Zombiology - Horse
#3 of Zombiology
Zombies go after a horse trapped in a paddock.
Another short story in the Zombiology collection, animals versus zombies.
The mare snorted a warning at the advancing figures, her head lowered toward the ground. She pawed at the ground and gave one more warning that went unheeded.
Being a beast of prey, she would much rather flee than face the shambling corpses that smelled of illness and death, but they had managed to corner her in her paddock. More shamblers surrounded her, groaning and reaching over the wooden gate that held her in. Two had managed to fall into her field and chased her around until finally she had been given nowhere else to run to.
The pair of reanimated corpses groaned in triumph as they closed in on the frightened animal. Clawed fingers grasped at the air. Rotting teeth gnashed and snapped. Rotting legs stumbled and tripped over twisted, broken feet.
Her panic growing, the mare reared and kicked out at her pursuers but again her warnings went ignored. Her hooves thumped hard against the grass before she reared again. One of the zombies came close enough to tear at her exposed belly, but her skin was thicker than that of her television counterparts. Unimpressed with the shambler's measly efforts, she struck out with her forelegs, shattering the swiping arm before crushing the creature's skull with another kick. Brain destroyed, the corpse remembered that it was supposed to be dead and fell to the ground in an motionless heap.
The second zombie was undeterred by the death of its companion and moved in to take a bite from the animal's flank. A swift kick from the bitten leg crushed the corpse's chest and sent it flying across the ground to crash into the old wooden fence.
Barely holding back the crowd of shambling bodies pressing against its weathered slats, the wood let out a groan similar to that of the pressing zombies and cracked. The mare trotted a nervous circle around her paddock and paused a moment to snag a mouthful of grass. The snack was more to calm her nerves than her hunger. All around her were the diseased creatures that sought to devour her. There was no way to escape and no one was coming to her rescue. She had never been in such a strange situation before and had no experience to draw upon that would save her.
The mare tossed her head and made another circle, giving a loud whinny to both call for help and to chase away her foes. When her call again went unanswered, she paused in the middle of the field for another mouthful of grass.
Another crack sounded as the fence began to give way. She stood in place and watched as it finally split apart and several eager zombie tumbled into her haven. They fell over each other and piled up in a large, squirming mound at the hole.
Giving a snort of determination, the mare turned toward the hole in the fence and galloped her fastest, increasing her speed the closer she got. With a hard thrust of her muscles, the mare sailed easily over the writhing bodies.
One enterprising zombie managed to reach up and clasp the equine's hind leg as she passed overhead, hoping to pluck the large animal out of the sky. Instead, the much smaller corpse was dragged along behind her, sacrificing pieces of its body with each thundering step until there was only a disembodied hand remaining to clutch desperately at the mare's ankle as she fled.
All glazed, milky eyes turned to watch as the trapped meal became fast food, disappearing into the distance. Reluctantly, as if hoping the horse would come back any moment to present herself to their waiting jaws, the remaining zombies began to abandon the paddock, one by one, until all that was left was an empty field with a few rotted corpses to show it had ever been occupied to begin with.