Chapter 10

Chapter 10

“Ah hell!” Nick grunted as he dodged around Katharina, who emerged from the basement, and sprinted down the hall. He dropped the empty lever-action rifle, a loud clatter reverberated throughout the house as he pulled out his .44 revolver holstered at his side.

“Where’s Tom?” The girl worriedly yelled after him.

“Dead if we don’t help him!” He shouted back as he rounded the corner into the kitchen. He glanced around for the kid Jake, he was nowhere to be found. Coward. Mike was already behind him, he heard an empty magazine being ejected from his gun and a new one slapped in as Nick reached the deck door and tore it open. He stepped out onto the deck, the .44 trained behind Tom.

“Damn it Tom, get in here!” Tom was standing over a burning corpse. How the shambler caught aflame, he hadn’t the slightest idea. Mike and even Katharina were at the doorway, both their weapons out and ready. The sounds of more howlers could be heard, and as Tom started making his way towards the house four more rounded the corner, screaming for blood. The three of them open fired, the various caliber rounds from each gun tearing into the howlers. Two of them dropped instantly, one of them scoring lucky headshots. Mike’s automatic roared into the night, deep shadows being illuminated by each blast from the weapon until it ran dry.

“Out!” Mike shouted, taking a step back and allowing Tom to enter the house. Nick’s .44 jumped in his hands, the round hitting the closest howler in the jaw, completely tearing it off. A wet cry emitted from its throat as in fell to its knees. Nick lowered the .44 and fired at almost point-blank range, splitting its head in a shower of three pieces.

“Let’s go already!” Mike said, tugging on Nick’s arm. The last howler reached the deck as he took a step back and fired the .44 again. The round missed its mark, instead blasting into its arm and bone, the only thing keeping it attached was what little skin remained. As it howled in pain before continuing forward, his gun clicked empty.

“Aw shi-” He was cut off by gunfire as Katharina fire her .32 three times, the small handgun jumped in her hands as all three rounds split the howler’s head apart.

“Nice shootin’.” Nick said as he put his hand on the door. “Everybody inside!” He ushered the girl and Mike passed him before slamming the door shut and locking it. Seconds later, howlers began pounding on it. Nick turned around and was met with worried faces.

“What should we do?” Katharina spoke up first as she was pulling out the magazine in her gun and counting her remaining rounds. Tom was rubbing his chin when he spoke up.

“We shouldn’t keep shooting them… these things were attracted here in the first place from the noise those two kids made, where hell is that little shit anyways?” Everyone shook their head. Nick walked over to the counter and pulled out the .44’s cylinder, emptying the shell casings on the counter. He pulled six bullets out of his vest and loaded them back into the gun. He gave the cylinder a slight swirl before flipping it shut.

“Attracted to noise eh?” Nick said as he shoved his .44 in a holster. “Tom, is there a stereo in this house?” Tom nodded.

“Yeah, down in the basement, why?” Nick grinned.

“I have an idea.” They followed Tom down into the basement as he grabbed the stereo.

“Grab me a loud CD.” Nick said, Tom grabbed a CD labeled “workout.”

“All we need to do is crank this up to the max and toss it outside… should attract those bastards to it.”

“Why the fuck would we want more of them to come?” Mike asked.

“Because it will keep them occupied with the stereo, and we could pick ‘em off from in here.” Tom grinned.

“Genius.” He slapped him on the shoulder. “Let’s load up, I think my grandpa kept some suppressors on hand… that way the gunfire won’t attract any more of them to the house.” Nick nodded, glad they had a plan. As Tom led them to the armory, Nick pulled out his .44 again. The loud blasts from the revolver would surely attract more of them. Tom opened the large metal door and stepped in, a second later a gunshot was heard and a bullet whizzed by his head. What the hell?

“Asshole!” Tom yelled at Jake, who stood cowering at the end of the room, a rifle in his hands. Tom stormed forward and punched the kid in the face. Jake cried out, spitting out blood. “You’re working on my last nerve, kid!” Tom growled.

“Sorry… after the gunfire stopped I figured they got you all.”

“Whatever, just stay out of our way.” Nick said as he grabbed an AR-15 off a gun rack. He saw a small box underneath, which housed a few spare magazines as well as a silencer. Perfect. “Ok, we’re going to need to get the stereo outside… we’ll need to cover whoever does the run.”

“I’ll do it.” Katharina stepped forward.

“Kath-” Tom began to protest, but she cut him off.

“Look, I’m the worst shot here, it would be better to have someone trained with a gun providing cover. I’ve been jogging every morning for years now, it’ll be 1-2-3.” Nick was surprised with her response, but glad in a way. She was right. He looked over into Tom’s worried eyes.

