Z 2134

better swing true,” he said. “’Cause if you miss, I’m gonna get it. And I promise: I won’t miss.”
    They stared at one another, each of them snarling. Jonah didn’t have the strength to charge. He barely had the strength to stand without dropping the axe.
    And Bear knew it.
    Both men were bleeding — and the zombies were pressing harder against the cage door, crowding the bars closest to the door, rotten arms reaching in, swinging wildly, spurred by a hunger for flesh.
    Jonah stared through the layers of certain death and snarled. Compared to the zombies behind the bars, being torn to bitter memory by Bear would be a blessing.
    Jonah had two children and a City to save, if not a world.
    His time was now.
    Jonah ran toward Bear, then swung his gait wide at the last minute, rounded past the startled behemoth as he charged toward the cage door. Jonah swung the axe, severing several ruined hands and covering himself with a gallon of blood, but he struck his target — the metal bar holding the gate closed. The lock broke and fell to the ground with a clank.
    The cage exploded open, the door slamming Jonah back against the wall of iron bars, as a dozen zombies rushed in. They raced past Jonah, secured by the door, which trapped him against the wall of iron bars, and toward Bear, who was racing to the far corner of the cage, screaming.
    Fortunately, the zombies who had been on the left side of the door weren’t still there, or Jonah would have been trapped and they would have torn him apart. They’d raced inside with the rest of the zombies, leaving the ramp to the cage clear. Jonah swung the cage door back open, and grabbed the axe, which had fallen from his hands when the door burst open. As he headed through the open door, he looked back to see that none of the zombies was paying any attention to him. They were all in the corner — surrounding Bear, who was pushing and fighting them as best he could.
    Jonah wasn’t gonna wait to see who would win the battle. He began to descend the ramp, sneaking one last look back.
    Bear screamed as if three men were dying inside him, then fell to his knees as a river of blood ran from beneath him. The zombies in the cage piled on top of him like flies to a dying cow’s asshole. Then came the sound of ripping, and Bear’s screams were choked in gurgling blood.
    Jonah looked back down the ramp to see that he wasn’t alone. A female zombie, late to the party, was at the bottom of the sloped ramp and headed straight toward him.
    Her white eyes locked on him as her mouth opened and teeth began to chomp in anticipation of a feast.
    Jonah gripped the axe tight and headed toward her, cautious not to fall over the edge of the ramp and take a plunge that would kill him right after he won The Game.
    As they drew closer, he realized that if he swung the axe and missed, his momentum, and the cool wind, could take him right off the ramp.
    The zombie was closing in — 20 feet, and then 10.
    Jonah readied the axe, and as the dead woman closed the gap between them, she shrieked.
    He didn’t swing the axe, though. Instead, he shoved the blade right at her chest, thrusting it forward to knock her off the ramp.
    As the axe struck, her arms reached out for his, and Jonah was forced to let go of the axe. The zombie stumbled back, slipped, and then sailed right off the ramp, screeching all the way down.
    Jonah was about to run down the ramp to find somewhere safe to go until someone showed up to declare him a winner.
    However, more zombies had gathered below, headed toward the ramp.
    “Shit!”
    He turned around and headed back up the ramp. The zombies were feasting on Bear’s ample corpse, but they wouldn’t be distracted for long.
    He couldn’t go in the cage. And he couldn’t lock it.
    He’d have to climb it and get on top. But to do that, he’d have to circle halfway around the ledge and hope to God that the zombies didn’t see him before he could flee their reach.
    He glanced down to see at least six zombies heading up the ramp. They weren’t running, but it would be less than a couple of minutes before they reached him.
    He began making his way around the lip of the Mesa platform, which extended just two feet around the cage in every direction.
    The only crossbar within reach was around the corner, about 30 feet away.
    Jonah forced himself to move faster, gripping the bars tight as he navigated the outside of the cage. Just as he rounded the corner, one of the zombies