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Her nickname wasn’t Loca for nothing, Jenni thought as she slipped her pistol out of her belt, flipped off the safety and began to systematically shoot the zombies. Gouts of decaying gore exploded out of the tops of their rotting heads.

“Jenni!” Ed sounded pissed.

“We gotta move now!”

The zombies were so intent on their feast, they didn’t even look up as she approached. The stench of fresh death overwhelmed the reek of decay, and Jenni tried hard not to gag. She continued to fire at the zombies on the edge of the feeding frenzy. The zombies were tearing at each other frantically, ripping away tattered clothes and rotting flesh, as they tried to get to the freshly dead humans. Their moans were a terrible rumble.

Curtis slid into her peripheral view, also firing his weapon. Felix jogged slightly ahead of her, two pistols firing into the crowd. Behind them, Katarina had taken up a sniper position and was picking off any zombie that got too close to the people huddled on top of the van. As one managed to snag the foot of someone on the van, Katrina’s shot severed the zombie’s hand.

As Jenni drew closer, she could clearly see the zombies huddled over the dead human. They were stuffing flesh into their mouths with feverish delight. Dead, gray flesh was peeling off of their bones, and their clothes were tatters. Many had limbs missing and a few had odd objects sticking out of

their bodies such as knives, pieces of furniture, tree limbs, and, in one weird case, an umbrella.

Jenni felt her throat tighten as a small child zombie staggered into view.

It was gripping part of a bloody rib in its hand while trying to fight off the much larger zombies reaching for it. Jenni put a bullet through the child’s forehead.

“Reloading,” she said, and Curtis moved in front of her to cover.

The old clip slid out with ease and she quickly tucked it into her jean pocket before slamming a new one home. Looking up, she saw their situation had just taken a nasty turn.

The zombies were heading up the hill.

“Keep the line,” Ed barked.

The fort people were moving down the hill in two lines. The first group unleashed on the zombies, then the second group took over as first reloaded. At least twenty zombies were heading toward them. These were the old variety, slow and decaying, but they were still a menace. The walking dead jerked and tumbled in a bizarre dance as they were gunned down, bullets ripping through their mottled features and punching out the back of their skulls.

“Nearly got them all now,” Ed called out.

“Watch out! Watch out!” a deep voice thundered from on top of the van.

Jenni was reloading again when she heard the fast slap of feet on the pavement and instantly knew what that meant.

“Runners!”

The fast zombies came from behind the van. Their freshly killed bodies glistened with blood in the cold sunlight. Gaping wounds, terrible and grotesque, decorated their torsos and throats, but their limbs were still intact and they were fast.

The slower zombies were now secondary as the group concentrated on taking down the runners before they reached the line. There were at least six zigzagging up toward them.

“Don’t panic! Don’t panic!” Ed was shouting.

But people were panicking. Runners were so swift it was hard to hit them with a killing shot. The line broke up and Jenni gripped her ax and yanked it off her back as her pistol clicked empty. She had no time to reload and shoved her weapon into her belt before gripping the ax handle tightly with both hands.

“More! More!” someone was shouting.

Runners were now coming up off the side of the road. Men, women, children, their faces snarled into hungry expressions. The gunfire was rapid now. People were firing and reloading as fast as they could.

Jenni met the first runner as Curtis ducked out of the way to reload, not realizing she was on empty. She swung the ax as hard as she could, the blade slamming hard into the thing’s neck. It scrabbled at her, its fingers skidding along the leather of her jacket. She shoved it back with one foot, jerking the ax out of its flesh. Blood spewed over her as she slammed the ax back into its neck, this time decapitating it. The head rolled away as the body fell.

Another zombie was almost on her. It was a woman this time, her frizzy, blond hair matted with blood. Her face was partially torn from her skull, and her throat was nothing but strips of flesh and spine. Jenni pivoted on her hip, bringing her elbow up to clip the zombified woman’s chin hard.

The creature was in mid-scream and the impact of Jenni’s blow, shoved her jaw upwards, clipping off the tip of her tongue on her bloody teeth.

Shoving the dead woman as hard as she could, Jenni got a little distance between them. Swinging the ax, she neatly decapitated the zombie.

“Help! Help!” Curtis’ screams were terrified.

Jenni looked over to see him on the ground, his arm lifted defensively. A zombie had a hold of his forearm and was shaking its head back and forth, trying to bite through the thick leather of Curtis’ jacket. Jenni slammed the ax blade down onto its head, splitting it open. It fell lifeless off of Curtis.