She barreled toward the deer, panting into the cold air. She didn't know exactly why she was rushing toward them. Part of her knew the danger she was in, but most of her didn't care. She gripped her bat and screamed at the deer.
Movement from her left was all that stopped her. She skidded in the snow as two more deer raced in from the side. They snorted furiously at her, their breath misting in the cold. She heard the guards yelling and shooting around her. She stood, staring down the deer. Bullets whipped by, pelting the deer and surrounding snow.
Maylee jumped back, stumbling. The two groups of deer collided, grunting and groaning as they fell into each other. Maylee heard bones crack.
The rest of the guards rushed up behind her, firing into the deer. The deer jerked and died.
"Did you honestly think you could beat them all to death?" said Elton, scanning the area. Maylee looked with him. Corpses stumbled around, some lost in the snow but most regrouping to come for them.
"I would have thought of something," said Maylee, not entirely sure it was true. She sucked in a breath of cold air and blew it out. She pointed at the corpses. "Everyone, take them out.”
The others raised their rifles. They fired a few shots, then stopped. The wind was picking up. Everyone fell quiet, looking around nervously. The sky overhead was solid grey. Clouds of snow blew around, becoming denser and stronger with each second.
"Shit," said Maylee. She pulled the hood of her coat down and back, then slid her bat down between her coat and her layers of shirts underneath. "Everyone down!"
She and the guards fell face down into the snow. As they hit, wind started roaring around them. Snow blasted Maylee in the face. She put her head down and did her best to grab hold of the ground. She regretted not replacing her scarf as she pressed her face down into the bitterly cold snow. Wind whipped overhead, drowning out all sound.
A gust of wind knocked her hands loose and she slid backward in the snow. She saw other guards sliding also.
"We need to get to better cover!" she screamed as loudly as she could. She hoped her voice wasn't lost in the wind. "We'll get separated like this!"
She saw those nearest her nod in assent. Maylee dug her gloved hands into the snow until she found dirt and roots underneath. She pulled herself forward, forcing herself to her knees.
The wind roared in her ears and snow pelted her face. She looked left to right as best she could. The clouds of snow were blinding, but she could make out a small group of trees to her left. It would be better than nothing.
"There!" she screamed, pointing to her left. The wind pulled at her arm, so strong she had trouble holding it out straight. She saw those nearest her look and nod.
Maylee turned slowly in the roaring wind and snow, her limbs aching from the effort. She took one last look at the trees to make sure she was headed the right way. The wind and snow made them look farther off than Maylee knew them to be. She put her head down and crawled.
She'd made it a foot or two when she felt something snag her right leg. She craned her head around, wincing as the snow pounded in her ear, and looked.
A legless corpse, partially covered by snow, held onto her right ankle with a torn, frozen hand. Its mouth opened and closed. Maylee knew it was groaning, but all she could hear was roaring wind.
She lifted up her free leg to kick the corpse. She was mid-kick when a huge gust of wind whipped under her and spun her onto her back. She slammed into the ground and sputtered up at the sky. Her bat, still stuck in her coat, dug into her spine painfully. She felt the nails she'd driven through her bat. It hurt, but she didn't think they'd reached skin. Snow whipped by overhead. She lifted her right leg up as far as she dared and looked. The corpse's hand still clutched at her leg, but the rest of the corpse was no longer attached. The wind had torn it free.
A second gust of wind caught Maylee's side and she slid across the snow, out of control in the wind. She hit a bump in the ground and rolled. As she spun, she saw the other guards sliding and rolling with her. She cursed herself. She'd led them into a storm and gotten them killed. She'd never see her mother and brother again.
She spun over onto her stomach and dug her hands into the snow. She found something solid—a root, maybe, it was hard to be sure—and gripped it tight. She kicked her leg in the snow behind her until she felt the dead hand fall free. The wind roared and snow whipped around her. She blinked into the pelting snow, seeing the shapes of guards falling and rolling around.
Something large and dark raced toward her in the wind. She blinked and the shape resolved. It was a deer corpse, bloody and bent.
