Where was she?
“Shannon?” Leah called out. Just a few minutes, she’d said. It was supposed to be no longer than a few minutes. Why hadn’t she come back yet?
Maybe something had happened. Maybe there was another wreck, or some guys had given her trouble, or soldiers were passing through, or there were more sick people around, and Shannon needed to lay low to keep safe. That would be fair. Leah could understand that.
But then maybe something hadn’t happened. Maybe Shannon had looked at a difficult situation and decided it wasn’t worth it. Maybe she’d started going down the street and kept walking. Maybe their relationship really was one-way, like everyone always told her…
No, Leah couldn’t think that. Not now. Shannon would never just leave her here. She’d been delayed beyond her control. Any second now and she’d be back.
“Shannon!?” she cried out again. “Are you there?”
A moan answered back from across the truck. It was sick.
Leah teared up as the sick person began pounding against the truck. She couldn’t do this. She couldn’t stay here like this, waiting to die without answers. I’m sorry, Shannon.
She turned around and ran, all alone.
* * *
Shannon stared at the empty spot where Leah had been. Yes, this was definitely where she’d left her. There was no mistaking the massive fucking truck that’d almost killed them both.
“Leah!?” she called out.
Moans answered as zombies started pounding on the other side of the truck.
That explained it. Of course Leah would bail if she was about to be fucked, and it wasn’t her fault that her best friend had taken as long as she had. She had to have made a run for it. But where?
“You can do this.” Shannon poured some coke onto her thumb and did a bump. Her mind fell into focus, and she retraced every step before here.
The truck had blocked off one end of the alley, and Shannon had come in from the other. Both sides were walled in by apartments and a parking garage, but there was a small lip of shops about halfway down the alley, only one story tall. With a dumpster pressed against this side, it’d be easy to hop onto the roof. If there was any place for Leah to go where they would’ve missed paths, it’d be there.
Shannon threw the shotgun over her shoulder, popped the magazine of her pistol out, and pushed it back into place. She had a feeling that this was about to get real rough.
She hopped over the wall and onto the roof. There were fires and lights and people running everywhere she could see, but with the coke in her system, the world never had more clarity. She scanned up and down the street, ignoring the chaos, and focusing only for something to stand out.
Leah! She disappeared into a park before Shannon had the chance to get a good look, but no one else had a scarf like hers. Shannon leapt in pursuit.
Fighting was happening on all sides, but Shannon eyed a pair of zombies stumbling after a woman and used the chance to move in their shadow. She went from one side of the street to the other, keeping low so they wouldn’t catch sight of her. Just a little further, and she’d be at the park.
But then an army truck suddenly cut them all off, machine gun aimed their way.
Shannon dove into cover just in time. Bullets roared through the street. The woman shrieked as she took a hit, and the zombies collapsed, but a moment later, they started to rise again.
“Fuck it!” the soldier screamed and pounded the window. The truck barreled down the road, disappearing as fast as it had come.
One of the dead went for the woman who’d been downed, but the other had caught sight of Shannon, and started to wander her way. She looked over her shoulder, and realized more were coming, out from the direction she had arrived. Her eyes scouted the walls for an escape.
There. A nearby garage had been locked down with metal fencing, but someone had jacked a corner up, giving just enough room for a woman her size. Shannon tossed her shotgun into the opening and crawled through herself. The fencing fell with a slam as she yanked the metal down, and not a moment too soon. The zombies floundered into the wall, their teeth clattered against the metal wiring.
A scream echoed further down the street and the dead turned their attention away, now wandering for their next victim.
Shannon let out a breath of relief. She was safe. For now.
Compared to the chaos behind, the garage was a welcome sanctuary, with the gunfire and shouting suddenly muted, and the dominant sound now some electrical noises. There was enough light to see clearly, spilling from the only door in sight.
Shannon wiped the sweat from her brow and again checked her pistol. The only way she’d get through this is if she started using it.
“Come on, Shannon,” she said aloud. “Enough fucking around. She needs you.”
Shannon didn’t feel empty anymore. She wasn’t depressed, or angry, or ecstatic to have survived until now, or anything like that. No, all that remained was determination. There was no telling how long she had left, and if there ever was a right way to go out of this shithole world, it would be to save the one person who’d ever given a damn about her. One good deed to close out a lifetime of bad ones.
Leah would make it through this. No matter what.
A hiss echoed into the garage, and Shannon watched as another zombie limbered through the open door. His eyes locked with hers, and he raised a hand her way.
Shannon took another deep breath and drew her pistol. He was still far away, but there was no time better than now to get herself sorted. Her finger graced the trigger as she took aim.
The crack of her shot was followed by a bright flash, and the zombie flinched where his shoulder took the hit. Shannon adjusted her sight and fired again, but a spark burst from the wall where the bullet struck, and the zombie limped forth, undeterred.
