Going back into the streets, the group saw that the time spent inside the gun shop elicited some changes on their surroundings.

Although they were not trapped or anything as terrible as that, there was no clear path back home anymore.

The delay had allowed for a few zombies to move in between themselves and their goal, so now they had to make a choice on whether wait it out in hopes that a better opportunity would present itself, or take their chances now and deal with the trouble they could see.

The group quickly discussed in lowered voices while squatting behind a pickup truck that was parked by the sidewalk. In less than a minute they decided to take their chances now. As the saying goes, better the devil you know.

There was no guarantee that their odds would improve if they chose to remain there for a while. Instead, they might only end up wasting their time, or worse, getting stuck. Even though no one was looking forward to tangle with the zombies again, it was better to take action now, while the situation was still manageable for them, than to roll the dice. There were no gambling addicts among this group.

Janice counted three zombies on the best path they could take, considering both speed and safety. Despite the fact that these three corpses were bundled up together, making dealing with them harder, they were fairly distant from any others. Also, they were located at the later part of their route, thus allowing the team to proceed under cover for a little longer.

Consequently, if they managed to quickly dispatch those zombies, they might not attract any further attention even, being able to smoothly get back inside the walls without worries. Otherwise, if they caused too big of a commotion, they would try to put the trio down as fast as they could and rush inside the property before any other enemies could reach them.

That was the plan at least. It sounded very reasonable and doable to all of them, Danny included. All that remained was to see if they would be able to pull it off as flawlessly as they had envisioned it.

Even though they were all encumbered by their recently acquired goods, step by step they managed to progressively and furtively get closer to their goal, getting more confident in their abilities and comfortable with the tension as time passed.

Sadly, as they were nearing the three targets that they would have to deal with, their luck finally ran out.

While keeping her eyes locked onto the stumbling figures ahead of her, Janice went for the next cover on their planned route: a white van that was parked by the sidewalk.

The worn and damaged vehicle had clearly seen better days even before the earthquake had hit and the following chaos. Scratch marks, uneven bumps and a broken light revealed that whoever owned this piece of junk clearly did not care for appearances, or simply could not afford to repair it.

At this moment, the group had already crossed the street to the side where the house remained. There was not much left for them to travel in order to reach their goal. A few meters away from the van there was a corner on which the three enemies stood. After passing that, they would only have to cross the lawn of one other property before arriving at the spot they left the ladder lying down by the westward walls.

The group could already see themselves returning in triumph in a couple more minutes to celebrate their brilliantly planned heist. Alas, it was not meant to be.

Just as Janice was about to run towards the closest zombie in order to swiftly strike it down, a shadow tackled her to the ground before anyone could react.

Ironically, she was completely caught by surprise just as she was preparing herself to do the very same thing to those three unaware figures not far away.

Janice was completely bewildered as she awkwardly crashed into the concrete floor with the right side of her body. The pain in her right shoulder barely had any time to flare up, when another source had made itself clearly known.

A dead woman was holding her left arm with both hands as her jaws closed in and chomped her forearm, trying to tear Janice’s flesh away. Janice then did the most natural and understandable thing one would be expected to do if placed under such circumstances.

Janice cursed out loud. “FUCK ME MOTHERFUCKER!”

No amount of previous planning and mental focus could help at this moment. Even though Janice knew that screaming would only worsen the situation, that she should by all means grit her teeth and endure, and that keeping quiet was the most reasonable course of action, regrettably, reason was not invited to the show.

Her reaction to the pain was so quick and reflexive, that it could only be a primal and instinctual response. Her advanced human intellect had no time to present itself, being forced to take a back seat this time around.

“Get her off me!” Janice exclaimed in a lowered, but still loud volume. Her rationality had come into play at this moment and was struggling against her fury and pain, telling her to keep her voice down, and was already gaining ground. Her progress was slow though. It was hard to think clearly when teeth were trying to shred your arm after all.

“Argh! You shitfaced cunt!!!” Janice hollered while punching the zombie’s face with her free right hand. Due to the way she had fell, Janice unfortunately could not pull out her hammer, so she desperately rained blows on the thing’s head with her bare fist in hopes of dislodging her aggressor.

All of that took place in but a mere instant however.

The rest of their group were only dazed for a moment before reacting to the situation. Carl, Danny and the others very quickly dispatched the zombie on top of Janice and released their companion from under it, but the damage was already done and the whole block had been alerted by Janice’s screams.

They could be said to be both lucky and unlucky in the situation.

