I woke up to the sound of sobs. It was still dull to see, my vision was quite blurred...but I was alive. Or I could be dead, but I've long believed zombies didn't have a conscience. And so far, I was thinking.

"Don't die," I heard quietly from Stephy. I was laying in her lap. Her head was over me and she was crying. "I don't know what I would do without you, Rie...please wake up."

I reached up and poked her in the nose. "No mushy stuff," I managed through my broken face.

"OH my God!" She cried louder, hugging me tightly. "You scared the crap out of me! I was worried sick that you were dead; you were quiet and still and you started to turn really cold..."

While I was very glad that Stephy worried about me, her hug was hurting my face; I pushed her off and patted her shoulder. "It's no biggie," I thought I said. What came out sounded like a gurgle.

I sat back down and looked; we were still in the gun shop. It looked like a rhino came through and destroyed practically everything; but I noted that there was an assortment of ammo and even more guns set behind some rubble; must be ours.

"He's sorry," Stephy said quietly. "He?" I asked, staring at her. She nodded her head towards the large gaping hole at the front of the store and he was sitting there, staring out. I had to rub my eyes for a moment, although with my face hurting that wasn't such a good idea.

"It worked?" I asked quietly. Stephy nodded. "Although...he's a little different, but he's not dead anymore. He thinks, he speaks...it worked. The vaccine works even after death."

I breathed a sigh of relief. I stood up and walked over to him; I plopped down next to him and patted his back.

He turned slightly to me. He said nothing, but gave me a hug.

"Oh, it's okay," I said, patting his back. "It was just my face. It wasn't that pretty to start off with, mind you."

He chuckled and pulled away. "The end of the world hasn't quite buried your self-esteem, huh?"

"It can't be buried," I said with a grin. Although grinning hurt, so I quickly dropped it.

He hugged me again. "Thanks...for not killing me."

"Thanks for not killing me." I said back, patting him. He seemed bigger and his skin wasn't peachy; it still held a purple like tint to it. And he was only wearing a hoodie; I noted a ripped body through the unzipped jacket.

Stephy came up from behind and wrapped her arms around his neck and we all had a group hug. The best feeling was knowing one of our best friends...they were warm. They're heart was beating. They were alive.

.. ..

After loading the car with our spoils, we figured we'd go ahead and search for more weapons and maybe some food. I held my sub-machine tightly to my chest, but Stephy had no worries; her gun was strapped across her back and she didn't even touch it. I didn't get this action; usually she was just as cautious as me, but right now she was acting like she was strolling in the park. And she didn't even offer Nikki a weapon; I was sure that he'd need one, right?

"Uh oh." Nikki said, "I hear some of them coming. You two cover my back." And he started to march forward.

"Stephy!" I practically yelled, "Where is he going!? Nikki, where are you going, are you absolutely--" but Steph covered my mouth. "Shh, just watch."

As I watched, I noted a small hoard, running straight towards us. I held up my gun, ready to plow down some dead mothers but Stephy put a hand on my gun, holding it down. “Just watch,” she said. I stared at her, as an uneasy feeling flipped my stomach around and churned. Nikki was running towards them, and with a sudden war cry, he picked up a…car…and flung it on the angry dead.

My mouth fell open and Stephy stood there with a content grin on her face.

“See why I didn’t offer him a gun?” She said, looking at me. I nodded. “He’d break it.” Stephy giggled. “We have a theory…because he was already infected when you vaccinated him, he probably kept his freak strength as a Tank.”

We both just stared at him. He was jumping around, throwing cars and giant chunks of concrete he ripped up from the ground at the hoard.

“We shouldn’t make him angry,” I said. Stephy nodded. “Nope.”

.. ..

After Nikki had finished off the hoard, he came running back to us with a huge grin on his face. “Sorry that took so long,” he said, “but some of them didn’t quite want to stay dead. “It’s no problem to us,” Stephy said with a grin, “I mean at least we don’t have to worry about them later, right?”

“Of course,” He said, grinning again. I never figured that killing zombies would make him so cheerful. It was kind of strange.

“Well,” I butted in, “we were thinking of looking for some…food and maybe a bathroom. I noticed a couple apartment buildings around here…let’s check them out.”

“Good idea…you need some new clothes, Rie. The stuff you’re wearing now is barely hanging on by threads.” Stephy said.

I stared at her. “You try getting attacked by a Witch and a Tank and see how well your clothes are hanging on!”  

That called for a couple of chuckles from my comrades. We headed in a building, Nikki leading (merely because he could rip apart anyone or anything that came at us) and we made our way silently upstairs.

I tried a door. Sealed tight.

“Allow me,” Nikki said politely. He tried the door as well. Didn’t budge. He reached back and punched the door; it caved in under his freak strength and fell inside the apartment building. I merely stared throughout the ordeal. He motioned inward. “Ladies first.”

I stepped in, looking around. It was a neat little room; no blood or dead bodies lying about. It looked like a small family home…maybe newly weds. Nikki waltzed right in and plopped on the couch. “You two take your time. I’m going to rest my eyes here.”

Stephy walked in and nodded. “All right then. You go ahead.”

I walked and found a room; a dresser was against the wall. I opened it and sighed with relief. “God bless America,” I muttered. I stripped of my sad excuse of threads and put on a black shirt I found. It was a little tight, but better than nothing. I looked; my jeans were still in decent shape. No problem there. I looked around the room; I was in the master suite. I looked into another door and smiled; a bathroom. I looked around to make sure that there wasn’t any crazy dead in there and decided to relieve myself.

