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“
Hey, girl. Calm down.” I tried to cow whisper as I moved in close to cut the rope. “Good girl. You’re very brave.”

I sidled nearer. The cow rolled its eyes and bawled, mucus running from its nostrils and puffs of steam blowing into the frosty air. Heat rolled off her sweaty hide as I patted her. The moment I cut her free, she was going to run. I lifted the coach’s whistle I wore around my neck and blew a couple of sharp blasts for help. The whistle had been Tanesha’s idea and its noise summoned several people. One was Daylon, blood-spattered and nearly as wild-eyed as the cow.

“
Where’s Brian?” I’d forced myself not to think of him for the past hour, since worrying about my new boyfriend was a distraction I couldn’t afford. But Daylon’s bloody appearance scared me into thinking the worst.

“
Over there.” Daylon jerked a thumb toward the reservoir. “Why are you here?”

“
I volunteered.” And kind of wished I hadn’t at that point.

Daylon took over, ordering three people to surround the cow and keep her on course. He grabbed the rope and nodded at me. “Cut it loose.”

I sawed through the rope with my newly sharpened knife. The moment the cow felt the restraint break, she tossed up her head and twisted to the right. Daylon and a couple of others hauled on the rope while the man on the other side prodded her forward. It would’ve been hard enough to drive the panicked animal, but our task was made worse by zombies coming from every direction. They moved as silently as sharks looming out of the darkness of ocean depths.

I glimpsed movement in the corner of my eye and turned to find a teenage boy with an acne-pitted face and a tat on his neck right beside me. I plunged my knife toward his throat but he intercepted the blow, grabbing my wrist and twisting my arm back. Foul breath bathed my face as he lunged toward me, open-mouthed. I struggled to pull away but it was like fighting a stone statue. His grip numbed my hand and I dropped the knife.
This is how it ends
, I thought
. One second of not paying attention and I’m zombie chow.

Suddenly an axe flashed past my face and chopped through the zombie’s arm, cutting it like a stick of kindling. Blood gushed from the stump, showering me. I stumbled away and loosened the lifeless fingers from my wrist. Dropping the severed arm on the ground, I looked to see who my rescuer was.

Brian sliced off the zombie’s head with a couple of whacks. He scooped up my knife and handed it to me, frowning. “You shouldn’t be here. Why didn’t you stay in town like I told you to?”

A prickle of annoyance mingled with my happiness at seeing him alive and at still being alive myself. “Thanks for saving me. But I
am
here, so deal with it.”

There was no time to argue as we both plunged into action, hacking at more of the swarming dead. The scene in the ring of floodlights was like a Halloween lawn display. The herders fought to get the cows to the edge of the reservoir while the animals bucked and lunged. Their moos were deafening. With flamethrowers the protection teams tried to herd the undead to follow the cows and not set any people alight as they did so. A jet from one of the flamethrowers nearly singed Daylon. Zombies milled around grabbing at anything living they could get their hands on. The situation looked bleak and chaotic.

Fes’s team had gotten their cow to the very edge of the reservoir. Fes sliced across the animal’s throat and the zombies surged toward the smell of fresh blood as the cow tossed its head. Fes released the rope and the animal lunged over the drop off. About ten of the undead followed, their lust for blood carrying them after the cow. Fes was caught up in the group and swept along with them.

I gasped in shock as he disappeared. As if we could stop what had already happened, Brian and I ran over and peered over the edge. One dying cow thrashed in the water and a bunch of zombies churned around it. I saw Fes swimming toward the stone cliff but before he’d gone more than a couple of strokes, one of the undead grabbed him and climbed on him as if he were a life raft. We couldn’t shoot the zombie without hitting Fes. He tried to fight his attacker while keeping afloat, but the thing held him around the neck. They both went under.

We couldn’t watch any longer. Zombies were coming at us thick and fast. I stopped trying to cut them with my knife and started playing a game of duck and dodge. When one lunged at me, I stepped aside at the last minute. Momentum carried the zombie over the cliff. The creatures weren’t bright enough to learn from watching each other. More came at me and fell for my dodge, hurling themselves over the edge. Others I grabbed and pushed.

Tossing a pre-teen girl wearing an
I Love Justin
night shirt over a cliff was upsetting to say the least. Then I pushed an old man in overalls and a middle-aged woman wearing no clothes at all. It felt amazing and awful to be the one doing the attacking for a change.

Suddenly, Brian grabbed my hand and pulled me with him away from the zombies and toward the parked semi. “You should be safe in the cab.”

I dug in my heels. “No.” It’d be far too easy to do as I was told and sit out the battle in a safe spot. But I was no longer a person who could do that. “I appreciate you caring about me but it’s not your say and I’m as capable as anybody to fight. We’re partners. We do this together. Okay?”

Brian frowned and pulled me in for a fierce hug before releasing me. “Be careful.”

“
I will. You too.” I turned and headed toward Daylon who had my red and white cow at the edge of the drop off. That cow was my personal mission and I wanted to be there with her when she got whacked.

* * * * *

Chapter Nineteen

I started to follow Ashleigh, determined to stick by her side, but one of my phones rang. “Yeah?”

“
It’s Jim. We’ve got trouble. We’re almost to Reservoir Road and we’re bogged down. There are too many of ‘em. We’re trapped in our vehicles and can’t move and the flamethrowers set the field on fire. Dry as it’s been, I’m afraid it’ll spread fast.”

This was the worst case scenario I’d feared, a fire burning across the land devouring abandoned towns as surely as the undead had. “Call Durbinville and warn the fire brigade. I’ll send more people to help you.”

