Too excited to edit...
Enjoy..
Shawn pushed past the tens of terrified people that were scampering away from the building. The heat of the flames from the building was felt from where they were behind all the cars that had been used to barricade the entrance which both old and young leaped over with whatever few possessions they had magnetized to their body.
Everyone seemed oblivious of the person next to him until he grabbed someone, a short bald man.
"What happened ?" Shawn asked the man, barking to be heard above the screams that rent the air.
The mid-forties man struggled to gather himself as he muttered. He felt in Shawn's grip as if he was going to melt anytime soon, his eyes darting about as if he had been caught stealing.
He finally found his voice although it was still quivery, "The zombies...they're in there..they bite...and...and...explode...some idiot tried to kill a zombie with Molotov, you know, that shi' that comes in a bottle of gasoline and a rag...the fire spread really quickly...I..."
Shawn cut in, "Did you see a blond doctor with a woman and a small boy?"
"No...no...yes, I guess so, a guy came in with an injured woman and a young boy, her child I suppose, he said he was a doctor and helped attend to the wounded until shi' hit the fan."
Shawn's eyes left the man and strayed in the direction of the building.
So they were here. It had to be them.
"Look man, I gotta go." The man slithered from Shawn's grasp and ran off immediately.
The rat-tat-tat of a machine gun and whirr-whirr of helicopter blades became louder as the copter came into view. A rope ladder hung out the open door where a gunner stood behind the mounted gun spraying bullets generously into the side of the building. Bodies fell out the window although it was hard to discern if it was human or zombie.
The copter was packed full of people and more kept jumping onto the rope ladder from the top of the building. The pilot had a hard time controlling the machine and it swung dangerously close to the building even chipping plaster from the edge. More people kept jumping onto the ladder desperately choosing to face death by plane crash than at the hands of the prowlers.
One man jumped and missed the ladder, falling with a loud scream that jerked Shawn completely.
He moved in the direction of the building until Bob held him back. In the same instant, the blue archway over the front entrance crashed down, spraying sparks and new jolts of flame. It pinned a woman underneath and she screamed in pain as the hot metal burned into her back. No one even stopped to help her.
"You can't go in there man!" Bob shouted at him, his huge hand gripping Shawn's arm.
"You heard the man, they're in there... I'm going in." Shawn shouted back, looking from Bob's hand to his face with irritation.
"Lookit Shawn" Bob nodded to the building where flames shot out. As Shawn looked, a prowler which was alight in flames stumbled out of the building, its skin boiling as its head whipped back and forth, pieces of hot flesh falling off. It stumbled forward before exploding into little bits of charred flesh.
More infected and even some human beings ran out of the building alight in flames, their agonizing screams piercing the air.
"I have to..." Shawn regripped the shotgun in a bid to show his steely resolve and started forward.
"Shawn please" Kelly said weakly, her mind torn between fleeing and sticking close to Bob and Shawn.
He was muttering something that meant he had made up his mind when bullets thudded in front of him, kicking up concrete from the walkway. Someone beside him was flung forward by the sheer force of the bullet biting into his body.
He flung himself against the side of a blue saloon car and heard more bullets thud into the car. Peeping through the shattered window, he saw that the helicopter was bent almost over and the gunner had turned his gun on the multitude clinging to the rope ladder. The helicopter didn't look like it was going to survive the acrobatics and then...
It happened in one second.
The helicopter's tail crashed into the building and swung outward. The rotor blades was next and it plundered past the safety glass and twanged off concrete. With nothing to keep it aloft, it nose-dived into the side of the building and exploded into a fiery ball sending out shock and heat waves. Dangerous bits of shrapnel and hot concrete from the building were propelled downwards and burned all around them.
"What do we do?" Kelly almost choked on the fear in her throat.
"I don't know but we can't stay here." Bob answered also fear-jiggled. More and more prowlers poured out of the building and ran in every direction. Where the noise was.
They ran around the side of the building, bits of hot metal still falling and burning their skin.
The Jeep rumbled up close before they heard it. It was one of those really new off-road vehicles that looked like they were reserved for the military.
"Want a ride?" A guy asked through the halfway tinted passenger window.
"Huh?" Bob said.
The guy marked off his fingers, "shotgun, axe, bag of supplies... get in my car."
"Our car", the driver of the vehicle said as he punched a button on the dashboard to pop the back door open.
Bob pushed Shawn, who was still dazed, Kelly and jumped in himself before banging the door shut. "Thanks man", he said to the driver who was already jamming on the accelerator.
Suddenly, someone jumped im front of the jeep pleading to be let in, he was too close for the guy in the driving seat to swerve around and they all watched horrified as he ran over him and sideways into an alley.
"This is a full-blown apocalypse, come on", he turned to them as if to explain his action, "only the fittest survives."
Kelly tried the door handle but Bob put him arm on hers.
Shawn understood but that didn't make the crime less horrible, "Hopefully we'll run over more survivors before the virus gets them." He was seething with unchecked rage. "How about I give you the shotgun so you can use any other survivor for target practice, huh?"
"Shawn calm down..." Bob tried to calm Shawn's nerves.
Shawn turned to Bob, "Don't call me...Don't."
