Better off Undead

Chapter 57: Cold and Dark

"No. No, no. No no no. No no no no no. No. No! NO! No no no no nononononononono no no no no. No! Nnnnnnnnnnooooo! Noooooooo! No! Nooo. No! No! No! No! NO!"

"Eli," said Amber calmly.

"No! No no no no NO!" shouted Eli. He was stomping around the corridor, occasionally even pounding his head with his palms in time to his protests.

"Eli," Amber tried again. "It's okay."

Suddenly he dropped to his knees and slid back over to her. "Okay?" He asked, voice frantic. "Okay? It's okay? You mean that's not what I think it is?"

Amber opened her mouth to respond, but hesitated.

"Nooooooo!"

She sighed. "Eli, please. Calm down."

"Calm down? Calm down? How can I calm down Amber? You're gonna become... a... a... zombie."

She shook her head. "No I'm not."

"You're not?" His voice went extra high, and his features perked up.

She nodded at the gun that he still held in his hand even though he had completely forgotten about it. "Because you're gonna shoot me with that thing," she said.

To her surprise, and – to no lesser extent – to Eli's, he found himself laughing hysterically. "Shoot you?" he asked. "Shoot you? Are you crazy? I'm not gonna shoot you."

She grabbed his weapon hand and pulled the barrel of the gun to face her. "Please, Eli. I need you to do this one thing for me. Please. I don't want to be one of them, but I don't seem to be able to... to do the deed myself. So I need you to do it."

Eli was shaking his head before she even finished speaking. "No. Nah-uh. No way. There is no way in HELL that I am putting a bullet through your head. Forget it."

"Eli, please." She was pleading now, her voice wavering, her eyes full of tears. "Please Eli. I can't bear the thought of being one of them. Please."

He tried to pry his hand away, which proved significantly more difficult than he expected. Finally he managed to break free and took a couple steps back. He stared incredulously at Amber, his mouth hanging open.

"How... how can you even ask that of me? You know how I feel about you!"

Amber shook her head as frantically as she could manage without it causing too much pain. "But I don't feel that way toward you Eli. And I never will. I especially won't if you let me become a damn zombie! I won't even be able to feel for you then."

"I... I can't," Eli stuttered backing away.

"Eli!" Amber cried desperately.

"Look," he said pleadingly, "It's almost over, anyway. What if I'm right, and I kill the vampire king, and then everyone is restored to normal? How am I supposed to live with myself when I know I could have saved you, but instead I put a bullet through your skull?"

Amber's lips pulled back in a sneer. "And what if you're wrong, Eli? What if killing this 'vampire king' doesn't restore anything? What if there is no magical cure like you seem to think? Or what if you fail? What then, Eli? What if the vampires kill you? Or turn you? Or a zombie bites you, too? What then? You just condemn me to an eternity of wandering the earth as a zombie? I don't want that Eli! I'm not willing to risk it! Now you take that gun, you put it to my head, and you pull that damn trigger!"

Eli stood there for a long moment, watching her, his bottom lip quavering like he was about to cry. For that entire stretch of time, he was back inside of a crypt filled with the dead, standing over the body of a young girl who had been bitten by a zombie. He could see her pale skin, the sweat pouring down her face, the blood seeping between the fingers she held against her neck wound. The ballpeen hammer in his hand, raised, poised, to strike her dead...