How It All Ended

Chapter 34

Once the ringing in my ears went away, I looked over at Shauna. She was standing there with a blank expression on her face. Shauna had fired both barrels of the shotgun at Dahlia. The shotgun blast hit the cannibal in her chest and sent her flying across the room. Dahlia was lying face-up, her torso a mess of blood and exposed bone.

"Shauna?" I asked. Shauna didn't give me an answer right away. She continued to stare off into space. "Hey, Shauna!"

"Yeah, what?" Shauna asked me when she snapped to.

"Are you okay? Relatively speaking, I mean."

"I guess. I had to do it, Dominik."

"Yeah, you did."

Shauna and I heard Jackson moan. She and I looked at each other. "Shit. Where did he go?" Shauna asked me.

"I don't know," I replied. "I stabbed him and then-"

"Damn!" Jackson yelled.

"He's in the kitchen," Shauna told me.

Shauna and I hurried into the room. Jackson was struggling to get back to his feet. The cannibal was trying to pull himself up, using the kitchen table for leverage.

Jackson propped himself up beside the table, turned around, and he looked at us. In the candlelight, the stab wound in his midsection looked like it was oozing dark red blood. Jackon snarled at Shauna and me. "You fuckers. You killed my Dahlia, didn't you?"

Shauna nodded. "Yeah. You're lucky I used both barrels on her. I should have saved one for you."

Jackson coughed up a little blood into his hands. "You two fucks just don't get it."

"What would that be?" I asked the cannibal.

"Everything is fucked. We have to do what we have to do, to survive," Jackon answered. "You'll see. Just wait." The cannibal stumbled towards us like he was about to attack. But, he coughed up some more blood, stumbled, and then he just collapsed on the floor face-down and died.

Shauna and I looked at Jackson's body and watched the pool of blood growing underneath him.

"Shauna, let's get Amber and get the fuck out of here," I said.

Shauna nodded. "Yeah." Then she looked at all of the items on the kitchen table, "Do you think we should take some of this stuff? We might need it."

I sighed. "Yeah, we might as well. We'll get what we can."

"You go get Amber. I'll load up here."

"Okay."

I hurried outside and up to the garage. I opened the door, but I could barely see inside. Night had fallen. There was some moon and starlight, but the visibility outside wasn't the best.

"Amber?" I called out.

She came running out of the garage and practically leaped into my arms. "We heard the gunshot. I started thinking the worst."

"Yeah. Don't worry, though. We're okay. Those cannibals, on the other hand? Not so much."

Shauna walked outside with a backpack in each hand and one strapped to her back. She dropped the packs when she saw Amber. The two of them hugged.

Shauna handed me my baseball bat. "I believe this is yours."

"Thanks, Shauna," I responded.

Two more people emerged from the garage. A skinny, short man and a woman. They stood there, looking at the three of us in the darkness.