"Reports of widespread violence are dominating theheadlines this morning. Some doctors are reporting some sort of plague..."
The reporter marched on, speaking of disaster afterdisaster. The names of the towns were numerous. The entire country seemed tohave woken up crazy, almost overnight, but it wasn't just the good old U.S.A.that was having trouble. Canada, Europe, and even Asia had all experiencedtheir fair share of horror stories. Each description seemed more shocking thanthe next, but perhaps the most disturbing thing for Katie was the fact that noone seemed to have any idea what was going on.
They brought on a scientist to pontificate on the natureof this new disaster, and all he did was make educated guesses about what couldpossibly be going on. In short, he knew about as much as Katie did. All sheknew was that the situation was sounding pretty damn grim.
"Do you have any weapons in the house, Fred?"
Fred smiled, his yellowed teeth gleaming in the dark."Now what kind of lonely old man would I be if I didn't have a gun stashedaway somewhere?" He raised one of his leathery arms off of the bed andpointed to his closet. "There's a safe up there. Top shelf."
Katie walked over to the closet which was full of a lotof flannel, jeans, and some old dress clothes shrouded in plastic. Up top shesaw a safe with a combination lock. The combo was simple enough. It was hiswife's birthday. Once she dialed in the third number, she lifted the handle andswung the door open. Inside was a silver handgun and a box of ammunition. Shehandled the weapon awkwardly, not used to its deceptive weight and theimpending doom that could burst forth from the barrel at any given second.
"Don't worry about it. It's not going to go off. Inever keep the thing loaded, and there's a lock on the trigger. Bring ithere."
Katie brought the gun to him, her hands shocked by theweight and the coldness of the handgun. Fred reached into the nightstand nextto his bed and pulled out a tiny key on a silver, beaded chain. He unlocked thetrigger lock and set it down on the nightstand. Carefully, he opened the cylinder, "You see? Like that." He then popped the cylinder back in place andhanded the gun to her, butt end first.
The handle was black and criss-crossed with diamondpatterned plastic. She held the gun in her hand, and fumbled with the revolveruntil she managed to pop out the cylinder.
"Now look on the left side of the revolver. You seethat lever?" She nodded her head. "That's the safety. If you'rerunning around and you don't want to shoot your foot off, it's best to havethat in the on position. Get used to the feel of it."
Fred fumbled with the box of ammunition. On it was theimage of a bald eagle, soaring through the air, claws extended and wings spreadwide. He pulled six brass cartridges from the box, and handed them to Katie."Load it up."
Katie did as she was told. On the radio, the newsmandroned on, "Reports from England claim that they have shut down allinternational travel. Whether this is a quarantine measure or a result of acollapsing infrastructure is still unclear..." Katie slid the last bullethome and then closed the cylinder.
Katie jumped as the thumping at the door became louder.It sounded like there were two people outside. The door shook in the jamb.
Fred smiled at her. "It looks like we've got adecision to make."
"What do you mean?"
"I ain't goin' nowhere. Not like this. But that'snot the question. The question is, 'Are you going somewhere, and if so, are youprepared to do what you have to do?'"
Katie looked at the door. It rattled some more, and thewood in the middle of the door began to splinter. She looked at the gun in herhand, hefting it. She could end it all here. The safety was off. It wouldn't bethat hard.
A fist thrust its way through the door, catching onsplinters that scraped the flesh off the arm. She recognized the wedding ringon the grasping hand. A simple gold band, cutting into the swollen dead fleshof her husband's hand. The creature that was her husband pulled the hand backand there was more pounding. Katie moved to the far corner of the room, awayfrom the door.
The lock splintered, and the door flew open, and standingbefore her was her former family, her former life, mocking her withblood-stained shirts, gnashing teeth and outstretched hands. She lifted the gunwith both hands and pulled the trigger.
The first shot tore through the drywall to the right ofthe door. She didn't know if she had missed on purpose or because she wasn'tready. The sound was deafening, and the kick of the gun caught her by surprise,but she managed to keep from dropping the gun. She fired again, punching a holein the stomach of her husband, but he merely advanced as if nothing hadhappened.
With her ears ringing, Katie fired again. This time ithit her husband in the chest.
"Go for the head, Katie," Fred said gently ashe pulled himself to the other side of his bed, as far away from her family ashe could.
Katie lined up the shot, and squeezed the trigger. Shescreamed as the bullet entered her husband's forehead. He fell face forwardonto the floor, exposing the spot where the back of his head should have been.
Her hands jittered as she tried to line up Kevin for thesame fate, but her next shot went wide, grazing his neck. Kevin didn't seem tocare. Painfully aware of Kevin's proximity and the fact that she only had onebullet left, Katie took her time lining up the next shot. The bullet shatteredKevin's chin, and left a gaping mess hanging there, but Kevin kept coming.
Kevin reached the bed and crawled after Fred who thumpedonto the ground on the other side at Katie's feet. Katie wasn't aware of Fred'sscreams of pain as she popped open the cylinder and dumped the empty cartridgesonto the ground. She grabbed the box of ammunition and began trying to stuff arandom bullet into the cylinder. Her
