I panicked and stumbled backwards. The cold, dead hand around my ankle held on with an iron grip. My backwards progress was brought to a screeching halt as I collided with Jeff, sending us both tumbling to the cluttered floor. Jeff swore out loud as his pistol went skittering across the floor a few feet away. Braddly hopped back to avoid the cartoon-like domino effect.
The zombie drug itself out from under the rubble. It was mostly hairless… mostly scalp-less for that matter. Sharp shards of wood from the broken shelves it was buried under tore gashes in its putrid flesh as its other arm reached forward and clamped onto my other leg. The former man was crawling up towards me, its mouth open wide, revealing a blackened tongue, yellowed gums, but perfect white teeth. The dead creature moaned out loud in anticipation of feasting on my flesh.
In my panic I didn't even think to fire my shotgun. Instead I began to beat at the creatures head with the butt end of the gun. This slowed its progress but only slightly. This one was strong. Meanwhile, Jeff was struggling to extricate himself out from underneath me and Braddly was trying to work around the whole mess and get inside.
As the dead guy, Jeff, and I thrashed around on the floor, other sounds came from further back in the darkened room. Several forms stood up slowly from behind the counter, more of the walking dead. I had no time to count as I was desperately bashing at the zombie which had designs on various choice cuts from my flank. Each blow sheared off more of the creatures rotting skin, but didn't seem to lessen the creature's determination. Jeff finally managed to scurry out from beneath me and scrambled to get his gun. Braddly hopped around behind me and the zombie and brought his (my) staff around the Zombie's head, pulling back on its throat. This would have choked any living creature but in this case all it did was drag the creature backwards, which was certainly fine by me. Braddly stumbled and groaned a bit as he pried the ravenous ghoul off of me and pushed it aside. I shuffled backwards and tried to find my feet but was having trouble with the loose debris on the floor and my inherently un-bending knees.
By now Jeff had recovered his handgun. He stood over me and placed one round in the Zombie's head as it struggled to stand. The other corpses shambled into the light that was leaking in from the door. What was once a woman, a teenage boy, and a man reached out with their arms and groaned hungrily as they neared our position. Brad used the reach of his weapon to his advantage and thrust hard at the chest of the teenage ghoul. It fell backwards against the "woman" and they both tumbled to the floor. By now I had grabbed the wall and hoisted myself, painfully, to my feet. I brought the shotgun to my shoulder and aimed it towards the pair of tripped up zombies. The teenager's upper torso exploded like a ripe melon, severing the head in the process. Coagulated blood and ichors too foul to describe splashed back onto me. I took a couple of steps forward, standing next to Brad. A pump of the stock and a second squeeze of the trigger stilled the female.
Several sharp-tones blasts from Jeff's handgun signaled the end of the last zombie within sight. I turned in that direction only to see the hefty corpse slump clumsily to the ground, exhaling pathetically as it died again.