Free Zombiekill by Russ Watts

exposing the liquid innards that sprayed against the wall and staircase. The woman went down, and Schafer bent over her as he brought the bat down again and again, pulverizing her head until it was obliterated beyond recognition, and she stopped moving.
    “Es tut Mir leid,” he whispered. “I’m sorry for your family.”
    He had let his guard down and almost been caught out. It was something he rarely did in chess, and he had forgotten the strategies and advantages that playing with caution could bring. He was so busy focusing on his goal, on taking the King, that he had taken his eye off the board. There were a lot of pawns still on the board who would happily take a bite of him and bring him down. Then it would be game over.
    Schafer cursed and vowed to take more care in future. The house had appeared vacant, but death was still a real and present danger. The thumping noises from the other side of the front door increased, and Schafer knew he was going to have to run. He didn’t have the strength to fight more of them, and if he stayed in that house he would end up trapped, overwhelmed by their numbers. The dead woman’s family might be upstairs, and Schafer’s presence had alerted several more of the dead outside. He had to get out of there.
    Returning to the door where he had entered the house, he could see several of them on the street headed his way. He bent down and wiped his bat on the long grass, removing the woman’s brains and blood. He saw a path through the dead to the other side of the road from where a smaller road would lead him toward the house on the hill and what he hoped would be their ticket out of Jeremy’s to a safer place.
    “Okay, Rilla, I hope you’re right.” Schafer hoisted the bat up high and started running to the road. He would have to take some of them down as he went, even if it meant coming back later to finish them off. He needed to scope out Attwood’s house and get back to Rilla and Magda before the evening came. With little energy reserves to draw on he had to do it now whilst he still had the courage and drive. Taking down the woman had repulsed him, but he had no problem with it. These people were already dead. They had no options left open, no possible future, and he was only crushing the corpses left behind. Their souls had long gone, he knew that. There was a marked difference between them. Schafer had power, compassion, and motivation. Those that walked the streets were dangerous, but they were directionless, empty shells whose only ambition was to kill and undermine everything they had built. Schafer remembered the photographs and the woman smiling in them. That was what he was fighting for. He wanted to be able to give Rilla the chance to do the same, to raise a family and smile and laugh and make love. Schafer stepped foot on the road as the first zombie approached him and gritted his teeth.
    “Right then, fuckers. Let’s see what you got for Uncle Schafer.”
     

 
    CHAPTER 4
     
    Charlie peeled back the top of the scab, forcing her fingernail right underneath the brown hard skin. She peeled back the top like it was the lid on a tin of tuna and exposed the soft pink flesh underneath. It was soft and felt moist to the touch, but it was refreshing; it was new, a part of her that hadn’t been exposed to the zombies and the way the world was. She idly picked off the rest of the scab on her knee and let the breeze through the window cool the fresh new skin. Beyond the window was the garage where Kyler had been hiding all morning. They had argued ferociously last night about nothing in particular. It started when Charlie asked her father if they could spare anything for a dessert as she had not found the tinned hot dogs and rye crackers particularly tasty or satisfying. That in turn had led to a discussion on the merits of storing food long-term, which had evolved into how they were going to keep fed if no help arrived, and the zombies kept coming. They had gone from