Of course, it went without saying that my escape wouldn’t go so smoothly. Though most of the zombies had come from the front side of the house, many were still lingering around the rear perimeter. The moment I made it over the fence, I found myself face-to-face with one.

“Ah, fuck,” I muttered. It was too late to escape the creature’s gaze. What made matters worse was that this was clearly another abnormal superior. The zombie was big, but not like the one I’d fought in the house. This one was fat; well into obese territory with a bulging stomach that jutted out and drooped below its waist. Hardly a physique to be intimidated by under normal circumstances, but I knew better than to underestimate a superior by now.

A quick glance to my left revealed five additional zombies approaching. Thankfully, these ones looked to be regular old creepers, though looks could certainly be deceiving. To my right were three more of the creatures, and behind me, of course, was the fence. In effect, I was surrounded. Also, unarmed.

Great.

Conventional wisdom said to sprint of the side with the fewest zombies, aiming for the gap between them. I decided against that, maintaining my focus in front of me. I couldn’t afford to give my back to the superior without knowing what it was actually capable of.

It didn’t take long to find out exactly what that was.

The big zombie was about twenty feet away from me when it came to a sudden stop. Its mouth opened, and I tensed, hands reflexively flying to my ears, but it wasn’t a head-splitting noise that came out this time. A burst of discolored greenish liquid erupted from the creature’s mouth, coming straight at me like it had been shot from a high-pressure firehose.

I ducked away from the spray easily enough. What I neglected to account for was the fluid splashing off the fence behind me. A small prickle stung at the back of my shoulder, quickly elevating to an acidic burn that made me grit my teeth. Only a drop of the noxious liquid had landed on me, but that was enough to melt through my shirt and begin eating at the flesh underneath before finally fading away. The fence, meanwhile, had been corroded clean through, a gaping hole in the wood large enough to stick a head through.

I refocused on the superior. Its sizeable gut had shrunken down after emptying its contents, but was quickly expanding again as the zombie drew in a long breath. I made a move toward the creature, but felt something snag my arm before I could take a step. My heart jumped as I turned to see a ravenous maw, filled with jagged and bloodied teeth, closing in on me. It was only my instinctive lunge for the zombie’s throat that saved me from being bitten for a third time.

The creature struggled in my grip, its jaw biting open and shut at empty air as it attempted to reach me. My far superior strength kept it under control, but I was still in shock from how easily one of these ungainly things had managed to sneak up on me for the second time. The lack of hearing had me completely vulnerable in my peripherals.

I swiveled my head to get a position of the others before they could do the same. A second one was almost on me from the other side, but I didn’t have the time to be concerned with it. The big superior had finished blowing back up to full size, its bloated stomach bulging out like a full balloon.

I twisted, flinging the struggling zombie in my grasp forward just as the superior unleashed another horrid blast of green fluid. It struck the zombie from behind, searing into the back of its head. Much of the spray bounced off its skull, scattering in every direction. My skin stung as a few of the unavoidable droplets landed on me, but I managed to evade the worst of it. The zombie, on the other hand...

At first it didn’t look like it was being affected it all, its mouth still agape as its eyes continued glaring at me. Then those pus-filled eyes began to melt. Dark sludge, a vomitous mix of green and black oozed out from the sockets, melting dead flesh as it travelled down the creature’s face. Next came the nostrils, the gunk bursting out from its nasal cavities like a horrid nosebleed, then erupting from its mouth. I stared at its maw... stared right through it as the back of its head caved in and the creature collapsed to the ground just as the blast ended. The back half of its skull was gone, entirely melted away, and there wasn’t even a trace of brain matter left behind.

I shuddered. Sure it was just a zombie, but with a physique so close to a human’s, it was incredibly easy to imagine my own body taking its place had I been just a hair slower to react.

A flicker in the corner of my vision brought me back into focus. One dead zombie wouldn’t ward off the others, and I wasn’t about to let a third one catch me off-guard. I snagged its tattered clothes as it came near. Its mouth reached to bite my hand, but I was faster. With my newly enhanced strength, I tossed it to the ground with ease. It splattered onto a puddle of the green gunk, the liquid sizzling as it came into contact with the undead’s decayed flesh.

