Love, Revenge and Zombies

by Travis Cotter

  The fight was on and Paul was ready to do whatever it took to keep Rebecca and Shawn safe. He stood up from behind the car and fired at a man that was running for cover behind another car. Paul cut him down with two bullets that struck him in the back as he ran. Bullets hit the car in front of Paul as the men in the doorway fired again; Paul took cover behind the car again.

  He fired under the car as he watched a pair of feet run past, the man collapsed as his foot was struck. Paul put a bullet in the man’s head as he hit the ground. There was more gun fire coming at the car and Paul knew that more men had joined the fight. He got back to his feet and ran towards another car that was parked further away from the hotel and further from the men coming out of it. He wanted to put some distance between him and the men so he didn’t have to fight them all at once.

  “Where are you going? We just started having fun,” Doug shouted out as he saw Paul duck behind the cars.

  “Don’t worry I’ve only just begun to have fun,” Paul shouted back.

  He watched as a grenade flew over his head and landed on the dirt about ten feet away from him.

  “Aw crap,” Paul said as he dove back over the car and hit the ground just as the grenade went off.

  He could feel the concussion of the blast as he hid behind the car and watched as some of the shrapnel flew over him.

  “Well played Doug but you’ll have to do better than that if you want to win,” Paul shouted.

  Paul got up and ran back around the car where the grenade had gone off. He kept running towards the back of the hotel. He could hear the bullets flying past him as he ran but he had to keep moving and hope that they continued to miss. Paul came sprinting around the back corner of the hotel and saw two men running towards him. Before they could react Paul fired and the men hit the ground.

  He continued to run and soon he could hear men coming up behind him shouting “he went this way! Come on we need to kill this bastard!”

  Paul stopped running and ducked behind a large power box and waited until he saw the men run past.

  “Hey! I’m over here,” Paul yelled out to them and as they began to turn he fired his M4 and watched them die.

  A bullet hit the power box next to him and Paul spun around to return fire but the M4 only clicked. He ran again and changed out the magazine as he came around the corner at the other end of the motel. The magazine locked in and he pulled back the charging handle just in time to chamber a round. He fire at a man that had appeared in front of him as he came around the corner.

  Paul gunned down three more men that came running from the front of the hotel. He headed away from the hotel and found himself standing near an intersection at the center of town. He dropped behind a minivan parked near the curb of the street and listened as the sound of running continued coming towards him. He ran to the center of the intersection and ducked behind another car; he stood up a moment later and shot two more men. He knew that this was where he was going to have to make his stand and there was no more running.

  Twenty-Five

  Paul sat behind the car for a minute and listened, he could hear a few men running. He heard Doug speak again “spread out guys, we got him now.”

  “I’m still here! You don’t have me yet and you’re already dead. I just haven’t let you die yet,” Paul shouted out.

  “Brave words Paul. If you give up now maybe I’ll let you live and work for me,” Doug shouted back.

  “Thanks for the offer but I think I’ll kill you instead,” Paul replied.

  He looked over to see a head trying to peak out from behind a car parked off to the side of the road, Paul fired and caught the top of the guys head with a bullet.

  “That’s another one of your men dead! You have to be running out of people by now and soon it’ll be just me and you,” Paul yelled out.

  Bullets blew out the car window above Paul’s head and rained glass down on him. Paul crawled to the back end of the car and looked out towards where the gun fire was coming from. There was a heavy set man standing at the end of the minivan and he was still firing towards the front of the car where Paul had been before. The man had failed to realize that Paul had moved and now had him in his sights. Paul fired his M4 and struck the man center mass with three bullets and watched him hit the pavement.

  The sound of a man screaming filled the air as Paul sat back behind the car. The screams were followed with a steady stream of gun shots ringing out. Paul waited for the bullets to hit the car but they never came and it was a few seconds later that he realized that they weren’t shooting at him anymore. The battle between Paul and Doug had attracted a lot of attention and the undead were on their way to join the fight.

  Paul sat with his back against the car in the center of the intersection and looked down the road to his right. Then looked to his left and watched as the undead filled the street in both directions. He looked straight ahead and watched as the undead marched towards him.

  “They’re everywhere,” he heard Doug yell out.

  The sound of gun fire rang out again and Paul knew they weren’t firing at him. The road behind him where Doug was standing was packed full of zombies and Doug was trying to save himself. Paul stood and fired at the undead walking towards him from the right side. He fired until his M4 ran out of bullets and then swapped out the clip and started firing again. He turned to check on Doug, he wanted to make sure that he wasn’t going to shoot him while he fought the zombies.

  Paul watched as Doug and a younger looking Asian man fired into the crowd of undead coming for them down the road. The young man panicked and tried to run away but he hadn’t noticed the zombies coming out from between two of the buildings. The undead were waiting for him as he tried to make his escape and he ran right into their open arms and snapping jaws. They tore him to pieces as Paul stood there watching, the young man was still screaming out in pain as the undead began to feast on him. Paul raised his M4 up and put a bullet through the young man’s forehead and ended his suffering.

