Love, Revenge and Zombies

by Travis Cotter

  “I’m sorry, I know it's hard to handle but you did what you had too. She would have kept coming if you didn’t put her down,” Paul said.

  “It was intense but I know I had to do it, she had become one of those things. I could see it in her eyes,” he said but it didn’t seem to relieve the guilt from his face.

  “So how long ago did this happen?” Paul asked.

  “I don’t know, maybe an hour or so. That’s why I freaked out so bad and hid behind the bar when I heard you in the kitchen. I thought you were another one of those things,” he said as he poured another drink for himself and then for Paul.

  “How are you feeling?” Paul asked.

  He knew what had happened before when someone got bit, he figured that was how it was spread from person to person.

  “I’m a little freaked out but I’m doing okay. You some kind of shrink or something,” the guy said with a little chuckle.

  “No I meant how are you feeling physically? How’s the bite doing?” Paul asked.

  “I’m doing good,” he responded as he finished his drink yet again.

  Paul hated what he had to do next but he knew it was only a matter of time and it was better to do it now then later. The pistol was out of the holster and pressed against the young man's head before he even had a chance to react or process what was happening.

  “What the hell are you doing?” the man asked as he felt Paul press the barrel against his forehead.

  “I’m sorry I have to do this. You’ve been bitten and it’s only a matter of time before you turn into one of them,” Paul said.

  “You can’t do this it’s murder,” he responded with a shaky voice.

  “It has to be done,” Paul said as he placed his finger on the trigger.

  “I’m not bitten, you don’t have to do this!” the young man said as he placed his hand on the gun resting against his forehead.

  “What the hell are you talking about?” You said she bit you,” Paul said.

  “Yea she bit me but she didn’t break the skin,” he said.

  He was wearing a long sleeve shirt so he pulled up the sleeves to show that there was no bite marks anywhere on his arms.

  “How do I know she didn’t bite you somewhere else?” Paul asked.

  “What? Do you want me to strip naked? Is that what it’s going to take to keep you from killing me?” he asked with frustration and anger growing in his voice.

  Paul thought about it for a few seconds and then lowered the gun and placed it back in its holster.

  He then asked “how is it possible that she bit you but didn’t bite you?”

  “I was wearing protection,” he answered.

  Paul was still confused about the whole situation and the young man could tell that he needed to explain more in depth.

  “Here lets calm down and have another drink and I’ll explain,” he said as he walked back to the table and filled their glasses once again.

  Paul joined him at the table and took a small drink of whiskey before he spoke “yea, you’ll definitely need to explain.”

  “I go on supply runs to gather food and anything else that I can use,” he said and then paused to take a drink.

  “That explains all the canned goods upstairs,” Paul said.

  “You’ve been in my apartment, that’s awesome,” he said with sarcasm thick in his voice.

  “Sorry, that’s how I got in, the back door was locked and I noticed the window upstairs was open. So I climbed up into the apartment,” Paul said.

  “And the locked door didn’t make you think to go somewhere else or maybe come around to the front door,” he asked.

  Paul finished his drink and motioned for the glass to be filled again and spoke “there was too many of those things out front and I really needed a drink but enough small talk, I want to hear about your protection.”

  “You’re right, I guess we can talk about you breaking into my place later,” he responded.

  “I said I was sorry and it’s a different world now, I needed a drink and I wasn’t about to go roaming around town when I could get one here,” Paul said.

  He was beginning to get frustrated with the young man and his endless avoidance of answering Paul’s original question. Paul got up from the table and walked to the bar and stared at himself in the mirror behind the bar.

  He downed his drink and began to speak “I’m tired and it’s been a rough couple of days. Soon I plan on going outside and destroying all those monsters because they took something very important from me. If you have a way of keeping them from biting you then I would like to know what it is.”

  The young man walked over to join Paul at the bar and filled there glasses once more and then spoke “I’m sorry, it’s nothing special. I use to ride dirt bikes a lot and I have some protective gear. My jacket is leather with built in guards in the sleeves. Something tries to bite down and all they get is a mouth full of leather and plastic. I put it on with my dirt bike helmet when I went to let the girl in the bar. I took off the helmet but still had the jacket on when I went to check on her.”

  “That’s pretty smart thinking and lucky you still had the jacket on,” Paul said.

  They both sat in silence and finished their drinks and then finished another before they spoke again.

  It was Paul who spoke first “thanks for the drinks. I still need to find somewhere to sleep for the night so I’m going to head out. Thanks for the tip on the protective gear.”

  “Sorry about trying to kill you earlier,” the young man said.

  “You too,” Paul answered and then he got up from the bar and started to head back upstairs.

  He was planning to leave the same way he came in because his weapons were still on his bike and the front door was blocked by a group of the undead.

  “You know you can use the front door,” the young man said.

  “Yea but I don’t feel like dealing with those things right now and my supplies are out back,” Paul responded.

