The Dreaded Disclaimer of Death: I tried to make that melodramatic, did it work?? No I don't own Shaun of the Dead, how many times do I have to say that??!! FRACK! Anyway...NCTibby, this ones for you! Just cause your cool and you can draw a mean Simpson. May the mighty Golden Goatee of Power shine down on you! Action, drama, strife, and angst! Welcome to Thunderdome! (oops, wrong movie) Oh, and I almost forgot. Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright are two of the coolest men alive. We must clone them so every girl can have a set.
"Shaun..." Emily said, her voice quiet. "You're going to kill her..."
His expression softened, "Love, she's already dead." He moved towards her, shifting the gun into his other hand he held out his left palm. "Give me the key Emily."
She hesitated...even though she knew he was right. Deb was her friend, one of the few she actually had left. "I...I can't..."
He took another step toward her. "Em, she's gonna kill people...she's up there right now, if she bites someone they are dead too. Give me the key."
"What if she's like Ed? What about that Shaun..." She moved away from him.
He let out an exasperated sigh. "Ed was different...I had time with him, he was...able to be reformed. But the fact is she's up there right now loose. She's going to kill people. If I had to do it, I'd have been able to shoot Ed. For God's sake I shot my own mother to keep her from killing a twat bastard that hated me! Give me the key!" He was shouting now and he regretted it the minute he saw the tears falling down her cheeks. But time was wasting and she was up there and he could hear more cries, softer now, which worried him more than the outright scream.
She handed him the keys that opened the front door of the building, a sob escaping her throat. Shaun closed his fingers around them. He would have said something to her but she turned away. He could hear her trying to choke down the crying, and his heart ached for her. He took a breath and turned to face the door. "Alright then Riley, let's do this." He thought. Steeling himself for the worst he put the key in the lock and opened the door, then raising the gun stepped inside.
Emily felt as though she'd been thrown into a nightmare. She couldn't believe that the new man in her life was going into the apartment of her friend to shoot her in the head because she'd just become an undead flesh eating monster. How did you deal with that? It was crazy...it was surreal. But it was happening.
She knew Shaun was telling her the truth, she needed to be stopped. Good lord, she could have been killed herself. Now he was going in there alone to take her down. Emily turned and stared at the now closed door, the keys dangling from the deadbolt. She couldn't let him do this by himself...even if he had told her not to she hadn't told him she would stay outside.
Looking around, she searched for something to use as a weapon. "Blunt object, blunt object..." she muttered, and then spied a fallen piece of black iron that had rusted out of the fencing that ran along the grass in front of the building. It was about three feet long and an inch thick. She walked over and picked it up, hefting it in her hand. It would have to do. She walked up the steps and opened the door quietly, her eyes peeled. She shoved Shaun's cell phone in her pocket and walked into the hallway.
Shaun was no where to be seen. He'd most likely gone up the stairs to Deb's floor. Em listened for the sounds of a struggle, but all she could hear was a slight sobbing noise coming from the upper floor.
She started up the steps slowly, trying to not make a sound. The lack of decent lighting had never bothered her before, but now she wished there was more than the single light every five feet on the ceiling.
Em saw the door before anything else. It lay at an odd angle, against the wall, ripped from its hinges. It was the door to Deb's apartment and when she realized that, she felt her heart actually skip a beat.
Sweat beaded on her upper lip and she tightened her grip on the bar till her knuckles were white. She listened and heard the sound of sobbing. It was nearer than before. Taking a deep breath she moved forward, down the hallway.
Rounding the corner, she saw Shaun standing in front of another doorway that had seen better days, shotgun aimed in front of him. The sound of the sobbing was coming from the apartment he was looking into.
Shaun's eyes took in the scene in front of him. Lying on the floor, beneath a cheerful window display of flowers, was the body of a man dressed in a pair of khaki pants and an undershirt and socks. He was apparently getting ready for work when Deb had crashed through the door of his home and eating part of his neck and shoulder. The wounds were deep and fresh, and hideously red and ragged. She'd been hungry but she'd left him for some reason, her meal interrupted possibly.
He moved in further and his wide blue eyes found what was most likely the cause of the interruption. She was also the source the crying. A woman with graying hair and wearing a house coat sat hunched up in the floor staring at the body who was probably her husband. Tears were streaming down her cheeks, blood covered her hands and brightly colored frock. She was rocking back and forth and sobbing, in her hand was clutched a large and very bloody butcher knife.
Shaun walked in at an angle slowly, keeping his eyes peeled for anything, but making sure to stay out of reach of her knife. Very softly he spoke to the woman. "Ma'am, where'd she go? Do you know where she went?"
"She...she kept...biting him...she was eating him...my god the blood." Her voice was hoarse and barely above a whisper. Her eyes weren't leaving the body. "I tried to stop her...tried to get her away...."
Shaun could hear the disbelief and shock in her voice. But before he could respond or ask anything further, he sensed movement out of the corner of his eye. He was in the middle of bringing the shotgun around when she jumped him. She came from the shadows of the hallway, teeth bloody and seemingly huge. A gurgle of sound came from her throat, half growl, half hiss. There were fresh stab wounds on her neck and head that were streaming red blood down the night shirt she was wearing. Deb's eyes were white with the death that had claimed her.
