by Kent Reaper
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"Drop it."
Zack cast his attention at the source of the command, wondering how many more encounters like this his heart could take.
Max looked up too, finding the wrong end of the shotgun trained uncomfortably close to his forehead.
"Drop it!" Kelly shrieked.
A wry smile played on the janitor's lips.
"Nah, you wouldn't shoot me. You don't have the guts to." He taunted nonchalantly.
"You wanted to kill me just now. Maybe for anyone else, I'd think twice. But for you…" Her voice trailed off, dead serious, frightening.
Max contemplated his situation for a second.
"All right…" He shrugged, letting the revolver fall to the side. "I just hope you know what you're doing."
Zack seized his chance. In the next moment he had the gun in his good hand and trained firmly on Max.
"Thanks." Zack muttered as he got off the janitor, wiping his bloodied mouth with his sleeve.
I guess I can trust her not to run away this time. Zack thought in relief. If she had scooted and left him to his fate again, he honestly didn't know whether he would be dumb enough to give her a third chance.
"A-are you bit?" Kelly stammered.
"What? No! I mean, only by this bastard here of course." Zack flared up indignantly while making sure Max kept his hands open and didn't move muscle.
For any number of reasons, Zack didn't like the wry smile on Max's face. The janitor's life was at their mercy, so why was he smiling like he had the upper hand?
"You think I bit you for the fun of it, boy?"
Zack felt his blood run cold. He didn't like where this conversation was going at all.
"I honestly don't know what the hell you're thinking."
"May I?"
Before either Zack or the girl could respond, he reached for his tattered pant leg caked with blood and dirt and began rolling it up.
Zack wanted to stop him, but his curiosity was too much of a temptation.
Kelly gasped in shock. Zack was so furious he wanted to blow the janitor's brains out right there and then.
Situated at Max's right calf near the knee was a fresh bite mark, most likely one sustained from a zombie.
"That's right." Max smirked before sighing with resignation. "Now you know why I'm so obsessed with killing survivors that're bitten."
"Y-you're one of them." The girl whispered.
"You did not just infect me, you evil fuck!" Zack shouted.
He was furious, mad at Max, mad at himself for getting into such a situation, mad at the world for turning to shit without warning. Still, he had trouble fathoming how one could be so evil.
Zack glanced at his wrist. The pain was rapidly subsiding and apart from the visible teeth marks, the skin had not broken. Still, Zack couldn't say for sure if this was good news.
Max shrugged. "You dug your grave boy. You could have left quietly when I gave you that chance."
"Shut up! You shut up, you fuck!" Zack cried till he was hoarse, waving the revolver around like a man gone mad. Even the Kelly kept the shotgun close in fright as she started to doubt Zack's mental stability.
"Sucker. If I'm going to die, I might as well take you with me, boy."
Zack could have shot Max on the spot. But a familiar, haunting moan echoed off the walls of the corridor outside.
A wicked smile formed on his lips. No, giving this devil incarnate a swift send off to hell would be too merciful.
"W-what do we do now?" The girl asked.
"Wait here."
Zack leant out the doorway and took a look. The same terrifying horde of zombies was making their way down the corridor. Their noisy presence was finally discovered.
"I guess you better run before they get you." Max snickered. "Well? Are you going to kill me? I haven't got all day."
Zack couldn't believe how cocky this idiot was.
"Nah, I ain't killing you so fast."
"What do you mean?"
Bang!
Brutal pain shot through Max’s kneecap.
"Aggghhhh! You shot me you motherfucker!" He cried as he clutched his knee.
Zack smirked, leaning out and watching as the horde doubled its shambling speed. The sound must have somehow motivated them to where Max was.
"C'mon," He motioned to the jittery girl. "We're turning our foe here into a friend. He's going to distract our zombie friends here from eating us."
"You motherfucker! I'll get you for this you hear! I'll -"
Zack knew these threats were the desperate ramblings of a madman.
He took Kelly's hand in his, leading her down the corridor in the opposite direction, towards the main entrance and away from the incoming horde.
Max's screams of pain as his body was rapidly being ripped apart and subdivided as a living feast for the horde only served to heighten sadistic pleasure Zack didn't know he could feel.
