The crack of the guns snapped Will out of his trance. They were surrounded by Zed. Will had tripped over a grocery cart outside of a supermarket. As Will pushed himself up, he grabbed his .44 and flipped off the safety, then BOOM! The head of the zombie in front of him explodes. Blood and gore flew everywhere. An arm hit a friend of Will’s in the head.

“Ahhh!” someone cried out behind Will. He turned around to see who yelled and is surprised to see seven zombies on his friend. He quickly took aim and fired three rounds. With each bullet traveling at 1096.101 mph, each bullet hit and killed two targets. With one zombie left, Will’s friend stabbed the throat of the last zombie. You could hear a gurgle noise, but knowing it wasn’t entirely dead, someone next to Will took another shot and killed the zombie. The party was now all alone, devoid of any thought except for “Why us?” and “There is no hope.”

“I suppose we should continue scavenging. Make it quick though, those gunshots could probably be heard miles away.”

That fact paled many there.
“You know, if we had brought suppressors, we probably could have escaped notice,” said a different party member. The first speaker, the leader of the group, looked like he would have strangled that man to death right then and there, but didn’t.

“Look,” he replied as calmly as he could, “We’ve had this argument a thousand times! Suppressors don’t reduce don’t reduce the strength of the sound waves, just how many there are. The Zed relies on big noises to guide them.”

“And how do you know this?” smart mouthed the second speaker, Tig, already knowing the answer.

“Because, I los-“

“Look, will you two just shut up!” yelled Will’s friend Jacob. He was muscular, and he was fuming with anger. “You guys have argued about this 57 times! I’ve counted! Now if you feel like not becoming Zed Chowder, let’s leave, seeing as how we’ve been sitting here for minutes.”

No one had a good rebuttal.

“Fine, but I suggest we go back now,” said the leader. “It’s getting late.” They all knew him as Rumble.

As they continued walking, Will could see, or rather, sense, why they hadn’t been having very many recruits. The town was desolate, devoid of any life. Just the survivors, Zed, and the God-forsaken wind. But that was the thing. The wind there was a terrible curse. Almost all the time, there would be wind. Wind is great for covering up the sound of shuffling feet. Helpful, if you’re trying to sneak up on someone.

“Wait,” commanded Rumble. “Do you hear that?”

Silence endured. No one said a thing as everyone tried to find a source of noise. The wind had died down, and the entire group thought that for any sane person, an ambush would be chaos. But Zed are hungry, single-minded beasts.

“I have the strangest of feelings right now,” Will commented absentmindedly, “Almost as if we’re being watched.” Will looked around and checked for Zed behind cars, as if to prove his point.

“Well you’re probably going to get that feeling a lot, seeing as how you’re in the zombie apocalypse,” replied Jacob.

“I know but it’s the strongest I’ve felt it in a long time. It’s almost as if every part of my body is screaming at me, telling me to run, not walk.”

“And I think I know why,” remarked Rumble. He said this as a zombie limped up. But this wasn’t any zombie. Just from looking at him, you can tell that this huge, obese body will absorb any amount of bullets you put into it.

Fitting, thought Will, how there’s a McDonalds right behind him.

“Oh no!” exclaimed a fifth member. “How are we supposed to kill it?”

“That’s what I’m worried about,” answered Rumble.

“I’m guessing a lot of bullets might stop him, but I’m not willing to bet money on it,” Will remarked.

“We don’t even have enough bullets to kill him in the first place,” acknowledged Jacob.

“Well, a big explosion or an intense amount of heat might kill it,” said Rumble.

“So your pretty much saying a car bomb or fire might kill him.”

“Ya, pretty much.”

Everyone’s mood soured.

“We need to run, now!” urges Bob, the fifth speaker. He slowly backed off from the zombie, as did the rest of the group. A 400 pound zed won’t walk very fast. But the group was about to discover that it could run very quickly.

“Uhhhh, ya, you’re probably right.”

That’s when everyone turned and sprinted off onto a city road and into a shopping complex. Mr. Huge zombie followed, but the party was too fast. After what felt like an eternity of running to them, the zombie was out of sight.

“That was freaking crazy!” gasps Bob as tried to breathe. They had just stopped in front of a Nike store to take a breather.

“Well it doesn’t matter, let’s just-,” but Rumble was cut off by the sound of groaning. Mr. Huge zombie was back, and he had brought friends. And just watching those zed walk and limp toward them really put their apocalypse live in perspective. All of their arguing, surviving, and worrying about loved ones seemed pointless. Everything now came down to this.

“This can’t be happening again,” complained Bob, and he then proceeded to begin shooting.

“Look, you guys go, I’ll stay here and take care of the zed!” Will demands to the entire group. His voice could barely be heard over the noise of the gunshots.

“I’m not leaving without you, Will!” yelled Jacob.

“Well, you’re going to have to! I know how to kill the zed all around us at once. But what I’m going to do will kill the detonator as well!”

Jacob’s eyes widen as he realized that Will wasn’t going to come back.

“No! I’m not going to let you do it!” pleaded Jacob.

“You have to! I’m pretty sure I was bitten, so it’s most logical for me to do it! Beside, that zombie could cause massive chaos for all of the survivors!”

Jacob admitted defeat to bitter truth a second time. Then he began to feel a metaphorical, gaping hole in his chest.

“Fine, do it, but don’t expect me to mourn you. Too many people have died that are close to me for me to shed anymore tears.”

“I won’t,” replied Will. Jacob proceeded to then tell Rumble and the rest of the group, who had been fending off the horde while they were arguing, that they had to leave now.

“Fall back! Will will handle the rest of them. We’ll be safer if we fall back anyway.”

Then the group turned and ran away, not knowing more Zed waited.

“I hope they make it,” whispered Will to himself. Then he realized he’s just been standing there and more Zed were coming. He grunted and ran back to a truck behind him. He then pulled out some frag grenades and finally, after some rummaging through his bag, pulls out several packs of C4. He quickly thanks himself for being prepared, and for paranoid rednecks, seeing as how they supplied him the C4.

“Come get some,” growls Will to himself. He next pulls the pin on all of the grenades. He has a brief moment of time to wonder if his family and friends were okay, then thinks no more.