She screamed soundlessly into the wind and the deer carcass slammed into her face. Her grip slipped and she spun around in the snow. Another gust caught her and she slid to her right. She had no idea where she was anymore, no idea where the others were. The wind was too strong and the snow too thick to even see the walls of the town anymore.
For a few more moments the whole world was full of wind and snow. Ice pelted Maylee’s face and ears. She clawed desperately at the snow but found nothing to hold. She rolled and slid, out of control and feeling she would lose her mind.
Finally, the wind relented, so slowly Maylee thought she was imagining it. But soon it was obvious. The roar died and the clouds of snow began to thin. Maylee became aware of guards all around her, clustered together more closely than she would have expected. A few more seconds and she could make out the tree line behind them and the town walls to the left. She could hear guards shouting to her and each other.
A few more seconds passed and things were normal. Snow stopped pelting her. She could hear normally again. All around her guards cursed and panted. Her heart was pounding as she stood and looked around. She did a quick scan of the others and everyone seemed accounted for.
She sighed and reached over her shoulder. She pulled her bat from where it was stuck down her coat. The nails snagged in the cloth but she wrenched it free.
"Fuck me," said Dunwoody. He laughed. "I'd almost say that was fun."
Maylee chuckled. "Almost."
The snow shifted around them. Maylee and the others looked around in confusion as the shifting resolved into human-like shapes. Moaning came from all sides. Corpses dug themselves out of the snow and groaned at them.
"Shit!" said Maylee. "The wind carried them with us!"
A corpse drew near to Maylee as the guards started firing. It was a short man with both ears torn off. Frozen black blood coated his cheeks. He hissed and reached for her. Maylee slammed her bat into his temple. One of the longer nails thudded through his skull and protruded from his eye socket. Maylee grunted and wrenched the bat toward her, ripping a chunk out of his skull and face. He groaned, gurgling in the half-frozen black gunk Maylee had revealed. He reached for her again. Maylee kicked him in the knee as hard as she could. She heard the knee crack and the corpse slumped to the ground.
She brought the bat over her head and slammed down. The corpse's head collapsed inward, squelching under the weight of Maylee's blow. She panted, staring down at the still corpse. She slammed down again for good measure, hitting more ground than corpse. She heard a cracking noise as she hit. It didn't sound like bone or branches under the snow.
Maylee dropped to her knees. The guards kept firing around her. She used her gloved hands to dig through the snow and dark glop that had spilled from the corpse.
Her chest grew tight when she scraped away the last layer of snow and found a sheet of ice. She could see water beyond it. It went deep. And she could see the crack she had made in the ice with her bat.
"We're on the lake!" she yelled, standing. She remembered the lake near the town. It had served as a backup water supply before the snow came. They had to boil the water before they could even wash in it, but it was something.
Now it was frozen and under their feet. And Maylee remembered it being wide.
"What?" said Elton, firing at a nearby woman with large gouges in her face. She jerked as her head exploded backwards.
"We're on the lake!" Maylee repeated, louder to be heard over the gunfire. "Everyone needs to get the fuck off the—"
There was a loud crack and the ice shifted under their feet. Everyone stopped firing.
"Off the lake," said Maylee, her voice quiet as the corpses groaned around them. Another loud crack came from underneath.
"Now!" she yelled. "Run!"
Maylee ran past the guards, bullets whipping past her, heading toward two corpses who bit and hissed. One corpse, a man with cheeks covered in frozen black sores, jerked backward as a bullet ripped through his skull. He slumped to his knees and fell backward into the snow.
The second corpse, an old woman missing an arm, reached for Maylee. A bullet whizzed past Maylee and tore off the old woman's left ear. Maylee brought her bat around and slammed it into the woman's head. The woman's neck snapped to one side, spewing black liquid as her frozen skin split open. The woman fell into the snow, groaning and hissing. Maylee stopped long enough to slam down a second time. The woman jerked and slumped. The ice below Maylee shifted. The corpses to the left, right and behind the guards groaned. Another crack rang out from below.
"Go go go!" yelled Maylee, running through the opening she and the others had made. She heard the others follow behind.
She raced across the ice as quickly as she dared. Every few steps, she felt her feet land deep enough in the snow to find ice. She felt herself losing traction, hoping forward momentum would carry her through.
