out thankfully. We take the first rush strikingly fast, and our blades slide through their soft flesh so easily. I’ve already sliced through two heads and am about to go for the third, when I hear a scream that causes me to hesitate, and in that moment I miss the body entirely.
The swing carries me around and causes me to lose my balance, and the dead crashes into me and sends us on the ground. I yell in frustration, and just manage to get the ax between us and hold his snapping jaw from me. It’s bloody and bent fingers claw at me, and I can feel my blood slide down my skin as I struggle to get him off me. My mind feels sluggish for some reason, and I’m having a hard time trying to figure out what to do next.
I know I should probably push or kick it off me, but I can’t get my body to obey my commands like it should.
His body is large and his weight is pushing the ax down and causing it to get its dripping jaw closer to me. I turn my head away and close my eyes as it snaps its teeth, and before I can contemplate my death I hear the others still fighting. This sends a shockwave of courage through me.
My eyes snap open I push the dead up with my now shaking arms.
Once it’s at arm’s length I manage to wedge my feet between us, and with all the strength I can get I kick out at it. The dead guy falls back from me, and I get to my feet before he does, and I rush at him swinging at his head. He was just getting to his feet, so I catch the side of his neck easily and the blade of my ax slides through like butter. I turn away as his head and body falls to the ground, and I see that Eva is now one of the dead already.
Mason is just putting her knife through her chin as I’m moving, and I notice that my mother is sitting in the now running car a couple feet away. Brooke and Rose are climbing into the back, when Mason and I approach at the same time. He gets into the back with the girls, and my mother quickly scoots over so that I can get in the driver’s seat. I’m only just closing the car door, when there is more dead coming for us fast, but I ignore them, as I peel off the curb and spin the car into an illegal U-turn so that we are facing the opposite direction. I push the gas pedal down to the floor so that we are flying down the road, and we leave the dead in our dust trying to catch up.
I’m barely driving the car past the side street where we left the guys, when I see a car pulling out behind us in the rearview mirror. I’m filled with a relief so great; I’m surprised I don’t crash the car from the shock. All I hope though is that my dad and Gabe are both alive in the car.
We are just pulling off of College Street and back to the home stretch to the Collisee, when my mom breaks the stunned silence of the car.
“You were unbelievable back there Maggie. I had no idea you could do all that.” She says in wonder.
I don’t take my eyes off of the crowed road and I grip the steering wheel tight until my fingers hurt. I now she is probably proud of me or something, but it’s not something I want to hear. The ax is at my feet, and I want so bad to clutch it to me like a security blanket. Instead, I lie to my mother for almost the first time ever.
“Neither did I, it must have been the adrenaline.”
My voice comes out a little more coldly than I’d like, but there isn’t anything I can do about it.
For some reason I’m angry and I can’t really explain why, maybe it’s the injustice of this all. Or maybe I’m getting tired of fighting already and not knowing when I’m going to die or someone that I care about dies. It’s too much for one person to handle. My mom turns in the seat and reaches for my arm, and out of reflex, I flinch away from her.
“You’re bleeding.” She tells me, as she sits back