It felt so nice to finally get to use the bathroom. Using the great outdoors as a bathroom just isn’t as fulfilling.

As I stood up and pulled my pants up I noticed the closet in the bathroom. I saw blood pooling from the bottom…first instinct should have been to go get help. But for some reason, I ignored my first instinct. I stepped over to the door, quietly, just in case something really was in there. I slowly reached out…held my breath…and yanked the door open, grabbing my gun.

I almost gagged. A pile of dead animals, from birds, to cats, to dogs and even mice and rats were piled in the closet. Most of their innards had been chewed out but some were just broken creatures.

I had to hold my nose…it was just bad. I reached to close the door when I heard growling from behind.

I hate my life.

I turned with my finger pounding on the trigger. Sure enough there they were, the newly weds, attacking me. I screamed as they came on me, tackling me. I kept shooting but the gun jammed. So I did the next best thing; I whacked them both with the butt of the gun. “Get the hell off of me!” I screamed. They fell off and staggered about, but they came for me again. I ducked under them and they crashed into the pile of dead animals. They slipped around in the blood, growling and screaming. I ran to the door but they seemed to be just too fast; they had me by the foot. I lost my balance and fell down, my attempt for the door knob failed. I was being dragged away, about to be eaten. I kicked the wife in the face, once, twice, and then again.  

“Let…go…of…me you bitch!” I screamed. But the husband only grabbed my other leg and started to drag my away. I shielded my face and then the door crashed in. Nikki came and grabbed both of the dead and flung them off of me. “Get out of here, now!” he growled as the two jumped on him. He ducked his head and rammed them into the wall; all I heard was a loud splat as I half ran, half crawled back into the main room. They were everywhere; Stephy stood in the middle of the room, shooting what came near. But no matter how many she killed, more kept pouring in through the windows. I started to hit my gun, hoping for it to un-jam itself but to no avail; I threw the damn thing down and whistled loudly. The dead coming in from the windows looked at me and registered new prey. I ran into the kitchen, with Stephy screaming at me. The door was quickly broken down and the dead came in after me, which was exactly what I wanted. The stove caught my eye for two reasons; it was gas and an iron skillet was on it. I quickly grabbed the skillet and then turned all four eyes on, letting the gas whistle through. A zombie grabbed my shoulder and I turned on it with my skillet; its face pounded in. I started beating them off, making my way back to the exit into the main room.

“Stephy!” I screamed. She turned as she beat off a few of the dead. Nikki came flying through the door and beat some more coming in.

“Stephy, I turned the gas on; we need to get out quickly!”

She nodded and took a step back; she looked down and saw…a guitar.

She picked it up…and Nikki and I both saw the evil glimmer in her eyes. She turned back onto the dead and started to beat the crap out of them. “This…could…be…useful!” she grunted with a manic smile crossing her face. She threw me the gun. “We’ll make it out…you shoot off!”

I nodded and started to beat some zombies out of my way.

I knew that this would probably kill me. I braced myself and shot randomly into the kitchen. Just as I done so, my ears started to ring and everything became very bright; a large, muscled arm grabbed me and I soon found myself blacking out.

.. ..

I came to very slowly after that.

“You…are one crazy mofo,” I heard Nikki say.

“Is she coming to?” Stephy asked.

“Yeah; I hear her heart beat speeding up.”

I opened my eyes and looked around; I was being carried piggy back.

“Stephy, do you think Rie is suicidal?” Nikki asked. “I mean…I understand wanting to get rid of all of the zombies…but blowing up an entire apartment building? With us inside?”....

“Nah, she just has big thoughts,” Stephy answered. “Fire is the greatest weakness we had and we were being overwhelmed. I think she did good, although it was executed sloppily.”

“It’s a good thing I grabbed her or she would’ve been B-B-Q.” He said with a chuckle. For that, I bit him.

“Ow!” He laughed, cringing his neck. “She bit me!”

“You deserved it…” I muttered, resting my head. Everything hurt. Before we found a way to evacuate, I was going to be deformed.

“I see a safe house,” Stephy said, pointing out an establishment. The ‘safe houses’ were built shortly after the pandemic hit, and the military used it mostly. The safe houses were made of strong brick and had a metal frame with metal doors, so it was next to impossible for the dead to break in.

“We’ll stay there tonight…” Stephy explained, “and we’ll go back to the car tomorrow and make our way somewhere else.”

“Sounds like a plan to me,” Nikki said. I nodded in agreement.

As we entered the safe house, we all heard soft moans and crying. Nikki slid me off of his shoulders and put a finger to his lips, motioning ‘be quiet.’ It wasn’t needed, but whatever. He stepped forward quietly, and carefully towards a pile of boxes. He was about to leap but...

He didn’t. He just stood there. He looked at me and Stephy and motioned us to come over. We stepped lightly and saw a girl curled up…I had seen her pinstriped hat somewhere before. She was curled up in a tight ball, her brown hair tossled about. Clutched in her hands was a bloodied up hockey stick.

“Sam?” I asked, “Is…is that you?”

She stopped sobbing for a moment and slowly brought her head up. But for a strange reason, a fearful expression crossed her face; her eyes grew wide and her mouth started to open…

“Watch out! There’s a TANK!” She screamed.

All three of us turned and jumped. “W-where!?”

She jumped up with her hockey stick and screamed out loudly…

…whacking Nikki in the face.