As the harsh echoes of gunfire traveling up and down the stone hallway were dying down, Sheva began to notice a new, ominous undercurrent of sounds that seemed to come at her from all directions. It was the sound of awakening movement, shuffling feet, and sickly soft, muffled groans.
From a bare window-like opening in the corridor wall on her left, first a thin, rakish hand with a necrotic greenish cast appeared on the sill, and then a leg made its way over and down as another creature began to clamber its way through the opening. Moments later, as if from some unseen passage through the ceiling, a second zombie dropped down to the right, landing on all fours, and slowly beginning to straighten itself to stand up with considerable effort.
But Sheva could also hear that something was approaching her from behind, and instinctively judging that she had time before the zombies she could see in front of her could set upon her, she wheeled around to face the threat as yet unseen, pivoting neatly on one leather boot heel that spun almost without friction and the hard stone surface of the floor.
The thing was nearly upon her, its arms already raised in a menacing bid to grab her from behind. But Sheva was much faster, her MP-45 was leveled from her hip, already in position, as if it were an extension of her own body. The string of bullets found their intended mark at the creature's center of mass, stopping it neatly in its tracks without causing it to spin or turn, but making it vibrate a violent staccato in time with the clatter of the MP-45 full auto feed mechanism before collapsing straight down in a heap.
Sheva spun back towards the first two zombies as soon as she had released the trigger, but also into the waiting grasp of one of the monsters who had apparently closed the distance with unexpected speed, one of each of its claw-like hands hooking painfully into Sheva's shoulders. Reacting with fear instead of training, she countered by seizing its forearms, leaving the MP-45 to fall and hang uselessly from its shoulder strap.
The creature had a significant height advantage, and was using it as leverage in spine-bending attempt to force her to the floor. As Sheva took half a step back to brace herself in order to push back, she noticed that the creature's eyes were widening as its neck began to bulge. Something suddenly erupted from the creatures mouth in a thick spray of mucus and saliva tinted pink with blood. It was some sort of an appendage, but certainly not a human one, and, in fact, not like anything she'd seen before. It had a shape that reminded her of a banana peel, with four long petals that each came to a point. But there, the similarity ended. These petals had razor sharp talons and serrated edges. They were a pale organic pink, like some hideous alien meatflower, and they surged and probed through the air as if trying to find her and seize her for some malicious purpose.
The horrifying sight electrified every muscle in her body. Adrenaline surged from out of her chest and into her arms which extended with surprising force, causing the monster to release its grasp and stagger backwards before pausing to retract its hostile looking oral appendage with a sickening slurp. Sheva never her took her eyes off her assailant even for a moment. Her two hands, now free, made a blind search for the dangling MP-45, and with the second zombie leaning in to make its own grab, Sheva's left finger slipped into the trigger guard, squeezed a bit prematurely, and caused the weapon let loose a long arc of urgent and undisciplined automatic fire, as she raised up the barrel, her right hand cupped underneath, to take better aim.
The first two rounds tore ragged, splintered holes in the nearby window sill. The next rounds crashed into the nearer monster's hip and then kidney on the opposite side, decisively halting its forward progress. Following rounds hissed harmlessly between the two undead figures, their torsos and limbs at odd angles as they attempted to regain their limited capacity for balance in the wake of Sheva's counterattack.
Then the last bullet, a "golden BB" as the range instructors referred to a bullseye round, hit the last creature somewhere in the head, but Sheva could not tell exactly where because its cranium had disappeared into a cloud of dark red mist that spread out explosively in all directions before quickly disappearing. The headless ghoul took a seemingly normal step forward as if its head were only a needless accessory, then halted, teetered, and fell stiffly over to one side like a stricken support tower.
As if by reflex, Sheva twisted her shoulders sharply to the left, her slender hips and torso following as she raised up her right knee, the balls of her left foot pressing against the leather sole of her boot into the stone floor, spinning at first away from the last monster, but gathering speed, and then coming back around, her right foot fully extended now as it collided with the side of the fiend's head with a sharp snapping crack. The zombie cartwheeled across to Sheva's left from the force of the blow, limbs splayed out in all directions as it did a flat sideways spin into a small pile of empty, rusty steel drums with a hollow crash, finally dying for the second and last time.
Since encountering the first zombie Sheva hadn't even taken one step toward the landing zone. And then there were more. Three more. Now five. A stand up fight in this place could only end her demise. Sheva broke into sprint down the corridor, the click-clack of her hardened leather boot soles piercing the gathering deathly chorus of moaning and shuffling zombies headed in her direction.