Josh slung his rifle over his shoulder and looked at the door leading in to the alleyway. "I wish this was all over." he said to no one in particular. Clicking on his flashlight, he reached for the doorknob, taking a deep breath he turned it and opened it very slowly.
CCCCRRRRREEEEEAAAAKKKKKK
"Fucking door..." he swears under his breath as he quickly turns off his flashlight, pockets it and pulls out his rifle. His heart racing and beating so fast all he can hear is THUMPTHUMP THUMPTHUMP THUMPTHUMP in his head. Aiming down the sights he looked down the alleyway, away from where he's going to be heading to make sure nothing is there.
Exhaling slowly, Josh turned and faced the end of the alley and began making his way to the street.
Rustle rustle rustle
In one smooth motion, Josh dropped to one knee to stabilize himself better. He brought his rifle up to his shoulder and aimed down the sights, looking for any form of movement; his heart pounding in his head again.
THUMPTHUMP THUMPTHUMP THUMPTHUMP rustle rustle rustle
Josh turned just in time to see a zombie jump on him. The zombie's mouth chomping wildly as Josh pushed his rifle against it, trying to fight it off. The stench from its rotting flesh burning Josh's nostrils.
"I ain't.... FOOD!" Josh shouted as he pushed the zombie off of him. Rolling to his side, Josh scrambled to his feet and brought his rifle up to his shoulder and took aim. The zombie fumbling as it stood back up and turned to look at Josh. The zombie's mouth opened and began to unleash a haunting moan, until Josh pulled the trigger and unleashed a 3 round burst in to the zombie; its head exploded and splattered against the wall.
Josh followed the zombie's lifeless body as it slumped to the ground, and only when he was sure it wasn’t getting back up did he realize that he was holding his breath. Letting out a long slow breath, he listened carefully for any more shuffling. Satisfied that no other zombies were coming, he walked up to the now headless body, pointed his rifle at it and pulled the trigger.
Thunk!
"Damnit!" Josh said as pulled the side of the rifle up to his face and pulled back on the slider. "I can't wait until I find a proper rifle." he sighed as he saw a round jammed in the chamber. "These M16's are such garbage. No wonder they were called Mattel guns." Josh cleared the jammed round and figured it was for the best that the rifle didn't fire. No point in notifying any zombies in the area.
Josh turned and jogged down the alley, kicking the body on the way by. The zombie has already made him late in meeting up with the rest of his group.
Finally reaching the street, Josh crouched behind a nearby dumpster. Ejecting the clip and seeing how many bullets are left, he sighed and looks around. "Only 9 rounds left. I need to find more ammo, and as long as this piece of crap doesn't jam again I hope this lasts. I'm getting tired of using this gun as a club. Although it seems more useful that way." he said to himself.
Peeking over the dumpster, looking for any stray zombies, he realized that it's getting dark, and quickly. "Where the hell are the...", before he could finish the sentence, Josh heard more shuffling coming up behind him quickly. Pulling back the slider, loading another round in to the chamber he spun around and aimed his rifle down the street.
"HEY! Don't shoot!" Tom said as he and Chelsey ran up beside Josh and crouched down.
"Where the hell have you two been?!" Josh yelled quietly, "I was just about a mid-afternoon snack back there!"
"Sorry, I had um.. hurt my back going through that house, sooooo..." Chelsey trailed off.
"I had to help her out, ya know, make her feel better." Tom finished, winking at Chelsey.
"Uh huh. Just be careful next time, I could have shot you!" Josh replied. "We need to head down the street, 3 blocks. Ralph said that he's found a safe place for us for the night. How much ammo do you guys have left?"
"I've got a full clip, so about 15 rounds." said Tom. Chelsey ejected the clip from her Glock and squinted at the side, "Um... I think I have 6 left." she slid the clip back in to the grip and grabbed the slider.
"Don't do that! You'll waste a round!" Josh said putting a hand on the top of the gun. "This isn't a movie; you can't just go cocking your gun all willy nilly!"
“LAWL! You said cock… like a penis!” Tom laughed and Chelsey slapped him upside the head.
"Sorry." Chelsey said lowering the gun. "Is it clear?"
"Looks to be, I think if we move quickly we should be able to get to Ralph in maybe 10 minutes." Tom said peeking over the dumpster. "Let’s try and do this as quietly as possible." Josh and Chelsey both nod and stand up. Looking around and seeing that the coast is clear, Josh waved for the 3 of them to head out.
"Keep your weapon ready." Josh whispered as he placed the butt of his rifle against his shoulder. Tom did the same. Chelsey took out her flashlight and held it in front of her, resting her gun hand on her wrist to steady herself.
We may the last people alive... Josh thought to himself as he ran beside Chelsey down the street. I hope Lindsay is ok.
Tom suddenly stopped and held up his fist, signaling the others to freeze.
