Kids Never Die

Chapter 33: The End

I ran out to the helicopter to hear gunshots. Gavin shouted out in pain. I sprinted towards the helicopter where Gavin was sitting. As I reached in, his body fell on me, and the side facing away from me was drenched in blood. I caught him, and then peering up, I saw Nick holding the shotgun. He directed the barrel towards me.

I let go of Gavin and quickly snatched the barrel. I gave the gun a quick tug and ripped it from his hands. I struggled to turn it around and face it back towards him. In my haste, Nick kicked me in the face and the helicopter began to rise. I lost my footing in the sandy road and fell to my back with a thud.

A dust cloud of sand rose around me like a growing forest due to the updraft from the helicopter blades. Stumbling, I threw myself to me feet, and after stretching my back, I reached for the leg of the helicopter. It was ascending quickly now and I had to jump, but I made my grip and held on tight. My feet left the ground and I was dragging my own weight with my arms.

I pulled myself up slowly too meet eyes with Nick. He took his foot from under the seat and with a swift flick, he kicked me in the face. I lost grip in my right hand. As I was thrown off balance, I looked downwards. We were several feet off the ground now, and a fall from this hight would be paralyzing. I wiped the sweat dripping from my forehead, then strained to pull myself up again.

Once more, Nick's fast foot work caused a kick, this time to my upper lip. I felt a deep cut and blood filled my mouth, dripping faster than rain water. It was warm and the taste if salt hung heavy. Nick rose his foot once more, this time bringing his foot to his chest. As he stepped downward, I removed my right hand and caught his foot. Then, shifting my weight, I transferred my left hand around his ankle.

He lost his seat and began to slide out the side of the helicopter. His only grip now was on the control stick, which was now veering to the right because Nick was clinging too it to hold himself and I up. I swung my foot around the leg of the helicopter, and caught it in the arch of my foot. Lifting my opposite leg, I was able to pull myself into the helicopter. I moved my hands to the seat.

With my weight off, Nick pulled himself back in, and the helicopter leveled out. He turned to me, and pulled a knife out of his pocket. "It's time to end this shit once and for all." He jumped towards me, the knife risen above his head.

I caught his wrist as he lunged at me. "What the hell are you doing man?!" I shouted over the corse air and the helicopter engine.

"You are the hero here. You've always been the fucking hero. You heard that Hannah chick. You're the boy that survived. And in the end, no ones gonna remember the rest of us." He wrestled towards me, and his strength was overcoming my own. The knife was inches from my neck and veering closer with every breath I exhaled. "Well now it's my turn to be the hero. I leave you all here to die while I shut down the power station and reestablish society."

I clenched my eyes shut and with one last thrust of energy, I threw him off me. "That's where you're wrong. It's not just me. It's all of us. It doesn't have to end this way."

He looked to me, then to his knife. "I'm afraid it's too late for that." He muttered. His voice was a lot lower than before. He looked down. His brow furrowed deeply, and his upper lip quivered. "This is for Katie." He whispered.

"Oh shit!" I looked out the side of the helicopter behind him. We were dangerously close to the power lines of the station. The blades chopped the air and I quickly got a plan. I looked left then right, scanning the area. Nick looked behind him and noticed the same, the he looked back to me. I finally spotted the control stick. Nick and I, standing a few feet apart on the small cockpit of the helicopter, were only inches apart from the stick.

We mutually looked at the stick and back up at each other. I knew he still had the knife in his hand and I made a move for the controls, that was it for me. I had no choose though. It was my chance to stop the zombie apocalypse.

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath in. I savored it, as It may be my last. Finally, I took a stance, and jumped forward. My hands quickly wrapped around the control stick and immediately jammed it to the right. Nick was just as quick as I was and the moment my hands touched the controls, his knife plunged into my right side.

I let out a howell and threw my hands up. The blades of the helicopter made contact, severing the power lines, then entangling them in the blade. There was a large, loud explosion as the engine in the helicopter went out and we were sent into a tailspin. All was hazy now. The cockpit was consumed in fire and there was a loud buzzer. Then a jolt of my body and a loud crash. Then all went black.

My eyes opened very slowly, and my view was highly obstructed. It took my nearly five minutes to realize that I was not on the ground. There was a sound of metal bending and cracking above me and I soon realized that I was hanging from some severed power cords wrapped around my waist. When I noticed where I was, I gripped the cords tightly. My first thought was to look down. I was hanging about a yard above a small metal platform.

Nick was lying across the platform, and he appeared to be unconscious, but breathing. Beside him, holding on the platform was a wall of steel girders that reached high above me, much like a radio tower. There was a sign that said "warning, High Voltage" and was attached to a box that looked like a home circuit breaker on a much larger scale. The steel beams were holding the platform that Nick was on about ten feet off the ground, and had a ladder to the platform that had been destroyed by the tail of the helicopter.

Speaking of the helicopter, where was it? There was an intense heat coming from above me and every minute or two a piece of flaming debris fell. I looked upwards, and looming above me, caught on the steel beam was the cockpit of the helicopter. Three of the four propeller blades were missing, but the one continued to spin.

I untangled myself from the cords and dropped myself to my feet. Pain shot up my legs. I was weak and loosing blood fast. I pulled the knife from my side and dropped it beside Nick. Then, I stumbled over to the circuit box. I tore off the high voltage sign and began to quickly flip switches in a sporadic attempt to shut down the power station. The pain in my side was pulsing and blood poured like a sea down my leg.

Then the pain spread to my back. I fell into thee circuit board and and an arm wrapped around my neck. I collapsed to my knees. The knife released from my back and quickly pierced my skin again. A burning sensation over took my body. Sweat drenched my upper lip. The veins in my forehead strained and my muscles locked up.

Again he stabbed me in the back, and a fourth time and a fifth. Blood spattered the wall around me and formed a pool around my legs on the platform. He shoved the knife deep and I could feel it's cold kiss in my lower back. The blade twisted and it felt as if needles rolled up my back. My teeth clenched shut and my eyes glazed over. I was bleeding so bad that Nicks arm around my neck was drenched in the rose colored syrup.

"Any last words?" He asked as my skin tore at his icy blade.

"Here am I," I muttered. He put the knife to my neck "Send me!" I shouted, then I grabbed his wrist and rose the knife into a hanging wire. There was a crack and electricity shot through his body. I fell to my back behind him and watched him shake and shutter. The knife shot from his hands and he fell forward onto the circuit board.

Smoke rose from his body and he continued shaking on the ground. His clothes were torn and parts on fire even. He was still breathing though. He stood up slowly, then turned to me. Part of his face gad been burned off. His black charred skin crusted around his eye and part of his lower jaw was visible. The skin on his face was shades if black, red and purple and blood leaked from his lips.

I looked left and right, scanning my surroundings for the final time. Then a statement from a friend hung in my mind. I reached into my pocket. "One shot." I whispered. "Make it count." I rose the black M1911 in front of me and closed my eyes. With a tug in the tendon of my index finger, Nick stumbled back into the circuit box. Sparks flew and bolts of blue lightning crashed around me. The box exploded and the fireball engulfed Nick, rapidly moving towards me. The platform was taken right out from under me and before I knew it, I was back in the sandy street.

Giant sheets of metal and flaming balls crashed to the earth around me. I could feel a pool of blood consuming me in the street. In my throat, a warm, thick liquid arose, choking me. I coughed heavily. Blood spilled down the side of my face. My vision shifted in and out, and the last thing I caught sight of was Hannah. Then all went black