I planted myself between Taryn and the charging zombies; fed the first one a boot to the face. It staggered back. I sliced off its head. Taryn grabbed the zombie head and drove its gaping jaw into the face of a second zombie who was drooling over her Dad's corpse.

We were both surrounded, and I remember thinking that at least I wouldn't die alone; that I'd go out fighting. And then Greybeard descended like a thunderstorm with a long-handled sledge in his hand.

Greybeard brought the hammer down; exploded a zombie's skull in a spray of splattered brains, with a swing that buried the head of the sledge straight into the ground. A second zombie leapt at him. He turned and burst its face with a backhand swing.

Greybeard slung Nathan over his shoulder. He waded into the zombie horde; tried to clear a swath with his hammer. Taryn and I followed. I chopped off as many clutching hands as I could. Purple ooze sprayed and spurted from the zombies' hewn wrists. I could feel the thick spray of zombie blood on my face. My headed pounded. I could smell their dead-rot. At any second I expected that final bite that would end it all.

But then I heard the sound of weapons' fire. The militia returned in a Jeep with a rear-mounted M-60. I threw myself over Taryn. Casings hit my back like hail. My ears rang.

I felt a shadow fall over me, so I looked up to see the militia leader holding a revolver to my head. The look in his eye told me that he was looking for payback. What horseshit. I worked my ass off trying not to kill or maim any of his goons (too badly) and he was going to do me in anyway?

I dropped the cutlass, raised my hands and told him that I wasn't his enemy.

The Captain said, "I don't think so", and I heard the click as he chambered a round. Taryn stabbed the captain. The captain shot, bullet hitting Taryn and jerking back her shoulder. Taryn lunged and drove the sword further into his gut and out his back. The silver of the blade shone through streaks of blood-red. The Captain pitched forward, grabbed the blade and sliced his hands pulling out the cutlass. He crumpled onto the ground and quit moving.

Taryn fell against me. I scooped her up and pressed my palm against the exit wound in Taryn's shoulder. With Greybeard at my side, we ran through town and down the mountain highway toward the coast. Taryn's blood ran down my arm and onto the road, leaving a trail of red behind us.

Greybeard and I could still hear the zombies' frenzied shrieks behind us for miles. I can only imagine that they overtook Patillas, just like they overtook everywhere else.