Reloading was a cinch thanks to hundreds of practice runs. I silently vowed to thank my Marine friend.
I fired four rounds in Ken’s direction while he fired back. The space between us had to be less than fifteen feet, but I was the lucky one. Ken grunted and then screamed. The Z in the hallway turned her head and moaned in his direction, then moved toward him.
I rushed out the door, expecting the worse.
The shuffler was on his back in the pile of the dead. He twitched, then rolled over and cackled. His hand went to his mouth while he considered me. The man’s hair hung in clumps over his forehead. His face was covered in blood and gore. His clothing was just as soaked in crimson.
He bit off one of his fingers while he stared from milky eyes that had the oddest hint of green. It was like they glowed with some otherworldly intelligence.
Joel staggered to his feet and for a moment I feared he’d been bitten and was already turning, but he pulled his Marine combat knife. Then he took a step toward the shuffler. Oh, I get it. This was one of those Marine things that I should stay out of. Joel was only interested in finishing the monster.
The shuffler leapt. Sure, I could have let Joel Kelly, Marine superman take the shuffler, and with any luck Joel would come out the victor. But I’d had enough of this entire scouting mission. I swung hard and caught the shuffler in the side, changing his reality in mid leap from forward momentum to crushed bones and flailing limbs. The creature howled and fell into an awkward tangle.
Joel advanced but I lifted the .45 and shot the son of a bitch in the head. Twice.
Fuck that guy.
Joel staggered into me and got an arm around my shoulder.
“If you bite me I’m going to be really fucking disappointed, Joel Kelly.”
“He didn’t get me. He just hit me hard enough to make me see stars. Thanks, man. I didn’t think I’d be able to take him.”
“So what, you just judo-threw him or something?”
“Got my gun around and cracked him upside the head. He fell back on the pile, but goddamn — that thing was fast. And strong.”
“So this is my reward? A Marine hug. If you kiss me I’m going to hit you with my really big wrench.”
Joel laughed and punched me in the shoulder hard enough to leave a bruise. Such a kidder, that guy.
“I think Monster Ken is still alive in there.”
“Yeah?”
I grinned and went in but kept low in case Ken’d gotten lucky with the dead lady.
The only sounds were his calls for help.
I advanced quietly on the kitchen and poked my head in to see even more squalor. There were wrappers everywhere. Empty water bottles. Rotting meat in the sink. What kind of meat, I had no interest in discovering.
The rapist twitched. Shit, didn’t I kill that son of a bitch?
Joel came in and covered me. He pointed his assault rifle at the woman on the couch but I shook my head.
“Enough shooting for one day. We gotta move, buddy. Our thirty seconds ended about five minutes ago.”
“What about dickless in there?”
I poked my head around the corner and saw that the Z was on top of Ken. She had knocked him down and he must have hit something hard because his right arm was at a bad angle. I ducked in and snagged his gun. It was a Sig Sauer P229 and that seemed like a hell of a sexy gun.
“How’s it going, Ken?” I asked.
He turned blazing eyes on me as he tried to fight off the woman. She got her mouth into his shoulder and ripped up. Ken screamed.
“Don’t be such a fucking pansy,” I said and went back to the living room.
The guy I hit twitched and one eye opened. The other had been crushed in by my wrench.
Joel grabbed the rapist and dragged him while I untied the woman and led her into the kitchen by the rope. She was covered in wounds and barely put up a struggle. She didn’t have any clothing on, but the last thing I wanted to do was look at the twin horrors that were her tits.
“Hey Joel. It’s an orgy,” I said and pushed her toward Ken.
Joel dragged the other rapist in and tossed him onto the pile. The naked girl went at him. She ripped up his shirt and dug her mouth into his soft belly. Even with his head half bashed in, the man managed to open his eyes and start muttering “no no no” over and over again.
“Hansi,” Ken yelled and reached for his friend.
Movement at the front of the house. I risked a look to confirm it was the faster pack we’d seen a few minutes ago right outside the house. So Ken really had led a bunch of Z’s here just to protect his home. Did he think he’d be able to overpower them and us when it was all over? Was Ken really enough of a Z survivor to take us all down?
Joel pointed at the back door and I nodded. We hustled and slipped out, hurrying past the pile of dead. We found the side of the house and hid next to the fence. A minute later the street cleared, so we moved out.
Behind me, the screams went on for a long time.
I couldn’t stop smiling.
We crouched near Fortress and watched for a full ten minutes. Joel kept his eye on the house while I watched out back. The backyard we’d picked for our reconnaissance had a kid’s playground. There was a trampoline with a body on it. The sides were covered in mesh so no one would fall out. Now it was a weird grave for the man that had blown his brains out while lying on it.
The yard also had a bunch of tall bushes we frequently used for cover.
A few days ago we’d gone into this home to look for supplies. We’d only turned up a few small bags of dried beans on the top shelf of the pantry. Someone had beaten us to this place.
We’d found the family in one room. A woman, presumably the mother, had been lain out on the bed with a pair of small bodies. The covers were pulled up and cloths placed over their faces. Someone had shot all three of them. My money was on the guy on the trampoline. After that, we never went into the house again. It was a mausoleum now.
Satisfied that no one was raiding Fortress, we went home.
“Empty-handed,” I muttered as we used a few precious baby wipes to clean up back at Fortress.
I lit a Sterno can and contemplated the spinach.
“I’ll eat one if you eat one,” Joel challenged.
“Christ. I guess it’s come to this.”
The cans took a few minutes to warm up but not so long to devour. Tasted like shit but it was better than being belly up at Ken’s house. Joel was smart and suggested adding a little bit of our precious supply of rice to the containers for the carbs. My gut rolled over but I was hungry enough to ignore the taste. The house hadn’t had a lot of food when we claimed it, but we’d found a box of chicken bouillon cubes and they’d gone in just about everything we attempted to cook.
“What the hell, man?” I finally spoke after we sat in silence for a few moments.
“Don’t even get me started.”
“Who does that shit? Who?”
“Monster Ken.”
“Yeah. Well, Monster Ken is a real monster now. I hope that jerk is wandering around tomorrow so we can kill him again.”
“We didn’t actually finish our sweep yesterday. Head back?” Joel grinned.
“I like how you think, buddy,” I smiled and hit Joel in the arm hard enough to leave a bruise.
He choked back a gasp and then looked stoic.
I went to bed with a smile on my face for the first time in days.
I guess the fucking zombie apocalypse could be worse.
This is Machinist Mate First Class Jackson Creed and I am still alive.