Free Zombies! (Episode 10): State of Emergency by Ivan Turner Page B

could have been thirty years old or sixty years old. She had flaming red hair, what was left of it. Around her eyes Shawn could still see the remnants of dark makeup. She wore a once beige pant suit that had been darkened by her own blood and the blood of others. The fourth person was a skinny young man with long hair and tattoos all over his body.
     
    "Nigel, please don't do this," Shawn cried into the wind, but Nigel ignored him. He turned to the girls. "This is a really bad idea." His instinct was to gather them up and run. If fighting the zombies was a bad idea, it was compounded by their standing around in the empty street. But he was loyal to Nigel, who had been a friend for a long time. He couldn't just leave him. At this point, their best bet was to dispatch the zombies quickly and move on. Let Nigel have his revenge.
     
    "Just keep an eye out," he said to Dawn. "Let me know if you see any more."
     
    She nodded dumbly, but Janise gave him a more affirmative response.
     
    With the girls on lookout, he went forward and joined Orlando and Nigel as they met the zombies. He was careful of his wound as he engaged the undead. Unarmed, there was little he could do if he didn't want to get too deep into it. He warned his friends to watch out for the teeth, the fingernails, and any exposed bone. Anything that could cut, scratch, or otherwise draw blood was as lethal as a nuclear bomb. If they wanted to fight zombies, they didn't need to be stupid about it.
     
    Orlando was heedless of the teeth, the fingernails, the bone, the blood, and everything else. Once they were close enough, he charged straight for them. The only one of them that was bigger than he was the woman. But she hadn't been in good shape when she was alive and death had not been kind to her. Orlando threw an elbow into her face as he charged by. He grabbed the tattooed young man with his right hand and the scientist with his left. Shawn could see that he was surprised by their strength. He should have been able to bring them down easily, but only the young man was taken off his feet. He must have been too light to handle Orlando's weight. The scientist, however, was much more solid. He slid back a few feet, his ankles skidding in the snow. But he held onto Orlando's arm with both hands and dipped his face in for a bite. Much to his credit, Orlando compensated. He let the tattooed man fall and reached over with the left hand to grab the scientist by his short hair. With both arms on him, the scientist wasn't much of a match for Orlando. His boast about being able to fight a hundred of them had been well founded.
     
    But none of them were out of action yet. The big woman had recovered and the tattooed man was getting to his feet. They were slow, maybe even slower because of the cold. Shawn noticed that the snow seemed to collect on them as if they were statues. Only their motion shook it away. They had no body heat to melt it.
     
    Nigel moved in and tripped up the tattooed man. He went back to the pavement and Nigel began stomping on his face. Orlando used the scientist as a weapon against the big woman. He bounced them off of each other like dots in a game of pong. Shawn intercepted the karate guy just as he was getting ready to complete the triple team of Orlando. Doubly disadvantaged by his wound and the fact that he couldn't seem to convince himself that this zombie did not know karate, Shawn approached cautiously. It struck him funny, the idea of a zombie adept with the martial arts. Somewhere out there there had to be a movie borne of that concept. Kung Fu Zombies. But this zombie proved adept at only reaching for prey. Shawn sidestepped its outstretched hand and got behind it. The trouble was, he didn't want to touch it so he didn't know what to do with his advantage.
     
    " Shawn!"
     
    He turned at the sound of Dawn's voice and saw what she saw. There were four more zombies coming up the street. They were coming from the direction of Nigel's house.