II. Introductions
There were five of them coming steadily towards us, their arms were outstretched towards us with hands grasping at the air, wanting to pull us towards their teeth. In retrospect my first encounter with a zombie was not one of great heroism, not one of reasoned retreat, instead I whipped around to look at them and promptly tried to run backwards. My feet betrayed me and I promptly landed on my ass in the street, eyes wide with terror and a warm wetness creeping down my thighs. That would've been the end if it weren't for Joseph being there with his wits about him. He grabbed a nearby brick and smashed it down on the head of the one who was closest to falling down upon me. Two others came at him, one behind the other and he gave a savage yell as he kicked the one in front and sent both spilling onto the sidewalk, one of their heads making a sickening crunch. After seeing this display my adrenaline kicked in and I grabbed a nearby brick and proceeded to charge at one of the remaining zombies and swing for its head. My blind anger made me miscalculate when to swing the brick and instead of hitting the zombie in the head I crashed into it and knocked it to the ground, going sprawling to the ground again myself. Something in my wrist exploded and sharp hot pain stabbed at me, and I dropped the only weapon that I had. As the zombie began to pick itself off the ground I saw the girl standing there on the roof, watching in horror, and with a perfect line of sight towards us. She hastily took the gun in both her hands and aimed downwards at the zombie who was now beginning to crawl at me. Again I let loose a shout for her to kill the damn thing and a gunshot rang out. The bullet tore through the zombies arm and it collapsed to the ground, unable to support its own weight. The second and third bullets hit its back, and by then it began to drag itself with its one good arm towards me. "Oh God kill it, kill it, the head, shoot the damn head!" "I know I know, I'm trying you bastard!" she screamed in return. The fourth bullet struck the pavement and ricocheted away, and the fifth hit its hand, but did nothing to slow it down. It had now crawled within a foot of me and gave a lunge towards me and on instinct my foot shot out. As my boot connected with its chest it was pushed backwards and upwards, and in that second a hole appeared in its head and black, coagulated blood leaked from the side of his skull. It collapsed for the final time and hit the pavement with a dull thud. I stared it for what felt like an age, and came back to my sense when I heard a cry of triumph from nearby. Joseph stood triumphant, four corpses littered on the ground near him. All he had was a bloody brick and a smile on his face. "What a rush, I've never felt so alive. The adrenaline kicking in as I kill a predator set on having me for dinner. It was amazing!" he said. "God damn man, how the hell did you do that with just a brick?" I asked. But before he was able to answer we both turned to the sound of a growing female voice. "So much blood, so much blood, so much blood, my God so much blood." the girl on the roof said. "It's okay now, they're all gone now lady, we're safe," Jospeh replied. "You don't understand, the blood. Oh no the blood, nonono!" In a single motion she raised the gun back to its position underneath her chin and put her finger on the trigger. "No! Put the gun down, we can help you!" I yelled out, but it was too late. She pulled the trigger... and nothing. Just an almost imperceptible click as the hammer on the gun moved. I was about to release a sigh of relief when I saw her bend down and begin to search for something on the ground. Fearing that she might just succeed in killing herself after all I sprinted towards the store that she was standing on. By the side I saw a ladder propped against the building and began to climb rapidly, ignoring the searing pain that was coursing through my left wrist. I quickly got onto the roof and ran towards her with a bellow of, "STOP!" Again it seemed I was too late as she already was pointing the barrel up towards her chin. I threw myself at her and collided with her as the gun went off and the sound of it deafened both of my ears. They rang with a ferocious intensity as I quickly looked over towards her face. Blood dripped down her cheek in a flow but the bullet had only grazed her cheek and her eyes were wide with fear again and staring directly into mine. I began to yell at her, only to find my ears still weren't working and I couldn't even hear what I was saying. She held a hand up to her cheek and touched the bleeding wound on her face, then looked at her own bloodied hand and promptly fell unconscious. A couple hours later she began to stir and then quickly raised her head and looked around. Jospeh and I stared back at her when her eyes found ours and soon hers filled with an angry glare. "Woah woah, calm down, we're only a few miles from where we were, we just wanted to be out of there in case more zombies showed up," said Jospeph calmly. "You must have carried me and had your hands all over me too I bet! Oh no you're kidnappers aren't you or or or ra-" "No, we're neither. We're decent human beings who didn't want to leave you stranded out there as zombie food. And for the record we drove here. But now you start answering some questions, why were you so determined to end it back there, and what was all that about blood? Do you have a phobia or something?" I said. "What? No, no. I was training to be a scientist before this, I've had to deal with blood and gore before this. But when I got back to my home in this town a few days ago I found my house wrecked and there was blood everywhere and no sign of anyone in my family. Oh God it was horrible. I grabbed the gun my father always kept and went on top the store to camp out and see if anybody from town or my family would come through. Or at least some kind of police officer. But i saw no one for two days, only a few of those things, and I hid so they wouldn't see me. Then on the third morning I found a cache of booze, and we'll I've never drank much of anything before and there wasn't a label and I started drinking. It burnt my throat but it filled me with a feeling of readiness and I was about to do it, to leave this nightmare but then you two showed up. I feel safer now, I'm not about to try that again and... HEY! Where's my gun?" I motioned to my own hip and said, "I'm just holding onto it for a while to make sure you don't try anything just in case. We aren't going to hurt you, but we need to be sure you don't hurt yourself. But I believe I don't know your name. What is it?" "It's Amy, Amy O'Hare. What about you two?" she looked expectantly at Joseph and I. "Joseph Druce is what I'm called." "Rafael Connors, at your service Miss Amy," I said, completing it by tipping an imaginary hat. For the first time, I heard her laugh. It was a light laugh, joyful and bright, and it was what kept me sane in the dark days ahead.
"Use the freaking gun, shoot this damn thing!"
"Who the hell are you people? And where the hell are we now!?" she demanded.