"I hear something." He said raising his rifle. "I hear it too." Josh replied, and Chelsey nodded in agreement. She slowly moved her flashlight over the street, stopping on a pizza parlour. Josh took a few steps towards the window, noticed that the glass is broken and that there are some bodies inside. Creeping slowly towards the restaurant he hears what sounds like flesh being ripped apart and bones breaking.
"There are 2 of them inside." Josh whispered. "Lower your light; we don't want them to know we're here." Chelsey nodded as she turned off the flashlight. Josh motioned to Tom to take the zombie on the right, and he'd take the one on the left. They slowly walked up to the two crouched zombies, weapons raised. Josh motioned to Tom to use single round in the head. Tom nodded in confirmation and flicked the firing selector on his rifle to single shot mode, took aim, and almost in unison Josh and Tom each fired a single round in to the heads of the two zombies. Their faces, or what’s left of them, exploded, and the bodies fell over limp.
Josh motioned for Chelsey to join them. As she walked over and turned on her flashlight the three of them finally saw what the zombies were consuming.
"Poor guy was still alive when they started feasting." Tom said as Josh crouched down beside the corpse. "Most are. I don't think the zombies eat dead people." Josh replied.
"I found his wallet," Chelsey whispered as she opened it shining her flashlight on it. "His name was Alex Red. 21, from Cal... Cal... Some place in Canada, I can't make it out."
"Calgary... he's a fellow Canuck." Josh said pulling a table cloth off of a nearby table and covering the body with it. Come on, we gotta keep moving. Hopefully those gunshots didn't alert any zombies."
Tom and Chelsey nod and made their way out of the restaurant. Josh sighed and stood up, "Bye Alex. I hope you fought well." Josh grabbed his rifle off the floor and headed out.
"Are you coming?" Tom called back to Josh. "Ya, I'm on my way." Josh replied jogging up to the other two. "Look, there's Ralph!" Josh said pointing to a building just up the street. Tom and Chelsey started jogging towards it.
"Ralph! Hey Ralph!" Tom yelled, waving his arms. "Hey! Tom! Shut it!" Josh yelled after him. "That guy is gonna get us killed..." Josh sighed and started running after them.
"Tom!" Josh said reaching for Tom, but as he grabbed his shoulder, Josh slipped, taking both himself and Tom crashing to the ground. As they fell, Tom's rifle banged in to the car beside them setting off the alarm.
"SHIT!" Chelsey shouted as she raised her gun. "Guys, get up! They're coming!" Tom and Josh could barely hear Chelsey over the moaning as zombies started shuffling, stumbling and walking on to the street. Josh and Tom clambered to their feet. "I can't find my gun!" Josh yelled as Tom fired off a few bursts at the oncoming hoard. "Josh, Run!" Tom yelled.
Josh climbed to his feet and started running towards the building. "Ralph! Open the goddamn door!" Just as Josh got to the building, the door swung open and Ralph stepped out.
"Hey zombies! Say hello to my little friend!" He yelled to the hoard and began firing his machine gun as Josh ducked and slid past in to the building.
"Tom, Chelsey! Get in here!" Ralph yelled as he took aim at a zombie approaching Chelsey and fired a round through its head. Chelsey flinched as blood sprayed her cheek. "AAAHHHHH!!!" Chelsey screamed and wiped her cheek. "Damnit Ralph! Warn me next time."
"Ya, next time you might have a zombie taking a big bite out of that juicy brain of yours. Now get your skinny ass in here!" Chelsey stuck her tongue out at Ralph and grabbed Tom by the arm. "Come on!" She said and ran towards the building.
Ralph took down a few more zombies as Tom and Chelsey ran past him. Ralph slammed the door shut and placed a board across it before walking in to the secure room, slamming the 8" steel security door closed and placing the security bar across securing it.
Resting against the wall, Ralph looked over at Josh, Tom and Chelsey. "What took you guys so long?"
"Well, these two were um... making Chelsey’s back feel better," Josh said and looked over at Chelsey who was snuggling up to Tom.
"What? We did!" Tom said, sticking his tongue out at Josh.
"And I got attacked in an alley, and then we had to dispatch a couple of zombies who were pigging out on...“ Josh paused and sighs, "On a fellow Canadian."
"Oh... I'm sorry Josh." Ralph replied, walking over to Josh and placing his hand on his shoulder. "Well, I think we should all get some sleep. We've got a long day ahead of us tomorrow."
Josh walked over to the one window in the room and closed the curtains blocking out the street. "Better turn off those lights, we don't want anything to see us in here." Josh told Ralph as he closed the blinds on the security door.
"Let’s all get comfy!" Ralph said as he turned off the last light. "Nite everyone!"
As the 4 survivors lay on makeshift beds in the tiny room, outside the building all they cound hear was the shuffling and moaning of the living dead, a sound so haunting that would give nightmares to even the hardest of people. If anyone had wondered what hell was like... this was it.
