Courage by Patricia Naylor

 

Ella looked down at the guns in her hands and fought the revulsion in her stomach. How many of these monsters had she shot in the head, only to find ten more farther down her path? She should start using the machete, and save her ammunition for later. There was a rifle strapped to her back, but she didn’t want to use it unless she had to.

 

She put the two handguns in their holsters, and clutched the machete with both hands. She’d looted all of the weapons from a pawnshop, as the owner was laid out across the display case of the shop, his brains missing. His head had been a gigantic gaping hole.

 

She had to get back to her house, and off the streets, before these zombies cornered her. Why the fuck had she picked today to walk the mile and a half to town and pick up sheet music? By the time she’d gotten to the music store, the owner was shooting at anyone that came close to the door. She’d seen vile-looking beings that were once human, staggering around the streets, munching on humans with all the seriousness of a bulimic and an extra large pizza.

 

She was a mile from home when a horde of zombies cornered her next to the 7-11. Breathing deeply to her toes, she shrieked as loud as she could, and didn’t stop when she cut off the first zombie’s head. She laughed as their black blood splattered her clothes. Dislocating the machete from the next zombie’s cranium was hard work. She drove the machete into another zombie’s eye, and then punctured the remaining good eye. He staggered around, unable to see her, so she moved onto her next victim. She drove the machete into the zombie’s gut, and then hacked off both arms and his head. One of them grabbed her from behind, but she quickly shrugged him off, grabbed the gun from her belt, turned and lodged a bullet in his forehead. His brains spewed everywhere. She walked over to the blind zombie and chopped off his head.

 

Ella backed up twenty feet, as there were four left and charged them, clutching a bloody machete, with bits of brain, skin and bone clinging to the blade. She hacked at them gleefully, her laughter rising to an unstable scream. Their limbs were piles on the pavement. First she crippled them, then she cut into their skulls, enjoying the moment they slumped over, dead. If they didn’t do that quickly enough, she hacked off their arms so that they couldn’t grab her.

 

She thought about running, but next to the 7-11 was the Chinese restaurant where her brother worked at, and saw that they were having problems. She had only eight blocks to go, with only a few straggler zombies, but she knew she had to clear that restaurant, because her brother might be inside.

 

She entered the restaurant through the front door, and three zombies greeted her. “GET DOWN!” she shrieked, hoping the Chinese workers knew English. Her first bullet lodged in a zombie’s nose, so she pressed the gun against his forehead and pulled the trigger. She had to push one in the chest, because his hands grazed her arm. Aiming her two guns at their foreheads, she fired her guns and watched them slump to the floor.

 

The remaining zombies were in the back kitchen, where the workers were fending them off with handmade blowtorches. Her brother Will was at the front, jabbing the fire at the monsters, and they backed away slowly. A few had caught on fire, and were moaning in a very low, disturbing voice. Ella grabbed the machete, cautious to use a gun, afraid she would accidentally shoot her brother.

 

“Will! When you swing the torch towards a zombie, he’ll step back and I’ll kill him!”

Will nodded at her, his eyes dark and angry. Will yielded the torch and Ella cut into the first zombie, her arms straining. He slumped to the ground, dead. The four remaining zombies turned and started towards her, and she backed away. They gave chase, and she waited until her back was against the front door before she shouted,

 

“HUG THE FLOOR! I’M USING THE HEAVY ARTILERY!”

 

She had never held a shotgun before. Taking a deep breath, she leveled the shotgun at the zombies’ chests and fired. The recoil of the gun hit her shoulder so hard tears came to her eyes. The zombies fell back, some of them crawling towards her. She put the shotgun into the holster on her back and quickly palmed the handguns. She pulled the triggers, and heard two twin clicks. She needed to reload. Panicking, Ella brought the heel of her black Fila hightop down on one of their heads. She heard a sickening crunch and gurgle before she skirted away, as the other zombie was crawling towards her. She reholstered the guns and grabbed the machete. She drove the blade through his skull and it was only after Will grabbed her and started shaking her that she realized she was still screaming. She wondered when she had started.

 

“Come on, Ella, let’s get you home,” Will said, sprinting out of the restaurant, and dragging her with him. The Chinese workers pilled into their cars and sped out of the parking lot next to the restaurant, hitting zombies with their cars. Will led her to a beat up white Fiat, and Ella felt guilty when she sat down, and smeared blood all over the white leather passenger seat. They arrived at her apartment to find her rooms empty, and quickly began boarding up the doors and windows. They got cleaned up, then sat and drank bourbon at her kitchen table, unable to eat after what they had seen. Ella turned on the television.

 

“—stay in your homes and wait for the military to take care of this world wide epidemic. President Bush has called in the national guard and armed forces to exterminate all humans with traces of the sickness--”

 

The television flashed scenes of tanks and men in green, eyes glazed, shooting zombie after zombie, looking on the verge of madness. Ella prayed they killed every last one of the bastards. They had enough food and liquor for a couple of weeks, then they would have to leave the apartment to find some more. Ella closed her eyes as she let more bourbon slide down her throat. For once she was glad her brother was with her, for he always carried at least a forty bag of weed and a bottle of codeine on him at all times. They would definitely need it.