Chapter 7 - Fireworks

The full moon peeked out from behind the distant mountains, lighting up everything including the dogs' sharp, dirty fangs, their hideous looks and the scars, lesions and rotten spots all over their bodies.

The entire gang closed up on Tamsin and Bo slowly, and the alpha carefully stayed behind a few large dogs. His eyeballs were reflecting the moonlight, bright as torches yet lifeless and empty. There was only ravenousness and cruelty in them, just like the others. His fur was long and in knots, hair tangled up because of dried blood, tissue or pus. Saliva drooled down along his chin.

"I've never seen a dog as ugly as that..." Bo whispered to the blonde as she took off her backpack and held it in front of her chest as a shield.

"That thing is not a damn dog," Tamsin whispered in a hiss, squeezing the hilt of her falchion hard.

She stared at the alpha, her eyes going from its blade sharp claws to the tumor-like growths scattered along the length of its spine. "It's a fucking demon that has clawed its way out from hell," she murmured to Bo, taking a step back to get closer to the brunette.

Bo slurred something that neither of them had quite comprehend. The brunette swallowed hard as she stared at the alpha's exposed dura pulsing under a long, narrow crack in its skull, which looked as if his brain growth had gone crazy and cracked the skull open.

The alpha sank his claws into the mud, and barked in a low, dangerous tone. Two dogs came at Bo as if they took the bark as an order.

The brunette swung her bag at them, knocking one away from her. The other one clung to her backpack and snapped at her. Bo thrust her dagger into its head as deep as she could until the thing stopped moving.

Bo let the dead monster fall down and held her dagger up. She guarded herself with her bag and hissed, "who wants to be next?"

A large dog looking like a Rottweiler dashed at Bo. It still had its collar on, a dark, leather one with metal rings and buds as the decoration. In the middle there hung a bone-shaped name tag, but the name was too smudged to be seen.

Bo shoved the corner of her backpack into the dog's mouth and tried to stab it. The animal shook its head violently, throwing her bag away before coming at her again.

Bo fell back, and the dog knocked her down. With its claws tightly pressing on her shoulder, it came at her throat.

Bo jolted to the side, and that move pissed the dog off. It took her blade between its teeth and tried to pull it off her hand.

With her left forearm choking the animal, Bo battled with it. They rolled back and forth on the ground, until the dog crushed her dagger into half with its teeth.

Bo held her breath and fought back, trying to push it away, but it was too strong. Those sharp, darkened fangs were less than an inch away from her throat.

Bo closed her eyes in reflex when the dog slobbered, and then the pressure on her shoulders suddenly disappeared.

She gasped and propped herself on her elbows, watching Tamsin slashing her falchion at the dog and slit its throat.

The monster twitched for a while, before it lolled on the ground. Thick fluids flew out from its wound, a little darker than fresh blood and with a stronger rusty smell.

The metallic scent ignited and the dogs around it barked swarmed in and inhaled the dead body, leaving only pieces of bones and fur scattered on the ground.

"Come on," Tamsin commanded as she grabbed Bo's arm. She pulled the brunette forcefully as she breathlessly lead the way to a small opening on their left.

The alpha chased them while his minions fanned out and came at them from several directions. Tamsin swung her backpack to fend off a medium sized dog with bloodshot eyes.

They had barely taken off a few yards, before a group of dogs showed up in front of them. They stared at them, sniffing the air, snarling, as if they had just gotten a fresh message of a bloody feast.

"Shit," Tamsin cursed as she glanced at her injury, which had started bleeding again due to all the pulling and fighting she had just had. She pulled Bo closer and ran towards the weakest spot while desperately trying to come up with a plan.

"How can there be so many damn zombie dogs?" Bo complained, following Tamsin after a sharp turn to the right. The bloodthirsty howling and snarling had turned into a symphony of horror, and they kept running into dogs who aimed at their throats.

Tamsin slammed her foot into a dog's face, before she crushed it throat with a heavy blow from her elbow. "Well, what do you expect when almost half of the families in Creeksville had dogs?" She said as she tossed her last backup weapon, a survival knife, at Bo.

Bo didn't make any comment. She was too busy killing a dog that almost had sunk its teeth into her thigh.

Tamsin pulled the brunette closer to her, practically embracing her in her right arm. She quickly scanned the huge pack, where a lot of them were eating the dogs she and Bo had just killed and a few stared at them viciously.

She knew that there were too many dogs, and they would never let them go, not her anyway, since blood was still seeping through her wound. The dogs would wear them out, and then they would happily gobble them.

"Alright, I got a plan," Tamsin told Bo as they killed a few zombie dogs together.

