Chloe ran through the store, jumping over displays thathad been knocked to the ground. Rudy and Amanda followed at a slower pace,losing sight of Chloe's bobbing platinum hair. They heard Chloe banging onsomething, and then there was a gunshot, followed quickly by another gunshot.
"Oh shit," Amanda said. Rudy would have agreedwith her if he could speak, but his face was red and it felt like a sumowrestler was sitting on his chest, preventing him from grabbing a full breath. Evensliding his feet along was too much for him. They heard the broken glass beingcrunched and kicked by shambling feet behind them. Rudy forced his body tomove, and they emerged into the back of the store where the pharmacy was.
Chloe was behind the counter, rummaging around, pickingup boxes, reading them, and tossing them on the ground. "I can't find it.What am I looking for?"
"Ass..." he gasped, unable to form the words."Asthalin." Rudy collapsed onto the ground behind the busted door ofthe pharmacy. Amanda stepped over his body and began searching the pharmacyshelves, looking for something that said Asthalin. Chloe shoved the door closedand sat Rudy against the door.
"Don't let anyone in," she said, a serious lookon her face.
From his spot on the floor, Rudy could see through thewire meshed windows of the pharmacy's counter. Underneath the noise created byChloe and Amanda's discarding of boxes, he could hear their moans and theirshuffling footsteps as they got closer. Even if they managed to find hismedication, they would be trapped in the pharmacy. He had likely gotteneveryone killed. They could have easily left him behind. He wouldn't haveblamed them. He was dead weight. Worse, he was dead weight with an asthmaproblem and a top speed of three miles per hour, which he could only sustainfor half an hour.
Amanda was there, pulling something out of a white box.Asthalin. She held the inhaler to his mouth, and he wrapped his thick lipsaround the light blue inhaler, thanking Amanda with his eyes. He inhaled themedicine, and he felt the change immediately. He sat on the floor, gasping andsucking up as much air as he could as an unseen force behind him tried to pushthe door open. Rudy wedged his feet against the counter, and used all of his weightto keep the door closed.
His back vibrated with the banging of the dead upon thedoor. From his spot on the floor, he could see more of the dead banging on theglass of the pharmacy. Death was here, looking for a way to get in.
"Shit," Chloe said. "I knew I should haveditched you guys when I had the chance."
"I'm glad you didn't," Rudy said, sincerityfeeling weird on the tip of his usually acid tongue.
Chloe just glared at him and began looking around thepharmacy. Amanda knelt next to Rudy. "We're going to be alright, don'tworry about her. They have to get tired sometime right?"
Rudy said nothing. He concentrated on breathing, deep,even breaths. Chloe kicked the boxes on the floor as she stalked back andforth, looking out through the wire-mesh windows. She was furious. Rudy couldsee the rage rising in her. Her beauty melted away, replaced by an uglycreature, a hateful, spiteful thing full of anger. Suddenly, he could not seethe beauty in her. Who was this woman? Who was this raging entity that stalkedthrough the pharmacy, swearing, shouting, and knocking medications onto thefloor?
When she pulled her gun from the back of her jeans, Rudyinstinctively put his hands to his ears. Amanda did the same. Chloe firedthrough the wire-meshed window. On the other side, a man with no shirt onstopped banging on the glass. A hole in the glass lined up with the hole in hishead, and his face squeaked as it slid down the glass.
Chloe didn't stop there. She fired again and again,emptying her gun into the mass on the other side of the window. When she wasdone, there were nine holes in the window, and several of the creatures were onthe floor. But still there were more of them. Rudy removed his hands from hisears and asked, "Are you satisfied?"
Chloe shot him a murderous glare, but before she couldanswer, more shots rang throughout the store, but they weren't from Chloe'sgun. It hung limp at her side. "Get down!" Rudy yelled, but Chloestood there, looking like the world's most beautiful mannequin. Shots rippedthrough the windows, and blood plastered the glass, making it hard to see.Amanda fell into Rudy's arms, and he squeezed her tight, jamming his legsagainst the counter of the pharmacy to help keep the door closed, while theirears rang from all the gunfire. It seemed to last an eternity.
When it was done, Chloe began to yell, "Inhere!"
Over the ringing in his head, Rudy could hear bootstepsand shouting voices. As Amanda unfurled herself from his arms, Rudy couldn'thelp but wish that the people outside would go away.
"You alright in there?" a male voice asked.
"Yeah. We're okay, now that you guys are here,"Chloe replied.
Amanda helped Rudy to his feet, grunting at the strain.His hand lingered in hers for a second, and then it was gone, the softnessstill hanging on his fingertips. The door slid open behind them, and severalcorpses sprawled onto the floor, the non-animated kind of corpses. They wereRudy's favorite.
They shambled out of the pharmacy, Amanda handing him acouple more boxes of his Asthalin. He shoved them in his bag as the men outsidetold them to line up against the wall. Rudy did as he was told, along withAmanda and Chloe.
One of the men came over and took Chloe's gun from her."Look what we've got here," the man said to another soldier.
"Search 'em," the man said. He was clearly theone in charge.
Rudy saw the soldier who had taken Chloe's gun run hishands over his body, lingering in the places that
