INFECTED (Click Your Poison) (56 page)

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Into the sewer! Because why not?

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Peaceful vegan commune.

MAKE YOUR CHOICE

F
inally, you’re to the last barrier before wilderness melts into civilization once more. Or at least that’s what Lucas Tesshu believes. You hope he’s right. Zombie movies always portray shelter as too good to be true, bastions as much of hope as hubris—but that’s just fiction, right? People always band together through tough times; always have and always will. Survivors make this rockin’ world go ‘round. Things will be okay…

The forest grows denser and moister with every step until you reach a point of clear differentiation. It’s forest behind you and swamp before you. Despite the bright of day, you see nothing but darkness within the mire you approach. The canopy blocks out much of the light, giving the swampland a dim but still visible appearance.

The new land starts to form slowly, with a few steps wetter than just the morning dew, the foliage growing greener and denser still, until the forest transforms into almost a jungle. Soon the puddles of stagnant water do more than just squeeze out from the grass underfoot, and you find swamp pouring into your shoes from above. The water rises to mid-calf level before you’ve even traversed twenty yards into the bog.

“Is it much further?” you ask in a hushed whisper.

“I do not believe so,” Lucas replies. “But, in truth, this is my first visit.”

He walks with one hand on the hilt of his sword, the other spread out before him with palm down as if he could navigate by feel. You keep close. Some steps sink further than others, but the overall trend is a deepening of the marsh. You’re now wading in brackish water up to your thighs.

There’s a thick film of algae on the surface, which you break when you wade through, and the stale water beneath is brown and cloudy. You’re hoping it won’t get much deeper. There’s an eerie silence. To your horror, you realize this is patently wrong. In a place as rich and biodiverse as this, there should be frogs or insects at the least.

“Shouldn’t there be animal noises?” you ask.

Lucas stops and so do you. Both of you stand frozen, listening. No sounds, just eldritch silence, save for the sloshing water settling into place. A few bubbles percolate in the pool ahead of you. Then they grow in intensity. Lucas makes to move toward you, but stops just as bubbles start appearing on his side as well. These globules of rank air escape from below, and soon you’re surrounded by blistering froth, rollicking something deep from within.

A wetland zombie comes at you from behind a tree, catching you off-guard, almost as if the bubbles were a planned ruse. “Take him; clean and easy,” Master Tesshu commands. You’re between the zombie and his blade, and there’s not enough time for you to flee. You’re forced to fight. You crack your axe against the ghoul, instantly collapsing his forehead with the blow.

Another rises from the murk. Dramatically. Slowly. Up from a curled position, one vertebra at time, like a yogi exiting a pose. With a metallic
shing!
Lucas cuts through both air and fiend with equal ease.

Then more undead rise from the marsh, four of them, thick brown sludge pouring off their bodies. They’re not decaying, but the flesh is missing in chunks and most of the skin has been picked away by the swamp’s other inhabitants.

You swing at the one closest to you, but the weapon’s too large and ungainly and gets caught in the vines and branches. The nearby zombie moves in on you. Lucas is busy dispatching the other attackers and cannot help.

Thinking quickly, you pull a knife from your belt and jab it into the ghoul’s eye, push it all the way in, palm flat against his face. The zombie drops. Two more come from behind the trees and head for you. Lucas Tesshu swings his katana in a circular arc, not dispatching his assailants, but at least keeping them at bay. He too is hindered by the thick vegetation.

You try popping one of your attackers in the face with the axe, but you don’t have the room for a killing blow. It’s all you can do to keep them at bay, and even that proves too much for you. One of the zombies grabs your left arm, and while you struggle to keep away from his mouth, the other zombie grabs your right arm.

They pull at you from opposite sides, spreading you like Christ on the cross, the undead centurions threatening to crucify you right here in the swamp. Lucas rushes to help, but gets held up by a zombie of his own. She bites down on him, though his kendo armor keeps teeth away from flesh.

With his sword effectively useless in the underbrush, Lucas uses his martial arts skills to avoid their grasps and parry their bites. You wish you had those skills. The zombies draw you out as if over a medieval rack; the quartering will come next.

A
crack
echoes across the swamp—it’s not a cannon boom, but more like a cherry-bomb bursting in the distance. Your right arm is free; the zombie falls into the water with a slap. Another
crack
and one of Lucas’s assailants drops dead with a bullet hole in the head. He’s then able to remove his secondary weapon, a short sword, and fight back against the remaining two.

You continue to struggle with your lone ghoul. Suddenly, the source of the gunshots makes her presence known. “Get out of the way, Goddammit!” she shouts to you. It’s a teenage girl in paintball armor.

You shove the zombie away, and she blows his brains out with another shot of her rifle. Skull and flesh sprays into the air and sends a hundred ripples into the water around you. She sweeps her rifle, looking for further danger, but Lucas has already dispatched the remaining undead.

“Are either of you bit?” she yells.

“No,” Lucas says, sheathing his weapons.

You shake your head and raise your hands in reflex at having a gun pointed at you. She lowers the rifle and raises her mask. She’s cute, seventeen, and a redhead.

“I go by Rosie. You know, the Riveter? World War II, sleeve rolled up, ‘We can do it,’ and all that? I’m sure you’ve seen the poster. Anyway, you two looked like you needed a hand. We can stick together if you want, but fair warning—I’ll shoot ya as soon as you get bit. Whaddya say?”

Then, with an unexpected speed and ferocity, one last zombie bursts out of the water behind her and grabs a handful of her hair. Rosie screams and the ghoul brings her down, splashing into the water below.

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Reach in and save her!

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Heroes die first. Watch with shocked helplessness.

MAKE YOUR CHOICE