Z 2134

he risked a glimpse and saw Calla and her father standing near the dead boy. The six zombies who weren’t feasting on the child turned their attention on the living.
    Egan and Calla fired into the approaching monsters but were missing more than hitting. The zombies kept coming at them.
    Jonah curled his fingers around his pipe, wondering how many zombies he’d be able to beat to death and whether his efforts would do any good. Would he be able to help Calla and her father, or would he just be risking his life to add a minute to their collective death?
    He turned to the path, bristling through instincts that screamed for him to run.
    Go find Ana! It’s now or never!
    What are you doing, dumb ass? Go, go, GO!
    No.
    You can’t let them die! You can’t let Calla die.
    She saved you — twice!
    Jonah was frozen, his brain in a war with his guts until Calla’s scream grabbed his attention. He peered back and saw Calla backing away from a zombie, its arms out as it chased her. They were coming straight toward Jonah’s hiding spot.
    “Help!” she screamed.
    Egan was occupied, wrestling with five zombies that had cornered him, helpless to save his daughter. Either out of ammunition or unable to reload, he swung his rifle madly at the herd, holding them back as they huddled around him.
    Calla’s footsteps and cries grew louder as she raced toward the tree where Jonah waited, clutching the pipe in his hands.
    Calla shot past Jonah’s tree, a zombie in close pursuit.
    FUCK!
    Jonah waited for the zombie to pass, then leaped from his hiding spot and swung the pipe with a Watchman’s trained precision into the back of its skull. The zombie fell, its broken gourd opening on the ground and spilling a bucket of blood. Another zombie appeared from behind, so silent that Jonah didn’t know it was there until it was, and ran right past him, chasing after the girl.
    Fuck!
    The zombie was inches away from Calla, reaching out.
    Jonah screamed, “Hey!”
    It stopped, almost confused, turning around, its white eyes narrowed on Jonah. Its lips parted, showing Jonah two rows of broken, blackened teeth, chomping into the meat of a dangling, rotted tongue and shredded flesh where its lips had once been.
    The zombie groaned something indecipherable, then lurched forward, its clawed and charred fingernails opening and closing, moaning as if already tasting the savory meal waiting inside Jonah’s warm flesh.
    Jonah lifted the pipe, then left it hovering while waiting for the zombie’s next move. The zombie was swerving erratically, slow at first, then deceptively fast, as if purposely disguising its abilities to better surprise its prey. Jonah had seen a few of the undead do this during The Darwins and had been fortunate enough, so far, to anticipate their patterns of attack.
    The zombie lurched forward as Jonah stepped back, keeping an ear on the action some 30 yards behind as Egan continued to battle a quad of zombies. Fortunately, none of Egan’s undead had yet taken notice of Jonah or Calla, wherever she’d run off to.
    The creature grunted, swiping as he tried to grab Jonah. Jonah stepped back again and swung his pipe, slamming the monster hard in its forearm. The zombie shook off the pain and continued to charge.
    Jonah kept stepping back, baiting the zombie, drawing it toward him and farther from where he’d last seen Calla. The creature charged, and Jonah thrust his body sideways and fell to the ground at the last second, just as the zombie ambled past, lost its balance, then stumbled hard and fell into the snow.
    Jonah acted immediately, jumping on top of the zombie and bringing the pipe down repeatedly into the back of its skull. It died twitching, its dark blood flooding the snow in a wide lake of crimson.
    Footsteps behind Jonah were thunder rolling into The Barrens. He spun to face his attackers, the pipe tight in his hand. He swung hard but fell back as he stopped himself mid-thrust, realizing it was Calla behind him. His muscles cramped with a sudden electric spasm, sending Jonah to the snow.
    Calla’s eyes widened at his fall, then she nodded a silent thank you, turned to her father, and ran toward him without another word.
    “Wait!” Jonah cried, wondering what in the hell the girl was doing.
    “Wha — ?” Calla said. “He needs help!”
    “You don’t have a weapon!”
    She looked at his pipe and said, “Gimme.”
    Jonah shook his head, pulled the pipe back, then met her eyes. The girl was determined,