Free The Dying of the Light (Book 1): End by Jason Kristopher

forward. She promptly adopted the stance and mannerisms of a zombie, raising her arms and moaning as she moved towards me. “Brains,” she drawled as she walked forward. “Brai-” she stopped suddenly, breaking off and turning away. Several of the others laughed as she turned back around, chuckling.
     
    Seeing my puzzled expression, she laughed as well. “Well, obviously I wasn’t going to find any brains in that direction, was I?” The squad broke up laughing as she stuck her tongue out at me.
     
    I began to laugh myself. “Har, har, har. Very funny.” I sobered quickly, though. “Can we focus, please?” She nodded and was instantly the consummate soldier once more. She suddenly came at me, shambling along and moaning, and as I turned to throw her as we had practiced earlier, she made a show of biting me on the arm closest to her. I nodded and bowed to her, then walked back over to the rest of the squad.
     
    “See? Just like that, you’re one more soldier down, and there’s one more walker to take out, only this one’s someone you’ve fought and lived with.” I sighed again. “And that’s assuming their arm doesn’t just pull right out of the socket or come apart in your hands. They’re dead and decomposing, remember.”
     
    The squad was silent, realizing the importance of what I had just shown them. From the back of the room came a sharp snort and we all turned quickly to see Maxwell approaching us. None of us had seen him in weeks, and we had been wondering what had happened to him.
     
    “He’s right, you know,” he said. “All these trainers and instructors are accustomed to training people to deal with normal threats, which doesn’t include zombies. Blake, what would you suggest?”
     
    I looked at my squad, who were all waiting for me to answer. “Well, sir, I would suggest that we use the training that we’ve received as a baseline for further work. I know that my squad has some very well trained martial artists amongst them, and I’m sure the other squads do as well. If we combine their knowledge of our true enemy with the training we’ve already received, we should be able to work up some more advanced training scenarios. But all this martial arts is — or should be — a secondary consideration, sir.”
     
    “Why do you say that?”
     
    “Well, because the whole point should be to keep the damned things as far away from us as possible, sir. That’s the single most important thing to remember about zombies. At a distance, they’re essentially harmless. It’s only up close that they become so dangerous. So while the throws and hand-to-hand are a still a good idea, just in case, we really should be focusing on how to escape being grabbed or pinned with these exercises. The knives and clubs and what-not… well, ideally we should never get close enough to use them, sir.”
     
    Maxwell merely grunted and looked thoughtful.
     
    “One other thing, sir.”
     
    “Yes, Blake?”
     
    “We’re not just going to be fighting zombies, sir. We’re going to be fighting regular people as well. Even our own turned friends and other soldiers. Walkers don’t start out as walkers, sir. They’re normal people to begin with, and those people will be scared, angry, hurt and more than a little crazy. We need to be prepared to fight not just the walkers, but also those who are infected but not yet turned, not to mention those who might become infected, too.”
     
    I looked around at my fellow soldiers, and realized that none of them had come to this conclusion yet. It was a startling thing, to realize you would have to deal with the regular people as well as the zombies. Maxwell cleared his throat.
     
    “Well, son, you’ve given us all something to chew on, haven’t you?” I winced at his phrasing, but he continued without noticing. “I’ll pass this along, and we’ll see what adjustments can be made. Good thinking, Blake. Fall in!”
     
    Without thought, we fell into our