Life After Death (#1)

Chapter Thirty Two

Taylor immediately ran towards Max and Lizzie, but his weapons were down by his side, and he didn't seem threatening at all. Max hadn't expected this; he just assumed it would be every man for himself.

Taylor stopped about ten metres short of the pair.

"Hey, Max! You heard them, right?!" he shouted excitedly but also apprehensively.

Max was confused as to what Taylor was getting at, but decided to humour him.

"What's that then Taylor?"

"They said there's two champions today! We...we...why don't we just slit her throat and walk out of here alive, you and me? What do you say?" Taylor asked, well, begged really.

Max didn't know what to say; he was shocked into pure silence.

"Err how about no, fuck off?!" Lizzie spat back. "Right, Max?" she added nervously.

Max looked between her and Taylor before settling on her face.

"Well, his plan does have its up sides," he winked.

Lizzie smacked him on the side before laughing and smiling back.

Taylor was still standing there, desperately pleading for a way out of this situation. He clearly knew that he was no match for Max in a one on one fight. This was his only way out.

So, what was Max supposed to do now? Was the whole crowd just waiting for him to chop Taylor down so they could go home?

Max still wasn't sure he could do this, but he took a few tentative steps towards the shivering wreck that was Taylor. The more steps he took, the longer he could put off the inevitable.

Just as Max neared his terrified victim, the crowd's roars entered a new level. Max turned his head, scanning around the pit until he saw them. Clickers pouring out from the tunnel. Ten, twenty; thirty now, at least.

"Max!" Lizzie screamed.

Max ran back towards her; Taylor would have to wait. To be honest, Max thought he could even make himself useful and distract a few of the undead.

"Stay behind me kid!" Max ordered before running towards the tunnel.

He figured he could at least take out a few of the stragglers and faster clickers before the main bulk made it to them. Surprisingly Taylor followed suit, but Max constantly had one eye on him, wary of being stabbed in the back.

Max reached the first clicker, leaping forward and planting an arm round its neck before slamming it to the ground. He drove his smaller blade through its skull with a sickening crunch.

Snapping his head back up towards the tunnel, he saw that two more clickers had reached him. Now on his knees, Max attacked powerfully in one arching motion, slicing through the legs of both clickers. The machete carved through their soft rotten flesh and weak bone like it wasn't even there. Leaping back to his feet, he stamped his boot through each of their heads to make sure.

To his left, Taylor was slashing away with his two machetes, not killing anything but definitely taking some of the focus off Max.

The main horde of clickers was slowly shuffling towards Max now. He still had no idea how he was going to take them down; he needed to separate them somehow.

Another lonely clicker had wandered towards him, and Max swiftly knocked it down with one brutal smash to the face with the handle of his machete. The clicker thumped to the ground, desperately trying to climb back to its feet, like an upside down beetle. Max swooped in and chopped down with his blade, severing its head from its body. For a few seconds it kept clicking those dirty, yellow teeth before lying still.