  “I never caught your name,” the young man said just before Paul walked through the door to the kitchen.

  “My name is Paul,” he said as he stopped and turned to look back at him.

  “Nice to meet you Paul, I’m Nick,” he said back.

  “Nice to meet you Nick, be safe,” Paul said and then turned and walked into the kitchen.

  “You can stay here if you want,” Nick shouted from the bar area.

  Paul stopped moving and thought about it for a minute, he had already decided earlier that it was a great location but he hadn’t planned on the company.

  Nick spoke again “did you hear what I said? Are you still there?”

  Paul walked back out to the bar and looked around; he noticed that there were no windows on the first floor. The front door was glass but that could easily be covered up with one of the tables, the bar was a fortress and he knew it would be perfect.

  Plus the loaded bar was a benefit that he hadn’t planned on having, he smiled as he thought about that and spoke “sounds good to me.”

  The two men finished off the bottle they had started earlier and then polished off a second bottle. They talked about the past, the present and the future as they drank until they passed out. It had been a long day for both of them and the future was going to hold many more long days.

  Fifteen

  The night sky seemed to engulf him as he stood there in the middle of that dirt road. The noise around him was completely overwhelming and it took him a second to get his bearings. His eyes began to adjust and he knew exactly where he was and he ran. He ran as fast as he could as the village unfolded around him.

  The explosions were all around him and he could hear the bullets whizzing past him. It was the same village from the past and the same danger as he ran down the road but there was something different in the air. He couldn’t figure out what it was but he knew there was something different but he kept running the same as every other night.

  Then it happened, he figured out what
was different about this night. She was standing there at the end of the road, his dear sweet Abby. She was smiling as he ran towards her but she didn’t seem to be getting closer so he called out to her. He yelled out for her to run but no sound filled the air except for the sounds of war all around him. He just kept his eyes locked on to her as he ran with all his might, he had to reach her. He holds her again and he had to protect her this time. She looked so beautiful standing there and the smile on her face was more intoxicating than any drink ever created. That smile was all he needed and he had to reach her before she was gone again.

  The explosion was so close to him and it launched him through the air. He lost sight of her as he tumbled across the ground and his heart sank, but as the smoke and dust began to clear he could see her silhouette still standing at the end of the road. It took him a second but he made it back to his feet and began to run again. He ran towards her but this time it seemed that he was gaining ground and she was getting closer.

  The smoke and dust was clearing and he could see more of her and she was almost in reach. His heart was racing faster than his legs but all he could think of was holding her again. The feel of her against him as he wrapped his arms around her was the greatest feeling he had ever experienced and the war inside him and all around him began to fade. All he wanted was to stay there holding her forever but there was a new noise in the air, it was the undead and they sounded close.

  “We have to go. It’s not safe here,” he said as he took her hand.

  Her hand felt different, he knew it was her but her grip felt cold so he turned to her and it was too late. She stood there with his hand in hers and a low growl rolled off of her lips. She had that same dead look in her eyes and Paul fell to his knees as tears streamed down his face.

  Paul began to speak “not again, this can’t be happening again. I should have protected you, I’m so sorry.”

  He didn’t let go of her hand or try to run away, he just sat there on his knees and cried. The sting of her teeth wasn’t what he expected, there was no pain but he knew she had bit down on his arm. Again he didn’t react; he just sat there with his hand still in hers and let her feast on him.

  He could feel the wind on his face and then something else was on the wind. He opened his eyes just in time to see her turn to ash and get lifted into the air and then she was gone again. Paul was alone again kneeling in the middle of the road and all he could do was cry. The darkness consumed him again but he could still hear the undead around him.

  He jerked awake and looked around, he was still in the bar and it had all been a horrible nightmare. The whiskey glass from the night before was still on the table in front of him and it was still full. He was still trying to get that image of her out of his head and he hated to see whiskey go to waste so he downed the drink and tried to shake her from his mind.

  He rose from the table and walked to the bar, he stared at himself in the mirror for a minute. He had woken up from one nightmare and just walked into another one. So he had another drink and continued to stare in the mirror.

  The sound of tapping on glass caught his ear and he turned to face the entrance door to find the source of the noise. It was still early morning because the light outside was only beginning to fill the window so the sun wasn’t all the way up yet.

  The outline of a woman began to fill the glass door and for a split second he thought it was her but he knew that it couldn’t be, she was gone and he had to accept it. The girl at the door continued to stand there and tap on the glass so Paul made his way across the room.

  He stood there just a foot from the door and watched her, her eyes had that same look they all had after they turned. She was still a person on the outside but the eyes were dead and if eyes truly were the window to the soul, then her soul was gone. It had been replaced with a deep darkness that sent chills down Paul’s spine.

  Paul just watched her tap the glass and he knew she was young, probably only a teenager. He wondered what had happened to her, was she alone when it happened, was there no one trying to keep her safe.