As if on second thought, he reared back and decked Bob, "where is my family, huh? We were this close and we let them slip, how the f&%@ am I supposed to calm down?" .
Kelly gasped and tried to put herself between them.
"What is wrong with you, Shawn?" She turned to examine Bob's reddened jaw.
"I'm so...sorry." Shawn sobered up quickly and looked down at his offending knuckles.
The guy driving hit the brakes and turned to them, "woah woah woah, now y'all just calm down and get you shit together or get out."
"We're fine" Bob said to him before turning to Shawn "I understand, Shawn...I know how much you miss your family but you couldn't go in there...at least I couldn't allow you to." Bob answered still nursing his jaw.
Kelly finally realized why Shawn had punched Bob and she gasped wide-eyed, "I'm so sorry" She said to Shawn.
Ten minutes later after some of the tension had dissipated, the driver looked in the rearview mirror, a crooked smile playing on his lips, " My name's Byron and", he flicked a thumb in the second guy's direction, "he's Dennis and we're pleased to meet you... are there oreos in your bag?" He said to Shawn.
Shawn shrugged an 'I dunno' kind of shrug and rummaged through the bag, coming up with a disappointed smile, "there are snicker bars."
"F*&$!" Byron exclaimed, "you raid a store and don't grab some oreos, are you E.Ts or something?" He collected the Snickers chocolate anyway and tore it open with his teeth.
Shawn looked out the window and noted that they were on a stretch of freeway that didn't seem to be affected much before he dropped into his seat and very soon drifted to sleep. Troubled sleep.
----------++++++
She had an arm draped over the young boy's shoulders. They stood ankle-deep in the beach, salt water and sand trickling over their feet as the tide came in and rolled back out into the sea.
Shawn rushed as fast as he could -with the sand delaying him much- to where they stood and grabbed at her flowing satin gown. Somehow, they both seemed not to notice him standing there. The boy pointed at something in the distance and she looked in the direction and smiled.
His hand came away full of sand as he tried again. He was totally dismayed and tried again. This time, a huge chunk of her side was torn out, sand pouring away from the gaping hole. She still stared out in the distance, hand cupped over her eyes to shade out the sun.
Suddenly, a huge wave came in and was about to wash away the woman and the boy when something was jammed roughly under Shawn's chin.
--------++++++
Shawn awoke to find Byron with the shotgun jammed under his chin. The Jeep wasn't moving anymore and a slight breeze streamed into the jeep.
"What is going on?" He asked bewildered. Somehow, when he closed his eyes, it was still sunny now darkness had taken over completely and stars twinkled in the night sky.
"Oh nothing much" Byron answered, "just want y'all to get out an' get some fresh air while we borrow your supplies."
Shawn looked to his right -where Bob and Kelly were- out of the corner of his eyes. They were shocked, with Dennis hovering a handgun in their faces. Kelly still looked dreamy eyed, probably as rudely awakened from her sleep as he was.
"Get out of my car!" Byron ordered.
"It's ours not yours." Dennis countered.
"Whatever, that's not the point."
"That's what you always say."
"Just shut up..." He turned to Shawn, "I'm sorry it has to be this way. Y'know only the fittest survives and y'all look fitter than we are. What's a bag and a gun to you? "
"Incredible" Kelly said, staring Dennis down defiantly, her face illuminated by the dim car light. "...and I was beginning to like you."
Dennis' cheeks flushed red, "Oh...really?" His gun lowered slightly.
"Look how gullible you are",Byron rolled his eyes and turned to smack Dennis giving Shawn time and space.
Shawn gripped the gun's barrel and pushed it up to the roof, his other hand going for Byron's neck. Byron reared backwards, eyes snapping shut instinctively, his finger slipping from the trigger guard to the trigger.
BOOM! The noise shattered the otherwise still night and ended all struggling. Shawn let go of the gun immediately.
Everyone mentally patted themselves down for where was hurting. Byron recovered first and swung the gun menancingly back to them.
"There goes my patience." He was seething "You will get out in three seconds, one..."
They scrambled out into the cold night into a field of wavering corn that could be seen for miles around.
Byron and Dennis laughed loudly as they drove off. A short distance ahead, the brake lights came on and Byron's hand appeared out of the window. He threw something out. The half-eaten snicker bar.
"F&@*tards" Bob cussed.
"I second." Kelly agreed.
"Look" Shawn half whispered, half hissed. Somewhere in the distance a light flickered on and off. That was when they noticed the darker silhoutte of a house in the already dark night.
They immediately headed in that direction, walking slowly until something rustled in the leaf to Shawn's right.
"There's something there, double up."
"What is it?" Kelly asked, fear creeping back into her voice.
"I dunno" Shawn whispered back. The hissing from the thing in the bush became louder and closer until Shawn spotted a pale back by the dim light the moon.
"Run run, go go go."
Three of them picked up speed heading to the house they had seen. The hissing behind them became fiercer and soon something rose into view.
It was lean aand looked dried up as if all fluid had been sucked out of its body. It was a man or had been a man once, the arms thin and swaying like ropes. It was clear that this one was infected too but it could run. Really really fast. It closed the gap between them quickly and leaped into the air the air with a vicious snarl aiming for Kelly, the slowest of the three of them.
[To be continued...]