Begin and End - a zombie short ⚒

Part 7

After a few minutes of struggling through trees and bushes, Brian began to doubt if he'd heard anything at all. Then a second cry sounded, just a few feet off through the trees. He stalked his way until he came to a clearing.

Two people stood, one struggling and the other working to restrain. The slighter of the two was losing ground, a person he barely identified as Shauna because of the deep determination on her face, coupled with her bare upper body. Her breasts bounced while she grappled against a large masked figure.

Brian could tell she was tiring. Just as he was about to step in, Shauna drove a small knife through her attacker's chin, who dropped to his knees, gurgling and clasping his throat. Shauna kicked the knife in deeper, and he fell over.

Like that, it was over, but that didn't stop her momentum. Shauna picked through the man's pockets, finding a shirt and putting it on.

"Hello, Brian," she rasped.

The casual words startled him, as did the second body on the ground.

He recovered enough to ask, "Did they..." he couldn't quite say what he meant, but settled on, "...hurt you?"

Shauna shook her head. "Not really. Not like they hurt Gavin."

She rifled through the pockets of the other body.

The improbability of the scene hit him hard, and he said, "You killed them, both."

It was mostly Brian sharing his thoughts, but it came out sounding like an accusation.

Shauna met his gaze, eyes level. "I did what needed to be done."

She began to walk away, but collapsed mid-step. Brian settled next to her in the dirt, offering her a water bottle. As she drank, he couldn't help asking,

“Have you killed before?”

“Have you?” she countered.

“No.”

She thought for a minute. “I’ve taken people out when necessary.”

"Is that how you justified your old life?"

Shauna didn't stop drinking until the bottle was empty. She also didn't answer until she'd tucked the bottle in her knapsack.

"How long have you known?"

A question with a question. And she’d done it twice. He hated that.

"Doesn't matter. Why did you betray your country?"

Shauna chuckled in a way that made Brian want to hurt her. "I leaked information, yes. Lowly speech writer that I was, I still noticed everything that was going wrong, and I couldn't sit there and do nothing."

Each word cost her, he could tell, but he pressed her anyway.

"How do you know that your actions didn't cause all this," he swept his arm around, the implications clear, "all because you didn't trust in our Commander-in-Chief?"

"Come off it, dude." Shauna got up, wobbled a bit, and stared hard at Brian. "That man walked around without a clue, and whenever he did make a decision, he let his ego guide him. That's who the fuck caused this."

The explanation ended with her spitting on the ground, which seemed particularly vicious until Brian noticed it was blood. She ambled away from him, and he caught up easily.

"You can't make it by yourself, not in this condition."

Limping along, she replied, "I'll be fine, damnit. Leave me alone. Why would you follow a traitor anyway?"

Brian answered her honestly. "Because I've got no one else."

She seemed to accept that.

"Let's get a move on it, Brian, we're almost there."

~*~