“COME ON! I’M HERE!”, he yelled to his invisible audience.
“I’m not gonna be one of them. I’m not gonna be one of them…”, he muttered in between his shouts. He went down the stairs of the building, pushing the monsters away with his bare hands. Shoving them down the stairs and watching them fall alongside him as he fearlessly walked down.
Walking down the stairs, he would peer into the hallways, seeing the zombies milling around.
He banged the stick into the wall.
“COME HERE, YOU…FUCK!”, he would yell at them.
The noise assured that they followed him down. At last, he was in the main lobby; he could hear the zombies he had pulled from various parts of the building slowly making their way down the stairs.
The sick grin he wore across his face never left him as he looked on the hastily barricaded door in the front of the lobby.
“COME IN! COME IN, ALL OF YOU!”, he yelled as he pulled the various objects blocking off the door. Matt smashed the glass panes before he pulled the doors open, throwing the objects that were barricading the door a second ago into the street to make some noise. He called out to the walking dead.
Undead from several blocks away heard his noises and began to make way to the building.
Matt never stopped once to think if there were any survivors barricading themselves in their apartments, but he didn’t care anymore. He was infected as far as he knew and he wasn’t going to become one of them.
He looked at the stairs, the sick grin still on his face. He began to see the first of the dead making their way into the lobby.
He ran over to the shambling monster and shoved the pointed end of his broken weapon into it’s head.
He laughed hard and loud at the slaughter.
“I AM NOT YOU!”, he yelled at it. He watched it go down and he stamped his foot on it’s head, feeling it’s decayed and soft skull give way under his foot. He took a sick pleasure from it.
He saw a door that read, “staff only” on it. He ran to it and turned around for a quick second. The open door was allowing dozens of zombies into the lobby; he didn’t have much time now.
He ran through the door, stabbing a zombie waiting inside quickly with the weapon.
He saw a hot water tank, with the pilot flame still lit. Near it were several natural gas pipes and a large propane tank.
“COME ON!”, he yelled with a great urgency at the monsters.
Looking at the dated water heater, he pulled a large metal lever all the way into one direction. The flame grew huge and the lever snapped off.
A few of the undead made their way into the room.
“You’re all going to love this”, he said to them.
The big flame in the corner of the room lit things up nicely, he was able to see each and every decayed feature on each undead ghoul. Missing teeth, pieces of bone sticking out, blood trails all over the floor. He was clearly not the first in here.
“This is it, the end of all things”, Matt thought to himself as he smiled at the undead walking towards him.
He counted at least forty of them walking in and in the lobby from what he could see.
Matt didn’t say a word. He just smiled his sick, little grin and began smashing the natural gas pipes that were along the walls of the room, he heard the telltale hiss that showed his plan was working.
The huge fire began to flicker and the air began to stink.
He lifted the propane tank and turned the knob, a loud hiss sounded from the tank. Matt held it high over his head. All the sound left the room. All he heard was pure silence.
It was the most blissful and calm moment that Matt had experience since it all began. He breathed in deep and smiled.
He took a second to look at his injury.
It was then he noticed the single slit going down his arm. He wasn’t bitten, but scratched from the window.
“Well, fuck me”, Matt said. Looking at the horde approaching him, they closed in on him and grabbed at his arms and clothes.
“The end of all things…”, he said quietly as he felt teeth sink into him. He threw the propane tank into the flame.
He heard nothing at all, but saw only the white flash.
“The end of all things…”
Karma
Kara squeezed Margie’s hand hard and ran with her.
“We need to leave this place, and NOW!”, Kara yelled.
“Wait, Kara, we need to go back for them. They weren’t infected. They can help us!”, Margie said as she tried to pull her hand back.
Kara threw her hand down.
“Listen! The exit is right there. We need to get out while we still can! Who knows how many of those things are out there right now!”, Kara exclaimed.
“Look, they are attracted to noises above all else, Kara. I’m sure we can all find a way to distract them and come out with people that can help us!”, Margie said with hushed urgency.
“Margie, I’m done with you, and I’m done with this. If you’re going to stay in this…this death trap, I won’t holding your hand when you end up like…”
“Don’t you say it!”
“Like, Tommy. He didn’t need to die, but he was stupid, and he got himself killed, and I. Will. Not. End up like that! Do you hear me!”, Kara stormed off onto the exit. A loud crunch filled the air, and Kara looked back with a pale and scared look on her face.
Margie covered her mouth.
Kara screamed.
On the floor was a half of a ghoul greedily holding onto Kara’s leg, chewing a chunk of her calf, missing her muscle and weakened by the blood loss, Kara fell to the ground. The ghoul crawled its way up her body and bit a chunk of her side off and began to chew as it crawled up her torso and clawed her face before it took a bite of her cheek.
Kara screamed in agony as her blood poured out of her. The creature all but ignored Margie as it was focused on Kara’s screaming.
Margie was stunned in terror. The monster bit into Kara’s face again, ripping out one of her eyes, chewing it. A pop filled the air.
“H-h-h-help. M-Margie. I-I can’t see”, Kara made out.
Margie walked over to Kara with her gun in hand. She felt the cold metal in her hand. Kara’s screams were slowly fading away from her mind. She looked at her last companion’s face, rather, what was left of it. Blood, veins, facial muscles were all becoming a blur to her.
Kara reached her arm up and touched Margie’s thigh.
Her words were just a garbled mess at this point.
Margie pointed her gun at Kara’s head. Kara let go.
Bang
Bang
One for Kara and one for the monster that took her away.
Margie put the gun back into her pocket, she made the sign of the cross, and then she briskly walked back up to where the two men were.
She arrived, seeing the one with the shotgun sitting next to his semi-conscious friend.
“Excuse me”, she quietly said.
He aimed the gun at her. “Come to finish with what you’ve started?”, he said. “No.” He lowered the gun. “What do you want though?”
“My name’s Margi…”