It wouldn’t be enough to finish the thing off, but I didn’t have the time to spare it any more attention. I ignored it, as well as the rest of the creepers, and gunned directly for the acid-spitting superior. Its stomach was rapidly expanding again, preparing a third charge. Its open mouth aimed at me as its massive gut reached full size.

The moment it began contracting again, forcing the toxic liquid inside up to its throat, I jumped. Its head tilted up to follow me, but I activated a Double-Jump at the top of my arc. My feet kicked off the air and I flipped, leaping over the creature’s head.

My landing, unfortunately, wasn’t so smooth. My knees stung as my feet touched the ground, collapsing under what was essentially a seven-foot fall, combined with the added torque of the backflip. My tailbone hit the ground, sending a shockwave of pain up my spine that would have had been rolling on the ground if not for the fact that I’d be a dead man very soon if I didn’t get back up to my feet.

The superior was turning its head around as I did just that, but the bloated zombie was slow, no match for my enhanced speed. My hands clamped onto the sides of its head, and I had to suppress a gag as I felt my fingers digging into its dead flesh. I didn’t let the disgust ease my grip. The undead struggled, its head pulling and twisting in an attempt to free itself, but its decayed muscles failed to put up significant resistance. Even as the noxious bile began surging out of its mouth, it was still unable to escape from my grasp.

The normal creepers hadn’t stopped, only changed direction as they continued shambling toward me, eager to take a bite out of living flesh. I twisted the superior’s head, angling it toward the closest one as the corrosive fluid began erupting from its mouth again.

My aim was surprisingly sharp. The burst of liquid hit the zombie dead on its face, burrowing into its skull and dropping it within a few seconds. I had enough time to hit a second one before the blast died off, this time searing into its neck until its head snapped off. A piece of its cervical spine was jutting out from its decapitated corpse as it fell to the ground. I briefly wondered if I’d get any XP from that.

The squirming superior in my grasp didn’t seem the least bit concerned with its fallen comrades. It continued to struggle, its stomach swelling again to launch another attack. That was perfectly fine with me.

The fourth blast came just as another zombie was closing in. I decided to repeat my previous action of aiming for the neck, as the flesh there would be much easier to cut into than the dense bone of the skull. My thinking was correct; it took less than a second of contact for the liquid to eat through the zombie’s neck before its head toppled over. Thanks to that, I managed to down three zombies this time before the blast wore off.

That left two creepers remaining. Should’ve been easy enough, but as I waited for the superior’s stomach to start blowing up again, I realized it wasn’t happening.

“Come on,” I shouted, kneeing the damn thing in the back. “Give me one more, you ugly sack of shit.”

My polite encouragement had no effect. Either there was a limit to how many times it could launch that attack within a given period of time, or it had smartened up enough to avoid killing its kin. My money was on the former, though I suppose it didn’t really make a difference.

“Looks like you’ve outlived your usefulness, good sir.” I jabbed my foot into the back of its knee. The blow caused its body to crumble, which I added to by dragging its head down. In the same motion, I thrust my knee upward, smashing it into the back of the creature’s head. I felt a crunch in its skull, but that alone wasn’t enough to put a stop to its struggling. I let it smack into the ground face-first, then graciously introduced my heel to the back of its head a few times until it caved in and the creature fell to its final rest.

Now for the two remaining bozos...

I shifted back to buy time from the zombie that had almost reached me and considered the best course of action. Running away was possibility—these things certainly didn’t have the speed to catch me—but that carried other risks. Aside from the schemers, I still didn’t have a good idea of how effectively zombies could communicate with each other. I knew they weren’t intelligent, but maybe they could send vague messages to each other through their growls, or had some sort of hivemind thing going on. Either way, it was better to just finish them off.

I pulled out my phone, gripping it like a brick as I waited for the zombie to come in range, then slammed it into the side of its head, right into the temple. The creature staggered, and I used the opportunity to trip it and throw it to the ground. What followed next was a series of repeated meetings between my foot and its face, until the snarling creature that kept trying to bite my shoe ceased moving entirely.

The last zombie received a similar treatment. I was almost surprised by my own nonchalance as I shoved it to the ground and turned its face into an exhibit of modern art. Wasn't I becoming accustomed to this level of violence a little too quickly? It didn’t seem right, but this was probably not the best time for such introspections. I quickly fled from the scene before any more zombies could find me.