Just as one of the walkers was about to pounce down on Jake, he pulled his second pistol from his waistband and put two rounds into the creature’s face. As the now-dead mutant began to fall, Jake rolled to the side before its body could collapse on top of him. He jumped to his feet, firing a few hasty shots at the other walkers to deter them from coming at him. They continued to move toward him, but the bullets punching their bodies slowed their advance.
The two four-legged mutants were still guarding the entrance to the building, so Jake burst into a run across the hall instead. He fired blindly at the walkers chasing him and was rewarded with the thump of a body hitting the floor. One more mutant down, but how many more to go? He’d already lost count of the mutants he’d killed, as he was solely focused on staying alive.
Spotting his shotgun on the floor where one of the mutants had flung it, he dove for the weapon. He stuck his pistol back into his waistband and grabbed the shotgun. Just as he glanced back, he saw two of the walkers were almost on top of him. He killed one of them with a blast to the head, blowing it apart, then pumped another shell ready, and with a second shot, punched a huge hole in the other one’s chest.
He then spun around and broke into a sprint before the rest of the walkers could close the distance. He dug into his jacket pocket and fished out a handful of shells. Some of them slipped from his grasp and dropped to the floor, but he couldn’t spare a moment to pick them up. He hastily loaded the shells into the weapon on the run, all too aware of the claws skittering across the floor behind him. Glancing over his shoulder, he saw the four-legged mutants had joined the chase, with one rapidly gaining ground on him.
He spun around, bringing the weapon to bear on the approaching monster, but before he could fire, the creature launched itself through the air toward him. The mutant’s body slammed into him, knocking him off balance and causing him to land on his back. The impact was so powerful that everything went dark before his eyes for a second. As his vision cleared, he found the mutant on top of him, its jaws locked around the shotgun he held horizontally in front of him.
The mutant growled as its jaws clamped down harder on the gun in an attempt to break through the metal barrier that separated it from its prey. Jake removed one hand from the shotgun, drew the pistol from his waistband, and pressed the muzzle against the creature’s head. He squeezed the trigger repeatedly until the monster’s body went limp and collapsed to the side.
He wrenched his weapon from the dead mutant’s jaws and rose to his feet, gripping the shotgun in one hand and the pistol in the other. When he looked up, he saw several walkers quickly closing in on him. He fired his pistol at them one-handed, killing two of the mutants and wounding some of the others. The slide on the pistol locked back, and he discarded the empty gun. The other pistol remained snug in its holster on his right thigh. Jake brought up his shotgun and, gripping it with both hands, unleashed a blast of buckshot at the nearest walker, killing it instantly.
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Out of the corner of his eye, he caught a glimpse of movement. Glancing that way, he saw the second four-legged mutant charging at him from the side. He swung his weapon toward the new threat and squeezed the trigger too soon, causing most of the pellets to miss the target. The creature staggered as some of them punctured its flesh but continued to run toward him. He fired again, this time inflicting a more substantial amount of damage on the creature, yet the creature remained alive.
The third time’s the charm, Jake thought hopefully as he readjusted his aim.
However, the four-legged mutant must have decided it’d had enough. Just before he fired his shotgun, the creature dashed to the side, dodging the shot. The walkers were getting closer to him, so he decided not to waste any more time and shells on the severely wounded four-legged mutant. It would most likely succumb to its injuries and bleed to death soon enough.
He quickly looked around. There were no more four-legged mutants anywhere to be seen, which was a relief. Those creatures were way faster than the walkers and seemed to be smarter than them too, which made them more dangerous opponents. However, the hall was still teeming with walkers. He killed the one that got dangerously close to him and then looked behind him. He saw a doorway leading into a corridor. Recognizing a strategic advantage of establishing a chokepoint, Jake wheeled around and sprinted toward the door.
He dashed a few meters into the corridor before halting and turning around to face the doorway. The walkers had yet to show up. He decided to use this brief respite to top off his shotgun. But when he dug into his left jacket pocket, he realized it was empty. Luckily, he had a handful of shells in the other pocket. By the time he reloaded his shotgun, the first walker had appeared in the doorway. Jake let it get a little closer before obliterating its head with a blast from his shotgun. Another ex-human walker emerged in the doorway, meeting the same fate as its predecessor at Jake’s hands.
The walkers were now at a great disadvantage, forced to enter the corridor one at a time and unable to surround him. It didn’t stop them from coming, though. They kept getting into the corridor only to be shot dead seconds later. They were definitely dumber than the four-legged mutants. Bodies of dead walkers were piling up in the corridor. Jake had already reloaded multiple times, and when he dug into his pocket once more, he realized he had only a few shells left on him.
“Dammit,” he muttered under his breath as he loaded the last few remaining shells into his weapon. He hoped there weren’t too many of the walkers left. Sure, he had a pistol as a backup, but he preferred the shotgun for its proven effectiveness against the mutants.
After reloading his weapon, he looked up to observe two walkers attempting to enter the corridor simultaneously, causing them to become wedged in the doorway. If one of them allowed the other to enter first, the obstruction would immediately be cleared. Such a thought didn’t seem to occur to either of them, though. Strategic thinking and problem-solving definitely weren’t their strongest suits.
Jake watched them with a hint of amusement until a suspicious sound behind him made his skin crawl. He spun around and saw another mutant appear at the opposite end of the corridor. A chill ran up his spine when he took stock of the new enemy.
“Well, shit,” he said.