Free Infection Z 3 by Ryan Casey

of trees scrape against his face, felt his knees tensing up with every awkward step, a stitch spreading through his stomach and threatening to floor him.
    “An opening!” Holly said. “Up ahead!”
    Hayden didn’t have time to scrutinise Holly’s words. He told himself not to peek over his shoulder but doing so just prompted him to look.
    A dozen of them. At least.
    Not a smidgen of frostiness about the way they were moving. Not now.
    And then he stumbled forward.
    Felt himself floating through the air, like he was moving in slow motion.
    And just as quickly as he’d slipped, Hayden found his footing again, kept on running like it was all just part of the plan.
    “Which fucking opening are you on about?” Sarah shouted, not giving a shit about how her voice might attract the undead—and with reason. They were attracted as it damned well was.
    “I … I dunno,” Holly said. “I swore I saw—”
    A half-dozen strong group of zombies staggered from behind the trees up ahead.
    “Shit!” Sarah shouted. She stopped running and Holly crashed into her, Gary just about slowing his run before he could fly into them too, Hayden already stationary.
    He looked around. Looked behind at the zombies as they marched closer. Some of them were still frozen at the teeth, and Hayden couldn’t shake the image of ice-cold fangs slicing through his skin and feasting on his insides. Up ahead, more zombies approached. To the left and to the right, the trees were thicker and it was impossible to see what was hiding beyond those natural walls.
    “Need to make a decision right about now,” Gary said. “Left or right, guys.”
    “Fuck it.” Hayden lifted his pistol and pointed it at the crowd of zombies heading from behind.
    “No!” Sarah said. She knocked the gun down. Stared at Hayden with bloodshot eyes. “We don’t absolutely need to. Not yet. We need to move.”
    Hayden looked at the frosty zombies stepping towards him and right there and then he felt a deep, unavoidable anger and frustration. He knew it was irrational, like being angry at the customer service adviser at a call centre when the real problem was management. But he couldn’t help it. He wanted to punish these beasts for the disruption they’d caused to this world. He wanted to punish anybody for the disruption to this world.
    But not right now.
    Right now, he had to move.
    Had to get the hell out of here.
    He ran to his right into the thicker mass of tree trunks and branches. Darkness seemed to descend on the group as they disappeared into the unknown, the zombies’ cries a constant reminder that they were hot on their heels.
    They ran. Ran over icy patches and ran over snapped logs and ran over the remains of squirrels and rats, gutted and splayed out all over the bed of the woodland. And as they ran, as the natural taste of the trees covered Hayden’s lips and encapsulated his senses, he realised how frigging unfair it was for the human race to go and wreak so much havoc on mother nature. Unintentional havoc, sure, but havoc nonetheless. Havoc that wouldn’t even be a conscious idea if it weren’t for the presence of humans.
    Humans. “They just screw things up,” his granddad used to say.
    And Hayden hadn’t understood what he meant as a kid. He saw the positives to humanity. Technological advances, medical care. Missions into space and democracy-spreading wars.
    But right now, he agreed with his old granddad. Humans really did just screw things up, whether they had a conscious hand in it or not.
    “Argh!”
    The scream snapped Hayden out of his terrified senses.
    He looked for Sarah and Holly. But no—they were still on their feet, running along into the mass of trees, on the brink of disappearing into a nothingness beyond.
    On the floor to Hayden’s right, Gary lay.
    Gary clenched hold of his foot. Blood spilled out of the bottom of his black walking boot. The teeth of a sharp metal fox trap had pierced through the rubber and the leather.
    His