The Fall of Society (The Fall of Society Series, Book 1) (22 page)

           
“Shit!”
Adam sputtered.

           
He
cycled the weapon to load another round, but it jammed. Adam didn’t know that
the primer that discharged had enough power to push the projectile out of the
shell casing and into the beginning of the barrel, thus blocking the next round
from loading.

           
The
walker was almost on top of Lauren; there was no time, so Adam turned the
weapon around like a baseball bat and charged the dead thing. He bashed it in
the back of the skull, and it dropped to the ground. Adam raised the weapon’s
butt stock and brought it down on the walker’s head; jelly-like matter splattered
all over, and Adam did it two more time before he was satisfied that it was
dead. He was breathing hard from exertion, and then he looked behind
Lauren—“Jesus!”

           
Lauren
turned and saw six walkers coming for them a couple doors down—she turned
back to Adam and wanted to scream, but covered her mouth and pointed behind him.
He turned and saw two more ahead of them.

           
“Run!”
he shouted.

           
They
ran down the street as fast as they could and the dead were coming after them,
but they were mainly slow movers that could barely keep up, but then more
appeared—

           
Faster
ones
…

           
The
dead were coming out of every door that they ran by, and there were a couple
dozen of them now; more were coming because of all the commotion. Adam and
Lauren kept running down the street—they actually had no idea where they
were going—and then they had to change direction when twenty walkers and
runners appeared down the block ahead of them.

           
“This
way!” Adam yelled.

           
Lauren
followed him down the only option they had left.

           
An
alley
…

           
Their
bare feet slapped against the dirty pavement as they ran for their lives down
the alley and they were both exhausted, but they had to keep going. The
alleyway ahead turned and before she took the corner—Lauren looked back and
saw at least a hundred corpses coming after them. They got around the corner
and saw that the alley
ENDED
a
hundred feet ahead. Three buildings boxed them in, making this alley a death
trap.

           
“Oh
my God!” Lauren cried out.

           
Adam
panicked. “Check the doors!”

           
They
tried all the doors and every one of them were locked tight. The screeches of
the dead were getting louder from around the way and then the first one came
around the corner and charged straight for them. Adam used the machine gun and
bashed the fast mover’s face in—gelatin globs of blood peppered him.

           
The
rest would be there in seconds…

           
Adam
looked for any method of escape and saw a trash bin against the back wall of a
one-story building; the roof was only about ten feet past the top of the trash
bin.

           
“There!
The trash bin!” he shouted.

           
They
ran to it, and a very decayed corpse that was inside it stood and reached for
Lauren. She screamed, and Adam slammed the lid on its head. It dropped down,
and he quickly closed the other lid.

           
“Climb
on it!” he shouted.

           
They
both climbed on top of the trash bin and Adam threw the machine gun on top of
the building’s roof, and then he dropped on his knees.

           
“We
have to get on that roof, stand on my shoulders! Quick!” he said.

           
She
placed her feet on his shoulders and Adam stood up, lifting her toward the
roof.

           
Lauren
tried to grab the roof’s edge but it was a couple feet beyond her reach.

           
The
dead came around the corner
…

           
Two hundred of them
…

           
“Pull
yourself up, Lauren!” Adam shouted.

           
“I
can’t reach it!”

           
Adam
strained his neck to look up, and he saw that she wasn’t that far from reaching
it.

           
The
stenches surrounded the trash bin and stretched their arms to claw at Adam’s bare
legs. The first one scratched his calf, and drew blood. Adam held his cry of
pain. “Stand on my hands, Lauren!”

           
She
began to cry as she carefully placed her feet in the palms of his hands and
Adam used all his remaining strength to extend his arms up and get Lauren to the
roof’s edge. She was able to reach it, got a grip, and pulled herself up on the
roof. Another undead corpse grabbed Adam’s other leg and tore into it; he couldn’t
hold his pain and cried out in agony. Lauren fell on her face on the roof, but
she quickly got up and hung half her body over the edge to reach for Adam.
        
“Grab
my hand!” Lauren shouted.

           
He
was seven feet down and they couldn’t reach one another.

           
It
was too late for him.

           
The
dead were crazed for blood and flesh as they ripped his calves apart.

           
“Nooo!”
she screamed.

           
Lauren
grabbed the machine gun, aimed down at the dead and pulled the trigger, but
nothing happened. She dropped it and kept trying to save him.

           
“Addaam!”

           
He
reached up for her and dragged his breaking nails into the wall.

           
“Lauren!”
Adam shouted in horrid pain. “Don’t look!”

           
His
shredded legs gave out, and he dropped to his knees.

           
The
cannibals struck and sank their putrid claws into his back, pulled him down,
and he fell back into the dead pile. Dozens of decaying arms engulfed him and
kept his body from touching the ground, like a crowd surfer at a concert of
death, they began to tear him apart.

           
“No!
Adam!” she screamed at the top of her lungs.

