Taylor immediately ran towards Max and Lizzie, but his weapons were down by his side, and he didn't seem threatening at all. Max hadn't expected this; he just assumed it would be every man for himself.

Taylor stopped about ten metres short of the pair.

"Hey, Max! You heard them, right?!" he shouted excitedly but also apprehensively.

Max was confused as to what Taylor was getting at, but decided to humour him.

"What's that then Taylor?"

"They said there's two champions today! We...we...why don't we just slit her throat and walk out of here alive, you and me? What do you say?" Taylor asked, well, begged really.

Max didn't know what to say; he was shocked into pure silence.

"Err how about no, fuck off?!" Lizzie spat back. "Right, Max?" she added nervously.

Max looked between her and Taylor before settling on her face.

"Well, his plan does have its up sides," he winked.

Lizzie smacked him on the side before laughing and smiling back.

Taylor was still standing there, desperately pleading for a way out of this situation. He clearly knew that he was no match for Max in a one on one fight. This was his only way out.

So, what was Max supposed to do now? Was the whole crowd just waiting for him to chop Taylor down so they could go home?

Max still wasn't sure he could do this, but he took a few tentative steps towards the shivering wreck that was Taylor. The more steps he took, the longer he could put off the inevitable.

Just as Max neared his terrified victim, the crowd's roars entered a new level. Max turned his head, scanning around the pit until he saw them. Clickers pouring out from the tunnel. Ten, twenty; thirty now, at least.

"Max!" Lizzie screamed.

Max ran back towards her; Taylor would have to wait. To be honest, Max thought he could even make himself useful and distract a few of the undead.

"Stay behind me kid!" Max ordered before running towards the tunnel.

He figured he could at least take out a few of the stragglers and faster clickers before the main bulk made it to them. Surprisingly Taylor followed suit, but Max constantly had one eye on him, wary of being stabbed in the back.

Max reached the first clicker, leaping forward and planting an arm round its neck before slamming it to the ground. He drove his smaller blade through its skull with a sickening crunch.

Snapping his head back up towards the tunnel, he saw that two more clickers had reached him. Now on his knees, Max attacked powerfully in one arching motion, slicing through the legs of both clickers. The machete carved through their soft rotten flesh and weak bone like it wasn't even there. Leaping back to his feet, he stamped his boot through each of their heads to make sure.

To his left, Taylor was slashing away with his two machetes, not killing anything but definitely taking some of the focus off Max.

The main horde of clickers was slowly shuffling towards Max now. He still had no idea how he was going to take them down; he needed to separate them somehow.

Another lonely clicker had wandered towards him, and Max swiftly knocked it down with one brutal smash to the face with the handle of his machete. The clicker thumped to the ground, desperately trying to climb back to its feet, like an upside down beetle. Max swooped in and chopped down with his blade, severing its head from its body. For a few seconds it kept clicking those dirty, yellow teeth before lying still.

All the stragglers were now lying motionless on the floor. The horde of twenty or so clickers was close now. They were so tightly packed, Max had no idea how to take them down one by one.

Taylor was still tussling with his own clicker to Max's left. He left him to it. No way was Max helping him after what he'd proposed only minutes earlier.

Max could see no other way of getting out of this; he would have to tackle them head on. He took a deep breath to calm himself before jogging towards the group of clickers. A jog turned into a sprint, and the sprint was followed by a roar from Max. He plunged into the front of the horde, driving his smaller blade deep into the face of one clicker. The knife slid through the bridge of the undead's nose, and jammed inside. Max left the knife and let the body fall back, knocking over a couple more clickers.

This had worked better than Max had thought. With a few of them falling like bowling pins, he was able to adopt an attacking stance and fight them two or three at a time for now.

He sliced away with his blade, clickers falling at his feet, blood spurting on his face and in his mouth. If he wasn't immune, he would surely have the disease now, he thought.

As Max was fighting away in the midst of all the clickers, the crowd let out a loud and ominous gasp.

