ShowerKrogan

  We sprinted hand-in-hand across the street. I kept my head as low as I could while we moved. Those decaying monsters were a problem, but catching a stray bullet from someone panicking was a major concern right then.

  We crouched down and used the side of an SUV as a shield. From there, I dared to look down the sidewalk. There were dead bodies strewn about. Most of the bodies looked like normal people who got caught by a decayed but none of them looked to pose an immediate threat to us. I squeezed Mal’s hand to get her attention; I gestured with my head in the direction to move, and we took off running down the sidewalk.

  The windows in the buildings around us cttered audibly from the roar of helicopters flying overhead. They drew the attention of humans and the decayed alike. Three bck helicopters went soaring past us. They flew low enough to the ground that I was concerned they would clip the top of a building and crash on or around us.

  As they passed, I refocused and pulled Mal back into a sprint. We arrived at an intersection. The decaying beasts seemed to be growing in number. Everywhere I looked, there were groups of them running down regur people. I counted no fewer than two dozen people fleeing down the street only to be overtaken by the decayed.

  A familiar man on a bike went flying past us down the street. I was trying to recall where I knew him from when someone threw open their car door to escape the decayed crawling through the windows on the passenger side. The man on the bike didn’t see the door in time and crashed into it, unching himself off the bike and onto the ground. The decayed were on him in seconds. He tried to squirm out of their grip, but the monsters tore through his clothing and into his gut.

  Some of the decayed pulled out his intestines by hand and up into their mouths; others dove into his gut like they were bobbing for apples. The man started screaming and noticed me watching him being eaten. That’s when I recognized him.

  “Hey, that’s the asshole who was talking shit earlier!” I said, and Mal cocked an eyebrow at me.

  “What are you saying?” she asked.

  The man saw me talking and decided he had one more thing to say to me despite being actively eaten.

  “Ahhhhhhhhhh- I fucked your mother- ahhhhhhh!”

  Before I said anything back, another zombie chomped down on his throat and crushed his windpipe in its jaws and ripped it out. It ran off with it in its mouth like a dog with its favorite bone.

  “Ah, son of a bitch!” I said and punched the air.

  “A friend of yours?” Mal asked me.

  “Definitely not. I’m just pissed he got the st word,” I said.

  “What he said about your mother? Grayson, you don’t even have a mother,” Mal said with a hand on her hip.

  “Jesus, Mal. Is now really the time for orphan jokes?” I said and shook my head as if she had offended me deeply.

  “Shut up, Grayson! You ass! It wasn’t a joke, I don’t know my mom either!” she said and looked like she was on the verge of hitting me.

  “Yeah, but at least you have a dad!” I said.

  “It’s not a competition!” she yelled back to me. I opened my mouth to say something super clever (trust me, it was brilliant), but a new victim brought my attention back to the monster attack.

  A young woman, probably not even old enough to order alcohol, screamed and froze in pce as her boyfriend was ripped from her hands and torn apart in front of her. She eventually remembered to run but tripped over his detached arm. The moment she hit the ground, multiple decayed leapt onto her and bit down on her neck, face, and arms. She was close enough to us that I instinctively took a step toward her to help when Mal pulled me back to her.

  “I-I don’t think there’s anything we can do to help them,” she said, staring at the lurid frenzy that was painting the streets in blood and intestines.

  “You’re right. It’s hard to process, but we don’t have time to waste on others. Got to keep moving,” I said and turned right at the intersection, leaving the girl behind to her fate. I tried to push the image from my mind, but I knew that vile scene would remain in my memory for a long time.

  “Becca, we’re turning right. What’s the ETA on that drone?” I said and returned to a sprint with Mal close behind. Mal had adjusted to the nightmare well enough that I didn’t need to hold her hand while we ran anymore.

  Becca: Calcuting… I should have a visual on you in ninety seconds. But… umm…

  “But, umm? I’ve never heard you hesitate like that before,” I said to Becca. Mal and I continued down the street. We slowed from a sprint to a fast jog, hugging the wall and staying low to avoid attention and stray bullets. The sound of gunshots had begun to decline; I would like to think it was because most of the decayed had died, but I could see enough of them hunting people down to know that wasn’t the case. The living in this city had been overrun.

  Becca: There seems to be… some military movement heading your way.

