The End of All That
By
Bart Gnarly
Kim could only sigh when she heard the gunshot ring out. She tried to cry, wanted desperately to cry, but no longer had the capacity for it. Not after everything she’d seen, everything she’d done.
Will walked over to her, placing a hand on her shoulder as he holstered the still smoking pistol.
“We didn’t have a choice,” he said, “he would have been the death of both of us.”
“I know, I’m the one who found out he was bit.” Kim yanked herself away from Will.
The two picked up their worn out leftover desert fatigues and army kits and continued down the hall.
They were in an industrial complex, in the heart of America, looking for shelter. The former group of three had found the structure tucked away on the outskirts of the small town. In theory that meant there’d be fewer of those stricken by the plague. But theories never seem to hold up.
Will took point, just as he always did, making sure the way ahead was clear. Kim followed close behind checking the rear and high ceilings. It was routine for them, something they’d been used to since Iraq.
“Hold on, I think I see something.” Will suddenly stopped and kneeled down. Kim stopped just behind him, and whispered in his ear.
“We need to get the hell outta here.”
“Still giving me shit, huh? It never stops with you.”
“No Will- “
“That’s sergeant to you. Just because we’re not in the desert anymore doesn’t mean I ain’t still your superior.”
“Listen, Will, we don’t have time for more of your games and we don’t have time to stop every time we here a mouse scurry by. This place is infested with zombies and they’re sure to have heard those shots. We need to move.”
“Running out of here at full speed will attract even more attention. We need to do this slowly. Now stop your complaining and let’s go.”
Will took out his flipped the switch on his night vision goggles.
“Oh, now you’re going to waste batteries,” whispered Kim behind him.
Will ignored her, and scanned the darkness. Nothing. He turned the goggles off, and pointed forward with the tips of his fingers, and the two continued into an open room.
The room was full of large industrial presses of some description. They encompass the whole room, imposing their will. But Kim was more focused on the half-eaten corpses that used to make up the work staff.
The layout of machinery brought them to the middle of the room, still following their routine. That is, right up until something brushed up against Will’s leg.
He stayed in place and opened fire at the zombie on the floor, which turned out to be another dead body.
“Ha, got spooked there for a second. Like that time back in— “
“Damn it Will. The only think scary about that is how damn stupid you are sometimes.”
Will didn’t know if Kim was joking or not, something that occurred often since the childhood friends met. Will didn’t like putting too much thought into it in fear of her being serious, so he laughed it off as usual and continued further into the room.
But the sound of anything that could point to the next meal was more than enough to awake the zombie plague. Suddenly, one of the windows on the far side of the room burst open, as a small tidal wave of the walking dead burst in.
“OUT THE BACK, NOW!” Will still liked giving orders, and it was always about following those orders no matter what the cost, Kim noted.
The two ran as quickly as they could on two hours of sleep in three days. When they reached the other end of the room, Will tried to kick the door down. It wouldn’t budge.
Kim surveyed the situation as Will continued pounding on the door. Zombies had poured in through the window, but they had also managed to follow them from the hallway as well.
“Now what?” asked Kim.
By that point Will had given up on the door and had already turned to run back out the hallway before being dragged down behind cover by Kim. It was only then he got a full sense of what was going on around them.
“Well, I guess now we finally get to meet our makers.” He spoke with a certain playful cheerfulness in his voice.
“Now isn’t the time for another one of your damn jokes.”
“Okay, in that case open fire!”
The two emerged from cover and began selecting their shots, calling them out to each other to conserve the most ammunition. As “two o’clock high”, “nine o’clock low”, and constant gunfire permeated the air, a realization hit Kim.
This was real life re-enactment of those tragic events one year prior.
She knelt behind the machine to reload and take stock. The zombies around the window had thinned out dramatically, but they were still coming in heavy from the hallway, somehow. It was becoming clear their only hope was the window. The window that led towards the heart of the zombie infested city.
Surrounded by whom you were told were the enemy and no way to escape. It was Iraq all over again.
Will knelt down beside her to reload.
“What the hell are you doing, keep shooting.”
“This is all a bit familiar; don’t you think?”
Will stood back up and continued firing. “What are you talking about?” He yelled over the gunfire.
“You know exactly what I’m talking about. Baghdad one year ago. This is it, this is karma, or god, or something paying us back.”
“Now’s really not the time for this.”
“And it’s all your fault.” Kim finally got back up and began laying a rapid burst of lead into the hallway, aiming high but not really caring what she hit.
