Merman - Romance

Chapter 10

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Chapter 10

“Kill her!”  Linda shouted but she had already dived across the room and latched onto Justin and her now saw like teeth were sinking deep into her uncle’s shoulder.

“Shoot!”  Kent screamed whipping out his gun and firing shot after shot into Tori’s body, the creature wriggled, twisted, jerked but it just wasn’t going down.

“Aarrggghhhh…”  The thing that had once been Tori rocked back and they watched as Justin slumped down to the floor blood flowing freely from his shoulder and neck.  Kent was still shooting.  The longer the illness took to sink in the stronger the zombie was when it turned.  That was one reason to hate uncleans, they were always so much harder to kill when they eventually turned.

“Oh gosh!”  The mother in the corner had gripped her kids and was hurrying towards the door with them.

“The kid’s turning too!”  Linda yelled.

“She’s not!”  The mother screamed even as the Dad threw his body in front of the child’s as Linda emptied her pistol in that direction.

“I said give me that key!”  Jessell was beside Linda in a second her drawn dagger against Linda’s neck.

“Kent!”  Linda yelled but Kent was still firing at Tori who seemed to have decided that she needed to leave the feast that was her uncle and try to stop Kent from interrupting, however slightly, her meal.

“You have two seconds…two!”  Ridec turned away his face as he saw the knife dig into the side of Linda’s throat.  Would Jessell kill her?

 “In my pants pocket!”  Linda yelled.

“Get it Ridec,” Jessell ordered.

Ridec fumbled in Linda’s pants pocket and gripped the small key there.  His heart was racing, chaos was unfolding around him and he would be required to remain calm enough to un-cuff himself from Linda?  He could hardly believe that would be possible.

“We have to get out of here,” Kent yelled even as Tori dropped to the floor just feet away from him but kept crawling on the ground determined to reach her attacker.  He saved the last bullet for the base of the skull, finally a clear shot.  “This place will be crawling with zombies in minutes.”

“Daddy!”  The little girl threw herself down on the dead body of her father and sobbed heartbreakingly.

“Get up, get up, he could turn, you know he was an unclean,” the brother muttered.

“No…”  She cried on.

How could they live in this world?  Ridec unlocked the cuffs from his wrist with trembling hands and hurried over to the child.

“Ridec!”  Jessell was yelling at him but he could see and feel the pain the poor child was going through.  Her mind seemed to be stretching to the very limit of despair, to witness her father’s death and then to know that he died trying to save her.  Ridec could hear her mental screams…and then there was nothing.

“Oh my gosh!”  The words escaped Ridec’s mouth and his hand gripped the shoulder of the child’s mother at the same time she was about to pry the girl from the body of her dead father.  “She’s turned!”

“That’s not…”  She didn’t get a chance to finish that sentence for the child leapt to her feet her eyes blazing red and her skin a sickly pale color with the hint of orange beneath it.

“No!”  The mother and brother backed away and Kent’s reloaded gun was going full force again but this time at the child.  She rocked back and then Linda joined in.  Ridec watched with sadness as the small body fell to the floor twitching pitifully.