Nicholas stared at the zombie through cracked eyelids - it must have really thought he was dead, because it was now looking around the kitchen. When it started for the door, and down the hallway toward where Mattie and Cole were, Nicholas forced himself to his knees. He could barely breathe, his arm was on fire, and he could still feel the thing's grip around his throat. Still, he wasn't about to let it get to Mattie or the baby. He'd have to be fully dead to let that happen.

Nearly crawling his way toward the zombie, which didn't seem to be in any hurry, Nicholas wrapped his arms around its legs and pulled, forcing it to fall on its face. Thinking as fast as he could with his cloudy vision, he grabbed a ceramic vase off of a nearby end table and smashed it against the thing's head until the vase broke. It seemed to have stalled it.

"Mattie," he called out the front door, choking on his own words. He didn't know what to say after that. He didn't want to tell her to run because he couldn't be left alone. He just wanted her to know he was still alive.

"Machete," he yelled, "Hurry!"

When Mattie grabbed the machete out of the weapon bag and threw it toward him, he reached forward enough to grab its handle. Coming back up on his knees, he lifted it above his head and brought it down on the rotting zombie's neck, over and over, chopping away as if it were a tree until the head was completely severed. Then, he grabbed its filthy dreads and flung the head across the room.