Verge of Extinction (Apex Predator Book 3) by Glyn Gardner

There they alarmed loudly, drawing every zombie on the first floor to the stairwell.
    “That ought to clear things out,” she announced.
    The elevator doors opened on a relatively empty lobby.  There were several zombies in the lobby area, and several zombies who were pounding on the front doors. Jen said a silent thank you prayer that this hospital’s automatic doors were in fact non-operational.  The group could hear the screeching of the IV pumps from the stairwell at the other end of the hall.
    Most of the dead had made their way past the hallway that led to the supply room.  The rest of the occupants of the hallway had their backs to the group.  Without hesitation, Jackson and Josiah began down the hallway.  Josiah pulled out his Gladius, as Jackson withdrew his bayonet from its scabbard.
    Josiah approached the first zombie.  A quick, backhanded swing caught the zombie’s head near the left ear.  With a sound that sounded like a watermelon being sliced, the zombie’s head was cleaved in two.  There was a quiet thud as the body crumpled, unmoving to the ground.
    The creature beside it began to turn, only to find Jackson driving his bayonet into the top of the monster’s head.  It too fell to the ground without much noise.  Jackson jammed his right boot into the creature’s back, as he jerked his bayonet free of the skull.  There was a slight sucking sound as the blade freed itself.
    The rest of the group crept behind the two.  Theresa had her ever present shotgun at the ready and SSgt Brown had his rifle ready to shoot if need be.  Jen and Kerry kept an eye on the zombies in the lobby.  Miraculously, none had seen the group escaping the elevator.
    Another zombie fell to the unseen blade of Josiah.  Again the body crumpled quietly to the ground.  Jackson was beginning to believe that they would get to the hallway without incident.
    Then it happened.  One of the zombies trying to shove its way into the stairwell fell to the ground.  It turned as it tried to pull itself off of the ground.  The monster’s gaze fell to Jackson and the rest of the group.  It let out a loud moan as it regained its feet.  Other zombies began turning in the direction of the warning.  Suddenly ten pairs of pale grey eyes were staring hungrily at the small group of scavengers.
    “Run!” SSgt Brown barked.  Jackson threw a shoulder into a zombie who was beginning to turn on the group.  The woman, who couldn’t have weighed a hundred pounds and could have been a hundred years old, went sprawling across the floor.  Jackson was sure the fall should have broken her hip.  He didn’t look back to confirm this.
    He rounded the corner and slammed into another zombie and bounced off, falling to the side.  This one wore a set of light green scrubs and was covered in blood.  Its short hair was matted with the blood of something it had recently killed.  The man was heavy, but not fat.  Jackson was sure when this zombie was alive he had spent a lot of time in a gym.
    The zombie reached for the soldier.  Jackson clutched his bayonet with both hands.  As he did, he coiled his feet underneath his butt.  Just as the giant of a zombie reached him, he lunged at its face; bayonet leading the way.  The tip of the blade hit the zombie in the face between the upper lip and the bottom of its nose.  Jackson could feel the metal grinding over bone as it entered the zombie’s skull.  The zombie went weightless as the soldier’s legs reached full extension.  The sudden shifting weight caused him to fall flat on his face, dead zombie under him.
    He thrust his hand into the ground in an attempt to regain his feet.  Something was wrong.  He couldn’t push himself off of the zombie.  Suddenly he realized there was a stabbing pain in his lower stomach.  He looked down to see the hilt of the bayonet had driven itself under his MOLLE vest and was jamming him hard in the stomach.
    He gasped as he tried to push himself off the