But He Stopped Pt 2

Bad For Me

Ghouls swarmed the streets and cars. There had to be at least 100 of them, what was left of the whole damn town. Rosie was pressed against the overturned vehicle beside me, her chest heaving.

"God Hancock, my arm is sore." she grinned without mirth, blood and dirt smeared her cheek.

"Stop swinging your damn sword and get out your gun." I retorted, moving to a knee, ready to jump the vehicle. I turned to her with a smirk, "You know they say there's buried treasure here." I stood, raising the mini-gun I swiped from a Super body, "Feel like doing some digging?" I yelled over the whine of the chamber, the boom of each shot.

Movement out of the corner of my eye caught my gaze, Rosie swept around, her hand gun leveled and fired. The body went down. She turned and fired again, and again, and again. The mini-gun stopped spinning.

"I'm out!" I yelled as more ghouls swarmed, one launched itself into the car.

"Get back!" She yelled at me, grabbing my jacket and throwing me away form the car. I watched, heart in my throat as she climbed on the side of the vehicle, leaping off and onto the body of a ghoul. "It's gunna blow John!"

"Fuck." I scrambled to my feet and launched myself over the vehicle, grabbing a ghoul and smashing it's face into the pavement before grabbing Rosie's arm and pulling her through the crowd of ghouls to run around the car.

We ducked into a church just in time for the vehicle to go. I watched in awe, as always, at the small mushroom cloud that rose from the explosion. At least thirty ghouls had been wiped out, maybe fifteen more too injured to walk. I turned an incredulous gaze to Rosie, who was crawling through the demolished pews making her way to the pulpit looking for supplies. I couldn't figure her out. I had just almost witnessed the woman I love get devoured by ghouls, blown up, possibly both if I hadn't been there. Adrenaline was spiking through me, I had to calm down before I could fight the horde. Adrenaline made me stupid, clumsy. My heart was racing, my eyes couldn't settle on any one thing. Shakily I reached into my jacket, pulling out Jet and taking a hit.

"Hancock." Rosie's face screwed up in a frown as the world began to slow down.

I shrugged, a stupid smile on my face as my heart slowed and hands steadied almost immediately.

"Trying to get yourself killed?" I barked back.

I strode out into the street before her protest found any words. The radiation from the explosion bathed me as I emerged from the other side of the mushroom cloud, shot gun in hand blasting away. The drugs were a bad idea. My mind became lost in itself, I was killing on autopilot.

These were people once. I mused, flipping my knife around so I could drive it through a ghouls skull. These were me once. I chucked a cryomine, Could I just wake up once day and be feral? I fired my shot gun, taking out the last couple ghouls legs, watching them struggle on the ground to attack, heart sinking. Will I watch everyone around me die? Be surrounded by the bones of my family, watch Rosie...?

"Maybe immortality doesn't have as many perks as I thought." I brought my boot down on the fallen ghouls heads, ending their suffering.

I hoped for them, as I did all ghouls, that whatever was waiting for them beyond life was better than what they suffered here. A hand grabbed my shoulder and yanked me around. Green eyes blazed into my black ones. She was furious.

"You got high." Her voice was witheringly accusatory. "You left me back there to get ambushed."

Her insinuations sank in.

"Oh, damn Rosie I did-"

"Don't fucking talk to me." She growled, storming off.

Heart in my heels I followed.