Without second thoughts, they both shot like lightning bolts toward their targets. In a flash, they both hit the mark crushing the head of their respective zombies using the thin side of the bat.
Nicolas kicked the second zombie on the right who went rolling a couple of metres away while swinging his bat toward the third one.
The zombie did not wait to be crushed and jumped toward his assailant.
Nicolas missed the head and hit hard on the shoulder breaking the clavicle of the possessed man in front of him. The corpse crashed on the ground making a dull sound.
Nicolas' stomach started to churn, the gruesome of the task was easier to handle in his thought than in reality! Baptiste on the side was barely faring better, he got lucky by crushing the second head, but, he too, was feeling sick and started to puke all his lunch.
"Shit!" Nicolas was forcing his body to fight the sickness, his mouth filled with vomit. Spitting to the side, he swung his bat again, surviving was his priority right now. This time the bat broke the spinal cord of the zombie in front of him. Barely able to move, the zombie started to stretch his last arm in the direction of Nicolas making a roaring sound. But Nicolas ignored him, as the last zombie was coming back charging straight at him.
Holding the bat from each side in front of him, Nicolas used it to hold the assault of the former quadragenarian women. Nicolas was already thinking that his next move would be a headbutt. Using the hardness of his helmet, he thought he had a chance to deal some good damage. She was not tall, neither heavy, so the impact between the two should have been easy to handle, if not for the grabbing hand of the other zombie holding one of his feet!
His plan failed dramatically as he tripped and fell directly on his shoulder, dislocating it.
"Ouch!! Argn…" Nicolas knew if he stayed here, he was done, but the sharp pain was not easy to handle. Rolling on the ground, he tried to go as far away from the zombie as possible, hoping for Baptiste to come to help.
And indeed, Baptiste came back to the fight in a hurry. While Nicolas was thrown away, he mercilessly crushed the zombie men already on the ground. Leaving only the turned-women to handle.
She was not paying attention to Baptiste since for her, her next meal would be Nicolas. He used this chance to throw himself at her, his elbow protection pointing in front of him.
With Baptiste's fitness and the hardness of the protection, this simple attack was devastating!
Crack! The right arm of the women broke first while she was through heavily on to the ground. Baptiste released the grip on his bat and went to pull Nicolas up.
"Careful! My right shoulder his dislocated!" A tear was falling on his left cheek. Shoulder dislocation was not a new thing for him. He got both dislocated in the past, multiple times, but it did not make the pain easier to handle.
"Oh shit! I should have thought about it before going into this mess, you've always been easy to get injured." Assessing the situation quickly, Baptiste went to pick one of the bats on the floor while Nicolas was recklessly shooting a hard kick at the zombie to keep her on lying on the road.
"Crush her! Fast!" Nicolas hurried Baptiste while trying to keep the women in an unfavourable position.
"Coming!" Baptiste did not take long before getting position behind the women to swing the bat in a precise manner.
Crack! The last zombie was now motionless on the bitumen.
Both friends were stuck in place breathing heavily. They did it! Multiple feelings were going through their mind at this instant, they barely could think straight, the adrenaline making them restless!
For both of them, this was one of the first times in their life they were fighting, this victory was a great relief!
Looking to the side, Nicolas was happy that the other people and zombies did not pay attention to them, they had quite some time to loot their spoils of war.
"Ok…" Nicolas stared at Baptiste with an expectant look "quick help me!" He sat slowly on the ground, laid on his back and continued, "This one is bad" pointing to his right shoulder, "I need your help to put it back. The quicker we put it back, the quicker I'll heal."
Baptiste, speechless stared back at Nicolas.
"I need to keep my back stick to the ground, then you will grab my right wrist and pull my arm slowly and horizontally to the ground toward you with a light rotation anti-clockwise while holding my body with your foot."
"Slow down! We were just butchering people and now you're asking me to put your shoulder back into place! Can you be easy on me?" Baptiste was breathing heavily, not feeling well. He was not the type to complain, actually, he almost never complained, but this time, even he was irritated by how insensitive Nicolas was.
Nicolas wanted to point out to his friends that zombies were not people anymore, but he held his thoughts.
For Nicolas, solving his current trouble was his priority. Alienating his friend or talking about the gruesome fight would not be helpful. He then took the time to explain again the procedure while barely apologizing.
A couple of minutes later he jumped on his two feet, his shoulder back to its rightful place. It was still hurting, but this time, the pain was very easy to manage.
