She dropped him and strode forwards. “I’m the one with the axe.”

Zombies are scary and all, and there’s the whole loss of identity and mindless savagery side to them, but one on one, they’re not very effective. Now in an enclosed space, if you’re outnumbered and there’s nowhere to run, you can offer up a prayer to whichever god you believe in and prepare to have your brains eaten. In that kind of situation, you’re pretty much doomed. But when there’s only one of them, and they’re as slow and clumsy as they usually are, and they’re facing an Australian girl who’s had experience wielding an axe, they don’t really stand much of a chance.

The zombie had only just got to its feet when Hayley swung, and Tane had to admire her proficiency. The only way to kill a zombie is the tried and true – destroy the brain or sever the head – and where Tane would have chopped and hacked and made an unholy mess of it, one swipe was all it took for Hayley to get the job done. The head hit the ground and the body crumpled, and she glanced back at him and her eyes widened.

“Look out!”

Tane twisted just as the mausoleum door burst open and the zombies staggered in. He scrambled up as they poured through the doorway, a seemingly endless parade of decomposing corpses, moaning and snarling in that guttural way of theirs.

He pushed at the air and a few zombies went stumbling back, but he’d be the first one to admit that he wasn’t the best Elemental the world had ever seen. Hayley was doing better, jumping and flipping and taking off heads, but there were just too many of them. Enclosed space. Outnumbered. Nowhere to run.

“This is bad,” he said to Hayley as they backed up to the edge of the pit.

“Yes, it is…”

“OK, listen,” he said. “I’ve got a plan. You run at them, do that jumping-around thing you like to do so much, let them eat you, and I’ll try to escape.”

“Good plan.”

“Thank you.”

“Or how about you run at them,” said Hayley, “do that standing-around thing you like to do so much, let them eat you, and I just stay and watch?”

“I think I prefer my idea.”

They were doomed. There was no way out. The zombies were closing in. Tane looked at Hayley. So much he wanted to tell her. So much he wanted to say. And then they heard a voice behind them.

“Thought I told you to stay away from the flesh-eating zombies from beyond the grave?”