I don't fire right away. My finger twitches with anxiety and I choke on my heart.
The horde roars. The first dozen hit the scaffolding and make clumsy attempts at climbing. The ones behind them - a few women, a few men, all with pockmarked faces and twisted mouths - push and pile up. Their eyes - bright, glowing eyes - roll back. They shout razorblade curses.
I take a step back on the bridge and dart a look around. Nothing beneath me but rushing water and a lot of empty air. The forest behind me - nothing yet. I brace the gun against my shoulder.
They're still streaming down the cliff side. That's a big fucking church.
Sweat rolls down my face. It stings my eye. I don't blink.
They climb like drunken apes - but they're making it. The first dozen are past the swinging crates and making their way up to the catwalk. The path is narrow and one gets flipped over the railing. This close, I'm not disappointed.
Like some alien creature made of human spare parts, the ravenous, glow-eyed villagers claw and scrape and growl and surge forward. One rips the a ragged hole in another's cheek - one takes a bite and pulls back with blood streaming down her face.
I shudder.
The blast rings off the walls of the ravine as the shot tears off three heads and knocks their twitching bodies into the mob. Like dominos, the pack behind them topples over.
My bridge.
I pump the gun and aim. They stop climbing and pushing - the roar dies down to a few indignant moans. The sudden quiet makes the air seem empty. I hear a sudden ringing in my ear.
I take another step back.
I hear the slick, meaty sound of something flapping in an open wound. From my point on the bridge I can only see the feet of the last one to fall. The left one twitches.
No fucking way.
I feel a sudden sharp pain in my neck and realize I'm grinding my teeth.
Something gushes like vomit - I hear it splash - the feet shoot up and are suddenly gone.
Shoulders appear, hunched over. No, not hunched. Headless. Shit.
The body turns and from the oozing, gaping neck comes a deep, menacing growl.
I think I'm going to die.
A piercing hiss rings out - blood and pus comes jetting out of the wound with a madly waving tentacles - out pops a pink blob with one hideous alien eye looking straight at me. It whips around on its reed-thin neck and the body twitches like its been electrified. Something glints in the dull morning light, waving off the end of its longest tentacle.
That's new.
As the first thing looks and me and makes a long, guttural scream, I hear a few more pops and splashes.
Fuck this.
I turn around and run like hell. Boards snap under my heels and go tumbling into the river below, but I'm moving too fast to loose my footing. I swing my shotgun onto my back and grab my knife. The bridge shakes as the squid-heads start galloping towards me.
My boots hit the dirt on other side of the bridge and in one movement I spin with my blade outstretched. I get a glimpse of them coming at me - the first three full out running, nearly halfway across the catwalk - before the ropes snap and the bridge tilts sharply to the right. Heads explode as the monsters scramble to hang on to the bridge. Those at the far bank stop dead.
I hack at the ropes.
The bridge falls. The monsters fall like stones into the river.
I can't breathe. I think I'm going to faint. I fall back on my ass and drop the knife. Red fog pulses in front of my eyes. Snap! the rope breaks on the other side and the rickety catwalk falls into the river. The shape of the mob on the other side dwindles. Or maybe... its me.
I fall back into darkness with my heartbeat pounding like a drum.