Sparks showered down from a lamp over Columbus's head. Enid lurched back in pain. Columbus saw Wichita struggling to free herself from the biker holding onto her arm. "Run!" she screeched to her sister.

Wichita struck the attacker behind her with the butt of her empty pistol, knocking off his police-issue helmet with a stunning blow. But then Branson hit her over the head with her own shotgun, and she sprawled to the floor. "You're mine now, whore," he said, pressing his foot between her shoulder blades. Then there was a cry from Enid. She and Branson both looked to see him drop to his knees with a KaBar knife low in his chest. His expression was more of surprise than pain, and much the same expression was on Columbus's face.

Branson fired at him, but his aim was poor with only one hand, and Columbus was already running at him. Columbus slammed into him, and with the benefit of surprise as much as momentum pushed him back to the shelves. He dropped the shotgun, and with one hand freed was able to wrestle back. Before the chief could take advantage of his superior strength and much greater experience, Columbus slammed his head back into a metal post with stunning force. Branson toppled forward, and he had scarcely hit the floor before Wichita was upon him.

The biker outside pushed Tallahassee aside, raising the assault rifle to intervene. Before he could fire, Tal struck a necessarily double-handed blow to the back of his head, then struck a roundhouse slap to his chin. He staggered and dropped the gun, but countered with a punch that sent Tal skidding. As he bent to pick up the rifle, a small voice said, "Hands up." He looked up, and smiled.

"C'mon, kid," he said, "do you think a kevlar vest can't stop a nail gun?"

As Little Rock quickly demonstrated, it couldn't.

Wichita's overtaxed pantyhose failed catastrophically as she drove her heel into the fallen chief's crotch. "Wichita!" Columbus shouted. He tried to take her by the arm, but she literally shrugged him off. Then he grabbed her around the waist and hauled her back. "He's down! We're safe!" he said. For a moment, he lifted her off the floor and set her down beside the shelf. "Now we need to get out of here!"

Wichita snatched up a circular saw and revved it. "He would have taken me," she said. "He would hurt Little Rock. You would have let him."

"No, you know that isn't true," Columbus said. "The shotgun couldn't get through a flack jacket. The knife could. I let go of the gun so they would let their guard down, and come closer. I could have saved you even sooner if you hadn't pulled the gun!" She stepped forward, and he took a step back.

"He's a leader of a gang," she said.

"But you put him there,"he said. He reflexively backed up again.

"I didn't make him what he is. He was a prick when I met him, and he as a prick after. I just led him to the right people. If we let him go, he'll just hurt more people."

"But he isn't hurting anyone else today. And he's human."

"Krista?" Little Rock said.

Columbus brushed her hair behind her ear. "Who do you want her to grow up to be in Zombieland?"

Wichita dropped the saw with a clatter. "I don't hate you," she said. "But I wish I'd never let you touch me." Then she turned and hugged her sister.

They ran for the SUV, pausing only long enough to help Tal to his feet. Columbus heard a small voice say, "Little help?" He hurried on, assuring himself that he had not just seen a man with both hands nailed to his flak vest.

Just as they peeled out of their parking place, a car and swarm of motorcycles pulled up to the mouth of the parking lot. "Don't stop," Wichita said.

"I won't," Columbus answered. Before he could put the SUV in gear, a bullet slammed into his door. Turning in surprise, he beheld Branson lurching after them, a .32 pistol in hand.

"Just so we're clear," the chief shouted. Then he waved his arms in a signal, and the bikers scattered. "You let me live, I let you live- for now." Columbus nodded and hit the gas.