Chapter 14

Marion backed up despite herself, firing off another round five, the head exploded in a shower of stale blood and she turned the gun to the next nearest one and then another and another eight. She heard Dog barking and risked a glance to see him dodge the grip of a decayed hand, slipping between a pair of legs, barking again as the mini group turned to follow him. His efforts had hardly put a dent in the crowd though and she fired again nine. She looked at the crowd in front of her – one or two had stopped to devour the fallen, but most of them were more interested in the warm body – her warm body.

"Dog?" she called and fired her last bullet. Well, her last but two. "Dog?" she called again, risking a glance to her side.

He was gone.

"Dog!" she screamed, ducking underneath the reaching hands and turning the gun to whack the butt against the temple of the dead person trying to eat her. "DOG!" she screamed again.

She heard the answering bark this time, but she couldn't see him.

"Come back" she called, throwing herself on the ground to escape the lunging figure. She rolled, pushing the gun into her waistband and swung the crossbow around off her back – the bolt almost went all the way through the head of what used to be a man and he dropped. But there was about twenty behind him and she flung the crossbow back – there wasn't enough time to reload. "DOG!" she all but screeched this time.

He didn't come.

Time is relative. People say that time flies when you're having fun, that a watched kettle never boils. The synapses within the brain move at an unimaginable speed and within those few seconds it was like someone had slowed time down. She looked down at the graves at her feet, her husband – the man she had loved, and been loved by for the last 12 years, the man who had died next to her, who she had then murdered. Her daughters – that she had carried for 9 months, that she had fed, clothed, nurtured for all of their lives, who she had seen grow in all ways from helpless babies to toddlers to little girls and in Rachel's case to a little lady with the world at her feet – ripe for the picking. Daughters who she had murdered after the sickness claimed them, whose broken little bodies she had carried and laid them next to their father and covered them with earth so far from home. She thought about the loneliness that had enveloped her since then, the sheer emptiness in her life. She looked up at the mass approaching her, ready to tear her throat out, to consume her – to make her into one of them if they didn't finish the job off properly. She held the gun in her hand and lifted it to her temple.

She heard the bark – it was far off, she couldn't see him. Her hand trembled - if she did this, she would be leaving him all alone to fend for himself. To find food, water, shelter. She would be forcing him to protect himself, he alone would be responsible for keeping the dead from finding him and eating him. And when he failed – he would be torn apart muscle by ligament by flesh.

She lifted the gun and fired it, twice into the two closest figures. She leant down and grabbed the bag, throwing it over her shoulder as she ran, the crowd close behind her. She ran as fast as she could, but she was still sore and she was winded, the bag and the crossbow were heavy on her shoulders, dragging her down. "Get some space," she breathed to herself. "Load the gun and get Dog." She ducked beneath a low lying branch and screamed as a hand reached to her. She fell over, scrambling backwards as it reached to her. A white fur ball launched itself over her shoulder barking furiously– his weight hit the dead man sideways on the knee – even in death that was a vital joint – the figure staggered and toppled reaching out with diseased hands to her feet. Marion scrambled back up as the hordes came around the outside of the tree, turning towards the gate. She hit it with a thump and it wobbled, but didn't open and she spun. They had circled around her, moving in with hungry eyes and groans of desire.

"Oh crap," she said and sunk to the ground, her back to the wall. Dog whined and stood up on his back legs, his front on her chest, and licked her face. "We gave it a go mate" she murmured and enclosed him with her arms, holding him tight and effectively smothering him as she bent over.

The explosion was loud in her ears and she felt a vibration through her back. The next explosion was much louder as was the next and the next.

"Wha' tha fuck ya think ya doin' bitch?" demanded an angry voice. "Git up!"

She turned her head in a haze, focusing on the boots standing over her legs. She looked up the drill trousers to the back of the leather vest. A shotgun dropped into her lap, he whipped a handgun from his waistband and let loose again, turning to glare at her "MOVE!"

As if released from a great weight she got up then, releasing Dog and gripping the shotgun. She went out the open gate, the lock having been blown off by the first bullet. She felt his presence behind her, the gun still firing, his back pushing up against her. "Where?" she demanded.

"There," he shouted at her, glancing over his shoulder. "Oh Fuck!"

