Just a Really Bad Night

You Missed

A few hours of fitful sleep later, Clark awoke to the creaking of floorboards near him. Usually, he would have just gone back to sleep, passing off the noise as one of his friends getting up to go to the bathroom in the night. However, his sleeping bag was nearest to the door, meaning the sound would have come from behind him had it been one of them. 

The idea that someone else could be sneaking around their safe house made him force his tired eyes to open, internally cringing at their reluctance to open, his eyelashes still stuck together with tears. Squinting in the dark, he could make out a human-like shape in the doorway. His breath caught in his throat, trying to stealthily reach for the gun he kept under his pillow. He couldn't deal with this. He couldn't. Please, don't be what I think it is. This can't be happening. James killed her, he killed her, she can't be-

The figure in the doorway took a shaky step forward, another creak breaking the silence. Clark let out a quiet sob, getting his fingers around the gun and scrambling to stand up, still trying to keep quiet. James would only just shoot her again. The others would scream in terror.

Clark stepped forward, his chest tight. He kept the gun pointed at the lumbering figure, carefully stepping around it in the doorway. He had just enough room to slip past and get behind it, all movements it made too slow to grab him or anything.

"J-Just come away from them, that's right... Come out here instead... You don't want them, you want me..." 

Clark coaxed, his voice thick with emotion. The monster wearing Katie's face instinctively followed, letting out an annoyed groan. Clark carefully walked backward, guiding it further away from his sleeping friends.

"There, s-see? I'm way more interesting than them." 

He laughed dryly, his heels hitting a wall. He turned to look behind him, frowning when he found himself cornered. That wasn't a part of the plan at all, though he wouldn't let himself panic yet. They were in the room with the supplies once more, and Clark felt sick as he eyed the blood splattered against the wall where James had shot Katie.

"How are you like this, Katie? Did James miss...?" 

Clark thought out loud, eyebrows drawn up in confusion. He looked back at the zombie, who was now close enough for Clark to get a better look at in the new light. While it was very clearly Katie - or had previously been Katie, anyway - there were some very clearly zombie features that scared Clark to his core. Katie's eyes, once rosy brown and full of life, were now dull, gray, and unfocused. The bite on her side was no longer purple and bruised, but black, contrasting the sickly pale, almost blue tinge Katie's skin had taken on. 

Most notable was the bullet hole, which was right under her chin, through her neck. Clark realized with a jolt, that he remembered seeing James looking away. Closing his eyes, unable to watch himself kill his friend. Without an eye on the target, there was a chance to miss. And too distraught and eager to leave the situation for later, neither of them had thought to check on Katie's corpse to make sure it was taken care of right.

"Oh god... Oh god, Katie..." 

Clark muttered, watching as the monster bearing his best friends face lurched closer and closer. He pressed his back against the wall behind him, arms still outstretched and the gun pointed at the zombie's head. His hands were shaking so badly, he wouldn't be surprised if the shot was missed yet again.

"I wanted to save you," 

Clark said softly, shaking his head. He found himself unable to look away from the dead eyes of his best friend. 

"I wanted to save you, I did. I didn't want you to die, I didn't want this. Please Katie, if you're in there, do something, show me it's you so I don't have to shoot." 

He begged, watching with growing despair as the zombie got closer and closer. It let out a sickening gurgling noise, something so inherently nonhuman that it made Clark's hope drain away even more.

"Katie please, don't..." 

He sobbed, hardly noticing the tears on his cheeks. He slid down the wall slowly, pulling his knees up to his chest, the gun still held at an arm's length. His finger wasn't even on the trigger anymore, both hands firmly wrapped around the grip. His cries only increased in volume when the monster closed the last bit of distance between them, opening its jaw and letting out a victorious groan. Clark didn't fight back as the zombie grabbed him by his shoulders, going right in for the kill, biting down hard on the juncture between Clark's shoulder and neck. 

The human let out a pained yell on instinct, letting go of the gun with one hand to try and shove Katie away, though the zombie didn't budge. Clark was already weak, exhausted from crying and all the emotions he had gone through earlier. He hardly fought back now, feebly bracing his hand on the creature's shoulder, shoving weakly. Clark screamed in agony as the teeth suddenly sank in even further, feeling faint as he watched the blood flow from the wound and soak into his T-shirt, staining it red.

"K-Ka-Katie, Katie, s-stop..." 

Clark gasped out, shutting his eyes tight to block out the intense pain. He heard a voice shout at him from far away, and he tried to focus on that instead, anything to stop the pain.

"Clark! Shoot it! Fucking shoot it now!"