Title: All Fall Down
Fandom/character: Dawn of the Dead (2004), Ana
Prompt: 71 - Broken
Rating: R
Author's Notes: Set after Ana retrieves the boat key from Steve's body. Follows "Complications," andthe soon-to-be-posted "Touch"if you like even more sappy, ironic angst.
With half a dozen dead on her heels and too terrified to think, Ana tripped hard and crashed into the pavement. She scrambled to regain her footing, ignoring the ripping pain in her ankle and her scraped hands. Fucking Steve Markus! Fucking boat key! Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!
More-or-less upright again, she focused on the cracks of gunfire covering her escape and Michael calling her name from the back of the bus. She wheeled in place, orienting herself to the bus and only one thought in her mind: Run.
But Michael was out of the bus now, gun drawn and heading for her. Fuck! Focused on her, he didn't see the nightmare creature sprinting toward him from the side of the bus.
"Behind you!"
Too late. Unable to do anything but watch, she stopped as the blood-blackened monster actually tackled him. Its teeth sank into his shoulder and she heard herself screaming a denial.
She leveled her gun, willed her hands to stop shaking, noticing C.J. and Kenneth were back outside as well, picking off the creatures behind her. Still fighting, Michael fired shot after shot into the thing, but it kept tearing into his flesh.
Her first shot hit the shoulder, but didn't distract it. She steadied her aim, readying her shot, then faltered. Its pants… they were the blue pajama pants her mother had bought Luis last Christmas. No, no, no…
"Luis?" Her voice surprised her, so small and plaintive. The dark hair was gone from his head in patches, and his once-muscular arms were wasted and gray, but it was Luis. And Michael… No….
Luis' head exploded from her second shot, just as his jagged teeth severed Michael's trachea. No, no, no…
It only took a second for Michael to come back. She considered letting him kill her, to just let the pain be over. As he focused on her with those uncanny eyes, she lowered her gun. He ran for her, moving faster than he had in life, and still she waited. Then, despite his torn throat, he made that noise.
She looked into her never-to-be lover's dead eyes and pulled the trigger.