We all yelped briefly and turned to face the newcomer. His spotlight was on us, partially blinding us. The two cats squinted against the sudden brightness and slinked around behind the trash can to avoid the bright light. The officer inside opened his car door and stood behind it. he wasnt very old, probably no more than thirty. His eyes were wide with fright though. It was obvious he had been alone out here for a bit.
"Awright! Freeze right there!"
I blinked.
"But... we werent moving anyway officer," Braddly rattled off sarcastically.
Darrell whapped him across the arm, glaring at him.
"You, over there, get away from the car!," he gestured with his flashlight.
"Listen man," Jeff replied, "if you hadn't noticed there's a shitstorm goin' down in this town..."
"I said move it..."
"...and if you don't remove head "A" from ass "B"..." Jeff's eyes widened
"Lookout!" Darrell shouted.
It was too late. Something latched onto the police officers ankle. He yelled and toppled to the ground as the crawing corpse crawled up his body. We all froze for just a second. In that second we might have been able to save him... The hungry corpse latched onto the officer's neck. A spray of blood erupted from his arteries as they were savaged. His screams became a panicked gurgle amid the sounds of crunching and ripping. Breaking free of our paralysis Darrell and I bolted for the wounded officer. I kicked with all my strength, rolling the zombie off of the man. He was still clutching at the tears in his throat. The zombie moaned and scrabbled with it's hands for my legs. I could now see why it was crawling. It's legs had been eaton off to the thigh, leaving bones trailing behind it as it crawled along. Darrell moved around to the other side, hefting up his replica sword in both hands. He hesitated.
"The HEAD! Chop it OFF!" I shouted as I kicked and danced frantically, trying to keep the corpse's clawss from latching onto me.
Darrel brought the sword down, missing the neck and gouging into the zombie's shoulder. Black, coagulated blood splattered over my legs. Darrell ripped the sowrd out and swung again, this time striking true, the zombie's head came off relatively easily, and rolled a few feet before stopping. The body convulsed for a few second then lay still. We all turned to look at the police officer lying just a foot or so away. He lay still as well, a pool of blood spreading slowly underneath him.
"Scott! Are you okay?" Jeff asked.
"Yeah I'm fine. No bites. Darrell, gimme the sword."
Darrell blinked then nodded, handing me his blade. Heaving it up like an axe I brought it down on the body of the police officer, requiring several chops to actually sever his head. The other three gasped. Mara and Wedge hopped up onto the hood of the police car.
"It's the only way..." I muttered, tossing Darrel's sword back to him. Moving back to Braddly I helped him up and retrieved my staff.
"Let's take his car. It has a radio," Jeff suggested.
Glancing inside Darrell chuckled.
"Plus a shotgun, and a box of shells, and..."
He was cut off by the moaning sounds from the street behind us. In our struggle we had forgotten about the small army that was not far behind us. It's easy to forget about something that moves that slow until it's on top of you. The first of the zombie pack emerged from teh shadows, it's arms reaching out for us.
"GET IN! Jeff get his gun!"
I hopped into the driver's seat as the others piled in, the cats bolted inside and hid under the passenger seat. Jeff quickly unbuckled the cops belt and dove into the car, sprawling over Darrell's lap to avoid the closest of the walking dead.
"GO GO GO!" Jeff shouted frantically.
I floored the accelerator and we tore away past the zombie horde, clipping several of them in the process. They spun and toppled to the ground, only to get up and continue shambling towards us. I didnt slow down till we were well out of sight of the hoard, several blocks down. Darrell was fiddling with the radio, which sounded mostly of static at this point.
"You know how to use that thing?" I asked.
"No, you?" Darrell replied.
"Nope... just keep trying."
In the back seat, jeff was searching the police officer's belt for something, and eventually found what he was looking for.
"A-HA!"
Jeffgrinned, holding up a small key. He then put it to use, unlocking the shotgun from it's rack.
"Well... at least that's some good news." Brad groaned, rubbing his ankle.
"Where to now?" asked Darrell.
"We stick with the plan, head east," I replied, keeping my eyes on the road and dodging abandoned cars. Get as far as we can in this thing. Try to find help on the radio. Switch to CB if you can find how... maybe someone local and unofficial is listening if you can't get the cops on the horn."
"Right..." Darrell ent back to turning knobs and pressing buttons.
"The gun here's 9mm, got 4 clips on the belt and one chambered. I think there's 13 shots per. Not as much power as mine though. So umm... who wants the shotgun?" Jeff asked.
"ME!" the rest of us said in unison.
Jeff frowned at us.
"Okay folks," I spat, "I'm no good with a handgun. Just ask Jeff he's seen me shoot."
Jeff nodded emphatically
"Darrell you said you took several handgun classes at college, right?"
"Right."
"So obviously you should carry the other handgun since you migth actually HIT something with it should the need arise."
Darrell sighed, "Yeah, yer right."
He adjusted the belt and it's holster and put it on, clicking the ends together, locking themin place. Jeff examined the shotgun for a moment.
"Ok, Scott, this things got an 8 round tubular magazine, pump action. safety is right... here... you lookin."
"As well as I can in the mirror, Jeff. I AM driving you know?"
"You got pockets?"
"Yeah, and my pack there has open space."
"Okay. D? Open up this box of shells and load him up. Gun's loaded already."
While everyone else was busy I grabbed the radio and talked into it while driving. By now we had managed to figure out how to switch frequencies.
"Can anyone hear me? I am east bound on 34th street inside the city. Just past avenue Q. Are there any survivors who can hear me?"
Static.