Free The Zombie Chronicles - Book 5 - Undead Nightmare (Apocalypse Infection Unleashed Series) by Chrissy Peebles

sweat trickled down my face, but I did my best to keep my cool and think clearly, without panicking. Hey, batter, batter, batter… I thought, trying to give myself a pep talk.
    A man in a grimy plaid shirt and jeans hissed at me as he shuffled toward us. I jumped on a wooden plank in front of me, and the bridge swayed. The zombie lost his balance and fell sideways, and Val removed his head from him with one quick slice of her axe. The headless torso ceased to move, so that was one target eliminated.
    Widening my stance, I swung at the next zombie in my path. The bridge twisted, and everyone behind me screamed, hanging on for dear life. Taking a deep breath, I gathered my strength and swung. I continued hitting one after another, knocking them dead or out of my way, with my sister slicing and dicing right alongside me, and before I knew it, there was a pile of permanently dead, headless or bashed-head bodies in front of us, blocking our path. Peering over top of the pile, I bit my lip hard. Another dozen were coming, but they were blocked by a wall of their rotting friends. We were safe, but we were also trapped from both sides. We’d effectively barricaded ourselves in, with no way out.
    “Here!” Val said, handing Asia’s gun to me and stuffing extra ammo in my pocket.
    “What’s this?” I asked, looking at her in confusion.
    “ Dean, you’re the best sharpshooter we’ve got. Show us what you’re made of, little brother.”
    I jumped on top of the pile of zombies and knelt down for leverage so I wouldn’t fall off. I let out one head shot after another, not wasting a single bullet. One after another, they crashed in a heap. The bridge creaked and moaned, and I feared it might break any moment, but the path in front of us was littered with dead zombies, and when I peered through the gun scope to scan beyond the bridge, I saw no movement. “I think I got ‘em all,” I said, slinging the gun over my shoulder. “I don’t see anything waiting for us on the other side.”
    “ Then what are we standing here for? Let’s go!” Val yelled, giving me a tiny shove forward.
    I started climbing and crawling over the undead, hanging on to my bat with one hand and gripping the pile to keep my balance with the other. We were twenty-five feet from solid ground when cold, dead fingers wrapped around my ankle. I thrust my bat into the fiend’s head, killing it yet again, then scurried off the bridge. “All clear!” I said. “C’mon, you guys.”
    Val climbed over the dead bodies swiftly but carefully so the bridge didn’t sway any worse than it already was. She grabbed my hand so I could pull her off, and after a quick hug, she started to pace around and secure the perimeter.
    The other girls made it across just fine, and Claire clutched her heart as Jackie threw her arms around me. Asia, Nick, and Lucas were next to exit the bridge, and Nick immediately motioned us forward through the forest.
    Asia reached for her gun. “You did it, sharpshooter,” she said, smiling. “You’re a regular sniper, eh?”
    “I guess,” I said, feeling like I’d conquered the world.
    Triumph flickered in Jackie’s eyes as she looked up at me, with her dark, blonde-streaked, wild hair being tousled by the wind. “You did it,” she echoed, smiling.
    “ We all did,” I said.
    Jackie cupped my face. “You coulda died standing on that pile of dead zombies. The bridge was so shaky. You might’ve fallen into the ravine.”
    “ Some risks are worth taking,” I said, smiling down at her. “You make life worth fighting for, Jackie. I’d die before I’d let anything happen to you or my brother and sister,” I said.
    “ Dean, that’s the sweetest thing you’ve ever said to me.”
    I gazed into her eyes. “Good, because I mean every word of it.”
    She cupped my face with her hands. “I’m so glad I met you, in spite of the circumstances.”
    “Me too.”
    “We just crossed a bridge.”
    “Uh…yeah.”
    “No, I