Free Mad Swine (Book 2): Dead Winter by Steven Pajak Page B

all stared dumbfounded at what used to be a woman. Her hair was dark and matted, obscuring much of her face. Her skin was a gray, mottled color. Her eyes were open, but she stared at nothing in particular. After a moment, her head started to swivel slowly to the right where her gaze finally landed on Kat and Chandra. As if a spark had been lit, the sight of fresh meat activated the hibernating creature.
    For a few seconds no one moved. The woman struggled to pull herself out of the deep snow, clawing and kicking her limbs as though she were a drowning woman trying to tread water. The strange moan escaped her lips and the sound became more exaggerated and guttural as her dead eyes focused on human flesh.
    It was Lara who sprang first, moving surprisingly quickly for a woman shin deep in snow. In just a few steps she was just feet away from the infected. With a golfer’s wind-up, Lara swung her aluminum bat, striking the thing squarely in the back of the skull. The ping of aluminum and the wet sound of cold flesh being struck made me wince, but Lara did not so much as flinch. Even as the crazy’s body slumped back down into its hole, Lara swung her weapon again, splitting the skull. Blood finally oozed from the crevice, staining the snow where the dead woman’s head had fallen.
    As one we all converged around the dead thing, taking it in with large eyes. Although we were all seasoned veterans who had mixed it up with the infected before, seeing one up close was still surprising.
    “Nice swing,” Kat said.
    “Did you hear the sound when you cracked its noggin?” Justin asked, earning six sets of sharp eyes as the women started daggers at him.
    “Are you okay,” I asked Lara.
    “Yeah, fine. It never knew what hit it.”
    “That’s my girl,” Chandra said. She held out her fist toward Lara and said, “Bump it, girl.” The two women touched fists in a show of comradeship.
    “Okay, enough of that,” Kat said. “Let’s get back to work. I’d like to get home now and settle by a nice warm fire. My ass is freezing out here.”
    “That was some creepy ass shit, though,” Chandra said. “I knew they were hiding in the snow like that. If this was a scary movie, that’s exactly the kind of shit that would happen.”
    “You think there are more of them around here?” Justin asked. “There has to be, right?”
    “Keep your eyes open,” I said. “Assume there are more. Everyone stay alert.”
    I resumed my place by the felled tree while the rest of our group went back to their assigned duties. I was on edge now, after Chandra’s comment, wondering what the hell was under all this snow. If there was one of those things there were bound to be more. Kat had said they liked to congregate together. They were not solitary creatures; they hunted in packs. That was how they overwhelmed you. One on one, even a child could outsmart and outrun the infected. Their strength was definitely in their numbers and they seemed to know that and use it as an advantage.
    Hefting the splitting maul, I swung it back over my head and brought it down on the tree. I swung again, hitting my mark, gouging the wood and opening up a three-inch gash. My third blow further opened the gash. As I was about the strike my fourth blow, I noticed the movement from my peripheral. I slowly lowered the axe and turned toward the perceived movement. About seven or eight feet to Justin’s rear the snow began to shift.
    “Justin, check your six,” I said. “We have another one over here.”
    “Here we go,” Justin said. He immediately took up his tomahawks and began to bounce them nervously in his hands. I could tell his adrenaline was pumping as he prepared for action.
    “Shit,” Kat said. She turned away from her post and started toward the mound of movement. “Justin, you be careful.”
    “I got this,” Justin said. He was now full of nervous energy, bouncing back and forth from foot to foot.
    As I started to move in to flank the creature its