"Oh I'd love to hear about a plan," the brunette murmured.

Tamsin took a deep breath as she threw a disemboweled dog into the pack. She panted to catch her breath. "I'm gonna distract them, so you can get out."

"What?! Are you out of your mind?!" Bo exclaimed, smashing her bag at a dog repeatedly till it stopped moving.

Tamsin rolled her eyes. "Here's what's gonna happen to us tonight. We both die. One of us get out, or both of us get out," she pointed at her bleeding wound on her arm with her chin and continued, "they'll never let me off the hook."

"I can't just leave, Tamsin!"

"Then figure something out when you get out."

"What if-" Bo was interrupted briefly when two dogs came at her at the same time. She kicked one away, and the blonde took the other. "What if I can't come up with anything?"

Tamsin swallowed hard as she killed the dog and threw it away from them. "Then you run," she said simply as she shoved Bo towards a spot guarded by only a few dogs. Once Bo was steps away from her, she ripped her wound, smeared her blood over her arm and ran towards the other side.

The dogs swarmed at her, unable to resist the smell of the fresh blood. Some of them tried to attack Bo, but once the smell had reached their nose, they turned around with growls humming in their throats and dashed towards it..

Bo closed her eyes and got rid off the last dog that was coming at her. She took a glance at the blonde, before she took off and disappeared in the darkness.

Tamsin huffed out a sneer through her nose as she stared into the alpha's lifeless eyes. "Like I am afraid of you," she hissed, swinging her bag at those who jumped at her.

She heard Bo leaving, and a part of her became hollow, so hollow that it pained her. However, at the same time, she was relieved.

"Bring it on," she bit those word out, slashing her blade at the closest animal.


Raising her fire axe in a defensive stance, Tamsin looked around for the last time. She checked the entrance and the exit of the street she was on, the half opened doors of the stores on the other side, and the bookstore in the corner.

She saw nothing suspicious, and that made her feel a little relieved. She squeezed herself through the door behind her, entering the convenience store in stealth.

Once she was in, she knocked on the inside of the glass door. One long, two short, two long then one short. It was a signal shared among the survivors, which would allow whoever entering a place announce himself as a human instead of a zombie.

She waited for a couple of seconds, and sighed with relief when she heard no one answering her. She didn't want to fight with the others for a can of tuna or a bag of flour, because some of them were more dangerous than the zombies.

She looked for useful things in the store, primarily food because that was what her family really needed right now.

It was dark inside. Most of the sunlight was blocked by the boarded doors and windows, with only a few rays escaping. They silhouetted out everything inside the store for her, the pile of fallen bricks and tiles, the empty shelves and the blood spatters on the walls.

She stopped at a fallen shelf, kneeling down before pressing the left side of her face on the dusty floor. Turning on the small flashlight on her keyring, she peaked through the narrow space between the floor and the side of the shelf.

A rush of joy fluttered in her stomach the moment she saw cans of food trapped under the shelf. She grabbed the side of it and pulled, but it was too heavy for her to lift.

Tamsin picked up a piece of medal bar, and stuck it under the side of the shelf. She pried it open with every bit of strength she had. Once there was enough space for her to get the cans, she propped the bar and stuck it between the floor and the shelf to hold the heavy thing.

Quickly taking off her backpack, she threw all the cans into it. She struggled to the put the bag on. It was a little too heavy for her, but she couldn't leave a single can out.

She walked to the exit, dragging her axe across the floor. Just when she was about to step out, she heard a low growl behind her.

She gasped, raising her axe while turning around.

A zombie, who had been lurking on the top of the corner shelf, jumped down, and Tamsin had no idea why it hadn't attacked her earlier.

Tamsin glanced at the ragged clothes and the dried blood smeared around its mouth, before she recognized her as her 5th grade math swallowed hard, forcing a few sweet memories from the math class out from her mind while swinging the axe at the zombie. However, she lost control of it, and the blade missed the zombie. Instead it sank into the back panel of a shelf beside her, and she couldn't pull it out.

She let go of the handle and tried to run, but the zombie grabbed her from behind. Tamsin struggled to turn around, shoving her knee into the walking dead while dodging the bared teeth.

They battled, rolling on the floor. For a moment Tamsin had successfully pushed the zombie off her, but it didn't let her escape. It pulled her down, and Tamsin slammed her elbow into its face while struggling to free herself.

While batting against the zombie, Tamsin knocked off the metal bar she had used to hold the shelf up. The shelf crashed down. With a loud noise its sharp, metal edge cut through the back of the zombie's neck and chopped its head off.

As the head rolled to the side, Tamsin had finally let out the breath she had been holding. She panted while slowly pulling her trembling legs out from under the zombie.