“We’ll cover her, she’ll be fine.” He winked. Tom eventually gave in. “Alright, let’s do this before they tear down the back door.”

A few minutes later, everyone stood waiting outside the front door, except for Jake. He was ordered to remain in the basement. Nick wouldn’t mind throwing the kid outside, but didn’t know how the others would feel about that.

“Alright, make it quick…” Tom told Katharina, she gave him a quick peck on the cheek.

“Don’t worry, I’ll be fine.” She assured him.

“Ok, we’ll go out first.” Tom said, pulling back the bolt on his rifle now fitted with a silencer. Mike had one on his MP5 now. Nick stepped forward, his carbine clenched tightly in his hands. His hand rested on the doorknob for a second before he slowly opened the door and stepped out, followed closely by Tom then Mike followed by the girl.

A few howlers were stumbling around the street, more could be seen in the distance. As the zombie noticed them, a devilish howl was heard; Nick’s rifle howled back as he popped off two rounds into its head.

“Go!” He ordered. Katharina ran by the small group, stereo in hands. The closest two howlers instinctively made a break for her. Tom and Mike opened up, as Nick concentrated on Katharina. She was supposed to drop the stereo in the middle of the street, yet she kept running. What the hell is she doing? He noticed a few regular zombies wandering out from behind the house. They weren’t an immediate threat, but he dispatched them anyways. Nick hated the undead with a passion.

Katharina stopped at a parked minivan across the street. She made sure the volume was at its max before turning it on and placing it underneath the vehicle. Ah, that’s what she was doing. Smart girl.

“Let’s go!” Tom shouted as his rifle spat out more rounds, downing a trio of howlers. Katharina didn’t waste any time, she sprinted back to the house, zigzagging between two howlers which Nick took out as soon as she passed. The song “Die MF Die” blared throughout the neighborhood. Howls could be heard from all directions.

“Hurry, get your asses inside!” Nick ordered, firing off another blast from his rifle before retreating to the house and locking it. The group crowded over to a window and watched. Five howlers had already encircled the van, and were screaming in rage as the pounded against it. Windows shattered and dents were formed, yet they weren’t smart enough to realize the stereo was underneath the van. Nick again was surprised at how useful she was becoming.

“Alright, let’s take them out before they find it.” Tom said as he finally turned away from the window, more howlers were already forming around the van.

“Right.” They all followed Tom upstairs to the bedroom.

“Damn man, smells like pussy in here!” Mike laughed as Tom grimaced and opened a window. “You betta open a window dog!” Mike laughed again, Katharina blushed.

“Shut up!” Tom growled as he opened another window.

“…Die motherfucker, die motherfucker, die!” The stereo blasted.

“Nice choice of music you’ve got there, Tom.” Nick said as he propped his rifle up on one of the windows and took aim. He began picking off each howler one by one, all perfect headshots. Mike and Tom joined in, taking aim through the other window.

Within minutes, every howler was down. Metallica’s “Cyanide” now blasted throughout the neighborhood. The minivan was surrounded by a large pile of bodies as the song continued.

“We need to turn that off, ya know.” Nick finally said as he reloaded his rifle.

“Yeah, I’ll run out this time.” Tom said, but before he could leave the room Mike interjected.

“I got this.” He took aim and fired a three-round burst. The stereo exploded and the song died out.

“Damn it, Mike! I liked that CD.” Tom said.

“My B.”





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Hours later, there still wasn’t any signs of the howlers or undead, yet everybody remained awake. Nobody wanted to sleep and let their guard down. The kid Jake had finally opened up to them. He shared how he and his friend had hit the road as soon as the outbreaks began a week ago. They had a shotgun and handgun, with Jake’s dad being a cop. His dad was bitten on the first day by a small child, not willing to or wanting to believe the little girl had killed her entire family. After his father turned, they ran. At first things weren’t too bad, until they crossed paths with a group of looters. They’d taken everything they had; ammo, guns, even their food. They managed to take out a lone zombified cop with a bat and take his sidearm and backup revolver. The group listened intently on how Jake had met up with another small group of people and how they had ran into a group of howlers. The howlers were fast and took out everyone in the group but him and his friend, they didn’t stick around to make a last stand. While retreating they ended up at Tom’s house. Everyone seemed interested in the kid’s story, everyone but Mike.

Mike sat at the kitchen table gritting his teeth as he lifted his shirt and inspected his wound from the helicopter crash. It was getting worse, yet he didn’t tell anyone. A sharp pain shot out throughout his body when he touched it.

“Fuck!” He screamed.

“Hey, you ok Mike?” Nick asked from the living room. He wanted to lie, to say he was just peachy. But he couldn’t hide it any longer, he needed antibiotics bad. Mike had never been one to give into pain in the past. Oversees, he was even shot in the arm once and refused to leave the front lines until all the other injured were taken care of. But this was unbearable, and he did not want to die from a bacterial infection.