           
They
bit into his arms, his legs, his chest, his face, his feet, and his scalp as
they ate him alive. Red sprayed everywhere, on the decayed faces of the dead as
they aye, and his warm blood nourished their dead skin. Coats splattered all
over Adam’s face, and his wide eyes could see Lauren watching in absolute
terror.

           
“Don’t!—Look!—Lauren!”
he gurgled out in blood.

           
But
she couldn’t stop looking, even though her tears blurred her vision, she kept
looking and screaming in utter despair, but the cacophony of the dead drowned
out her voice.

           
She
didn’t notice for several seconds the
two
men
who stood next to her. Brought outside by the noise, they’d came to
check.

           
It
was Ardent and Bear.

           
Lauren
finally saw them next to her, but didn’t react or care about these two
strangers, she was too busy watching the love of her life being killed. When
she saw them, they both raised their hands, palms up, to show that they meant
her no harm. Lauren saw the pistol that Bear had in his holster, and she
grabbed it out of desperation. They did nothing to stop her, they just watched
as she took aim at Adam’s head with the pistol, but her vision was very bad.
Adam was still barely alive as he watched her aim down at him.

           
She
fired and struck him in the chest.

           
She
cried out in frustration and fired again—

           
And
hit him in the forehead, ending his pain.

           
The
dead continued to rip his body apart, and they fought each other for pieces of
flesh like hyenas in a pack kill.

           
Lauren
fired at them as she screamed in rage.

           
The
gun’s slide locked back empty.

           
But
she kept pulling the trigger.

           
Ardent
and Bear didn’t know what to do, and then Ardent tried to stop her, but she
pulled away from him in anger and kept firing the empty pistol.

           
Bear
grabbed another pistol magazine from his pocket and offered it to her.

           
Lauren
took it, ejected the empty one, and loaded the fresh one.

           
She continued to fire down at them
…

GOODNIGHT

L
auren looked down the barrel of her AK-47
, Adam’s machine gun, she really didn’t
care if it was clean—it wasn’t the barrel that she was looking into—she
was looking into herself, to see if she had anything left of her soul.

           
She
knew that she didn’t.

           
When
they took Adam from her, they took her, as well.

           
She
was dead, like them, a soulless creature.

           
And
like them—all she wanted to do was kill—as many of them as she
could.

           
She
reassembled her weapon in seconds with methodical accuracy, all the pieces
locked into place perfectly, and she was content.

           
Alan
had already left back to the comfort of his shop in the basement. Derek and
Milla were bunkered down in a corner of the cafeteria. Ardent and Bear just finished
reassembling their M-4s from cleaning, while Tom and Anthony were about to call
it a night. “You sure you guys don’t wanna crash in some of the offices?” Tom
asked.

           
“No,
thanks,” Bear said.

           
“The
offices aren’t much for sleeping, but they’re more comfortable than this
cafeteria, at least.” Tom added.

           
“Thanks,
but we usually sleep in the same area; it’s safer that way.”

           
“As
a unit?” Anthony said.

           
“That’s
it,” Bear answered.

           
“Okay,”
Tom said. “I’m gonna be on first watch for our group, so that includes you, if
you all wanna get some rest.”

           
“We’ll
have someone on watch here, too,” Bear told him.

           
“Alright
then, good night.”

           
“Good
night, Tom, and thanks for your hospitality,” Ardent said.

           
“You’re
welcome,” Tom answered and then him and Anthony left.

           
“So…”
Bear said.

           
“So…”
Ardent repeated.

           
“Who’s
gonna get first watch?” Bear asked.

           
“That’s
the question,” Ardent said.

           
“It’s
between you and me, this time.”

           
“True,”
Ardent said. “I’ll rock, paper, scissors you for it?”

           
“Really?
You’re on.”

           
They
were about to compete until Lauren slapped a fresh magazine into her cleaned machine
gun and racked the bolt back. “I’ll take first watch,” she said.

           
“You
sure?” Bear asked.

           
She
gave him a definitive look.

           
“Okay
then.” Bear said.

           
Ardent
and Bear made their makeshift beds on the floor and laid down to rest. “Good
night, Lauren,” Ardent said.

           
“Night,”
she replied.

           
Most
of the small candles had burned down to nothing, and the ones that didn’t,
Lauren blew out. Only the emergency lighting remained on, and that barely lit
the room, which was how she liked it—to be in the darkness with her weapon
at the ready. She leaned against a wall and closed her eyes for a moment, and
heard Adam’s last words…

           
Lauren!
Don’t look!

           
She
intended to kill as many of them as she possibly could…

           
Millions.

           
Outside,
the lingering dead were trolling the streets in the night. Lauren couldn’t see
them because of the hospital’s stone wall and they couldn’t see her, either,
but she could hear their growls and moans.

           
As
she held her weapon tightly, she heard the dead speak to her—

           
Pick me, Lauren! Kill me first!

           
No,
Lauren, not him, me!

           
Blow
my brains wide open, Lauren!

           
Lauren,
please, put me out of my dead fucking misery!

           
She
squeezed her weapon’s pistol grip.

           
Don’t worry, I’m gonna get all of you dead motherfuckers
,
she thought.