt, Free, and Danimal’s ever-shrinking circle of safety. One of them was rail thin and looked as though she’d been deprived of food. She had a muzzle made of leather and metal hanging around her neck, and there were deep gouges in her face from it. The other was a monster of a man, tall, fat, and just plain old big in every possible way. Matt was yanking his ax free from the head of another dead ghoul when he came to the realization that the two beasts were attempting to cut off Matt, Danimal, and Free’s slow progress to the van. Deciding the risks were worth the attempt, no matter how dangerous, Matt ran from the circle of killing to try to face them before they could overwhelm the three of them from the rear as they fought off the others who had spilled from the RV.
    Matt came out of the thinned crowd of drug-crazed attackers at the exact same moment that the smaller of the two black-eyed addicts came bounding around the circle of fighting. Ignoring the knowledge that the larger of them would soon be at his heels, Matt squared his shoulders to face her. Gripping the ax in both hands, one at the bottom of the shaft, the other just under the blade, Matt watched her charge. Time seemed to slow as she leaped for him, her jaws impossibly spread and baring ruined, gray teeth. Matt swung the ax like a baseball bat, letting his hand that had been near the blade slide down to meet the other one, and the ax was singing in the wind as it met her.
    The blow removed the head from her body in just a single swipe, and she rolled harmlessly in the lawn next to Matt as her arms and legs remained twitching, still trying to figure out what to do. Not sure why, Matt threw himself to the ground next to her headless corpse. Itwas as if a little voice in his head demanded it. Whatever it was, little voice or just dumb luck, Matt was on the ground as the bigger of the two bounders filled the air where his torso had been just moments earlier. The thing was screaming as it missed, and then Matt was back on his feet and ready to fight.
    The larger junkie seemed more hesitant than the first one had, moving laterally, then switching direction to bounce on all fours the other way. If the movement was meant to be distracting, it was working. Matt had left Free and Danimal to their own devices only moments ago, and he had no idea if they were even alive anymore. Not that it really mattered, at least as far as his own safety was concerned. If they were dead, then he would be, too. He couldn’t fight off the horde and this thing alone.
    Matt watched as the beast circled him, never quite leading him back to the fight, but not allowing him to progress any closer to the parking area, either. As dumb as the thing was, it wasn’t unintelligent, not completely. When it did finally charge, it did so deliberately, much slower than the girl had, and much less likely to miss. Matt squared his shoulders to the thing, ready to fire another Babe Ruth swing at the neck of the beast, when he realized his mistake. It hadn’t been circling him at all. The thing was setting him up for an attack from behind. Unable to check his six, and knowing he had only one option, Matt charged the lumbering brute, breaking into a run with the ax aloft above his head.
    The beast trembled when it realized its plan had failed, and then it started its own charge at Matt. It instinctively raised its arms to protect itself from the inevitable overhead ax strike, and Matt kicked the thing in its withered