Free The Lost Gods by Horace Brickley

away long ago. Many wore tattered suits stained reddish-brown.
    …
    Adam changed his focus to his left. A reanimate lunged for Adam. It tri pped on a jutting root and stumbled forward. It grabbed onto Adam’s legs as it fell. He reeled back as its expressionless face turn upwards toward what mattered most to Adam. He drew in a quick breath and rained down frantic strikes on the creature’s skull. Its jaw slid open and its teeth nearly sunk into his upper thigh when one of Adam's wild punches missed and struck its shoulder. The creature's shoulder popped out of socket and its body dropped to the ground. Adam stomped on its head. His boot collided with the earth. A wet crunch signaled the end of the fight. In his frantic rage, Adam had forgotten his surroundings. Several reanimates were within a few feet of him. He backpedaled and grabbed his gun. He jerked the trigger and the hammer clicked. He tossed the gun aside.
    “There's too many!” Adam yelled. “Let’s get the fuck out of here.”
    Jesse did not answer. Adam watched his friend raise his cudgel and yell with all his might at the unthinking creatures. He let out another roar and charged toward the approaching menace. It would have seemed comical in any other situation, but it was enough to inspire Adam not to run screaming from certain death. Adam drew the dull machete and followed behind Jesse.
    …
    Jesse swung his cudgel at the head of the reanimate at the front of the pack. A maddening thud split the air. Its skull imploded and it flailed its arms as it tumbled to the moist ground. Its flailing arms struck nearby creatures, tripping them.
    An obese creature wearing a cheap, soiled suit grabbed at Jesse. He kicked it hard in the abdomen. The bulbous thing folded and fell backwards, bringing seve ral others down with it like bowling pins. Jesse sprung toward the fallen undead and hammered down at their heads with his cudgel. Each swing crushed through flesh and bone and hit dirt.
    In his peripheral vision, Jesse saw thin, gray fingers clutch his right shoulder. He drove his right elbow backwards. It struck the reanimate in the chest causing it to teeter off balance. Jesse whipped around and swung his cudgel. The reanimate’s face gave way to the ball of welded steel. Jesse’s vision blurred and time slowed down.
    …
    Her voice resonated inside his head.
    “You are the one. Claim your destiny.”
    A thrum filled his ears as a powerful vibration shook his body. It emanated from his chest and spread through his limbs. His vision went blue, then white. A shock wave exploded out of him. The creatures around him flew backward and dropped to the ground.
    His vision returned to normal. Jesse felt an unnatural strength in his muscles. The force had rejuvenated him. He pounced on a fallen creature and rained down a wild onslaught of blows. An instant later, he sprung to his feet and wailed on the creatures that encircled him. He was surrounded, but unafraid. He swung hard and hit the creature in front of him in the chest. The force of the blow launched the creature backward. It collided with Adam.
    …
    Adam reeled, but he recovered right before a nearby reanimate latched onto him. He sidestepped its lazy attempt to tackle him.
    Adam stayed on the outside of the mob, stabbing and hacking when a safe opportunity presented itself. His focus shifted to Jesse in the center of the horde. Jesse was kicking, elbowing, kneeing, and body checking the reanimates with ridiculous amounts of force. Whenever he swung his cudgel, each strike displaced several of the creatures.
    A reanimate in a widow’s veil caught Adam off guard and swung its rail-thin fingers at his face. He jumped back and slashed at its head, but he misjudged the di stance. Adam swung hard as the creature lurched forward, the machete missing the top of its head. It wrapped its spindly arms around his torso. It bit at his neck, but his coat was too thick to penetrate. Adam tucked into a roll and the momentum