Luckily the shotgun managed to block her attack, but only as a barrier. His finger pulled the trigger on accident and managed to shoot off a round into the kitchen, taking out some plates left over from breakfast and causing his ears to ring. Shaun held on as the vibrations went up his arms, causing his muscles to ache from the kickback. Between the gun force and the zombie he fell backwards hard, landing on the hard wood floor with a thwack.
He let out a cry and struggled, trying to push the damn thing off. He kicked at her but she kept trying to get at him. She was strong and she was ravenous, and she was on top. That gave her the advantage. The woman with the knife had started screaming again, but she wasn't showing signs of moving to help. Shaun managed to glance over and see her squirming away, across the floor, away from him. "Great..." He squeaked out and tried shoving the gun harder into Deb's chest, as her teeth snapped at him.
Out of nowhere something large and black slammed into the side of the things head. Shaun got hit with a spatter of blood on his cheek from the blow, causing him to turn away as the re-animated Deb was knocked off of him and landed on her back about a foot away. He saw a blur of movement as someone jumped over him and stood by the now stunned zombie.
Emily looked down at what was once her friend. The head was pretty messed up right now. Bashed in and bloody, with bits of bone showing through the hair. She was trying to move even now, no doubt wanting to eat her. Emily wiped a tear from her eye and raised the pole above her head. "I'm sorry Deb...I'm so sorry." She said the words softly and then brought the pole down square into Deb's forehead as hard as she could. The sound was beyond disgusting, a squelching crunch that she'd always remember. But after a slight jerking of her limbs, Deb stopped moving for good.
Shaun got to his feet quickly, just as she'd brought the black metal down in the strike. He went to her side and looked down at what was left of her friend. "Em..." He said her name, trying to get her to look at him instead of the mess on the floor.
She turned around and just grabbed hold of him, burying her face in his jacket and crying. He put his arm around her and held her close. No one should have to go through what she'd just done.
Emily let herself just cry for a moment, just a moment. They needed to get out of here before whoever was in charge of this type of thing arrived and they'd have to explain the lunacy that just happened. She looked up at Shaun, her eyes streaming tears. "You've got red on you." She said softly, touching his cheek that was smeared.
He leaned down and kissed her forehead then pulled back and gave her a stern look. "Thank you for saving my ass, but I told you to stay downstairs, don't you ever listen?"
"You asked me to stay downstairs, but I never told you I would." She replied. "And your ass is too cute not to save." She wiped at her eyes and took a deep breath, looking over at the woman with the knife. "We need to get her to a doctor or something."
"She's in shock I think." Shaun looked around the shambles of the room. "But you're right. We need to get someone here. But as soon as we call someone we need to find out where Deb's boss is."
Emily realized he was right. "Oh lord, the reporter. He's still out there."
"Right," Shaun nodded and started heading towards the door of the apartment. "And he's probably hungry."
Emily walked over Deb towards Shaun. As she passed by the corpse of the man his hand moved suddenly and grabbed her ankle. He made a long, gurgling moan that caused blood to trickle out along his torn esophagus. Em let out a cry. "Shaun Help!"
The woman with the knife let out a wail. "Eric!! NO!!"
Shaun let out a yell. "Emily left!" He swung the shotgun around and Emily tossed herself to the left as far as she could.
The blast was straight on, and Eric's head exploded along with the daisies and assorted flowers that sat behind him in a shower of brain and plant. Emily pulled herself out of his grip and hurried over to Shaun. "Are you alright?" He asked her, checking her over to make sure he didn't nick her with some stray shot.
"Yeah... I'm fine." Her eyes looked behind him. "Oh...no."
Shaun turned to see what new bad thing had shown up. "Lord..." The lady with the knife had apparently reached her limit, seeing her husband come back to life and becoming the very thing that had killed him. She'd plunged the knife into her own chest, and was now slumped against the wall. Shaun closed his eyes and Em sent up a silent prayer for the poor woman that she'd never even met before today.
Shaun turned and faced his girl. "We've got to get out of here, fast. Do you have anything you need to get out of the apartment?"
Em thought for a moment. "Just my clothes I think."
He nodded. "Go get them and be quick about it."
She hurried off and while she was doing that Shaun walked over to the tragic figure of the housewife. "I have to be sure old dear. Just let me take a look." He checked her over as well as he could for bite marks. "Thank God." He said softly, standing up. She was bite free. He didn't think he could handle having to blow her head off too today. Her husband was enough.
Emily stood in the doorway when he turned round. "I've got everything and I grabbed Deb's badge for her building. That way we can get in if we have to."
"Good thinking Watson." He replied. With one last look into the splattered room Shaun led them towards the stairs.
When they got to the sidewalk, Shaun could hear the sirens just barely on the air. "They're coming. Let's go." He grabbed Emily's arm and they jogged in the opposite direction of the noise. As they turned the corner to Shaun's street, his phone rang. Emily pulled it from her pocket and handed it to him.
He slowed just a bit as he said "Hello?" Then he let out a heavy sigh. "Yeah mate, don't think I'll be making lunch. Something big has come up."