He couldn't see the car. Between them and the car, in front of the car, behind the car, at the back of the car was a crowd of geeks. Slowly as one they turned to face them, their teeth bared and they groaned in desire.

"Here!" he yelled, turning back and slamming the gate. He leant against it, digging his feet into the ground even as the first geeks hit against it. It jumped open but his weight and force shut it again and several fingers fell to the ground. "Git a gun!" he continued. She hesitated "Do ya want to 'old t'is?"

Marion swallowed, but moved towards him – he held his arms out wide and she pressed against him, reaching over his shoulder to grab a handful of guns from the bag. She flicked the safety off and turned, picking the closest figure to fire on, then the next then the next. The gun clicked empty and she dropped it, flicking the safety off another and firing once, twice, three times. She wasn't killing with each shot, some she was just hitting in the chest, some she was missing entirely. She bit her lip, feeling the fear increase within her, building until it was ready to explode. She felt her eyes tearing over and blinked frantically to clear them. They just kept on coming closer and closer, more and more of them. She could hear Merle grunting now with the effort of trying to hold the gate closed. We're going to die.

She wasn't cut out for this, he knew even as he watched her drop the empty gun and start with the next. She'd only killed five, her other shots hadn't been kill shots. They were still coming towards them and they had no-where to run. The crowd behind him was growing, his feet were moving in the ground, he couldn't hold it any longer. He swore and she looked at him, saw his predicament and moved next to him, pushing with him and the door shut again. But she didn't have much left in the tank, he could see not only the exhaustion but the terror, the horror building up in her. She was still fighting tough bitch but she was about to fall over.

"Git me a gun," he demanded in her ear. If he was going out then he wasn't going easy. She instead handed him the one in her hand – he fired off four deadly rounds that dropped their targets as she reached over his shoulder again, extracting more guns. There was no point bothering with the bullets – they wouldn't be getting a chance to reload. She handed him a new one even as his clicked empty and in unison they fired – he accounted for twelve bodies, she eight. They almost had a wall of bodies in front of them now.

And they still came on.

A hand came around the edge of the gate as it was pushed slowly open, Marion screamed as it reached for her – her weight came off the gate and Merle was almost pushed to the ground as they came through. He stumbled, catching Marion by the elbow and reefing her behind him – firing point blank into the geek's head as it limped towards them.

"Merle!" she cried and he risked a glance over his shoulder. There were three of them within a few metres of her. She fired, once, twice and two bodies dropped. The gun clicked – the figure stepped within a hands breadth of them, its mouth wide open.

There was an explosion of barking. Dog launched himself at the dead figure, grabbing the thing's leg and worrying at it, like a terrier with its prey. The figure stumbled and fell, Marion dodged and Merle saw the opening. "Go!" he yelled.

He almost pushed her forward, around the group of bodies that they had amassed, the dead figures howling out their rage as their prey escaped.

Dog ran at them, weaving in and out amongst the leading figures as they came through the gap between the wall and the bodies. One of the figures bent down, reaching for the white ball that smelt warm. It stumbled as others behind it kept on moving forward and fell, it tried to stand back up to pursue that warm scent, and it tripped over two behind it. Dog jumped the knot of bodies, barking furiously and continuously. He had their attention now, they were turning to him – there was no concept that a scrap like him would barely feed one let alone the multitudes. Their primitive senses only saw and smelt and recognised food. They wanted food. So they pursued it.

Marion stumbled, Merle's closed his stump's elbow around her tighter and kept her upright. He could see the car now, the dead had left it in their pursuit of them earlier. Why weren't they chasing them? He wondered, but he wasn't one to look a gift horse in the mouth well not today anyway and he dragged her around to the driver's door. He flung her at the opening – she climbed up, he moved in towards her and after one startled glance, she lifted herself over to the passenger seat. He sat behind the wheel and turned the key, slamming the door.

"What are you doing?" she demanded, her eyes wild.

"Gettin' tha fuck outta 'ere," he all but yelled back at her. Wha' tha fuck did she t'ink t'ey oughtta be doing?

"You can't leave Dog" she said.

Merle blinked – he hadn't even noticed the furball wasn't there. "I ain't hangin' around ta be made dinner over a mutt," he retorted, pushing the gear stick.