They were lucky in that the protective gear they had employed came through at the moment. Despite the excruciating pain that Janice was subjected to, the leather jacket held firm and was not pierced through.

Given that they were not aware of the consequences of being bitten, Janice’s arm immaculate state was worth celebrating. Well, immaculate-ish state, given that she was still reeling from the pain and they yet had to assess the damage done.

They were also unlucky in that the zombie had remained still in a blind spot of theirs during this whole period of time, from the moment they checked the possible routes until it finally ambushed them.

It was worth noting that the zombies they had seen so far never stood still, unmoving. Even when they were not shambling around, they were always twitching and turning, as if searching for prey.

That created a subconscious misconception that the zombies would not remain fixed in one place, causing them to overlook the possibility that one might be hiding where it was.

It was not that their assumptions were incorrect either, as the zombies did indeed tend to move around. It was just that this particular one could not.

Looking closely to the body prone on the ground, one would realize an obvious fact: this zombie’s legs were completely busted. It simply could not stand.

Given that the undead could not use its legs, it would not be able to roam normally, having its mobility impaired, much less push someone down, that is, unless said person lowered herself or was unbalanced for some reason.

Sadly, that was exactly the case for Janice whom did not see the creature by her side while crouching there.

These tiny bits of coincidences formed a chain of elements that culminated into the events that followed. If even one link of these coincidences were to be removed, they would not have been caught off guard like that.

Regrettably, there were no ifs in life, they would now have to deal with the fallout.

While Carl crouched down by Janice’s side, examining her arm and checking out if she was okay, Danny had gone ahead towards the fast-approaching trio of zombies that had now noticed them after that commotion, proving that they were not deaf at the very least.

Danny was the most clear-headed person after the mishap, so he was also the first one to realize the incredible danger they were in now. Janice’s scream would summon anything that had any hearing capability in a large radius, so it was imperative that they got rid of those three annoyances and got out of there as quickly as possible.

They were on the clock now, and every second might make a difference in the end.

Danny did not hesitate when he thought of that, so even if outnumbered against three foes, he rushed in alone, hoping that his actions would also wake the others up from their reveries and shake them into action.

Carl was fretting over his girlfriend, while Janice was getting her bearings back after the shock and pain. That removed two out of their three main combatants right of the bat. Of course, that did not mean that Carl or Janice would sit around and stay out of the whole fight indefinitely, but the question on whether they could afford the wait still remained.

Danny closed in on the frontmost enemy swinging his hammer in a wide arc with both hands and putting all his strength and speed behind the blow. He was not hoping to immediately finish his target, but merely destabilize it or knock it down for the moment.

The hurried strike ended up hitting the zombie on its right temple with the part of the handle just below the head of the hammer. The strike did not manage to cause too much damage, but the sheer momentum of the attack was enough to accomplish Danny’s goal, causing the monster to stumble and fall.

That first zombie fell down on its side, causing the next one that was following immediately after it to trip on its body and also go down to the floor. That left only Danny and the last zombie that was a little bit behind the other two standing.

This first move allowed Danny a few moments to deal with this other foe before the first two could recompose themselves and go after him again. He had to make this time count, otherwise, when his other two enemies rejoined the fray, he would be in deep trouble.

Danny was no superman, even if he was on top shape, and kept the right mindset at all times, he was still only one person. Dealing with three foes at the same was already too much for him to bear.

Danny barely had time to readjust himself after the powerful swing before the last enemy came challenging him with both arms stretched, aiming to grab him.

Danny used the handle of his hammer to lightly deflect one of the zombie’s arms while sidestepping out of the way towards the same side of the redirected arm, keeping himself out of reach and causing the creature’s attack to pass harmlessly on his left side.

As the zombie passed by him, Danny tried to leverage the advantage by stretching his left leg, trying to trip this one as well. However, he immediately regretted that course of action. The zombie was not as unbalanced nor was Danny as stable as he imagined, causing his miscalculation to almost backfire and make Danny fall down instead as the zombie pulled Danny’s leg backwards.

Thankfully, the gap between the strength they could put onto those colliding legs was not too big, allowing Danny to salvage the situation in time by taking his left leg back and abandoning his attempt on overwhelming his foe, managing to keep standing by balancing himself on his other foot. Danny then pivoted around his right leg and placed his other foot back on the ground while turning towards the zombie that had also already turned around to face him.

Luckily the other two enemies ended up tangling themselves up with one another when falling down, giving Danny a few extra seconds to deal with the immediate threat until they posed a problem once again.

Danny did not intend to waste the opportunity.