Dead Tropics by Sue Edge

ungraciously as she stood up.
    "Incoming!"
    Emma looked up to see our bats come flying over. "Hey!" She protested.
    With all the agility of youth and long legs, Lucas clambered over the fence gracefully. "I said 'incoming', didn't I?"
    As Emma glared at him, Lucas passed out the bats. "The office is at the other end of the resort." He offered helpfully. Of course it is. My plan wasn't very original but, hopefully, it would work. "If we stick to the trees and bushes, we should be able to make our way to the front unseen." The other two agreed. We worked our way from bush to bush, pausing to check the surroundings before making a dash for the next chosen cover. We progressed maybe halfway across the resort before we saw our first sign of people - and zombies.
    From our position behind a grove of palm trees, we watched helplessly as the camping grounds across from us became the killing fields. Bodies lay strewn across the fields. Collapsed tents told stories of battles already lost. Not ten feet from me, a man grappled with a slack-faced young woman.
    "What the hell!" He was yelling. "Get off me, you psycho bitch!"
    A little further away, a woman labored to place her screaming children in the car as her husband swung a tent pole wildly in an attempt to keep four zombies at bay.
    In a campervan, I could see the terrified faces of three little kids peering out of the window. Where were their parents? Just beyond the caravan, I watched in horror as a pack of corpses brought down a young woman. As she disappeared beneath them, I had to turn away while I fought to regain my composure.
    I understood now why we had not seen any sign of zombies at the other end of the park. The campers were proving to be such easy and plentiful targets - tents not offering much protection from flesh-hunting corpses - that the zombies had not yet felt the need to wander deeper into the park.
    Taking a deep breath, I turned back and tried to examine the situation objectively. Some campers had already made it to their car and were fleeing the park. Others had already lost the battle and joined the zombie horde. The remaining twenty of so campers were clearly outnumbered by the corpses, three to one. I had to acknowledge to myself that I could not help them, as desperately as I wanted to.
    We were going to have to be even more cautious now. It was going to be difficult to get past the zombies using the shrubbery, not with the next couple of blocks taken up by utility and entertainment features. Catching Emma and Lucas' eye, I indicated that we were moving and hurried over to the back of the nearby toilet block.
    As we pressed our backs against the wall, I whispered, "If we get separated, we meet at the office. Okay?" They nodded, eyes wide and scared.
    I swallowed hard and forced myself away from the toilet wall. Scurrying like a rat, I ran across the small open space to the kitchens. I waited for the others to join me and then I slowly inched along the kitchen wall until I reached the corner. Peering around, I saw a group of zombies standing just a few feet away. I pulled back quickly and indicated to the others to back up. We slid back the other way until we reached the other corner. Emma glanced around the edge of the wall for a long moment and then nodded at us. I followed her as we slipped quietly into the kitchen.
    A body lay between the camp tables. A closer examination showed it to be a zombie body, to my surprise. A cleaver lay buried in its head. Yay , I thought, strike one for the good guys . I slid to the far doorway and peeked around it. The laundry beckoned invitingly about fifteen feet away. Unfortunately, the route was blocked by zombies hunched over a body, gorging themselves on intestines. The body may have been male, judging from its length, but at this point, there was not much left to say for sure.
    I wondered briefly what to do next - wait it out or push forward. In truth, I knew it wasn't really a question. The camp kitchens didn't