Free Running Wild by Kristen Middleton Page A

don’t have any spares!”
    He rubbed his jaw and smirked. “Speaking of getting out of your pants…”
    I interrupted him before he could finish. The banter between them was making me a little ill. “Hey, I have a great idea. Let’s go inside that restaurant and see if there’s any food left.”
    “Now that sounds like a good idea,” replied Mary.
    “Let’s go ladies,” said Henry as he opened his door.
    We all got out with our weapons raised. I still had the Ruger with a few bullets left, Henry had an old Winchester shotgun and Mary took out some type of Samurai sword. I chuckled as she removed it carefully from the scabbard and raised it, ready for battle. 
    “Where’d you get that Katana, Mary?” I asked.
    She winked. “From this wonderful garage sale last summer. It’s a beaut isn’t it?”
    I nodded. “Yes, very impressive. Have you used it on any zombies?”
    Mary nodded proudly. “Oh yeah, things so sharp it’s like cutting through butter.”
    “You better at shootin’ then you are at driving, young lady?” asked Henry, eyeing my gun.
    I nodded. “Probably. I do miss my war hammer though. It came in handy when I ran out of ammunition.”
    He nodded. “War hammer huh? I’ve seen those things before. Yes, they would certainly do the trick and right nicely, I reckon.”
    The smell in the diner was a mixture of spoiled food, feces, and death. I raised the gun and looked around nervously.
    “Mary, get down on your knees!” shouted Henry, raising his own gun.
    She gave him a disgusted look. “I told you before, I don’t…”
    Henry’s gun went off a second after I pulled her to the floor. There was a loud thud as the zombie’s body dropped. Mary let out a low moan and her entire body began to tremble.
    “It’s okay,” I whispered, squeezing her shoulder.
    Henry cackled loudly and spit out his chew.  “Gotcha…you son-of-a-bitch.”
    I stood up and limped over to the zombie who was now resting in peace on the other side of the room; a naked bald man with a swastika tattoo on his chest. His body was so rotted and gnarly that I had turn away before I added to the disgusting sight.
    Henry came over and stood next to me, staring at his kill. “You know, I always said that a good Nazi was a dead Nazi,” said Henry as he scratched his whiskers, “but even that’s fucked up now.”
    “Henry!” screamed Mary.
    We both turned to find two ghastly zombies stumbling towards her, growling and smiling with wicked intentions. It always amazed me that they could feel happiness but not one speck of remorse for such gruesome eating habits.
    “Hold on, Mary!” hollered Henry.
    “Behind you, Henry!” I screamed as another zombie stepped out of the shadows behind him.
    He turned around and paled at the horrific sight. The ghoul was dressed in a tattered and bloodied waitress uniform. Her face was so rotted and grisly that the skin around her mouth was all but gone. Patches of red hair was missing from her putrid decomposing head.
    “Jesus, who hired this homely one?” he mumbled, cocking his gun.
    Her skeleton mouth curled into an evil grin that I knew would haunt my dreams for months to come, if I ever survived that long.
    I turned away as he fired his gun at the dead waitress and limped towards the other two zombies. My gun was raised but I was fearful of hitting Mary.
    “Lord have mercy!” Mary moaned as she slid the katana into the stomach of one of the zombies. Although it was still alive, the sword prevented it from getting any closer to her as she held the zombie at bay.
    As the second one tried to reach out for her, I raised my good foot and hit him with a sidekick to the face, sending him crashing to the floor.
    “OW…OW…OW…!” I howled in agony. I really needed to ice my ankle, badly.
    The zombie’s red eyes burned with something close to hatred as he growled angrily at me.
    “Drop dead, maggot,” I said, glaring back at him. Then, I raised my gun and shot him in the