Easy does it. Shannon again corrected her aim and ignored everything else. The shouting. The fires. The whir of electrical equipment. Nothing mattered. Only saving Leah, and this asshole was in her way.
She fired again. Blood ruptured from the zombie’s scalp where the bullet pierced, right between the eyes. He groaned one last time before falling.
Shannon almost laughed, but no sooner had the zombie dropped than another three flopped through the opening where he had come. They hissed in rage and started stumbling after her.
She gaped. “You’ve got to be shitting me…”
There was no room to wait. Her brain snapped back into flight mode and Shannon bolted for the nearest ramp up a floor. The hisses dwindled as she bought herself some distance. She went low and made her way to the opposite end of the garage, once again looking for a way back down.
A hand grabbed her ankle.
“Hey!” a guy wheezed. “You gotta help me!”
His skin was pale, his shirt was torn, and his eyes were faded in the dim light, and as Shannon got a better look, she realized his legs stopped early, disappearing into a mess of exposed sinew and viscera.
She ripped herself free. “Quiet!”
But the guy gasped louder. “You gotta get me out of this. Please, I have money!”
“Seriously, shut up.”
Moans grew louder as the zombies closed in. Again the guy tried to grab her, and again Shannon pushed him back. He started sobbing as she scrambled for the nearest railing. Desperately, she looked for a safe landing spot, and saw a pickup truck just in reach. Another moment, she was in position to get the fuck out of here.
“You bitch!” the guy called out. “You’re murdering me!”
Shut up. Shut up. Shut up. Her eyes watered in spite of itself. She plummeted to safety, her body rocking into the bed of the truck. The jolt in her limbs didn’t hurt half as much as the sound of that guy screaming in agony as the zombies reached him.
Shannon lay in place, her eyes staring blankly up. One good deed. That could have been it. Defend some dying guy so that he could spend his last minutes in peace. But instead, she’d chosen herself, just like she always had, and now he was getting torn to pieces because of it. His last moment of life, watching her leave him behind. Was this her true nature? Was Shannon only fooling herself in thinking she could ever be different?
A distant screech cut her thoughts off. She knew the sound. It was Leah.
Shannon floundered back into the street, shotgun in hand. This road was a one-laner, crammed between the garage and a high-riser. Glass littered the pavement where one of the windows had been smashed open.
A pair of zombies munched on the corpse of a cop, but one further down the street wandered by itself. Shannon gave the pair a wide berth, but didn’t think twice before gunning the loner down. She sprinted around the bend and put another down, then threw a trashcan behind. That’d hopefully slow anyone else.
Her sprint fell into a jog as Shannon crossed through a parking lot. More people were brawling with each other, and she couldn’t tell which were living and which were dead, but her eyes fell again elsewhere, seeking Leah out.
A woman was struggling against someone on a distant fire escape, and Shannon could make out her burgundy scarf, even this far away.
“Leah!” she called out.
“Shannon!?” she shrieked.
There was no more time for this shit. Shannon barreled onward. More of the undead turned her way as she reached the main street, but she executed them each with ease. Her legs were at their limit and her lungs grew heavy, but Shannon let adrenaline carry her between all the fires and wreckage. Leah’s cries for help grew louder and louder, and her form became more clear.
With one final shove, Shannon rammed her way into the alley, closed the distance to the stairs, and shoved Leah’s attacker back with the butt of her shotgun. The smell of piss and trash filled her nostrils.
She took aim, but realized that this guy was still living. His teeth were yellow and his clothes were dirty, but his eyes were still human, and he gaped at the sight of a gun.
“Wait! Don’t shoot!” he called out, hands raised.
Then Shannon noticed that his pants were down, and his hardened cock poked out. She looked in horror at Leah, who’s uniform had been ripped, too crippled by what was happening to do anything other than sob.
The bum cringed. “It’s not what it looks l–”
But Shannon had already fired her shotgun, right in the gap between his legs. The bum fell down a couple stairs.
“Best you get running,” Shannon said.
He gulped. “I can’t. They’ll catch me!” The moans of the dead grew louder, as if to prove his point.
Shannon pressed the barrel of her shotgun into the bum’s throat, her eyes locked with his. “Then run fast.”
He could see it. The emptiness. The lack of remorse. The impending death that was the only thing keeping Shannon alive right now. The next shell was going into his chest, and he knew it.
Wordless, the asshole stumbled back down the stairs and made a break for it. His shouts turned into screams moments after rounding the corner.
Only then did Shannon turn back. Leah stood and stared, mouth quivering against what had just happened.
“You okay?” Shannon asked before realizing how much of a fucking nutcase she’d look like for being so calm right now.
Leah blinked once and nodded, but otherwise stayed silent.
“Good. Let’s get the fuck out of here.”
