Juan's voice sounded over the walkie-talkie. "Travis, we nearly have the corral empty. Most of the zombies are now up against the truck or down in the trenches with you. "
Travis nodded, though Juan couldn't see him. "Then this fucking battle is almost over. "
"Let go! Let go!" someone shouted, followed by a harsh scream.
Katie looked to the side to see that a construction worker had been foolish enough to brace his foot against the fence to draw the spear out of his victim and two other zombies had managed to grab it. He had fallen, sideways, against the fence and now the remaining zombies were tearing bits of his flesh away with their fingers and teeth.
Katie dropped the spear and walked over to the man. Another man was trying to wrestle him away from the zombies.
She drew her gun.
"No, no, just save me," the man pleaded.
"I am," she answered, and aimed. She fired four shots, point blank, through the holes in the fence, killing the zombies who had bitten into the man.
"Thank you, thank you," the man whispered.
Katie said softly, "No problem" and shot him square between the eyes.
"Bitch!"
She was tackled from the side and knocked to the ground. The man above her didn't hesitate to punch her so hard across the face that her vision swam.
"Stupid fuckin' lesbo bitch!"
He hit her again and her vision began to darken. Dimly, she heard Jenni screaming.
"Get off her! Get off her!"
Someone tackled the man and pushed him off her.
Katie tried to roll over and tasted blood in her mouth. She spit it out and managed to roll onto her knees and palms. Men's voices were shouting and arguing behind her and she heard the impact of a fist against flesh. There were more screams. She crawled to the wall and resting her hand against it, drew herself slowly up. Her body was shaking and she felt like vomiting. The world swam around her. Slowly, she realized she was still clutching the gun.
Swinging around, she aimed at the man who had punched her. He had Travis in a strangle hold and two other men were trying to get him off of Travis. The zombies were almost all dead. Just two more rattled the fence and screeched.
"Let him go," she whispered.
The men continued to fight.
"Let him go!"
The man looked at her, his green eyes bright with fierce anger. He let go of Travis abruptly and lunged at her again. The gun slid up his slick skin to his neck as he tackled her to the ground once more.
"I'm going to feed you to those things," he hissed in her face. "You killed my brother, you bitch. "
"He was already dead," Katie managed to say as his weight slowly pressed the air out of her lungs. Her finger tightened on the trigger.
From the gleam in his eye, Katie realized he didn't give a fuck about the gun. He put his hands on her throat and started to squeeze. Something fell on him from above, smashing into the back of his head and Katie gasped as the weight of it knocked all the air out of her. Gasping, she tried to hold onto the gun, her vision darkening still. Her assailant's eyes rolled up into his head as he slid into unconsciousness. Then Jenni was over her, smoothing back her hair and whispering, "It's okay. "
Travis pulled Jenni away and knocked the now unconscious attacker off of Katie. He leaned over her and took the gun from her hand. "Katie, try to breathe, okay?"
She struggled for breath as her hand grasped his arm. Jenni stroked her hair gently, trying to calm her.
Finally, she managed to say, "sonofabitch," and that made both Travis and Jenni smile with relief.
Travis lifted her up into his arms and carried her back toward the ladder. She could see that the no man's land between the truck barrier and the fence was nothing but dead bodies.
"We…did…it," she whispered hoarsely.