The door banged open, and Nick rushed in. “I heard the call on the scanner!”
“Four shamblers!” I hollered. “Don’t get bit!”
Using his belt, Kang strapped the folded towel over the wound in Dreadlocks Man’s back. Clark let out a moan and crumpled.
“Shit!” Bear jumped away to the next lane as Clark staggered to his feet, breathing noisily, and eyes dead.
“Make that five shamblers,” I said. Damn, he sure turned fast. And Bear was seriously outnumbered now.
“Nick! Bowling balls!” I dodged past Kang and Dreadlocks Man to seize one up. “Knock them down!” I hadn’t been bowling since I was a kid but I wasn’t worried about form. With a shout of triumph, I slung the ball down the lane toward Clark.
Then cursed as the ball sailed into the gutter. Okay, maybe form did matter.
Nick sent a ball right down the center of his lane, knocking the woman on her ass. I tried again, achieving yet another gutter ball. “Fuck!”
He hit a button on the scoreboard, and rails rose up along the sides of the lane. “Kiddie rails. Try it now.”
Great. I sucked that hard. But with the rails keeping the ball from the gutter, I managed to knock Clark off his feet.
“Bowling for zombies!” I whooped.
Nick took down Rucker One, but the woman was already clambering up.
“We need to restrain them,” I said, aiming for Rucker Two. “Kang, look for duct tape or rope or something.”
“There’s duct tape in my truck,” Bear yelled. He fished keys from his pocket and winged them at us.
Kang shot up and snatched them from midair in one fluid move then sprinted out the door. Nick and I continued to sling bowling balls at the twins, the woman, and Clark, while Bear played keep-away and tossed pins.
Kang raced in with three rolls of duct tape on each arm. Of course Bear would have a shitload of duct tape. A survivalist’s best friend.
“Bear and Nick, keep them knocked down.” I grabbed a stool from the snack bar. “I’ll pin shamblers while Kang duct tapes them.”
“I can help,” Bear said.
“No! Doesn’t matter if Kang and I get bit.”
Bear’s gaze snapped to Kang as he realized Kang was a zombie. Nick’s did, too, with an added look of bewilderment. The Kang he knew was not only supposed to be dead, but younger.
Nick shook it off and slung another ball at Clark. I ran to the woman and gave her a solid kick to the midsection as she pushed up to her hands and knees. She toppled over, and I jammed the stool over her torso, putting my full weight on it to pin her. “Kang! Tape!”
He was already in motion, wrapping duct tape around her legs with the easy grace of a spider binding its prey. Once her ankles were secured, I chucked the stool aside and helped him get her wrists and mouth bound.
We repeated the process with Clark without too much trouble, but my puny weight wasn’t enough to hold Rucker One, who was nearly as big as Derrel the death investigator.
“I’ll grab his feet,” Bear said. “I won’t get bit that way.” He pushed forward and wrapped his arms around the thrashing man’s legs, holding on like a bull rider. Nick bowled Rucker Two off his feet then sprinted down the lane to grab Rucker One’s wrists.
“Nick, get back!” Bear roared.
“Shut up, Dad,” Nick said through his teeth, clinging on for dear life as Kang bound the man in damn near an entire roll of duct tape.
/> Rucker Two staggered to his feet. Breathing hard, I tackled him behind his knees, sending him crashing to the lane. His head thudded against the divider, and he went limp. Crap. Still breathing, though.
We rolled him onto his back as he started to come to, and got him trussed up before he could do more than flail a bit. He had a goose egg on his forehead, but at least it wasn’t bleeding.
“Need to get the wounded guy, too,” I panted.
Kang loped over and took care of taping Dreadlocks Man in a flash.