  “Military? What do you mean?” I asked as a deep rumble came echoing through the streets. I’d have my answer soon enough.

  Becca: It seems the military has deployed soldiers in various motorized vehicles and tanks.

  “Tanks?!” I said in disbelief. Bringing tanks into the middle of a major city? That expined the rumbling, but that kind of response could only mean that whatever was happening was worse than it seemed, and it seemed pretty damn bad.

  As I went running past an alley, I heard Mal scream out from behind me.

  “Grayson! Help! Heeeeeeelp!” Mal screeched. I whipped around to see one of the decayed was dragging her to the ground by her hair. She was fighting to keep its face from her with all she had, pushing and punching frantically as the disgusting monster gnashed its teeth at her. It snarled as it inched closer to biting her. Saliva dripped onto her hair and face as she lost the fight to push it away. “Get off me! Please!”

  I rushed over to her and bashed the handle of my gun into the side of the monster’s head. The handle broke through the weakened skull with a sickening crunch followed by a nauseating squish as it sunk into whatever was left of the brain. With a groan, it released Mal and fell to the ground. I wiped the grip of my gun on the back of my pants and slid it back into its holster.

  I pulled Mal into a hug and wrapped my arms entirely around her petite body.

  “Are you okay?” I asked her without letting go. She had her face buried in my chest and shook her head several times. I said nothing. I just held her and looked around to make sure nothing else surprised us. The violence continued all around us, but nothing was heading our way, for now.

  After several seconds, I put one hand on the back of her head and stroked her hair.

  “You’re okay, Mal. I won’t let anything happen to you, I promise,” I said and squeezed her a little tighter. I could feel her shaking through her silent sobs. After everything we just watched unfold, having one of those things grab her must have been horrifying.

  “I think it might have scratched my back. Do you think that’s a problem?” Mal asked me once she calmed down enough to speak.

  “Turn around and let me look,” I said and let her go.

  “It’s on my upper back, by my right shoulder. Just look down here,” she said and tried to pull the top of her hoodie down enough for me to see.

  “I can’t see anything like this. Just turn around real quick and pull your hoodie up. I promise I won’t look or anything weird. We don’t have time for that,” I said and started pulling up the back of her hoodie.

  “Wait—” she started and then covered her face with her hands.

  “Mal…what the actual hell is this?” I asked and let my mouth hang open. Her back was covered in dark-colored bruises and what looked like burns. There was more damaged skin than not.

  She spoke in a hesitant whisper. “It’s like I told you. They weren’t happy with you leaving. They… took out their frustrations on me. Threatened our friends and my dad and sister if I even spoke to you. You know, my dad and sister are all I have left of my family. You know what they’re capable of. I couldn’t risk it.”

  “Mal… I’m so sorry. I had no idea that they would resort to anything like this,” I said, refusing to avert my gaze. I was taking in every bit of pain they inflicted on her, burning it into my memory never to forget.

  “It’s fine. I’m out now. Even if it took all this happening. I won’t leave your side again… if that’s okay.” Her cheeks had a faint tint of red, and she avoided eye contact. She pulled her hoodie back down and looked at my feet.

  I pulled her back into a hug, careful to avoid touching any injuries on her back. Boss and the others were probably all dead now. Mal and I got out quickly, but there was a good chance they all got caught by those monsters. I never saw them leave when I looked back either. But if they did somehow survive, I’d kill them. I would violently kill every single one of them. How did Ned let this happen? He promised me that he would look after her.

  I needed to focus. We were still exposed and needed to get to safety before I dwelled too much on this.

  “No, you won’t. You’re stuck with me for good,” I said, and it was her turn to give me a squeeze.

  We let go of each other, and Mal started rubbing her arms again and looked at the ground next to me.

  “The scratch didn’t look too bad,” I said. “But with their rotting skin, we’ll want the doctor to take a look once she finds us. Don’t want some kind of nasty infection. Speaking of which, we need to keep moving.”

  I turned to keep moving and spied a drone hovering about twenty feet in the air.

  “Becca? I assume that’s you?” I waved at the drone.

  Becca: Hello Grayson, I have located you.

  “Yes, I can see that. This is Mal,” I said and gestured behind me.

  Becca: Hello Mal. Grayson speaks frequently about you. Almost as frequently as Bryce Dals Howard.

  What was this AI saying? She was lucky I was the only one who could hear her. I looked back and saw Mal waving shyly at the drone.

