Christina charged towards the fire exit with the pregnant stranger behind her. Only when the woman caught up and whimpered in her ear did she realise how tightly she had been gripping the woman's arm. Chris let up a little; she feared the worst if she were to let go.
The undead shambled closer, mere feet away from them. Little space stood between the undead and the doors, but if they could just move a little faster...
One of the walkers broke free of the horde and sprinted towards the survivors. A Runner. Chris opened her mouth to warn the others when another came racing out of the crowd. The first launched itself at her. Yellow claw-like hands swung for her neck. Chris threw herself back and wrapped an arm around the woman behind her. Her screams pierced through Chris' head. The ringing returned.
She pushed the creature back with her baton. It snarled. She held the baton horizontally ahead of her and thrashed forwards. If she dared to pull on the rifle, she would have to drop the baton or let go of the mother-to-be. Even then, there'd be no time and not enough bullets. Frustration drove her attack, strengthened it enough to keep the creature at arm's length.
Tony surged forward with the crowbar and swung, his pistol forgotten. The hook connected with the Runner's head and sprayed Christina and the woman's faces and clothes with rotting flesh and blood. When she opened her eyes, Chris saw Tony staring at the crowbar embedded in the Runner's skull.
"Tony! Keep moving!" she pushed against him with a bloody arm and he jolted. Back to his senses, he reached for the crowbar but Christina put out her arm to stop him. "Leave it," she told him, stepping forward to push him again. They were so close to the doors now, why wouldn't he move? If they could just get to the doors and barricade them, if they could get upstairs... She didn't want to die this way.
The walkers closed in on the group. As Tony turned to run again, they latched onto him and onto Christina and her tag-a-long. She tried to pull the woman back to her, but they were too many hands and heads in the way. She slammed the baton into their arms but it only stopped them for a second. They pulled the woman into the throng of the horde and drowned her screams. Shouting her grief, Chris punched, kicked, swung her baton, and still the woman and her babe were gone.
With the little space she created between herself and the undead, she turned her attention to the others. To her left, Tony wrestled with two walkers. He wriggled and punched his way out of their grasp over and over again. To her right, the rest of their group. No one else could die.
Christina lurched left, struck each walker with the baton just to push them back, then pulled Tony to her side and passed it to him. Hands free, she swung the rifle over her shoulders and rammed the butt of it into their heads when they came forward again. The path to the fire exit was clear, if only they could get the others through the horde. "Stay close," she told Tony before turning back to help the others.
