Wither With Me

CHAPTER 20 - MARTYR

How many people lived in that shelter? Did Marcus go around taking under his wing every single survivor he found? It felt like the entire damn city was down there, clogging the tunnel, and slowly but steadily closing in on them. The ones at the back seemed to nudge the ones at the front, making them inch forward. And every centimeter of tunnel they lost cornered the group more and more.

William knocked another shambler down and took a quick look behind him. The barricade was still up.

'Damn it...!'

He turned around towards the horde and proceeded to kick and stomp at one of the zombies, who had managed to crawl way too close to him. Sweat poured down his forehead.

Not a single one of those shamblers would've been a threat by itself, not with their lack of energy. But strength in numbers made up for their weakness.

Claire and Jonah yelled and groaned as they kept smashing and beating whatever got too close. Corpses littered the floor, globs of blood splattered the walls, their clothes became messed up and dirty with God knows what... It was there, in the face of adversity, where William's prejudice and bitterness were truly swept away. There was no time for such things anymore. His mind, boosted by adrenaline, focused only on surviving.

Another shove. Another stomp. And another kick. And another shove. He couldn't stop, he couldn't allow exhaustion to grab hold of his limbs until they were either safe or dead.

The piling bodies on the floor caused several shamblers to trip, a chance they took to lunge forward, extending their arms in hopes of grabbing something. And they did. One of them managed to grasp the tool William wielded, which then got caught under the weight of its body. Another one grabbed his left leg.

"Crap...!!" he shouted, while trying to break free from its hold. He kicked its head with his right leg, not with the intention to kill it, but rather to keep its mouth away from him.

"W-William...!!" Claire let out a yelp, followed by her bat crashing down on the shambler's arm. A loud snapping sound reached their ears, and William felt the pressure around his ankle disappearing.

"Watch out!" Jonah rushed towards them and pulled at them, as another group of shamblers climbed over the ones on the floor and subsequently tripped forward like the previous ones did.

The group fell backwards, narrowly avoiding the lethargic but restless flood of zombies. Then, a scream. Jonah let out a howl of pain. William stood up, and saw a shambler hugging Jonah's leg. Its teeth sunk deep into his flesh, fresh blood poured from the wound and pooled on the floor.

"....!! Fuuuck...!!!" screamed Jonah.

A swift kick to the head, and William managed to free his leg, leaving the still alive shambler yearning for more.

"O-Oh god...!! No...!!" Claire was still sitting on the floor, dumbfounded and looking at Jonah with a terrified expression on her face.

"Claire!! Give me that bat and go help with the barricade!! Now!!" William gave the order with a thunderous voice. The girl didn't complain, wasting no time in doing as instructed. "And you...! Can you stand...!!?"

"Damn right I can...!" replied Jonah, standing up and readying his weapon, albeit gritting his teeth.

They no longer needed to knock the shamblers down. They were now coming down in waves on their own, crawling over the ever-increasing pile of corpses, both dead and alive. However, in doing so, the horde advanced faster than before. They both swung their bats with all the strength they had left. Beating the crap out of those shamblers was the only thing left to do.