  “Becca says hi,” I told her. “And nothing else.”

  “Can she hear me if I say hi back?” Mal asked me, and I nodded. “Oh, hello Becca. Nice to meet you.”

  Becca: I like her. She has a conventionally attractive face and an alluring body despite her small stature. She is what I believe people would cssify as adorable. I want to pinch her cheeks.

  “Well, you don’t have working hands yet, and I’m not saying all that. Not the time or pce. Also, maybe a little offensive,” I said while giving the drone a stern look.

  “What did she say?” Mal asked and cocked her head to the side slightly.

  “She says you’re pretty and we need to go.”

  “Oh, thank you, Becca!” Mal’s cheeks had once again turned a light shade of pink, but she smiled and waved at the drone. Then she looked back at me and asked, “So, Becca is inside a drone?”

  “No, she’s controlling it remotely from her server back at the facility. She has a body being constructed, but she can’t walk around much yet. But she can be a lot of help despite that,” I expined to Mal. “Lead the way, Becca. Where’s the doctor?”

  A loud explosion could be heard near where we started.

  Becca: I have located the doctor.

  I rubbed my face with both my hands and breathed in through my nose and slowly exhaled out through my mouth.

  “What is she doing?” I asked Becca.

  Becca: Looking for you.

  “With explosives?!”

  Becca: Please follow me. I will forward our location to her.

  Becca began moving the drone down the street. We were able to follow the drone at a comfortable jogging pace.

  Becca: The doctor has informed me that military personnel have engaged with a horde of zombies not far from where you escaped.

  “I don’t think you’re supposed to say the ‘Z’ word, but I’ll let it slide. Hopefully, by the end of the day, this nightmare will be contained,” I said and felt a little relief wash over me. I had started to think that this was the beginning of the end for us all.

  Becca: Unlikely. This is not an event contained within this city. We will discuss more at the facility. Will Mal be joining us there?

  “Yes, Mal will be staying with us from now on. Please prepare her room for her,” I said and tried to prevent the worst-case scenario from dominating my mind. Not contained in the city? How bad was this?

  Another helicopter soared by at bzing speed. I could hear its whirling bdes long after I lost sight of it. Another helicopter followed less than a minute ter. I kept my eyes directed to the sky, looking to see if any more were going to be flying by.

  What I saw was an abundance of pnes in the air. More than I had ever seen at one time. They must have been trying to get people out of here while they still could. I would assume the military would want full control of airspace, but with how strange this situation was, nothing would surprise me.

  “Oh, my God. Grayson, do you see that?” Mal pointed to a pne in the distance that had turned sideways and was angled toward the ground. I stopped jogging to watch. My hands pushed my hair back off my forehead and stopped at the top of my head. I was frozen there, watching the pne careen straight down. The nose of the pne collided with the base of a hill and erupted into a pilr of fmes.

  Becca: Grayson, we must keep moving. More of the decaying humans (totally zombies) are approaching from several directions.

  I didn’t respond. I just watched the fire spreading from the pne crash. Emergency responders wouldn’t be avaible to put that out. How long will it burn? No one on board would have a chance of survival in that wreckage. I would assume many were dead before the wreck happened with the way it went down. I wondered if there had been some of the decayed onboard.

  I looked down when I felt a soft tug on my shirt. Mal, with a horrified expression painted on her face, had grabbed my arm with one of her hands; the other hand was covering her mouth.

  Yet another helicopter approaching drew my attention away from the pne crash. It approached at a much lower altitude than the others.

  “Oh shit, Mal. Look at that!” I had noticed bodies clinging onto the side and the bottom of the helicopter. A few bodies fell or jumped off the side of the helicopter as it started spinning. Decayed trying to get to the people inside? Or people abandoning the helicopter because of the decayed on board?

  Before I could think about it too long, the helicopter jerked into a sudden turn and was now headed directly at us. It began spinning out of control, flinging bodies in every direction.

  “Oh damn! Mal, run!” I barely had time to shout before everything turned fuzzy.

  I remember bolting into the middle of the road, the whining of the helicopter’s engine, the roar of the explosion when the helicopter smashed into the front of the building behind us, the fsh of heat from the fmes, being lifted off my feet, and the crunch of my body smming into the car across the street.

  Then everything went bck.