Zombie Road: The Second Omnibus by Simpson, A. (e ink manga reader .txt) 📗

and sprang to his feet. He stared at the rusty piece of metal protruding through her back right above her hips. Blood and other liquids oozed out and splashed her as she clawed at the ground to get to him. She lunged and nearly freed herself, snarling and hungry. Gunny snapped himself out of his moment of amazement, surprised he wasn’t being chewed up and jumped on her back, driving the steel deeper and pinning her to the spot like a bug on a pin. He stomped down hard on her neck and her arms went limp. Her head still tried to bite, her jaws still snapped at him until two hard kicks later she finally was still. She was finally dead.

Gunny leaned against the wall and breathed deep. That had been close. Too close. He was getting too old for this shit. The after-battle adrenaline shakes started but only lasted a moment. He’d been through situations as bad as this in the past. He was alive. The other guy wasn’t. He listened for the sound of someone racing towards him. Someone coming to join the fight. Someone like Casey either alive or dead coming to finish him off but he heard nothing. No running footsteps or snarling keens. He went back to the illegal dump site and started poking around. He wasn’t in a mad rush, didn’t have a hundred pounds of undead fury only seconds away and found a couple of good weapons after digging around for a few moments. He had to go back, to find Casey, to make sure he was dead or dying. He wasn’t up for another day one zombie battle but he had a little something now to even the odds. He’d found a huge piston with the connecting rod still attached and it made for a hell of a club. Probably out of a tractor or big diesel truck. He had a bicycle sprocket he could use as a crude blade and it would rip through skin like a knife through butter. An old, rusted steel fence post made a good spear. If Casey was a zombie, he’d rush straight for him. They were stupid like that. Gunny would just set the post in the ground and impale him on it when he charged then bash his big bald head in with the piston. Easy as pie.

127

Gunny

Gunny went slow back up the gully and was starting to wonder if he’d taken a side gulch or something. He didn’t remember running so far but he finally caught sight of the cars. He approached carefully, his eyes trying to see into the deep shadows where the moon light didn’t touch. If Casey hadn’t run away, if he was alive, he would be laying in wait. Gunny was pretty sure he still lived. If he was dead, he would have come after him. If he were dead and trapped in the car, he’d be keening and snarling at the smell of fresh blood so close. It was quiet and the crunching of his boots was loud in the deep ravine.

“So, she didn’t get you?” Casey’s voice rang out and Gunny ducked, waiting for a gunshot.

“Don’t worry, Mr. President. If I had any ammo left, you’d already be dead.” Casey said and Gunny heard the defeat in his voice. “Can’t find none in your car, either.”

He inched out of the shadows and peeked around the Mustang. Casey was leaning against the rocks with his leg in a makeshift splint. He had a knife stuck in the sand beside him and the makings of a cigarette in his lap but Gunny didn’t see any guns. Casey held up his arm to the moon light to show a big bloody bite sized chunk of it missing.

“You don’t happen to know if I let it bleed out, it that’ll get rid of the infection, do you?” Casey asked almost conversationally.

“Toss the knife.” Gunny said and stepped out into the light with his make shift armor and weapons. He still had the red paint on his face, his hair still in dreadlocks and he was splashed in zombie blood and brains up to his knees.

Casey saw the weapons, the shield and the spear and knew he wouldn’t get close enough to sink his blade into him. He hid his disappointment behind a sardonic smile.

“Whatever you say, Mr. President.” he said and threw it a few feet away. “I’m done for, you’d be doing me a favor to finish me off.”

Gunny approached slowly, then shoved him over, running his hands over him, searching for hidden guns or knives. Casey stifled a scream of pain but allowed it, it was better than just having that wicked looking club bash his skull in. Gunny ran his hands through the sand where he was sitting, looking for anything buried. There was nothing, so he grabbed his poke then stepped back, considering what to do. Casey sat back up with a grimace and breathed hard at the effort.

“I’m glad you got her.” he finally said. “Because she sure got me.”

Gunny moved back a few more feet, slid the tossed blade into his scabbard and hunkered down.

“Doesn’t matter how much it bleeds.” he finally said. “Once they break skin, it’s in your blood stream. Contamination is instant and irreversible.”

“Thought so.” Casey said. “You mind rolling me a smoke? I couldn’t get my fingers to work, she must have torn up some tendons or nerves or something.”

Gunny considered it, looking for a trap or an ambush but couldn’t see any way of Casey doing anything. His leg was broken which was why he hadn’t run. He didn’t have a blade and there were no guns hidden in the sand. He had a zombie bite and would start turning soon. He was accepting the fact that he was going to die. Gunny rolled a couple, lit them and reached over to give one to the man who had caused so much trouble and pain over the