Killing The Dead

"We don't kill the living... but it's open season on the dead..."

Killing The Dead

 

Alex Grichenko

Charlie aimed his gun carefully, making sure the bitch was in his sights. He knew the bitch, she’d been his fifth grade teacher… twice. She’d never liked him, but that wasn’t his fault. He’d heard she didn’t like boys. When she’d failed him that first time, he’d fantasized about killing her. He and his friends would make up scenarios… most had her brains splattered against the chalkboard.

There was no chalkboard now. The school was closed, as was the entire town. The ZA took care of that. Charlie still couldn’t believe it… Zombies! Life couldn’t get any better than this. Sure, he’d lost a lot of friends to the virus, along with his mother, but shit, his father had given him a gun and now he could splatter as many brains as he wanted, as long as they were deadies.

“We don’t kill the living,” his dad had said, when he caught Charlie getting ready to off David. David was a thief. He’d stolen some of the food the group had stored away. It was going to be a long winter and food was scarce, but fatso had taken from everyone else, just to fill his belly. Charlie’s dad said it was unfortunate, and he turned David out. Gave him enough gas to fill one of the many abandoned cars in town, and food that would last a few weeks. A total waste, since the next day Charlie had found him on the side of the road. He’d been bit and was freshly turned. Charlie shot him then. Blew his face clean off.

Ms. Staley looked towards Charlie. He knew she couldn’t see him, he was laying on the ground and there was shrubbery camouflaging him, but she knew… somehow they always knew where the living were. Her lips turned up in a snarl and she took a few steps in his direction. Charlie pulled the trigger and watched her head come off her body.

She didn’t fall right away. That was the best part. It was similar to a chicken with its head cut off. She stumbled around with her arms out, still trying to find the food source she’d been looking for. This lasted about three minutes. Then the body dropped.

Charlie took one last look around before standing. Zombies usually traveled in packs, but Ms. Staley was alone. If she hadn’t been, the gunfire would have drawn the rest of them out. He continued down the hill, towards the road. He was late.

Gary waited for him outside the old, abandoned Super-Mart.

“You got it?” He asked.

“Right here.” Charlie handed him his backpack.

Gary opened the bag and sifted through the contents. “This isn’t what we agreed on,” he snarled. “Where’s the rest?”

“Look, I got what I could, but ever since David broke into the storage shed, they’ve kept a close eye on it.”

“I can live without some of the food, but the ammunition and weapons, that’s a deal breaker…”

Gary turned to leave. “Wait,” Charlie said, stepping in front of him, “I can get you more, but it will be a few days. Maybe a week.”

“That’s too long.”

“I’ll throw in something else.”

“What?”

“I heard you liked girls… young ones. What if I brought you one? Or if it’s boys you prefer…”

Gary looked around. “How old?”

“The girl’s six. The boy, eight.”

“Their parents will come looking for them. If they found me…”

“I can make it look like they wandered off. It’s a dangerous world and their mother isn’t the most attentive. She’s fucking my old man and sometimes they go off together for an hour or so.”

“Okay… but I want them both. I’ll give you another week.” Gary reached into a bag he’d brought with him and pulled a box out. “But I’m only giving you half the stash. You get the rest when you deliver me the goods.”

***

Charlie’s father was waiting for him when he got back. “Where have you been?” Ben asked.

“I went hunting,” Charlie said. He held up a couple of rabbits as proof.

“Didn’t I tell you not to wander off on your own?”

“Dad, come on, I’m almost sixteen.”

“I don’t know what I would do if anything happened to you. It was hard enough losing your mother.”

Charlie glanced towards Melissa, who was standing behind his father. They liked to present a united front when it came to discipline. “You seem to have gotten over it.”

Ben scratched at his beard and looked off to the side. “I’m going to let that slide. I need you to watch Sophie and Will for a little while.”

“Sure,” Charlie said.

After his father and Melissa left, Charlie did as he always did… left the two kids on their own and went into his tent. He pulled the box out of his backpack and opened it. Inside were vials filled with a greenish liquid. Gary’s job, before the ZA was working in a top secret government lab. The virus was manufactured there. It had accidently gotten out. The virus was supposed to be destroyed, but Gary saw the potential at having a supply of the zombie virus.

“We don’t kill the living,” his dad had said, "but it was open season on the dead." Yesterday his dad had gone on a supply run. While he was gone, Charlie saw Melissa. She was on her knees, blowing Joe. When she saw Charlie, she begged him not to tell his dad. She even offered him a piece of her. He turned her down. The thought of whatever virus she carried in her pussy scared him more than the virus did. But he promised her he wouldn’t tell. He loved his father, even if they didn’t always see eye to eye. He had no wish to hurt him… but if Melissa were infected and had to be killed, he would get over it.

Word Count:1000