Free Nightmare of the Dead: Rise of the Zombies by Vincenzo Bilof

Her heartbeat slowed while her vision narrowed. Her aim would have to be perfect. She couldn't think about what might happen if all six creatures converged at once.
    A putrid stench tickled her nostrils.
    Movement behind her. A splash of water. Another splash. She began to turn McPhee's body as h is eyes fluttered open. His bottom lip quivered and he became a block of frigid ice.
    An overwhelming shadow engulfed her field of vision, and a rancid, diseased smell caused her to gag on sour, throat-scorching bile. She fired one pistol into the looming shape as she let go of the awakened spy. Cold, rough hands seized both of her arms. Her eyes watered as the foul, noxious vapor of a decomposing corpse filled her nostrils. She choked back her urge to retch while doing everything she could to resist the creature's power. 
    The beast was incredibly strong. The shadow loomed over her, and while she attempted to wrest her arms free, the creature leaned forward in an attempt to rip at her exposed skin with its teeth. She could feel the terrible gas that emanated from its gullet. Its wide mouth produced a hole darker than the night, a gaping abyss in which she saw her own mortal folly displayed for all time.
    If she blinked, she would die.
    Its strength was un-human. A dark, thick liquid poured over the rim of its jaw, and Neasa was glad she couldn't see its features in the darkness.
    A little girl in a cotton dress giggled while she ran over a grassy hill, storm clouds rolling above her head while waves lapped against the shore beneath the hill.
    Images from someone else's history.
    Dr. Lynch held a black rubber syringe in his hands while firelight danced within his shining eyeglasses. "This won't hurt as much as we thought," the doctor said while a sly smile snaked across his face.
    There might be a reason to live. There might be something to feel other than fear of death or the adrenaline borne of viole nt action.
    Against the pangs of exhaustion which threatened to crush her resolve, she willed her limbs into resistance. She twisted her wrists and opened her mouth to roar in the face of death. She would live, or die trying.
    She slammed a gun beneath the creature's jaw and with one motion, cocked the hammer and pulled the trigger. The explosion was complemented by a spray of blood in her face. The creature instantly sagged backward into the water, its grip loosening.
    Both guns were still dry. She cocked the hammers back and looked around her. What happened to McPhee?
    Where there was one, there might be others. Waiting to die was no longer an option.
    Pushing across the swamp, she returned to the supply cache; McPhee had taken his and run. Some outlaw he turned out to be. Why did she bother helping him escape from Cedar Rock? The old Neasa Bannan, whoever she was, wouldn't have done it.
    Crouched in the darkness, she clothed herself and buckled her belts over her waist. Any minute now, the rest of those creatures would crash through the brush. They would have heard the gunfire.
    Dawn's imminence was forthcoming; the bleak darkness of night was already surrendering to a cobalt-colored sky. It was just enough light to see the three figures which stood with their hands at their sides. They weren't breathing.
    She cocked the hammers and spat.
    The first one's head exploded as soon as she squeezed the trigger, and before it hit the dirt, the two others were already upon her. A gun was slapped from her fist, and she fell to her back while firing the other pistol wildly. The shadowed creature reared back from the sudden wound to its throat; the moment of hesitation was all Bannan needed to land a precise shot in its skull with the second trigger pull.
    The foul-smelling corpse fell on top of her and the breath was knocked from her lungs. Her pistol-hand was crushed beneath the dead weight. She could taste the creature's coppery blood on her tongue. She adjusted her body and attempted to roll from beneath the corpse—with only one free