Mike shakily stood up and stumbled over to the others, shirt still held up.

“Holy shit Mike, why didn’t you say something sooner?” Tom asked as he took in his bloody wound.

“Thought it’d get better… I need help, guys…” He said weakly. They were all already standing up.

“Tom, did your grandfather keep any medicine here by chance?” Nick asked. Mike was breaking out in a cold sweat. He didn’t feel good, and the pain was increasing.

“He was a stubborn bastard, never went to the doctor. There’s a pharmacy not far from here though. Nick, you and I will make the trip.” Tom turned to Katharina and Jake.

“Kath, get a cold rag for Mike and a drink. Jake, get him some clean clothes, there’s some upstairs in the last bedroom to the right.” They nodded as Mike stumbled over to the couch, his vision already blurring as he plopped himself down. His world was rapidly crashing down on him, everything was going black. His last thought before he slipped into unconsciousness was that he never got to smoke up the rest of that bag of weed.





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Nick jumped in shotgun, placing his MP5 he’d taken from Mike between his legs as Tom got behind the wheel of the Titan. He started the engine and turned on the headlights before pulling out of the driveway slowly. The sound of bones breaking and heads being crushed under the heavy vehicle could be heard as Tom drove over them. When they were clear of the massacre, he sped up a little.

“So you and Katharina…” Nick said.

“Shut up, Nick.” Tom smiled as he turned a corner.

“Hey, there’s nothing wrong with love. It gives people the will to keep on fighting.” Tom didn’t say anything as he turned out of the neighborhood and onto the main road. “And besides, somebody’s gotta repopulate the world.” Tom laughed as he drove through a stop sign. “So you really like this girl, huh?” Nick asked.

“Yeah, I guess I do.” Tom said.

“How long you two been going out?” Nick asked, wondering if they’d known each other before the outbreak.

“Uh… I met her the other day. I helped her out of the city.” Tom replied.

“Oh wow, you two really hit it off then.” Tom smiled.

“So… how are you holding up?” Tom asked, noticing the picture of Carrie in the truck. Nick leaned forward and plucked the picture out, pulling it towards him. He really did miss her.

“I’m alright… just wish I could have said goodbye, ya know?” Tom nodded. “If only I’d been home a few minutes earlier… I could have saved her…”

“Hey, it’s not your fault.” Tom noticed a lone zombie shuffling around in the middle of the street. He slightly accelerated and splattered it on the Titan’s grill. “We need to fight back for the right to live. Every day we survive is an accomplishment and a victory. Mankind has faced speed bumps throughout all of time, this is just another one.” Nick lowered the picture of Carrie and gently placed it in his vest.

“I guess you’re right.” He murmured as Tom pulled into the parking lot of a CVS. All the lights were still on inside.

“Leave the engine running.” Tom said as he got out. “Stay with the truck, we can’t afford to have our way out cut off.” He finished.

“Fair enough, make it quick we really need to get back.” Nick said as Tom pulled his Taurus handgun out of his hip holster and jogged over to the entrance. Nick sighed and opened up the glove box, going through a small pile of CDs. He grinned when he found a Johnny Cash one.

“Whoever owned the truck had good taste.” Nick said as he popped it in and stepped out of the truck, lighting up a cigarette. The trumpets in “Ring of Fire” calmed him as he inhaled a large puff of smoke.

“Love, is a burning thing…” Johnny Cash sang as he played his guitar. Something outside though caught his interest. His ears perked as something loud was coming his way. Nick suddenly wasn’t interested in the song as he heard the all too familiar sound of a helicopter. He looked around until he spotted it off in the distance, coming in his direction.

“Jesus, Tom! Get out here!”

“As it makes, a fiery ring…” Johnny Cash sang on. Nick dropped the cigarette and ripped open the door of the truck, grabbing his MP5 and unscrewing the silencer.

“Bound, by a wild desire…” The helicopter was almost there.

“Hey!” Nick shouted, waving his hands frantically. He fired a burst of gunfire into the air, waving his hands like a madman.

“I fell into a ring of fire…” Nick fired on full auto into the air as a beacon for the helicopter, he saw it was a police one. It was right over him now, hovering for a second as if deciding what to do. A second later, it took off again.

“I fell into a burning ring of fire,”

“No! Wait!” Nick cried, running down the empty parking lot and firing the MP5. Tears flowed down his face as he fell to his knees and dropped the gun.

“I went down, down, down, and the flames went higher!” Nick wanted out. He was sick of the killing, sick of the death that surrounded him, and sick of fighting for his life every second.

“And it burns, burns, burns, the ring of fire…”

Nick pounded the parking lot with his fist and cursed.

“The ring of fire…”