“
Don’t bother. Anderson’s crew is moving in from behind us. Maybe together we can push this herd toward you. Trouble is, too many of the undead are off road. It’s hard to flush them out and keep them headed where we want them to go.”

“
Call if you need more help.” I hung up and headed back into the fight. A woman with hair flaming like a candle wick attacked me. I hefted my axe, swung and missed, barely nicking her shoulder. She threw her arms around me in a toxic embrace. The stench of burning hair choked me and flames singed my hands when I grabbed her neck to push her away. Even with her head on fire, her teeth snapped together as she tried to bite.

I punched her in the face, snapping her head back. She was too close to swing my axe so I pulled the knife from my belt and plunged it into her stomach. The creature continued to struggle but at last I freed myself from her grip. I retrieved the knife and threw her body toward the reservoir—too far away to reach the edge, but she was caught in a group flowing that direction and they all went over.

Suddenly a roar came from the reservoir and an orange glow lit the sky overpowering our meager floodlights. The oil slick had caught fire, flames spreading fast. Probably one of the burning undead had fallen in and lit the oil in passing. But it was too soon. The plan had been to pack the water with zombies before starting the fire. Would even the promise of fresh beef on the hoof be enough to entice the undead into the reservoir now?

Daylon was at the edge, holding the rope of another cow. Ashleigh leaned in as if patting the animal’s throat. Her arm moved. The cow tossed its head and then its legs crumpled. As the cow started to fall, Daylon tipped it over the edge. An undead man built like a bull himself charged after the dying animal, his shoulder knocking into Daylon as he ran past. Daylon’s arms went wide, pinwheeling for balance. He lost his footing and slipped over the drop off.

Ashleigh screamed and crouched by the edge, reaching out for him. I pounded across the ground toward her, determined she wouldn’t be swept over too. I knocked zombies out of my way like a football player heading for the end zone. Fes would’ve been proud. When I reached Ashleigh, I grabbed the back of her jacket, ready to drag her away from the precipice. Then I saw that Daylon hadn’t completely fallen. He was clinging to the rocky ledge and fighting to gain a better handhold as he slipped backward.

Ashleigh took hold of one of his wrists. I let go of her to reach for him too just as he slid farther down the rocky wall. His feet scrambled for footing and pebbles showered onto the water below. The flames burning on the water made it look like a pit of hell with zombies thrashing in it like tormented souls.

I fell to my knees and seized hold of Daylon’s leather sleeve, gripping the hard muscle beneath. He grunted and his fingers dug into the dirt as he sought a better handhold.

“
Grab onto me,” I said.

He obeyed, transferring his hands from the shifting earth to my arm and Ashleigh’s. He clung to us like a drowning man, hands locked on with a zombie’s strength, and immediately I felt his full weight pulling at me. I braced my legs, knees digging into the ground, and hauled on his heavy body. My arms felt like they were being pulled from the sockets. I glanced at Ashleigh, who was grimacing with effort as we fought to pull him up. We gained a few inches only to lose them again.

More zombies were swarming around us. If we didn’t let Daylon go soon, he’d either drag us over with him or we’d be killed by the undead. Rage poured through me at the thought of losing like this, after everything we’d already suffered, and with the anger came a crazy burst of adrenaline. I howled and yanked on Daylon’s arm with more strength than I’d ever possessed. I grabbed hold of the back of his jacket with my other hand and together Ashleigh and I heaved him onto solid ground.

We didn’t have a second to recover or draw breath as the undead snatched at us. I’d lost my axe and was left only with my knife, stabbing blindly at grasping hands and slack faces. A couple of people came to our rescue, slashing their way to us. Carl pulled one of the creatures off me and I scrambled to my feet.

Maybe it was the fever burning through me, but everything felt surrealistic as if I was playing a character in a video game. I directed my body’s movements at a remove, thrusting my knife into tough flesh and shoving foul-smelling corpses out of my path with the confidence that if things went wrong, I’d hit reset and play this level again. I charged through the mob with a caution-to-the-winds gusto.

Recalling those moments later, they were made up of flashes of vision and movement as if a strobe light illuminated the scene. I remember only one thing with great clarity and that was the sight of Ashleigh wrapped in a zombie’s arms, its mouth descending toward her neck. I leaped toward her and shoved her attacker away, grabbed her wrist hard enough to break it and dragged her with me out of the crowd. I glimpsed Daylon fighting his way free too and running off in another direction.

More of the undead were flooding into the area from all directions. It was time for retreat or none of us would make it out alive. I saw Elliott Parker, the hardware owner get pulled down by a pack of zombies as I blew several blasts on the whistle Tanesha had given me, the signal for everyone to fall back.

Winded and arms numb, I headed for the semi since it was the nearest vehicle. I brandished my knife one-handed since my other hand was welded to Ashleigh’s wrist. It would take an act of God to separate us.

A zombie grabbed a hank of Ashleigh’s hair and she screamed as she jerked her head free, leaving strands entwined in its fingers. The roar of flame from one of the throwers was followed by a sunburst of heat on the left side of my body. Burning zombies darted across our path and the odor of scorched flesh and hair hung in the air in a miasma of stink.

Daylon had parked the tanker a short distance from the reservoir so it wouldn’t catch fire and explode. Its position also placed it away from the action and we suddenly found ourselves in the clear. As we raced across open ground, I tripped over a hummock of earth. Ashleigh stopped me from falling and took the lead, pulling me with her the rest of the way.

We scrambled into the cab where Daylon had left keys in the ignition. Since Ashleigh was the one with experience driving the rig, I climbed across to the passenger side. My chest felt like it was being compressed in a vise and my heart pounded so hard it felt like my breastbone would shatter. I drew a deep breath into aching lungs.