As the door started to open, the mallet's broken ends clashed, giving Silas enough time to jump out of her way. The flame of her lighter reflected in his wide eyes as she paused long enough to see that the person on the other side of the door was indeed a monster before pressing down on the deodorant spray can in her right hand. The chemicals sprang forward, running into the lighter Alin had already lit with her left hand. Just before the fire reached the eyes of the monster, Silas grabbed Alin's arm and pushed it down. The fire hit it's stomach, burning a hole in its belly, slowly creeping up it as it stumbled in, activating the kitchen's fire alarm as it did.
While Alex instinctively reached for a cloth to shut of the screaming alarm, she dodged a pale arm before its body collapsed to the floor. She stared at the burning body. Silas stared too, though not in horror. Alin looked at the makeshift flamethrower in her hands.
"You killed him." Alex uttered, drowned out by the alarm and the crackling fire.
Silas looked at Alex, "what?"
Alex turned to Alin, "you murdered him!" Alin blinked. She looked at her lighter, then at the burning body. It's face, with black blood oozing from its mouth and blood falling from its eyes, burned into the darkness of her eyelids.
"Look at that thing," Silas pointed at it with his pronged fork, "look at it closely."
"Is that thing human?" Alex got her first good look at it. Its haunting yellow eyes. Its pale face, blue like a corpse. Its limbs moved around, clutching at air, as if they thought they could still survive if they popped off its body somehow.
"I-I don't-" she couldn't find the words, yet she couldn't seem to stop trying to find something that made sense.
"Do you think we could get it to a doctor before it mauled us to death?"
Facts streamed through her head which had been on replay every morning and afternoon in the news.
'Hearing completely damaged.'
'Consumes the brain within 3 hours.'
'Seizes control of the nervous system.'
Silas dropped his arm. The pronged fork was useless now. Like a sword made after Goliath had been killed.
"He was dead already Alex. Let it go."
Alex nodded her head. There was no point in avoiding it, he had died long ago. Her axe clattered to the floor.
They had just killed a zombie.
Silas took a picture of the thing on his phone.
"We should probably turn off the alarm." Silas said, once the burning corpse had stopped moving and had been put out, "there could be more outside." He didn't want to say zombie.
They were infected by a parasite. Forced to move against their will. Sure he hadn't been against killing it, but he preferred to see that as a soldier killing an enemy spy. Not as killing a sick patient. Or his brother. Or his mother. He glanced at Alin.
"No point," Alex said, writing in her book, "once they are at this stage, their hearing is completely shot."
"What are you writing?" Silas asked, sitting beside Alin on the kitchen counter near the window. Alin stared outside. There were a few students already filing out of their dorm at the sound of the alarm. Some were already in comfy clothes or pajamas, though it was only 8pm.
"My analysis on him," she said, indicating the untouched corpse, "his coordination wasn't bad and he had a lot of strength but his speed was slow. So I'm guessing he had a stage 1 infection. Even still, if it weren't for Alin, we'd be dead."
"Do we start stocking up on supplies or what?" Alin asked, uttering her first words since they put out the fire, "I mean, the zombie apocalypse has begun right?"
When some of the people below started pointing up to their window, Silas pulled the blind down.
"Alin," Silas started, only to be interrupted by a loud scream.
Alex clutched her axe, only to lower it again. It was a guy. He looked at Alex accusingly.
"You... Y-you..." She rolled her eyes.
"Yes," she said, "he's dead and we killed him. We've been over this bit already A.J, stick with the programme."
"Why aren't lyou outside A.J?" Silas asked, not intending to sound threatening but achieving it all the same.
"I-I well I didn't want to wait outside in my boxers a-and I put some," there was a pause, "some pants on. B-but I saw the door was broken," he pointed over his shoulder to the door behind him but they all remembered the slamming they heard when the zombie had yet to reach the double doors and realised he must have meant the ones in the corridor, "and I heard some voices so I-I came over and I... Oh my God is he infected?"
They nodded, Alex answered, "Yep."
"With the-"
"Yep."
A.J groaned, "oh hell no."
"Look on the plus side," Alin said, "me and Alex don't need to hand in our essays tomorrow."
A look of relief dawned on A.J, "I don't need to do my presentation tomorrow."
"And I'm guessing we won't need to worry about living expenses in a couple of months." A collective sigh fell on the room.
YOU ARE READING
The Final Gamble
Science Fiction"Look at that thing," Silas jabbed his weapon at its burning, writing corpse, "look at it closely." "Is that thing human?" Alex got her first good look at it. Its haunting yellow eyes. Its pale face, blue like a corpse. Its limbs moved around, clu...
