Lovers And the Dead

35

Shouting wakes, me up with a start, I fall off the couch forgetting where I fell asleep. "Shit, what the fuck is going on?" I say.

Rupert rushes out the door with a rifle in his hand. Leon rushes up the stairs. Locklin is no where to be seen. I grab my pistol and follow Rupert out the front door to the garage he's already on the roof shooting out at the highway with Locklin. Shit, there were scouts out there. Where are Aj and Matt?

My heart thuds, tears overwhelm me. I know now really isn't the time to cry but I can't stop the tears. I stand up tall, wipe my tears and head to the brush next to the gate to see if I can see the men my guys are shooting at.

I creep quietly to the gate keeping my eyes and ears open. It's hard to hear anything over the sporadic shooting. A guy stands on the other side of the gate searching for a way in. He yelps when he sees me. I close my eyes for a moment, open them, lift my pistol and fire. The shot misses, well almost, there's a gash on his arm.

"Y-you shot me!" He yells.

I growl, aim better and shoot to kill. I won't let this group hurt my family. The bullet flies through the air, digging straight into his head. I choke on a sob, I killed a living person. His head has a nasty hole, I gag. Oh that's so gross, not like the movies.

Footsteps rush towards me, I dive into the bush. Covering my mouth so no sound escapes. Locklin joins me, "You alright babe?" I nod, "Good, there's five more coming. Stay here. Shoot them if they approach the gate I'm going to cover Rupert."

"Have you shot anyone?" My voice trembles.

He smirks, "Rupert got one, I may have missed."

I grin, "It's okay. Okay go, I've got this."

"Did you grab extra bullets?"

I frown, he hands me five before he disappears almost silently. The footsteps come from the other side of the gate this time.

"Craig is dead." A man mutters.

I angle myself so I can see, two men start to drag the dead man away. I'm not sure if I should let them go or start shooting. What are the odds I actually am able to kill them both without getting shot?

With a quick deep breath, I scoot quietly out, lift my pistol and take aim. I hit the man on the left in the back. Quickly shift and shoot the other guy, unfortunately only in the arm. He screams dropping the dead man and running off down the road.

I smirk, ducking into cover and reloading the pistol. It holds nine bullets, I only have six shots left. The shooting resumes from the men for a couple more minutes before going silent again.

"Rosemary?" I hear Rupert say out loud. "We got them all head back to the house, sweetheart."

I step out of the brush, falling into his arms. "It's over?" I feel stupid as the tears fall again, he holds me and pats my back.

"It's over, you did good." Instead of sending me back alone, he picks me up taking me to the house. Aj, Matt, Ollie, and Wally are back! My tears flow even faster.

"You're safe!" I cry wiggling out of Rupert's arms to tackle them.

Ollie laughs, "I know it took us a while, but we'll always return to you."

"Rupert how many?" Aj says.

"How with me, we've got to clean up before the zombies come up the hill." Rupert replies.

I stay wrapped around Matt, Ollie and Wally who hold me tight. Matt gives me one more squeeze then heads out the front door. Ollie sandwiches me between him and Wally. "What did you find?" I ask a little breathless now that my tears have stopped falling.

Wally sighs, "They cleared out. No one was there."

"Except a bunch of zombies." Ollie says. "We checked our command building then the top commanders. Nothing, they fled days ago with no clues as to where. All the trucks and helicopters are gone."

"We're on our own out here." I mutter. "Oh, Jack has company. A bus of thirsty cheerleaders showed up."

Wally laughs, "I bet Jack is having fun with that."

"Oh he is. I think Addy is going to join there group and find a residence nearby. One of their girls wants to move in with Jack."

"Oh yeah?" Ollie says.

I shrug, "I like Shawna." I wrinkle my nose catching awhiff of the two of them. "Let's go shower, you two are ripe." They laugh as wechase each other upstairs to our massive shower.