He thought he could understand how the janitor felt, now that he was bitten. Somehow, something inside him had changed.
Now that he had nothing to lose, Zack realized he liked being bad.
The girl followed him to the faculty's main entrance where apart from the corpses outside, there bore some semblance of normality juxtaposed against the consistent horrors inside the faculty building.
"Thanks for coming to save me." Kelly finally managed to say.
Zack looked at her properly for once, glad to have a fellow survivor to navigate this terrible new world with.
"Thanks for not running away a second time when I came to save you."
"I know," she said quietly. "I regretted leaving you there once, I couldn't make the same mistake again. I was scared, I panicked, and I didn't even know you were behind me until I heard pounding on the doors I just shoved the mop against."
"Whatever. We're alive, and that's what counts." Zack dismissed her excuses and justifications with a wave of his hand. He had other things on his mind, like getting to safety, finding others, and perhaps finding some reliable form of communication to reach his parents.
There was one thing he was curious to know though.
"You could have escaped. How did you end up back inside?"
"That nutcase of a janitor found me hiding under a car.I thought he was a friend, a fellow survivor. But he dragged me back in here wanting to ‘check for bites’. He shot open the doors I risked my life to lock and took me back in. I was so scared… I…"
"All right I’ve heard enough. I’ve seen you sometimes on campus, but after all we’ve gone through, I still don't have the pleasure of knowing your name." Zack remarked offhandedly.
"Kelly Wilkins." The girl said in a quiet voice, her eyes constantly darting about, alert for even the slightest sign of zombie presence.
"Zack, Zack Holloway. Nice to meet you.”
He felt slightly faint with a little runny nose. But after all that he had gone through today, anyone in his situation would probably have difficulties holding up.
There were still too many mysteries that he hadn't cleared up yet. But at the very least, he was in the position to solve some of them, one step at a time.
Together with Kelly, Zack stepped out of the faculty building at last and into the jaws of a world ruled by the dead, a world that never would be normal again.
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More Stories by Kent Reaper:
Living Death: Deliverance
In the midst of a zombie apocalypse, a medical school dropout must choose between going after who he loves and doing what is right.
Kenneth Cook, a medical school dropout with a terrible mistake that haunts him to this day, walks the corridors of the hospital, pretending he still has his life on track, pretending he's still working with Jenny, a fellow intern that he's been crushing on since forever. But none of that matters the minute the dead start attacking the living. With his world falling apart and the hospital in complete chaos, his life is saved by a man desperate for someone to help deliver his pregnant w
ife's baby. Will Kenneth reconcile with his past to pick up his doctor's coat once more and save the vulnerable or abandon a family to certain death as he ignores their plight, choosing to find Jenny and escape instead?
Read it for free at https://goo.gl/SELSG!
Living Death 2: No Escape
Left for dead and back by (some) popular demand, the rounds in Kenneth's revolver are terribly empty as he puts the muzzle to his head. He stares at the zombies coming straight for him on the roof as the helicopter carrying the man who crippled him sails off into the horizon. This is it. Not an easy death by suicide but one borne of suffering as the zombies are about to rip his guts out. But Kenneth isn't one to give up on killing himself so easily. He rolls himself over the edge, expecting his brains to turn into a Jackson Pollock painting on the concrete parking lot down below. But as he lands with a bounce, he's saved by a suicide net fixed on the second floor… and given a new lease of life.
He's on a mission to find Jenny, the one and only person who's cared about him throughout the medical school that he dropped out of. And when he encounters a ragtag bunch of survivors, each complete with their own pasts and grudges, can he unite them towards the common goal of survival?
Faced with betrayal, hopelessness, helplessness, complications, violence, blood and gore, Kenneth must fight the best he can with what limited means he has. For the sake of Jenny, for the sake of himself, he must fight and survive in this undead world, even if there is no escape.
About Kent Reaper:
Kent Reaper loves thrillers, horror and above all, good stories. When he's not putting characters through more trials and tribulations for your entertainment, he's going to college, producing music and always on the lookout for his next inspiration!
Kent can be reached at [email protected]
KentReaper.blogspot.com
https://twitter.com/kentreaper
Thanks to Artranq for the cover image.
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