Page 26 of Desiderium
“HOLY SHIT!!!!”
“FUCK, COVER ME!!!”
Chapter Fourteen
Cole
Motherfucking, cock sucking, fucking stanky ass, rotten sons-a-bitches! I was almost there too. I was right behind Hawk and Aly, just a short distance from the water when I tripped—caught my foot in a damn gopher hole or some shit—and down I went.
“AHHHH!” I yell, unable to keep my outburst from flowing out of me. I wasn’t fast enough. Couldn’t get back up out of the fucking mud before they got to me.
Now...they’reeverywhere.
Clawing at me.
Pulling at my legs.
Dragging me further away from the water and the safety it brings.
“Fuck you! Get off!” I kick and punch and kick some more but none of it seems to stop the onslaught. When one goes down another takes its place. It’s been seconds since I fell but I’ve already lost count of how many there are. It’s acontinuous assault as they rip and scrape, tearing and digging at my face, legs and chest.
“HOLY SHIT!”
“COLE!”
I hear them.
The guys.
The fear in their voices.
And the stubborn determination that drives them towards my location.
I know they see me struggling underneath the pile but I don’t want them to. Is that bad? That I’d rather they just leave me be—let me fight these guys off myself if I can—so they can focus on saving themselves?
“Fucking shit!” I growl, clawing my way through the mud, rocks, and various anatomical matter they’ve left behind. The disgusting decay that’s seemingly everywhere.
My fingers grab onto something hard. It feels like an oddly shaped rock, but when I turn it over in my hands, I realize it’s not that at all. Not even close. But Idoknow what itisand that doesn’t make me feel any better about my situation.
Complete with mottled flesh and goo, I clutch the lower mandible like a life line. The jaw bone must have dislodged when I kicked one of them, or it just fucking fell off as a result of their advanced deterioration speed. I don’t much care either way as I jam it into the closest body’s eye socket and continue trying to escape the huddled mass of death surrounding me.
I turn on my stomach in an attempt to get my feet under me and get away, but it’s a stupid move.
If there were only a couple to fight against, it would be the better option. Instead of trying to shimmy out from under their weight, inch by inch, I could outmaneuver them and run. Which is what my brain was focused on: getting the fuck out of there.
But against four or five, single-handedly, while fending for my life, in the mud? Not likely. I’m overpowered and surrounded. There was nowhere clear to escape to once I made the move. Looking back, it would have been better to stand my ground and fight my way out. This new position just gives them a larger, more accessible target that I can’t defend. The newly formed, deep gouges covering my back, courtesy of the undead hovering over me like vultures, are proof of my mistake. The pain doesn’t register right away due to the adrenaline pulsing through my body, but I feel the skin and muscle tearing and pulling every time I try to move. There’s no mistaking it. Without having to look at them, I know they’re deep.
“FUCK! COVER ME!”
I hear them closing in and if I wasn’t fighting for my life, I’d shake my head at the sound. These fucking assholes just don’t stop. Both the undead and the living ones. Don’t they know these zombies are just going to fuck them up too? That they could fuckingdie,here,too? It’s the last damn thing I want to happen—my best friends dying in a futile attempt to save my ass. I should know better than to think otherwise, however.No man left behind.It’s more than a cliché motto.
It’s a promise.
An oath.
A vow.
The scattered sounds of grueling effort can be heard all around me. The muffled shots from their guns. The heaves and grunts of Hawk and Jax doing everything they can to save my sorry ass. The squelch of decaying bodies crumbling to the ground at my sides. The coppery smell of blood that fills the air around me, overtaking the smell of death, as one by one the bodies of the undead are lifted from their positions on top of me and disposed of quickly and unceremoniously.
