Free Zombie Fight Night: Battles of the Dead by A P Fuchs

”
    The crowd booed even louder.
    R-1 refocused its audio receptors to separate the audience’s disappointed shouts to zero in on the voice coming from the speakers above the cage.
    “ We here at ZFN are ready to rock your world with a fight like nothing you have ever seen before! ”
    The moaning crowd lowered their volume a little.
    “ That was just a sample. Tonight, and tonight only, we bring you not one, not two, not three, not even four—but five fights in one! Five fights! Five battles to the finish. Five undead bodies take on the R-1. Five! Please place your new bets now or don’t do anything if you wish to let your original bet ride. ”
Just then the iron ring in the cement lit up and rolled to the side.
A new zombie emerged. Its shackles sparked, the jolt enough to cause it to step to the side.
The ring descended then returned with another zombie. Another spark and this one, too, bounced to the side.
Three more times the ring disappeared, each time reappearing and bringing with it another of the dead.
There were three male, two female. All hungry. Two of the men were Sprinters, while the remaining three were Shamblers.
    “ Ladies and gentlemen, it begins! ”
The buzzer sounded.
The shackles on all five of the dead clanged to the floor.
The R-1 analyzed its prey, sorting each by perceived threat level.
    Priority: Sprinter x 2
    Maneuver: ?
    It wasn’t programmed to take on more than one of the undead at a time.
    Recall.
    Priority: Sprinter x 2
    Maneuver: ?

The zombies marched toward it.
    Recall.
    Priority: Sprinter x 2
    Maneuver: ?
    One of the male zombies, a Sprinter, locked onto its leg, chomping down on it like it was a soup bone. R-1 raised its leg with the zombie still attached and hyper extended its steel-coated fingers of its right hand until sharp blades popped out. It dug the blades into the Sprinter’s back and pulled out a chunk of flesh. The Sprinter stopped biting for a moment then went right back to it. This time R-1 shoved its blades into the back of the creature’s skull, squeezed, and tore out its brain.
    The Sprinter stopped moving.
    R-1 kicked the body off its leg and into the air where it collided with a Shambler coming toward it.
    A female Shambler slapped her hands on R-1’s shoulders from behind and began climbing up its back like a ladder. R-1 reached back and stuck its bladed hand into the creature like a fork and jerked her over its shoulder. It slammed the body on the ground. Just as the Shambler was about to get up, it stomped on its head, sending out a spray of bone and brain matter into the feet and ankles of the other female Shambler stumbling toward it.
    R-1 brought forth its pincers and activated the servo-mechanism on its wrist. A soft whirring sound accompanied the now-spinning claw, turning it into a bizarre kind of drill. R-1 stuck its spinning hand into the female Shambler’s face, stirring up the bone and flesh like decayed stew in a mixing bowl, the hand splooshing out the back side of its skull until its force was enough to spin the head right off the neck. A stream of black blood shot up from the neck and the body dropped to the floor.
    The male Sprinter was off to the side, digging its fingernails into the chest cavity of the last Shambler.
    R-1 advanced toward it with heavy, mechanical footfalls. When the Sprinter caught sight of it, he picked up the Shambler’s body and threw it at the robot. The Shambler glommed onto the R-1 like an octopus around its prey, the creature still very much alive in undeath . . . and hungry. It brought its heavy head down where a coating of flesh was wrapped around R-1’s neck. It bit through the meat, its powerful jaws enough to crack the metal casing around the robot’s neck and into the wires beneath.
    Bright blue sparks shot up and around the robot’s face. Some struck the zombie’s skin, burning it in the process. It didn’t care, and kept on eating.
    The Sprinter came in, jumped into the air, and struck R-1 feet-first