"Thanks!" without even looking back Nicolas rushed to the policeman a few metres away. Time was of the essence!
Baptiste did not say anything and followed the movement, staying here one minute too long might be critical and he knew it.
They started to pick up whatever was useful, avoiding touching the human remains as much as possible. It was difficult to recognize the two policemen, but for sure one was wearing the regular police uniform whereas the other was wearing the assault version of it. This was good news as the loots were above expectations! They got 4 guns, 2 gun charger, 1 riffle charger, 2 policeman belts, 1 bulletproof vest, a pair of talkie walkie and 1 assault rifle.
"Ok, I guess we're lucky this time. Let's move back now!" Baptiste was adjusting the bulletproof vest while addressing Nicolas.
"Totally agree!" Keeping his right arm close to his body holding a gun and the bat in his left hand, Nicolas led the way back to the cars.
On the other side of the road, two middle-aged men were eyeing the two French picking the firearms on the floor with envy.
They too had the chance to snatch one gun from the messy brawl and while fleeing the scene they caught the sight of the looting duo.
"Hashish, I think they found some nice stuff there!" said the taller one.
"You're right, I saw an automatic assault rifle, if we can get this, we will be safe from all the crazy people. Let's see what this baby can do," said the shorter one while showing off the gun in his hand.
Stealthily they followed suit, with only a street and a few parked cars separating the four men.
Nicolas and Baptiste were oblivious of their pursuer, they only wanted to put as much distance as possible between them and the police station.
Upon reaching the road where the cars were parked, they crossed the street when suddenly two Indian looking men shouted at them.
"Do not move anymore or I shoot!"
"Put your guns on the floor and slowly move away!"
The French duo was not ready to face this holdup! They froze in place seeing the gun pointed at them. This feeling of being pointed a gun at was new and it was not pleasant at all!
They looked at the two men not knowing what to do, the thick Indian accent was not easy for them to understand and for a second they even forgot they were holding guns themselves.
But the gun pointing at them was explicit and they did not feel the need to ask the two men to repeat their warning.
Baptiste and Nicolas started to rase slowly their shaking hand in the air.
"Drop your guns on the floor! I won't repeat myself!" said the shorter one.
"Yes, yes! Don't worry we don't want any problem," said Baptiste very quickly.
Nicolas dropped his gun while keeping his arms raised. He did not want to hurt his shoulder while holding the gun far from his body and did not want to make a suspicious movement that could trigger the nervous man in front of him. Little did he know that this simple action triggered a crazy chain reaction!
The safety of his gun was off probably because the policeman used it. When the gun hit the floor, the gun triggered a shot that went straight to the opponent holding the gun.
Thrown off balance the ruffian fell on the ground and his gun triggered too, shooting Alice who was coming out of a shop not far from them. The gunshot went through her throat, not leaving her any chance to survive. Blood started to flow endlessly, and she fell unconscious the next second.
"Ahhhhh!" Emmanuelle was at the store doorstep, just behind Alice, and seeing Alice dropping dead in this gruesome way was quite traumatizing!
In parallel, obvious to the collateral damage, Baptiste did not wait for a second more, and threw his bat at the second men, trying to knock him out.
The men reacted too slowly, still in a daze about what had just happened to his friend. The hit threw him off a few metres behind.
Nicolas was opportunistic too, he jumped forward and kicked the men gun using his hill, went back to pick his, and then the other gun.
The crisis has been solved in a matter of seconds!
***
Hearing the gunshots and the scream, the rest of the group ran to the car in a hurry! They could follow the operation thanks to the open call, both Nicolas and Baptiste have notified them of their success a bit earlier, but they were not sure anymore.
Seeing the fight at the corner of the street, they were getting extremely anxious. But it seemed the situation was under control as they heard Nicolas and Baptiste speaking and pointing guns at invisible opponents while retreating toward the car.
***
"huh! when I say we needed to be daring and lucky, I did not know we would use our luck so soon…" said Nicolas while rushing back to the cars. However, upon reaching Alice's corpse, Nicolas was struck dumb, he now knew the source of the scream. "Oh God, not completely lucky…"
Emmanuelle was sitting at the store entrance, sobbing. He pulled Emmanuelle and said, "it is too late, I am sorry for your friend. Let's move quickly we should not stay here!"
A second later the body of Alice started to twitch.
They took only a tick to fill the cars and tore away! Leaving the two poor guys without anything and the turned Alice who started wandering around.