For a short while she couldn't even feel her legs, until a sharp pain seized her. She looked down, and when she saw some blood dribbling down along her left ankle, her blood ran cold.

She reached out and rolled her pants up, breaking into sobs when she saw a clear, fresh bite mark on her left shin.

She wiped her tears off and rolled on her knees to stand up. As more tears burst out, she ran out, half crawling.

No matter how fast she had run though, the fear always managed to catch up with her, consuming her, devouring her.


Tamsin rubbed the side of her jaw on her shoulder to wipe a few drops of dark blood away as she sprinted back and forth inside the small circle of dogs. She breathlessly stabbed one that had its teeth sunk into her shin, and kicked its body away from her, before she battled another.

The alpha seemed to have enjoyed the process. He patiently watched her fighting his minions, one or two at a time.

Tamsin hissed at those dead eyes, kicking into a dog's stomach to force it to fall back. She had lost count of how many zombie dogs she had killed. No matter how many she had killed, the number of animals in the pack never seemed to have decreased.

There were so many of them, big, small, with collar, with service dog jacket, with leash that was half gone, with mutated body parts, with tumor-like growths, with scars.

Tamsin panted as she slammed her foot into another dog. She swallowed hard, wiping her chin while wondering how much time it would take before she gave up, or became too exhausted to do anything.

She feared that it wouldn't take too long, since every piece of her muscle was in pain. Her legs were heavy, and so were her arms. Her vision had just started to blur, because of her sweat dripping into her eyes.

There were too many damn monsters around her, growling, snarling, howling. They dashed at her, pounced at her, and jumped at her. They dug their teeth into her flesh whenever they had the chance, and bite crazily after having gotten a taste of fresh blood.

Tamsin growled at the alpha's taunting look. A loud yell burst out from her mouth, as she dropped her bag and leaped at the monster. The alpha bared its teeth, and pounced at her.

The both fell down on the ground, battling. Tamsin shoved her left fist into the dog's mouth to force it back while holding up her falchion.

She aimed at the monster's head, and the alpha's front paws were on her chest trying to claw her heart out.

A sharp pain came from her left thigh. Then, from her right shin. She knew some dog must have taken the chance, but there was nothing she could do.

She yelled again, squeezing her blade tight before thrusting it at the monster. The blade got knocked off in the middle by a large dog that had come at her.

Air had been forcing out from her chest. The claws of the alpha had slowly sunk into her flesh. She closed her eyes, though still didn't give up. She gripped the monster's neck with her bare hands and squeezed as hard as she could.

A loud roar interrupted them. The alpha let go of her momentarily and looked back, and so were the other dogs.

Tamsin turned to the voice. With her eyes so blurry, she could only see a bright spot coming at them fast.

She rolled on her knees and picked up her blade. Before the alpha had reacted, she shoved the falchion all the way into his brain. She kept pushing it until the monster stopped moving.

The stirred pack howled in panic, but a large dog, whom Tamsin thought to be the alpha female , stepped out and stopped them. She vigilantly growled at the coming thing.

As it came closer, Tamsin had finally realized that it was a burning torch. Then she saw Bo riding the pink bike while holding up the torch.

Tamsin's heart raced as she saw the brunette's beautiful face rendered by the roaring fire. It slammed against her ribcage, so hard that she could hardly breathe.

Bo made a loud sound, which sounded like battlecry. It echoed among the mountains, and she came directly at the alpha female. She shoved her torch at the dog, and the dog whined and fell back.

She waved the torch as if it was a sword while riding, and the pack ran away from the sizzling flames. Once the brunette had enough space, she took out something colorful and cylindrical from her back and put it on the ground. She lowered the torch at it, and ran to be at Tamsin's side.

When a deafening sound exploded and a red pattern bloomed in the sky, Tamsin had finally realized that it was a firework.

The dogs scattered, whining in fear. When Bo lit up another one, most of them fled. A few bold ones tried to attack Bo and Tamsin, but were killed by them.

One by one, the fireworks lit up the sky, red, blue, orange, green. The sound echoed among the mountains, reduced to a soft pop, before another one rose and exploded.

Tamsin heard her own heartbeat in her ears, loud as the fireworks, full of joy.


Tamsin muffled her sobs with her hands when she reached the back porch of her home. She was about to go in, but she heard her parents arguing something inside.

She crouched down beside the boarded door, telling herself to go in later. She didn't want to upset her parents, not when they were arguing.

"How can they do this to us?! How? How are we gonna-" her mother's voice came through the boarded door, reduced to suppressed whimpers.