Max leapt back from the action and turned around to see Taylor running at him, wielding his two weapons. Max readied himself for the attack, lifting up his own weapon and shifting his weight forward.

However, at the last second Taylor veered off, bringing his swords down instead on the pack of clickers. Max could only watch on in horror; Taylor had clearly bitten off more than he could chew.

The clickers quickly became too much for him and enclosed around him. Max couldn't see him after that, but he could definitely hear him. He could hear blood-curdling screams and the distinct chilling sound of flesh being torn from bone. Max hated how he now recognised that noise, as if it was so normal and mundane.

He snapped back into action, taking Taylor's place and jabbing away at the horde as best he could. There were only ten or fifteen left now, but they moved as one huge group. All Max could do was bide his time and throw a slice or a quick poke in here or there.

He was getting nowhere and decided to retreat to come up with a better plan, but as he moved his left leg back, a hand shot from the crowd, grabbing hold of Max's boot. Max stumbled and fell heavily to the ground. The hand gripped tight, pulling itself forward until a hand turned into an arm, and eventually what was left of Taylor's screaming face emerged.

"Help me!" he screamed. "Please." he whimpered.

Only one eye remained, the other empty socket looking like a volcano, erupting with his blood. Flesh hung from his face, completely exposing the bone and tissue around his jaw. Clickers were ripping the meat from him in all directions, like tearing chicken from the bone. It was too late to save him, his face was a mesh of bite marks and blood. It was too late.

Max kicked and shook but he couldn't get free of Taylor's grasp; the clickers were now looking right down on him. The first reached out, trying to scratch at him, but Max threw up his shield, keeping them at bay as best he could. He felt the weight grow on the old shield, and the scratching sounds of nail against wood were unbearable.

Just as Max's arms began to shake and weaken, all the weight was lifted. He poked his head round the shield to see clickers tumbling backwards, one after another, throwing knives stuck between their eyes.

"Over here! Over here, you ugly bastards! That's it! Fresh meat this way dickheads!" Lizzie shouted from behind Max.

She had a bunch of the clicker's attention now, leading them off to the side.

Max hauled himself to his feet, breaking free of Taylor's grasp which had loosened as the man now lay quiet and still.

"I said stay behind me kid!" Max yelled after her as she continued to lead a pack of five clickers on a merry dance.

"Because you were handling it all so well?" she joked back, but Max could see she was terrified.

How could she not be? Sometimes her tough girl act was so convincing, but this was anyone's idea of hell.

Max quickly dispatched the last few clickers around him with clean drives to the temples. Before running to Lizzie's aid, he stabbed his blade down into Taylor's head too. Maybe he was immune, maybe he wasn't, but Max wasn't taking the chance.

Lizzie was still leading around her small group, herding them like cattle. Max approached the clickers from behind, grabbing the first by its collar and slicing his sword across its throat, before dispatching it which the sole of his boot. He then sliced across the calves of two more clickers, bringing them down to the floor in a heap before pushing his machete through the soft tops of their heads.

Lizzie continued to lead the last two around after her, never letting them get too close but keeping all attention on her.

Max grabbed one of them by its shirt, simply throwing it to the ground and caving the side of its head in with the heel of his boot. He turned to the final clicker, but before he could even move towards it, it dropped at his feet.

He looked up to see Lizzie twirling the last of her throwing knives in her hand.

"Well, I wasn't letting you have the last kill," she smiled.

Max laughed. He didn't know what he would do without her; she had this way of turning depressing situations on their heads with jokes and sarcastic comments. He had grown so fond of her.

Max had almost filtered out the crowd, but his attention was grabbed once more as the man in glasses began to speak.

"Ladies and gentlemen! Our champions!" he yelled, extending his arm towards Max and Lizzie.

The crowd cheered and screamed; they seemed to love them. It made Max feel sick.

"I think we'll all be seeing a lot more of you," the man added, before departing with Otto and servant in tow.