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The carnage transfixed the zombies as they stared down at their fallen brother. Then, a roar went up in the back and the entire legion barreled toward them.
Everything from that point on became a blur of metal clanging against bone and the pin-point teeth gnashing together.
Veronica sank her sword through the eye of one zombie as it bent to take a bite from her shoulder. As she exhaled, she pulled the blade free, swung it around and connected with the midsection of another. Putrid organs and intestines spilled out of the gash. She was holding her own against the massive beasts, but for every one she dispatched, another two joined the throng.
“We have to start moving toward the beanstalk!” she hollered.
“You lead, I’ll follow.”
“On my count.” She fired off another throwing star, and three of the five blades embedded themselves in a zombie’s forehead.
“One.” Hot, decaying breath exploded against her neck, and she gripped the sword with both hands and aimed for the target next to her.
“Two.” The blade slide home between the zombie’s ribs. She followed the move with a side kick to the corpse’s crotch.
r /> “Three.” She pulled the blade free and hustled toward a pocket of empty space in the zombie’s defense perimeter, Jax hot on her heels–and a moment later, the zombies.
She sped around trees, taking advantage of her and Jax’s smaller size to make last-second course corrections. It befuddled the giant zombies, who in some cases plowed right into the trunks of the trees she and Jax dove behind.
“I can see it.” Jax grabbed her hand and they ran toward the beanstalk’s green tip sticking a foot up out of the white ground.
The zombies thundered behind them, cutting the distance with their long, firm strides.
A couple more steps and they’d be there.
Her muscles ached from exertion, her chest throbbed from Antoine’s gunshot and Jax’s injured arm was bleeding like a son of a bitch, but that little bit of green freedom was within their grasp. Digging deep, she let loose with one more blast of energy and sprinted forward.
She shimmied down first, barely grasping the tough vines, instead choosing speed over safety.
Jax dropped through the cloud, holding on with only one hand because of his bum arm. His boot slipped off the wet beanstalk and his feet went flying into the blue abyss.
Veronica’s heart almost jumped out of her chest after him. “Jax!” On autopilot, she shot out a hand, grabbed the back of his t-shirt and hauled him back.
He secured his boots on the thickest vines. “Thanks.”
Before she could respond, a zombie’s ravenous face poked through the cloud above them. A long, wet line of saliva hung from his bottom lip, and he snapped his pointed teeth.
Not waiting around to see if the zombie wanted to chat or eat, she and Jax high-tailed it down. They’d made it another few feet, when the beanstalk started to sway violently.
“What the hell is going on?” Jax hollered.
Holding onto the beanstalk with all her might, Veronica turned her gaze to the ground. Her former mentor stood at the beanstalk’s base, hacksaw in hand, viciously sawing away at the beanstalk. “Antoine is cutting it down.”
“Can’t he see us on here?”
“Oh, he sees us all right. The whole expedition was a trap. We were supposed to be zombie munchies so he could get the gold.”
Jax’s mouth dropped open. Even with all the craziness over the past few days, he must have not seen that coming. Neither had she. “You’re kidding.”
Veronica shrugged. “Take a look at his hacksaw and tell me if you still think I’m joking.”
“Fuck, we’ve got more problems on this end too.”
Veronica glanced up and her stomach bounced against her toes. Dozens of zombies clung to the upper stretch of green. The beanstalk gyrated under the one-two punch of Antoine’s hacksaw and the zombies’ bulk.
Her gut twitched. “This thing is going down.”
“I’d rather take my chances here than to see if I can sprout wings.”