"Well, we don't make the rules, do we?" her father's voice came, irritated, frustrated and angry. "They make the rules, because they are the government, Mindy. Because they can! And because they have everything!"

"We can't do this, Jack. We have 3 children, not 2! We can't just…." It seemed that her mother had a very hard time to finish her sentence, because she started to whimper again.

"We have to make a decision now," her father said firmly as he slammed his hand on the table.

Tamsin took a peek, and saw her father throwing a sheet of paper at her mother. Her mother refused to take it at first, but seemed not to be able to resist it.

As her mother held up the paper and sobbed, Tamsin saw a green logo of a tree, a bird and a human on the back of the sheet. She recognized it as the new, without border government logo, but she couldn't see anything that was written on it.

"We can't go to the settlement. We have 3 kids, Jack! The settlement only allows each adult to bring 1 child! I'd rather die here than parting with any one of them."

Her father threw his hands into the air in great frustration. "We stay, we all die. It's just a matter of time. We are running out of food and medicine. We are running out of everything! At least they offer a portion of everything in the settlement for everyone."

"But if we go there, we will have to-have to..." her mother burst into tears.

"Oh you can say it, Mindy! If we go there, we'll have to leave one child behind."

"How can you say that! How can you say that like it doesn't matter to you?!"

"We have to make sacrifice, okay?" Her father's voice softened a little. He grabbed the woman's shoulder and looked into her eyes. "You don't think I want to bring all of them with us? I would if we could. They've made it clear, one adult can only bring one child. We have to decide now. Either all of us die here, or 4 of us live."

"We can't...I can't..." her mother's sobs became loud whimpers.

"Yes, we can. We have to be strong, Mindy. We have to be strong for ourselves, and for Carl and Libby," her father said as he took the woman into his arms.

Her mother seemed to be stunned by what he had just said. She broke free from his arms, and pushed him away. "Carl and Libby?! What about Tammy?! You are just gonna leave her behind?!" She yelled.

"I wouldn't if I had a choice!" Her father yelled back. "It's time for you to stop that sentimental shit, and face the reality! There's only so much we can do!"

A long, dead silence consumed both of them, and Tamsin's heart sank, heavy as lead. She bit her bottom lip, and waited for them to say something. Anything. All she got was her mother's sobs. She saw her father embracing her mother again.

"I'm sorry, honey, but this is the only way. Tamsin's 16. She can take care of herself, okay? 2 years later, she'll be an adult, and she can go to the settlement on her own, you understand me?"

Tamsin's heart dangled in pain now. She waited for her mother's veto, but when she saw the woman bury her face into the man's chest with loud sobs, she knew any hope she had was beyond absurd.

She no longer felt her heart now. It was ripped out and crushed, leaving a hollow, bleeding hole inside her.

She slammed her hand to her mouth to stop the whimper that was about to escape, before she grabbed her backpack and ran.

She staggered towards the hills in tears. The wound on her leg pulsed, killing her with pain, though that was nothing compared to how much agony she had in her chest.


When the last fireworks' blossom faded from the night sky, Tamsin stared at the pale moon for a long, long time while the brunette tending her wounds.

"I thought you'd need some sleep," Bo teased in a whisper as she applied a thick layer of antibiotic cream on the blonde's injuries.

"Only losers need sleep after a fight," Tamsin slurred and straightened her body a little, ignoring the protests from her sore muscles. She looked around, and saw no dogs anywhere near them. She took the gauze roll and wrapped it around her arms and her thighs.

"I guess the fireworks worked. They all ran away," Bo told her.

"You don't think I already know that?" Tamsin replied, though her tone soft and teasing. She likced her lips when the brunette smiled at her, before she turned away. "Fireworks, huh?" She murmured.

"Was looking for dog repellents in town, and found the firework stash," Bo said. "I didn't know it would work so well."

"Yeah I'd say they ran away cuz I killed the alpha," Tamsin said with a smirk.

The brunette laughed, her voice dancing in the night wind. "Can't you say at least one nice thing to someone who just saved your life?" She complained softly, blowing air to the back of her index finger for it was burnt by the flames from her torch.

Tamsin huffed out a light laugh and reached for Bo's hand. She held the brunette's hand in hers and stared at the red spot on the back of her finger. She wanted to blow some air on it, but with her mind so hazy and her heart fluttering so fast, she ended up running her fingertips along the length of Bo's thumb while pressing her dry lips on the burnt spot.

The soft touch made both going quiet. Tamsin closed her eyes again, and rested her head on Bo's lap. She lolled, letting herself relax in the warm wind.

She squeezed the brunette's hand gently before drifting into her dreams, just so her heart could slow down a little to let herself breathe.