A corpse reached at her from the left. She was so focused on getting off the lake she barely registered the corpse before it was upon her.
The corpse was a tall man with his nose torn away and face covered in long-frozen gore. He ground his teeth at Maylee, reaching for her.
Maylee stopped and raised her bat. Or rather, she intended to stop. Her feet hit the ice underneath and she kept going, sliding toward the biting mouth of the corpse.
She whipped her bat down and pushed it outward, aiming for the chest of the approaching corpse. The bat thudded into its torso, pushing it back and sending Maylee to one side. She tried to correct, slipped further, and fell to her face in the snow.
She heard the crack of rifle fire as she struggled to her feet. She stood, her feet slipping on the patch of ice she had cleared in her fall. The corpse, a hole now blown in its forehead, fell to the snow beneath her. Maylee heard a loud crack as the corpse hit the ice.
Her face was wet, wetter than the snow would account for. She looked down to where she had fallen. There was large crack where she had hit, with a series of jagged cracks spreading outward, water seeping through.
The rest of the Guard rushed up behind her. "Come on!" yelled one as they passed her. Maylee prepared to run.
Someone screamed to her right. She looked to see Walsh struggling with a corpse. The corpse—a large man with leathery skin split open by the cold—bit and hissed. Walsh kept him at bay with one gloved hand held against the corpse's forehead, but Maylee could tell he would soon slip.
Maylee ran for Walsh, slipping but doing her best to compensate. The rest of the guards rushed blindly past her, almost crashing into Maylee as she ran perpendicular to them. The ice cracked and shifted beneath her.
She reached the young man. "Duck!" she yelled. The young man saw her coming and did, dipping his head down just as Maylee whipped her bat into the corpse's face. It fell back, gurgling and spitting out broken rotten teeth.
"Go!" yelled Maylee as the young man straightened. He did, struggling on the shifting ice. Maylee brought her bat back around and split the corpse's head open. Black muck spread out across the ice as the corpse fell, and she felt the ice split further.
She ran as best she could. Cracks spread underfoot and water seeped up, washing away the snow. Footing became harder and harder as the ice grew wetter.
From the edge, the rest of the Guard cheered her and Walsh on. Maylee heard corpses behind her groan and stumble. She felt the ice grow weaker underneath. She felt certain they wouldn't make it.
Then her feet hit solid ground. She reached where the guards stood and kept going, struggling to stop in the snow. Finally she slowed down, sliding to a stop with snow collected around her ankles.
She stepped out of the packed snow and rushed back to the edge of the lake. Cracks covered the surface. Corpses moaned and shuffled around on the ice. Maylee trotted to a large rock set in the snow a few feet to her right. She dropped her bat, then picked up the rock with both hands. She carried it to the edge of the lake. Grunting, she flung it out onto the ice.
It hit with a thud, spreading cracks out from the impact. The ice groaned but held. The corpses continued making progress toward them.
"Oh for shit's sake," said Maylee, sighing. She snatched her bat up from the ground and dropped to her knees, slamming her bat into the ice. A loud snap rang out and a large crack spread from Maylee's bat across the ice. The ice groaned and finally gave way. Moaning and hissing, the corpses fell into the water. Making no attempt to swim, they thrashed around and quickly sunk.
Maylee stood. "That should keep them occupied for a while, at least."
She turned to grin at the guards. Walsh had his hands on his knees as he bent over, panting.
"You okay?" Maylee asked.
Walsh nodded.
"That almost
was
fun, wasn't it?" said Maylee.
Elton lowered his gun and stomped over to her. "You nearly got everyone killed."
Maylee ignored him. She moved to re-strap her bat to her back, then realized she'd dropped the belt she'd been using for that. "Anyone see my belt?"
"You mean the one you dropped when you rushed out ahead of everyone?" said Elton. "And then nearly got everyone killed?"
She spun on him, glaring. "I've had just about enough of your crap, Elton."
"Do something about it, little girl," he said, then fell quiet. It took Maylee a second to realize he was looking past her. He raised his rifle and pointed it past her shoulder.