Dante slipped down the deadly quiet street. His shoes slapped against the pavement as he ran. There were no lights, no cars, no sound. There was nothing but life and death - and Dante was running for life. He fearfully sped up near the darkened alley ways, worried of what laid behind the dim of the streetlights, which the generators thankfully kept lit.
He was out of breath to the point of collapse, which he nearly did. He knew that if he stopped, he would never start again. His head whipped around as a muffled crash echoed behind him. He heard a groan, and a dark figure stepped out of the dark. In a well practiced and fluid motion, Dante shrugged off his gun and jammed in a loaded magazine. He threw his knee to the ground, and crouched, completely still, aimed on his target.
He winced at the light click of the safety, and hoped that the...thing...hadn’t heard it too. But it had.
“Shit!” The thing grabbed a lid off a garbage can to protect himself, even though it would be pointless against a bullet. “Dude! What are you doing? Don’t fucking shoot me!” Dante stood up, grimacing, as he realized he had almost shot his friend. He put the safety back on.
“Jesus. Is it safe to come out?” “Yeah.” Dante’s voice was scratchy. He hadn’t spoken in a few days. “What the hell! Man, you knew I was supposed to be here. What the hell was that about? Fuck!”
Dante ran his hand through his hair, trying to stop shaking. “I...I thought you were one of them. I mean, you could have announced your arrival or something. I mean, come on! Really? Jan, I never realized that you were that idiotic.”
The stranger smiled slightly, unconsciously flipping his axe about his hand. “And I thought you were above name calling.”
Dante smiled, no longer fretting about Jan’s brush with death. “It’s good to have you back. Finally, I can have conversations with real, living people – not just Grey.”
Jan sputtered and choked a laugh. “You – You named your GUN!?!?!” He collapsed on a heap on the ground, laughing. “Dude! That’s golden! Your gun?”
Dante began to see the funny side of the idea of talking to an inanimate object.”It wasn’t like there was anything else to do,” He said sheepishly.
“There’s loads of -” Jan cut off suddenly. He span around, eyes wide, his axe clutched to his chest.
“Jan?” “Shut up,” Jan whispered. Dante stood still, his pulse speeding up, and his hair on end. “...Jan...?”
Jan frantically signaled him to stop talking. Dante complied.
A crash echoed in the dim around them. Jan brought his axe to the ready and crouched down, and went still.
As quietly as possible, Dante lifted his gun and aimed it towards the dark. A moan sent shivers down Dante’s spine, his gun wildly swinging around as he tried to find the source of the noise. A few footsteps were heard to the right, a few more to the left.
Jan turned around, his eyes wild with fear. He backed up slightly, beckoning Dante to move closer to him. They stood shoulder to shoulder, weapons raised, muscles taut. A roar sounded from the darkness, inducing the two boy’s fear even more.
Suddenly, the veil of darkness lifted as the faces of horror came out of the dark. The first to enter was a composition of mangled flesh – the flesh torn, internal organs swinging in the open, slightly yellowed bones sticking out at impossible angles.
The amount of damage and decomposition on these creatures differed much the same as snowflakes – the only similarities was the smudging of red around their faces. That, and the fact that they all hungered for human flesh.
Jan was the first to react to the wave of zombies, running forward and purposefully swinging his axe. He cut down a path of the monsters, wrecking a way through to the middle. Those that were killed were replaced by more, the path that was created quickly disappearing.
Dante was still in the shock of seeing so many of the zombies, not to mention the fact that his best friend just ran to his death with open arms. Almost too late, he aimed and pulled his trigger.
No bullet came out. He had forgotten to take the safety off. As his fingers fumbled over the switch, he was overcome by zombies. Teeth tore into his face, nails his arms. He screamed in pain, over and over, until his voice finally faded. He fell into darkness, feeling nothing but an insistent burning in his chest. He could feel it flow into his arms and legs, last of all, his head.
Jan stood among the carnage of the fight. He was stained red from head to foot, but somehow still alive. But he was worried. He was the only one left standing.
“Dan?” He called out. “Dan? Dan. Where are you? Dan!” He began to jog past the rows of dead, frantically calling his friends name.
His eyes rested on a crouching figure located near the gun. “Dan? All right?”
Dante looked up. His eyes narrowed as he looked at Jan.
“Dante? You okay?”
Those were the last words Jan ever said. He was completely un-prepared as Dante jumped onto him, pressing his body to the ground. He screamed once, and then the world was silent.
