Immunity

11

The incredible force of the lunging infected's weight smacks me backwards into the tiles. I barely have time to raise my arm to protect my body as it falls on top of me, snapping at my face with the intense need to rip it off. I hear gunshots. Its mouth stops moving, hanging open, and then it lulls, its head flopping. It rolls off of me with my less than a growl.

The heartbeat in my ears is all I hear as I look around in a dazed panic. They are everywhere. Tonnes of them.

Leo and Izzy are perched on top of shelves, screaming, as Ria stands below on the ground, fighting tooth and nail as the infected swarm around. With a sudden rush of blood flooding my cheeks, I leap to my feet, grabbing my baseball bat. With hysterical screams pouring from my mouth, and the feeling of lust for death coursing through every vein in my body, I run at them. I chop, and swing, every undead body I hit sending waves of impact up my arms that cause my muscles to strain, pull, and burn.

I revel in the feeling of blood and gore catching in my hair, laughing as they scream and whimper.

The breath catches in my throat as I feel hands run through my hair, then around my neck. Teeth snap in my ear and hot breath beats on my face, echoed by the musky scent of decay. My lungs start to catch fire as the infected cuts off my breathing. My heart pounds in my chest, as wild thoughts of death frolic through my mind. Then, there's a growl that I hear above all the noise, a valiant one. Out of the corner of my eye, I see Ace, just a black blur in my peripheral view. He launches himself, jaws open in a vicious threat. I hear the bones in the neck of the infected snap as Ace locks on, tearing it away from me, sending it flying like a ragdoll. He chases after it, mauling at its legs and arms to finish the job.

Good dog, I think, a smile crossing my lips as I try to suck air back into my lungs.

I turn just in time to bring my bat down on top of a head. Aggie darts amongst the clumsy bodies like a strategic little mouse, cutting and stabbing with her small knife with accuracy, cutting at their ligaments so they fall to the ground with their useless legs and flailing arms.

Jax steals my attention next, taking one out with a single bullet, before yanking the gun back and hitting it into the back of ones neck, knocking it down. With a swift reach for his belt, he pulls out a knife, and finishes the job with a few stabs.

I knock the legs out from underneath one with a clean swing, and as it collapses I hit it again, straight down on its abdomen with a solid strike that gives me a satisfying squelch noise. With a kick, I send another one stumbling back. Its like Hugo is waiting. He grabs the back of its head, spinning it around, before smashing it into the wall. He barely blinks as blood splatters onto his cheeks.

A scream rips my attention to my left, and I pivot to see Ria wrestling with one, its arm like deadly vices on her shoulders. Her hands are desperately pressed to the infected forehead, trying to push it away while avoiding being bitten. It growls in response, snapping at her wrist.

I run behind it, grabbing onto the back of its head, my fingers lacing its bloodied forehead. With a jerk, I yank its head back, slamming it straight in to my raised knee with an almighty crack. I catch a glance from Ria before I turn to beat the head of another, something lingering in her eyes. A thank you that would never be spoken? More likely annoyance at the fact she couldn't handle that one herself.

"Girl!"

I look up to the top of the shelf, where Leo and Izzy look down at me with anxious faces.

"Here!"

With a flick of his little arm, he throws something at me, a black smudge in the air that meets my hand with a cool metallic bite. A handgun, fully loaded. I grin, despite the fear digging its nails into my heart.