Lila dropped the rifle to her side. The bites. Sy hadsaid the bites were what caused people to turn. That meant that Sy was going toturn.
"Shoot me," he yelled, as the dead woman cameup with a handful of flesh from Sy's mid-section. Lila pointed the rifle at theground, and grasped the lever with the little ball on the end. She pulled itbackwards, and the spent shell ejected out of the rifle, falling on the groundwith a simple ping. Another round appeared in the chamber, and she pushed thelever forward. She raised the rifle again, and aimed it at the dead woman'shead. She squeezed the trigger, and something wonderful happened. Her headdisappeared in a shower of crimson. She was thankful to have stopped thechewing. Sy rolled over on his side, his face full of anguish. Blood ran fromhis wounds, pooling on the asphalt.
He didn't have to say the words again. Lila knew that hewas going to die. He was in so much pain that she cocked the rifle before hecould say "shoot me" again. He couldn't even manage to say the words.He reached a hand out to her, pleading. The strength had ebbed from his voice,until the words were just unintelligible whispers drifting across the zooparking lot.
She walked closer to Sy, the rifle ready to shoot as thedead surrounded him. Then she said, "Close your eyes, Sy."
He squeezed them shut, and Lila aimed the rifle at hishead. She pulled the trigger, and a hole appeared instantly in his forehead.His skull bounced off the pavement as blood geysered out the back of his skull.The dead pounced on him immediately, and Lila cocked the rifle again. Shejogged to the ruined gate of the zoo, jumping over the bent metal of theturnstiles and the busted wood. She ran through the gift shop, locking thedoors behind her. In the security room, where the power no longer seemed towork, she sat in the swivel chair and watched the dark monitors. She tried notto see the reflection of herself in the monitors, tears running down her dirtcovered face. Outside, the dead hammered upon the gift shop doors. She wonderedhow many bullets were in the gun.
****
The elephant came stomping out of the trees, and thesurvivors scattered on the body-strewn asphalt. Joan couldn't believe how fastthe creature moved. She had always heard stories of people being trampled byelephants, but until you saw one of them in full flight, it was impossible tobelieve that they could ever move fast enough to run over anyone. She flungherself to the side as a massive foot came down on the pavement.
She rolled to her feet and saw that the others hadmanaged to do the same. The lion sat watching from a distance, it's long pinktongue dangling out of its open maw, saliva dripping onto the knee-high grass."We need to get inside those buildings!" she yelled, as she rantowards one of the squat wooden structures. The others followed her as the deadfrom the tunnel boiled out to the street from the underground MAX station. Theelephant turned and reared, its trunk unleashing a hellish bellow, and then itcharged through the dead, sending them flying like bowling pins. They pickedthemselves up, ignorant of the elephant's attack. They only had eyes andappetites for the survivors.
The survivors flew towards the zoo's gift shop, hoppingover the jagged pile of metal and wood that used to be the entrance to the zoo."Should we go into the building?" Katie asked.
"I've had enough of being trapped in enclosed spacesfor one day," Mort yelled.
"I agree," Lou yelled. "Let's get into thezoo and circle back around. Maybe they'll be more spread out by then."
They sprinted down the paved paths. Leaves and overgrownbrush made the zoo feel abandoned, and every now and then they would spot arandom animal carcass. Joan jumped over the rotting body of a seal, her mindunconcerned with how it got there. It just was. This was the way of the worldnow. Around each corner waited a new surprise, a new nightmare, somethinghorrendous that couldn't have been imagined before the world had died. But theywere here now, ready to spring out at you without notice, like the three polarbears sitting on the path to their left.
"I think this might be a bad idea," Clarayelled.
Joan snorted for a second and then said, "What wouldgive you that idea?" She didn't know where the comment came from, but itfelt right. They sprinted down the path deeper into the zoo.
****
They sat in the darkness of a tunnel catching theirbreath. Around them, dark shapes floated in cloudy water. They were in whatused to be an aquarium, a circular fish tank that tourists could walk through,allowing them to see fish from all angles as if they were under the sea. For asbeautiful as it must have been when everything was alive and the tank was fullof light, it was now just a ghastly reminder of how the world had died
Among the dark blobs of decaying fish matter, a few fishstill swam about, opening their fish mouths and inhaling the rotten bits ofother fish. Blake tried to not look at the cloudy, dead eyes of the shark lyingon its side above him. It had long ago ceased to swim, coming to rest on thetop of the tunnel above them. Its lidless eye stared down at the survivors,their wheezing breath echoing in the darkness. They had seen none of the deadsince they had made their way through the zoo. But strange sounds filtered intothe tunnel, and it was hard to tell if the sounds came from the animals or thedead.
Blake sat on the floor, dropping his bag to the concrete.He could feel sweat cooling on his back, and his hair