  Doug was out in the open now with his back to Paul and he continued to fire at the zombies.

  “Paul, you still with me?” Doug shouted out as he looked over his shoulder at Paul.

  “I’m still here,” Paul responded.

  “Good, how about we make a deal? I’ll help you get out of this alive if you help me too. Then we can go our separate ways,” Doug shouted out over the gun fire as he continued to fire into the crowd coming for him.

  Doug stopped firing when he realized that Paul hadn’t answered him. He turned to face Paul and asked again “so are we going to work together because I really don’t want to die while these things try to digest me.”

  “I don’t think they’ll actually digest you. I’m pretty sure they don’t do that anymore,” Paul replied.

  “Now is not the time to make jokes,” Doug said as he began to shoot some of the undead that were starting to get closer to him.

  Paul shot to his right and fired off a few more rounds and dropped five more zombies. Before the zombies he shot had even hit the ground he had turned his attention back to Doug who was frantically trying to reload his Ak47.

  Paul waited until Doug had reloaded before he spoke “so you are saying we should work together?”

  “Yea that’s what I’m saying. Neither one of us will get out of this if we don’t work together,” he replied.

  Paul thought about it for a second and then responded “what about all the innocent people you killed? What about you threatening my friends? And then there’s the fact that you and your men tried to kill me!”

  Doug didn’t know what to say next, all he knew was that he didn’t want to let the undead get him.

  “Come on man! You can’t let them kill me,” Doug finally responded as fear filled his voice.

  “I promise I won’t let them kill you,” Paul said.

  Doug turned to face Paul and watched as he raised his M4.

  “I made another promise to you earlier and I intend to keep it. I
told you I would kill you and all your men when you decided to come after me and my friends. Rest in peace Doug,” Paul said.

  He pulled the trigger and watched Doug collapse to the ground as a bullet passed through his head.

  Paul felt the rain hit him as he stood alone in the middle of that intersection. The moans of the undead could be heard over the sound of his M4 firing round after round into the hordes surrounding him. He knew this was the end but he wasn’t going down without a fight.

  The bullets continued to tear through the zombie’s skulls as he tried to make ever shot count. The M4 quickly ran out of bullets as the undead got closer, he swapped out the clip again and proceeded to drop zombie after zombie. The bullets were going quick and in what seemed like only a minute he had emptied another clip and then swapped it out with for his last M4 clip.

  The city began to get dark as more rain clouds filled the sky and the sun sank behind the horizon. He had finished off the last of his M4 ammo as the world turned dark and then switched to his 9mm. The undead kept coming as he reloaded his 9mm but the bullets would be gone soon.

  He couldn’t believe what he saw next. Staggering towards him was the undead shell of what use to be Jerry.

  “I told you if I ever saw you again I would put a bullet in you. Rot in hell Jerry,” Paul said as he put a bullet in Jerry’s skull.

  He could see headlights coming over the horizon as he dropped more zombies. The 9mm fired off its last round as Paul watched the headlights get closer and closer. Soon the world was engulfed by darkness and the only light that remained was coming from the headlights barreling towards him.

  He began to cut down the undead with his machete and hoped that the car would reach him before it was too late. Paul wasn’t going to concede the fight until the undead over took him and he had no choice but to stop. The battle raged on as he fought with every ounce of strength and determination that he had left in him.

  The headlights were close now so he kept fighting as the silhouette of the truck began to form in the darkness. It was Rebecca plowing through the horde of undead, a moment later she stopped in front of him. Paul ran to the truck as he kept swinging his machete and dropped more zombies until he was at the passenger door. He cut down two more zombies and then quickly opened the door and got in the truck.

  “Go, go, go…” Paul said after he closed the door.

  Rebecca threw the truck into reverse and then floored the gas pedal as she tried to back out through the undead. They could hear the bodies hit the truck as she kept the gas pedal to the floor and it wasn’t long before the truck was out of the horde.

  She cranked the steering wheel to the side as far as it would go and slid sideways on the wet pavement. She turned the steering wheel back the other way and put the truck in drive. The truck turned towards the horizon as Paul looked behind them to see the undead fading in the distance. Rebecca stared straight ahead as the city began to disappear into the night. It wasn’t until they were out of the city limits that either one of them spoke.

  Paul looked at Shawn sleeping in the back seat and then looked over at Rebecca and said “that was dangerous of you to come back for me but I’m grateful that you did.”

  She smiled at him and replied “I know, but you saved me before so I figured I would return the favor.”

  Paul smiled back at her and simply said “thank you.”

  That was all he could think to say but he knew he meant it from the bottom of his heart and so did she.

  Rebecca turned her head back to the road ahead of them and asked “so where are we headed?”

  “We head to the desert to find the men that started this nightmare. Then we kill them all,” Paul replied.

  They watched the road in front of them as the truck cut through the darkness but they knew they would see the sun again and they knew the fight had just begun…