Even Zombie Killers Need a Break by Alex McHale & Ryan Szimanki & Will Schafer & John Holmes

Author:Alex McHale & Ryan Szimanki & Will Schafer & John Holmes [McHale, Alex & Szimanki, Ryan & Schafer, Will & Holmes, John]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Science Fiction & Fantasy, Science Fiction, Post-Apocalyptic, Space Marine, Adventure, Military, Literature & Fiction
ISBN: 1491228806
Amazon: B00DTWHTPU
Published: 2013-07-07T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 31

I screamed and reached down, swatting at the creature with the empty pistol. I could feel the infection burning into my leg. It was like a hot piece of steel, still glowing red, shoved into my leg.

The thing’s head exploded, and the round continued its flight to bury itself into the ground, carrying a trail of bloody red mist. I didn’t look to see where the shot had come from. I reached across my shoulder and tore the tourniquet off my body armor. Kicking the corpse of the zombie off me, I wrapped the tourniquet tightly around my leg, just below the knee and a few inches above the wound. I twisted it as hard as I could, feeling it cut into my leg. Then I ripped open the leg of my uniform.

A raw bite mark was in my calf, just above the top of my boot. Dammit all to Hell! It burned like someone was pouring raw alcohol on it. I let go of my leg and crawled over to Brit, who was still unconscious, and lay down with my head on her chest. Waves of nausea came over me and actually felt my eyes roll back into my head.

I woke up to a slap across my face.

“Nick, wake up,” said Ahmed. He slapped me again and I threw a wild punch at him. He sat back, easily avoiding it. He still kept his pistol trained straight at my head.

“He is awake. Not a Z yet, either.”

Doc leaned over me, blocking out the sun. “Nick, you got the TQ on in time, but you know what we’ve gotta do. I’ll make it as painless as possible. Here, bite on this.”

Ahmed gently put a canvas strap into my mouth. “Go for it,” I mumbled. How bad could it be? My leg felt numb already.

“OK, I can’t give you anything for the pain.”

I spit the canvas strap out and yelled “Just shut the hell up and do it!” I looked over at Brit, who was awake, sitting up against the side of the rolled over HUMVEE. She looked back at me, tears streaming down her face. I smiled.

“It’s just a flesh wound, Babe,” I said, and reached for her hand as Ahmed put the strap back into my mouth.

Good thing he did, too. Doc cut into the muscle of my calf with a razor blade, in a neat circle around the bone, slicing through ligaments and blood vessels. I bit down hard on the canvas strap, so hard I felt like my teeth would break. I screamed into it, a soul-wrenching scream I tried to keep inside of me, and squeezed Brit’s hand so hard I thought I would crush the bones.

“Almost there, Nick.” Doc reached a bloody hand out and Ahmed handed him a small, battery-powered Mikita grinding saw from his medkit. It whirred to life and I could feel the vibration as he cut into the bone. My leg was a dull throb that pounded up my body.

The last thing I saw was Doc lighting the torch he carried, bending over to cauterize the blood vessels.

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