  He placed his hand gently on hers through the window and spoke “I’m sorry this happened to you but you will be at peace soon.”

  She became more aggressive and began clawing at the window trying to get at him. He left his hand resting there against the glass for a few seconds more then turned and walked to the kitchen.

  He returned to the door but this time he had a large kitchen knife in his hand, he began to open the door but he heard Nick moving behind him.

  “What are you doing? You can’t open that door, what if she gets in here?” Nick said as he got up from his chair and backed away towards the bar.

  “She won’t get in here. I need to do this,” Paul said.

  He reached out again and turned the deadbolt so that it was unlocked. The doorknob felt cold in his hand as he turned it and prepared himself to take her out. The door swung open and the girl came at him but he was ready for her and he pressed his hand against her chest holding her back.

  She thrashed at him but he stayed calm and spoke “goodbye and rest in peace.”

  The knife moved swiftly through the air as he brought it around and pierced the side of her head. She moved for just a second more and then fell back out the door to the sidewalk. Paul slowly closed the door and locked it again. He turned and walked back to the bar to his empty glass waiting for him.

  He filled it once more and raised it to his lips. “I told you she wouldn’t get in here,” he said and then finished his drink.

  “Does the shower upstairs work? I want to get cleaned up before I get started. I have a lot to do today,” Paul said.

  “Yea it should be good to go but what do you mean you have a lot to do today?” Nick asked as he looked at Paul who was looking at the mirror again.

  “I’m going outside and I’m going to destroy as many of those things as I can,” Paul said with a serious tone.

  Nick wanted to say more but he knew there was no convincing Paul to stay inside and give up on his plan. Paul had told Nick about the girl he lost and he knew that Paul meant it when he said he would have his revenge.

  “The showers all yours and make yourself at home, what’s mine is yours,” Nick said and then walked away and sat back down at the table.

  “Thank you,” Paul said as he walked away and headed upstairs.

  The shower was refreshing and it helped to clear his head some but he couldn’t completely shake that image of Abby from his mind. He tried to remember her as she was before she turned and it helped ease his heart some and a faint smile began to form, but it was gone as quick as it came. There was work to be done and it was time to get started.

  He got dressed in the same clothes that he had been wearing before and he added finding some new clothes to the list of things to do that day. Nick was still sitting at the table but now he was staring out the door and watched as a small group of those things shuffled past.

  “So are you really going to kill all those things out there?” Nick asked without turning away from the window to face Paul.

  “They’re already dead but yea I plan on taking them out,” Paul responded.

  “It seems like a lot of work and you know they could turn you into one of them,” Nick said.

  “I’ll die before I let myself become one of those things,” Paul responded as he stared out the door.

  He watched them until they were gone and then he turned back to Nick “do you have keys to the padlocks on the back door?”

  “Yea they’re on a key ring hanging there behind the bar,” Nick responded as he pointed to a set of keys hanging on the wall next to the bar.

  Paul walked over to the keys and lifted them off the hook and said “thanks, and if you don’t mind I would like to borrow your jacket and helmet. Just until I can get my own.”

  “No problem. The jacket and helmet are on the floor in the corner by the door,” Nick said.

  Paul found the jacket and helmet and put them
on. The helmet fit well on his head but the jacket was a size or two too small for him.

  “Looks like you’ll have to get a bigger size,” Nick said with a slight grin.

  Paul laughed a little too and then said “yea but it’ll do for now, thanks again.”

  “Be safe out there,” Nick said.

  “I will,” Paul said as he stood at the front door.

  The deadbolt clicked as he unlocked it and opened the door. He now found himself out in the world again and he heard the deadbolt lock again as Nick watched him from the other side of the glass. It was only a pane of glass separating them but it was literally the difference between life and death. The streets were full of the undead and Paul needed to get to his bike in the alley.

  The 1911 was in his hand now and the keys to the delivery door were tucked safely away in the front pocket of his jeans. The 1911 would be a last resort if he got overwhelmed by the dead, for now he didn’t want to attract too much attention. All he was trying to do was get to his bags on his bike and then he would kick off this adventure.

  So far he had gone unnoticed and he was only a few feet from the end of the building and then he would be in the alley. It was going easier than he had thought it would, but then he reached the alley. There were a half dozen of them between him and his bike which was still parked where he left it.

  If he fired is gun now then he would surely attract the attention of the dead wandering in the street but his 1911 was the only weapon he had on him. For a second he thought about going around the block or cutting through one of the other buildings to come around to the bike from the other end of the alley. The idea left his mind as he looked at the bike and decided the most direct route would be the way he would go.

  “Screw it, might as well start now,” he said out loud and then began to fire.

  One, two, three, four, and then another shot rang out and then one more. The dead that were keeping him from getting to his bike were now laid out on the pavement and the path to his bike was clear. He knew using the gun could be dangerous and it turned out he was right, every undead monster in the area was headed towards him.