“Come on, draw.”
“What?”
Will shook his pistol back, as if to tell him to take his ten paces.
“Back in the military we don’t take kindly to our inferiors giving us orders. I think you’ve taken it to the point of capital punishment. I’m going to do you a favor and give you a chance. If you don’t want to take it then I’m going to have to pull this trigger now.”
“What the hell are you doing?” Kim asked. “Judge, jury, and executioner, are you?”
Will took a slow, calculated step toward Ronnie, who started walking backward. He pulled back the hammer on his .45 and shook his head. An uneven frown stayed cemented on his face.
“I don’t want to do this, but he’s not giving me a choice. I’m the only one here who can keep everyone safe, and you all know that.”
“My daughter is standing right next to me. Are you really going to force her to watch you gun me down, just like you did with her mother?”
“She wouldn’t get out of the way, she had it coming. Anna’s free to go if she doesn’t want to watch.”
Tim and Amanda continued to watch from the storage building. They remained silent throughout. They watched as the group continued to argue, until Ronnie pulled out his gun. The two men got back to back and took ten steps forward. The little girl was taken away by the redneck guy, screaming at the top of her lungs.
“They can’t be serious.”
“Looks like they are.”
“We can’t stay with these people, regardless who— “
A single gunshot cut Tim short. Ronnie grabbed his neck and fell to the ground. He didn’t even fire his gun. Will walked up to him and fired another shot into the man’s head.
Tim and Amanda flinched, looking away. But it didn’t seem like anyone in the group, besides the little girl, seemed too phased by it. Some were angry perhaps, but none of them seemed to be shaken.
“What has this world done to them?” Amanda asked.
“The same thing it’s done to the zombies.”
The two exchanged silent glances and ran to the back fence. The others were too fixated on fighting to notice. Tim gave Amanda a hand over the fence before climbing over himself. Together, they ran off into the woods.
Kim took off her camo jacket and put it over Ronnie. She figured it was the least she could do, more for herself than Anna truthfully. She couldn’t believe Ronnie actually agreed to a duel. It didn’t make any damn sense and it wasn’t going to solve anything.
“Let that be a lesson to all of you. I’m the only one here who can keep us alive; you saw when he was in charge back at the camp, he didn’t know what he was doing. I kept us alive back then, and now. If anyone else has a problem with that, then come to me and we’ll do this again.”
Will walked off towards the set of buildings, with Shaun right beside him.
Kim looked over to see Boyd and Anna sitting on the small wall of sandbags. Anna was crying, wiping her eyes with her sleeves, barely able to breathe through the tears and snot. Boyd looked like he was trying to comfort her, but didn’t know what to say or do. Kim didn’t know what to say either, so let him alone. She was alone, looking up at the sky, as a rain drop dripped on her face.
“Damn it!” she heard Will yell near one of the buildings. She watched him running as fast as he could over to her, with Shaun struggling to keep up. “Where they hell are Tim and Amanda?”
“How should I know? Did you check the other buildings?”
“They shouldn’t be in the other buildings, they should be in that one,” he pointed, “getting the golf carts. Where are they?”
“I don’t know, Will, I was here this whole time.” She put extra emphasis on the last part. “Maybe they saw your little show of force and left.”
“Damn it, we need to find them.”
“Because,” Shaun said knowing Kim was about to object, “we need more people. The five of us aren’t going to be able to keep this place safe.”
“They probably jumped the fence and ran into the woods.” He walked over to Boyd and Anna. “Come on, get your shit together, we need to go get the other two.”
“They don’t want to be here with us Will.”
Will gave Kim a look. The same look she saw in Iraq, the look that says he doesn’t care what anyone says, he’s going to do what he wants.
“This girl can’t go out there,” said Boyd.
Will shot Boyd a glance. He rolled his eyes and nodded his head. Boyd stayed behind with her.
What the hell’s going on, Kim thought to herself. The last few days have been a roller coaster ride she wasn’t able to get off. She wanted nothing more than to just stop and lay down, if only for a minute.
But Will was getting crazier and crazier each day, completely losing himself in the name of protecting the group. He’s the real threat, Kim agreed with herself, not the zombies.
She grabbed her gun and followed Will and Shaun over the fence and into the woods where they attacked the camp. She figured any zombie in the area went to the front with the rest of the horde and got killed. But she was surprised to see a few loners shuffling around.
Will and Shaun didn’t bother to sneak past them. Will ran up behind one, and smashed its head into the tree before stabbing it in the back of the head. It’s head exploded in meaty chunks. Will’s hands were covered in blood so dark