"You won't leave Dog," she said, this time the words cold and hard and accompanied by cold steel against his temple.

He turned slowly, the gun never wavered and now it was pointed directly between his eyes. "I saved ya life" he exploded.

"And Dog saved yours," she said. She must have seen the scorn in his eyes. "He distracted them – so that they followed him instead of us."

Except not all were distracted and she jumped as a dead figure slammed into her window, blood, pus and drool smearing the glass. She recoiled away and Merle snapped the gun from her hand. Another one came out of her waistband and she pointed it back at him, flinching at the sounds coming through the glass directly behind her ear, but holding the gun resolutely straight at him despite the barrel of the gun half a metre away from her face.

There was silence inside the cab as they sat with guns pointed at each other. Neither moved, neither dared to breathe.

The dead figure was joined by another at her window, moaning and howling, pushing their deformed features against the glass where they could see fresh meat.

"Go ahead," she said coldly. "Shoot. Because I am not leaving without Dog."

Well fuck brother laughed a voice. Didn't see that one comin' did ya?

"We don't even know where the mutt went," he growled, still holding the gun at her around the weapon she held at him.

"He'll be at the Palace," she said. "This is how we cleaned out the place, he would bring them to me at the gates and I would shoot them."

"Do ya know how many fuckin' geeks t'ere is between us and tha Palace?" he demanded.

"We have the car."

Oh so there's a 'we' now is there? He sneered inwardly.

Come on brother – keep wit' it. Fix this.

"Fuck," he swore and lowered his weapon. He jammed the gear stick in place and gunned the motor. He threw a glance at her. "We'll go and git ya fuckin' mutt, but I swear – if I git bit by a geek 'cause of ya fuckin' fleabag I'm eatin' him first then you!"

Marion smiled, lowering the gun as the car sped through the streets. The Palace was a one way in, one way out sort of place – for vehicles anyway and he slowed as he approached the street entrance. There was a crowd of the dead there, more were coming in – shambling and limping forward, some almost dragging themselves. He braked, holding his stump up as her mouth opened. He idled forward, the purr of the car not catching their attention over the noise of the groans.

Marion almost bounced in her sat with frustration – she wanted the car to screech into the Palace, knocking down any in their way to rescue Dog. But she knew that that was dangerous and that Merle wouldn't risk their one way of getting out of the place for Dog – no matter how many guns she held on him. And what if he had called her on it? she wondered. Would she have pulled the trigger? She didn't want to think of the answer.

"Where is he?" growled Merle pulling up at the street. The gates were wide open – there was no protection for Dog there.

"I don't know," she whimpered. "Maybe he didn't make it this far."

"He made it," he said bluntly. She smiled slightly at his reassurance. "T'ere's too many geeks 'eading in tha same d'rection." She sighed.

Merle watched the geeks – they were gathered before the gates on the opposite side of the street – all in some big pulsing group. They couldn't have got him – he'd be gone already and they would have lost interest. No, they were still hunting him – they had him cornered.

The skip. He'd gone under the skip – they could push and pull, move it around however they wanted – unless they could actually tip it he'd be safe. Smart little motherfucking dog he thought. But there was no way out for him, he'd never get past the crowd of hands and mouths.

"Open ya door," he instructed. Puzzled, she did so and Merle opened his door – immediately the breeze found the mini wind tunnel, heading down towards the crowd of geeks. Some on the outer edges of the crowd paused, looking around slowly. But not enough. Merle put his hand directly on the horn – the sound rang through the street, bouncing off the wall. That got their attention he noted with satisfaction – they stopped pawing at the gap under the skip and looked up at the sound, groaning as they saw him and caught a whiff of their warm scent. Some of the closer ones started to stagger towards them. He gave a piercing whistle "Come on mutt – ain't got all fuckin' day," he yelled.

Dog pelted out, under the feet of the geeks and along the street – some turned to grab him but he was moving too fast. He took a flying leap a couple of metres out, his front feet touched Merle's leg briefly before he landed in Marion's lap. Her arms folded onto him, almost crushing him "Dog! Oh you wonderful baby boy – you're safe now." He licked at her face frantically, his tail going a mile a minute.

What 'tha fuck had he got himself into? wondered Merle as he slammed the door and drove out, weaving through the stragglers of the crowd as they headed out of town.