_______________
You have a choice of where to head to first. Will you run off in a random direction and help who you can, or will you go directly to the people you know and help them first?
A) Random. B) The police station. C) Vivian''s place. D) Mikki''s parents. E) Your old job.
A ten second timer popped up while I was still reading the options and another warning appeared below them.
Warning: Your choice will have severe consequences.
Goddammit. I thought as the options disappeared.
_______________
Mikki made the decision for me by going downtown to where the most recent broadcast was made. It seemed like a good place to start to her, so that was where we went. When we turned onto the main road, we noticed that there was no power to any of the buildings. The streetlights were still on, which was a bit weird.
Mikki slowed down the jeep as we approached the spot where the news van was still parked. There on the ground next to the rear tire was the camera, as well as what was left of the cameraman. That was something I had forgotten to tell Luke. The zombies in the real world didn''t make more of themselves by biting people and turning them into zombies. They just eat whatever they can get into their mouths.
There was also magic involved, because the zombies didn''t get bloated or filled up, no matter how much they ate. It was a quirk that I hadn''t seen in years and I had forgotten it. There was no time to call him at the moment, though.
We stopped just short of where the police vehicle was and started to get out, then Jillian took the initiative and shot a zombie that was gobbling down the remains of the police nearby. Mikki quickly loaded me into my wheelchair and I looked up at her as she passed me my sawed-off shotgun.
You push and reload when I need it and I''ll shoot. Deal?” I asked.
Mikki nodded her assent and strapped the machete to her hip, then we headed down the street locked and loaded with Jillian expertly shooting any zombie she saw. Her marksmanship was spot on as she picked them off with head shots. To say there wasn''t much left of the heads after an M-16 round was an understatement. The bullet fragments as soon as it hits flesh and spreads out. In dead flesh? It was like an explosion.
I really needed to get one of those.
I noticed a few things as we moved slowly down the street and started taking out the single zombies we could see. Apparently, a shotgun blast to the chest of a zombie didn''t leave much left. The biggest thing I noticed was that there were no blockades on the roads or alleyways and nothing was cordoned off by the police to protect the civilians. There were no safe areas where someone fleeing could rest and reload their weapons, if they had any.
As we moved, I felt a tingle move down my spine and felt a familiar pull. I motioned to Mikki to turn me around and noticed an overturned car on a side street with a group of three zombies trying to get inside to what looked like an unconscious woman and a child.
Left.” I said and claimed the single zombie on the left side of the car. Jillian nodded as I switched to my handgun and then we opened fire at the same time. We knocked down the three of them with perfect head shots, which made a bit of a mess on the car and the street. We weren''t concerned about that. If they were flesh eaters already, it might take them only a minute to get mobile again and to come after us. We had gotten their attention away from the car, at least.
I turned on my cell phone to check the charge, which I should have done right from the start, while Mikki and Jillian rescued the mother and her kid from their seat belts. Hopefully, we would be long gone before any more zombies showed up or the ones on the ground roused themselves. I called Luke to tell him about people not turning into zombies if they were bitten, and there was no answer.
Dammit.” I said and started to tell Mikki and Jillian about how I had felt the zombies nearby before seeing them, when my phone rang. “Hello?”
Thank God I finally got you.” A man''s panicked voice said over the phone.
Sanchez? You sound...”
I''ve been trying to call you at home for the last ten minutes. Where the hell have you been?”
“
“
“
“
“
“
“
“
“
If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
I need more! I thought to myself and sent a pulse of power out to the mass of zombies in front of the police station. I felt all of them, both outside and the few that had found a way inside, and yelled at the top of my lungs. “STOP!”
I''m pretty sure I can word it much better than ''leave me alone''. I thought and sighed mentally at how Mikki was going to react at my choice. It has to be B.
“
“
“
“What kind of ritual was used to give them this level of autonomy, even though they''re half rotted and shambling? I asked myself.
“
“
“
“
“
“
“
“
“
“
“
“
“
“
“
“
“
“
“
“
How do you plan on stopping me? You couldn''t stop them without me, so how would you stop both them and me? I asked myself while I composed what I should really say.
“
“
“
“
“
“