YouTube Goes Zombie

Chapter 7

Let me explain something about gunshots. In the beginning of the apocalypse, gunshots were rare. If you heard one, your head turned to the source. If you were talking to someone, you stopped. Curiosity took over and you went to see who shot the gun, and if anyone was killed. Later in the apocalypse, if you heard a gunshot you ran and tried not to draw attention to yourself. Whoever's behind that gun won't hesitate to shoot you if they catch you. You don't look back, just run in the opposite direction and try to find a hiding place. I did neither of those things when I heard the gunshot.

"Zack!" I yelled, assuming it was him behind the gun, and potentially shot Ian.

"Your friend is dead." Comes a high pitched voice from behind the toll gate.

I stiffen, side stepping in front of Yukon.

"Go." I whisper, and push him towards the camp.

Time slows down. Life is like a slow motion video. My katana scrapes against the sheath as it slides out. It's in front of me now, ready to kill someone. I take off, my legs pushing my body forward, flying through the air. My foot hits the ground hard, and then it's back up again. My eyesight blurs with the burst of speed. Seconds feel likes hours, the world alive around me. A bird takes off from my left, flying over my head. It's wings slowly flap up and down. I let out a yell as I hurtle over the gate, running again right as my feet touch the ground. Past the toll booth and I'm in the air, spinning around and letting go of my katana when I see the body. It spins parallel to the ground and lands hilt first into the stomach of a little girl. She gasps and keels over, gun falling out of her hand. I run over, skid across the ground like a baseball player desperate to make it to home base, grab the gun and point it at her head.

"Please..." She gasps again.

I ignore her and pick up my katana, sliding it back in my sheath.

"My friend." I demand, glancing around for any bodies.

"I was just..." she fills her lungs with air for the next sentence. "I didn't want to..."

"In this world, it's kill or be killed." I turn my head away and wrap my finger around the trigger.

Before I can pull, one tiny hand grabs my wrist and the other snaps the gun out of my hand. Instincts take over, and in a flash the girl, who looks twelve, is on the ground, blood pouring out of a wound in her neck. My katana is covered in blood, and I have no recollection of what I just did. I'm standing there as the blood drips from her neck onto the pavement and the memories come back.

She pulled the gun from my hand. I reached my arm back and pulled the katana out of the sheath. In one, quick, swift move I slid it along her throat. She tried to fire the gun, but it so much shock her finger didn't even come close to the trigger and it fell out of her hand. She fell to the ground and grabbed her neck, trying to stop the bleeding. Then she took a glance at her hands, they were covered in her own blood. Her eyes rolled back in her head and she went unconscious. A couple more seconds of bleeding, and she was dead.

My emotions go down the drain. She made a threatening move, and had a more painful death. I did what I had to. Now I must forget what I did and find my friends.

"Zack!" I call out again.

"What happened?" He's standing just outside the door of one of the toll booths, looking in horror at the girl on the ground.

"It's not what it looks like, I swear I can explain." I take a step towards him, and he looks up at me with wide eyes. Before I can get to him, he ducks inside the toll booth and comes back out with Ian in a choke hold, pressing a knife against his neck.

"Explain." He demands, and I take a step back.

"She said she killed you. I came over and hit her with the hilt of my sword and took the gun from her. She took it back and I acted instinctively and... I killed her. She almost killed me, I swear it wasn't a willing choice. Me or her, and being a leader I can't just die because a twelve year old girl deserves to live more than I do." I defend myself.

"Leader?" He asks, pressing the knife harder against Ian's neck.

"Of the YouTubers, I was coming back to get you. I won a sword fight and now I'm their leader. They agreed to let me come back and get you after you shot one of them, and now they might never let you back in after you threatened to kill one of their own." I glare at him, trying to figure out how I can save Ian without killing Zack.

"Fine, take him." He pushes Ian towards me, still holding the knife.

I walk towards Ian instead of letting him come to me. When I get to him I make sure he's okay.

"Go back to the group." I order him and take another step towards Zack.

"What're you..." I swing my katana down and knock the knife out of his hand, and before it hits the ground I stick the blade under it and catch it, grabbing it before Zack can.

"I don't like you much, but I'm not going to leave you here. Your powers are an advantage to our group. If you want to survive the zombie apocalypse, you'll come with me willingly."

"Fine." He huffs and starts walking towards the camp. I follow, zombies being the least of my worries right now. Zombies are predictable, slow, and loud. Humans are unpredictable, fast, and quiet. Which would you rather get in a fight with? Yeah, me too. Which is why I'm sticking with a group of people instead of going solo. They need a leader capable of murder, whether they know it or not. How much I have changed, sometimes it shocks me. Blood splattered clothes, a murder weapon, no emotions, the kill or be killed motto, I think I would be a serial killer if the world suddenly went back to normal. My old self was shy and timid. I never went anywhere without a friend to protect me. Now my katana is my only friend. I'm lost in my own mind when I hear the crash, I look up to see the bridge crumbling into the water.