INFECTED (Click Your Poison) (91 page)

MAKE YOUR CHOICE

Y
ou pop your knee up, lifting the load higher on your chest. The plastic trash bag clings to the sweat of your arms and face. You just barely see over the drawstring ties, and your breath condenses on the sack with each belabored gasp.

It’s like you’re running a race, except you’ve suddenly gained fifty pounds. The rest of the group doesn’t look back, and you fall further and further behind. You want to scream for them to wait, but you’re exerting yourself so much you can’t spare the oxygen.

With a sickening loss of balance, you fly forward. Something grabbed onto your leg and you weren’t ready for it. You careen onto the food sack, the cans cutting deeply into your chest. The bag bursts against the pavement and your precious groceries splay out on the road. The reason for your fall is made clear as you look back—a zombie woman hangs halfway out of a drainage ditch by the curb, clutching your ankle in a bony hand.

You kick her hard in the head, freeing yourself. But it’s too late. Before you can stand, the mob has you, and in an orgy of violence, tears you limb from limb. You’re eaten alive in bite-sized chunks, devoured down to the bone, so that there’s nothing left to rise again.

THE END

A
s you hand him the assault rifle, he smiles and says, “You’re one cool bastard, Newjack,” then screams out for all to hear, “We’re still open for business, cocksuckers! Come and get it!” Then he raises the rifle, aims, holds his breath, and cracks off shots at the rate of two or three a second—all of which are somehow lethal.

You hold the shotgun at the ready, bringing it up to your eye and hovering over the nearest ghoul. Just before you’re about to shoot, the soldier blows her head off. “Watch our six!” he yells. “And don’t shoot until you see the yellow of their eyes.”

Behind you more undead approach. You rest your elbows against the Hummer’s frame and look out across the vehicle. When the first one’s within range, you point the shotgun at the vicinity of his face and
BANG,
it’s gone. For close quarters, nothing’s more effective than the shotgun.

Another three undead come at you from your right, all moans bubbling out of bloody mouths. With three shots in half as many seconds, they’re on the ground and no longer a threat.

“Nice work, Newjack! Fuckin’ badass!” The combat shotgun is amazing, but you’re acutely aware you’ll need to reload at some point. As if reading your mind, the soldier shouts, “Reloading!” You turn to cover the area while he switches out ammo. With a great roar from the shotgun, you blow another one away. “I’m good,” he says.

“Reloading!” you shout back. It takes you much longer than him, but you find some extra shells in the ammo bag and slide them into the breach below. You’ve seen enough movies to figure this one out without too much trouble.

Like the defenders of an undead Alamo, you keep the barrage away as best you can. But in the end, it’s a feckless task. They were gaining in numbers when your friend was firing a fully automatic machine gun. You’ve thinned their numbers more than others can boast, and with the hungry horde closing in, you can take comfort knowing you won’t rise again—as you’ll certainly be picked clean down to the bone. You won’t survive this.

As they overwhelm you, you’ve got one final choice.

•
 
Shoot yourself.

•
 
Get eaten.

MAKE YOUR CHOICE

Y
ou head to the nurse’s station with Hefty. Your goal is simply to collect medical supplies, but it appears he’s got something else in mind. There are several bags of blood in storage, evidently, because the Red Cross recently had a blood drive. Maybe to prep for evacuation? And yet the man has no interest in transfusions.

He takes the bags and hoists them up, mounting them on the hallway walls at various positions. He knows you’re curious, and finally decides to slake your interest. “I’ve got a theory. When you go hunting, you spread scent to attract the big bucks. So maybe this’ll work as a decoy if any get in. Come on, help me spread these around, then we can scream into some tape recorders.”

You help Hefty spread his musk, bait the traps, collect some medical supplies, then return to the group.

•
 
Head back to the gym.

MAKE YOUR CHOICE