DEAD: Confrontation by TW Brown Page B

not in a position to really get into a melee with the handful of undead coming after me. My only real defense was going to be risky, because there was little more than just my body width in this little snow trail I’d been creating in my efforts to get out of the picnic area and hopefully to aid my friends.
    Pulling my machete from my belt, I tried to gauge my chances of success in fighting my way back to the picnic grounds. My little tunnel looked strangely crowded as the half-dozen or so zombies filed in to come for me. Nope…I wasn’t going back that way.
    I decided to take the initiative and lunged forward, trying to jab the tip of my blade into the eye socket of the lead walker. It was almost a complete disaster as I caused a mini cave in of part of the wall of snow on my left side. All of a sudden, I was up to my waist in the frozen powder. Fortunately, so were the zombies.
    I sheathed my weapon and started moving away. Shoving back, I managed to create some wiggle room and eventually force my way back from them. The one I’d stuck was acting as a dam and the others behind it were making all sorts of raspy hisses and moans as their arms flailed in their futile attempts to reach me. That caused more snow to come crashing in on them. They weren’t going anywhere until spring thaw.
    I had to use a lot of energy to get in a better position on the snow that was packing down under me as I wriggled my way forward once more. I felt my hand shoot out into open air…just as the snow on both sides collapsed down on top of me.
    My best guess is that I caused the side wall of the path we’d dug out and maintained to collapse which spewed me and a few truckloads of snow into the path. For a moment, I could not tell which way was up. You would think it should be obvious, but I am here to tell you that you can absolutely lose track of direction when you tumble end over end for several feet and are unable to see sky or ground.
    I finally clawed my way out. My entire body felt sapped of strength, but I had to push on. I was beginning to doubt that these were the same raiders that had hit Serenity Base (mostly because they had burned everything they could and wiped out an entrenched military unit and we were still somehow miraculously alive). However, these folks were not sounding like they were ready to give up yet and I knew for a fact that they’d suffered some losses. There was still a fight happening all around me.
    Instantly, it seemed like the gunfire had regained its earlier intensity. I heard somebody yell something, but I couldn’t make out what was said, nor could I tell if the voice was familiar or not. I looked around to try and get a better idea of where I was. That is when I saw the two figures running along the backside of our cabin. They both had handguns drawn. I had enough time to wonder just how much ammo they might still have at their disposal when it became obvious that they had spotted me.
    One of them skidded to a stop and brought his weapon up. I didn’t remember hearing it, but I know I saw a flash. In my mind’s eye, it was a massive fireball. I imagine that was the same sort of mental trickery that still made that first encounter with Ed outside the living room window of my apartment seem so vivid.
    A puff of snow exploded on my left. I suddenly understood the deer-in-the-headlights phenomenon. It wasn’t that the cre ature was too stupid to move, it was simply a matter of being so scared that your muscles refused to respond to any signals sent by the brain.
    When the second shot was fired, I stepped back and consi dered trying to wade through the snow that marked where I had come through on the path. My legs were already making that decision for me as I ran—such as it was; despite this area having been cleared by us and the trail established, the snow was still almost a foot deep here.
    I was almost to the jagged hole in the wall of snow when another series of shots rang out and the snow in front