Aim for the Head
Josh fired another round at an approaching zombie as he backed up to the pile of supplies he and his friends had collected. The zombie's chest was blown open by the blast, but the creature kept marching to him, intent on feeding on his flesh. Josh racked the pump back, expelling the spent shell, pushed it forward again to chamber the next round, and pulled the trigger, this time aiming at the zombie's face. Click. Nothing. He pulled the trigger again. Again, nothing happened. His eyes widened with fear when he realized what it was.
I'm out of ammo! He screamed in his mind. He hurled the empty shotgun at the approaching zombie before turning around and darting for the cache.
Bang! The zombie's head exploded when the .45 round hit its target.
"Killed'em!" Jack said with his thick Texan accent. "Grab another gun and keep fightin'!" He shouted before firing twice more from the top of the mound, felling two more of their undead foes.
The large mall they'd holed up in less than a month ago was now overrun with the walking dead. In the middle of the night someone- probably Augustus- had accidently set off an alarm, attracting all the zombies within audible range. Unfortunately for the survivors, it was a big mall, and now a small horde was upon them. Luckily for them, though, they had chosen to set up their camp in the middle of the mall's famous indoor ice-skating ring, which was now greatly slowing the advance of the zombies.
"Pretty sure that's 're-killed', pal." Clint corrected before firing his .44 Magnum into the horde. A zombie's shoulder exploded and its arm fell to the floor.
Jack scowled at Clint. He didn't have time for this! "Just shut up and kill'em!" He ordered.
"I can't kill them! They're already dead!" Clint protested, now turning to Jack.
Just then, Augustus, who'd been running to the mound with Rose, slipped on the ice and fell on his face.
"Augustus!" Rose screamed. She turned and began to make her way back to her friend despite the advancing horde.
"I'll get him! Get to the mound!" Josh shouted as he ran past Rose, now armed with a long machete.
Rose hesitated a little before turning back to the mound and carefully running to it. The zombies were close now.
"Come on! We've got to move!" Josh said angrily as he pulled Augustus to his feet. The man's eyes widened and he pointed at something behind Josh without saying anything. Josh turned around to come face to face with the zombie of an old man. The zombie shrieked as it swung its arms at him. But Josh had been fighting these things since the beginning, and was able to evade the attack and swung his machete as hard as he could at the creature. The machete bit deep into the zombie's arm but failed to sever it, and the zombie was unfazed.
"Run, Augustus! Run!" Josh shouted just before the zombie lunged forward, tackling him to the ground before he could pulled his machete out. The man grunted and yelled as he struggled against the zombie, punching it and kicking it in an attempt to get it off. Augustus, the most fearful of the group, fled to the mound and climbed part of the way up it to where Rose sat on a suitcase, firing .22 rounds into the horde.
"No! Josh!" Dillan cried as more zombies assaulted his friend. Josh's screams of pain rang out over the gunshots and the moans of more than a hundred zombies as he was ripped apart under a pile of them.
"Damnit!" Jack fired six shots into the group of zombies that had killed Josh, blowing apart three of them. "Kill these bastards!"
"Really Jack? Again? I told you, they can't be killed because they're already dead!" Clint corrected him, annoyed.
"It doesn't matter! Just shoot'em!" Jack groaned in exasperation as he reloaded his pistol and began firing again.
"It does matter! You're telling us to do something we can't! They can only be re-killed." Clint continued.
Dillan climbed the mound to where Rose and Augustus were and fired two shots from his own shotgun before throwing it at the closest zombie as the horde closed in on them. He grabbed a .38 revolver with a box of ammo duct taped to it and began to load it hurriedly.
"What the hell are you sayin'!? All you need to do is shoot them in the face!" Jack roared. Without looking, he raised his Colt M1911 and fired a single shot into a zombie' face, blowing the back of its head apart and ending its existence instantly. "Like that!"
"But you didn't kill it!" Clint whined. "You only re-killed it. How many times do I have to tell you?" He fired all five of his remaining bullets into four zombies that were beginning to climb the twelve-foot tall supply pile. The zombies were blown to pieces by the bullets and whatever was left of their carcasses tumbled to the ground, hindering other zombies that were about to begin climbing. Clint tossed his empty gun into the horde and un-holstered his Beretta M9.
Rose screamed in horror when a zombie grabbed her ankle and began to drag her down the side of the pile as she groped for something to hold onto.
Dillan dug his heels into the pile and caught Rose's wrist before emptying his revolver's cylinder into the face of the zombie that was pulling her down. The zombie reared back and fell on top of the other undead beneath it. Dillan hoisted her up with a grunt.
"Damn it, you two! Shut up and fight!" He shout up at Clint and Jack. By now, the two were deep in their argument and were casually firing off rounds into the horde without aiming. While zombies were being destroyed from the shots, it wasn't helping in the slightest.
"G-guys! Help!" Augustus yelled. Dillan turned to see Augustus desperately kicking at three zombies that were dangerously close to him. Apparently, he had dropped his weapon. He kicked at one of the zombies and his foot glance off its shoulder. Dillan and Rose helplessly watched as the zombie grabbed hold of Augustus's leg and bit into his calf, tearing a large chunk of the muscle out as Augustus screamed in agony. The other two zombies grabbed at his flailing other leg and began to feed on it while he tried in vain to crawl further up, tears streaming down his face.
"See? Augustus is being killed, but the zombies are being re -killed." Clint said as he nonchalantly fired a single bullet into each of the zombies' heads. The undead slid slowly down the mound, revealing Augustus's mangled legs.
"N-no! Nononono! N-not me! Notmenotmenotmenotmenotme!" Augustus cried out suddenly. His muscles began to contract and spasm wildly as the virus spread through his veins, infecting him rapidly.
Rose pulled a long wooden shaft with a bowie knife taped to the end and, while tears streamed from her eyes, hurled the makeshift spear at Augustus. The weapon struck him in the neck, inflicting a lethal wound and knocking his body off the mound.
"I'm sorry…" She whimpered weakly.
"Now he's been stopped!" Clint said calmly.
"Stopped! That's it!" Jack exclaimed. Below, Rose shrieked as the box she stepped on collapsed and fell from beneath her, taking her with it into the zombie horde. She screamed wildly for but a few seconds before she was suddenly silenced as zombies swarmed over her.
"Yes! They aren't being killed or re-killed!" Clint agreed.
"They're being stopped" Jack and Clint said in unison.
"Everyone! We have to stop the zombies!" Jack ordered.
"No shit, Sherlock!" Dillan shouted. He climbed the rest of the way to the top and looked at the horde around them. There was no end to them. The gunfire must have attracted the zombies from the streets as well. They were all going to die.
"What are you gawking at?" Clint questioned as he shot at the zombies that were climbing the mound. "Quit daydreaming and help us stop them!"
Something snapped in Dillan's mind then. Maybe it was the fact that his friends had died. Maybe it was that he knew he was about to die, too. But, regardless of what had caused it, Dillan let out an almost primal yell and shoved Clint off the mound before tackling Jack. He and Jack tumbled down the mound and into the horde. The screams of the last three survivors in Houston, Texas echoed through the mall before fading out of existence. A few minutes later, the zombies, too, fell silent.
A pile of corpses surrounding the mound of supplies stood as a monument to the survivors' last stand, though only their own gnarled bones remained. Years later, after the cure for the virus had been found and given to the masses, and the last of the infected had been eradicated, a search and rescue team discovered the scene of the struggle. A grand memorial was soon erected there in honor of their bravery in their final moments. Historians would spend decades speculating about the battle and the people in it, but none would ever learn the truth. Perhaps, however, that is for the better?
End