I shifted to reverse and then hit the gas and turned my head around, not to look where I was going, but at the girl that was supposedly Zane's girlfriend. She had bright green eyes, black hair, and looked athletic. 'Goddamn, she almost looks like a Zombie.'
"So, what's your name?"
She smiled at me; I hit the brake and switched to drive. "I'm Lauren, it's nice to meet you. Zane has mentioned you."
I turned to Zane in the passenger seat and smashed the gas again. "All nice things I suppose, or was it just a singular and passing mention?"
I turned to the dirt road and ignored him.
'That bitch is trouble. My brother is stupid enough to let in the incarnation of the devil himself.'
I frowned at the dirt road quickly passing beneath my filthy car. "-to see what was going on… Hey, you are listening to me right? Travis, hey Travis!"
I sighed and rubbed my left eye with my right hand. "Sure was. It is just going to be a few more minutes before I get to the highway. There are going to be a lot of Zombies there, so keep your gun at the ready."
'Now I know Zane is stupid, but I always get mixed signals. Zane grabbed a 12-gauge from his armory and Lauren- well, Lauren fucking crossed her arms. A woman who raises herself above shooting a gun with my brother, now that blows my mind. She is the bloodiest white flag in history. Maybe Zane didn't become a Zombie because he is so fucking blind.'
We arrived at the ramp onto the highway. I put the car in park, hit the emergency brake, pulled the keys, and threw open my door. The Zombies below me were fighting. Their eyes were glowing green just as before.
As Zane got out of the car and looked at the Zombies, he just stood still for a moment and then he turned to me. "You know Travis, I always prepared for the Apocalypse, but it was a hobby. I didn't wake up this morning and say: Well fuck, I can't wait for the apocalypse. But, now it's here. I'm just glad we are together."
I didn't look him in the eyes, instead, I looked at a Zombie tearing another's arm off and eating whole fingers at a time. "Yeah, I'm glad I'm here with you as well. I wish we kept in touch more often so I could have gotten to know your girlfriend better."
I turned my head to him and locked eyes. "But, it's not like y'all are married yet."
Lauren walked up behind Zane, and wrapped her arm around his waist. "We have thought about having kids though, haven't we?"
Zane turned and looked at her face with a stupid little smile. "That we have."
'My brother has fallen in love with a vixen.'
Now, maybe I had spoken too loud or something, but as I turned away from my brother, I saw that the zombie was no longer eating the arm that he held. He was running up the ramp towards us at full speed. The zombie began to howl.
I brought my glock up and fired. BANG. I missed. BANG. Just a bullet to the shoulder. BANG. The zombie fell face first to the ground with a chunk of its head blown off. It was about ten meters away from me.
I glanced back towards Zane and Lauren. Lauren was screaming in horror with a low body position. Zane was comforting Lauren. I turned back towards the zombie and I began to walk towards it.
As I approached, the zombie began to glow green. A green light shot out from the zombie. ZZZZZTT. I had quickly shielded my eyes and turned away as it began to glow. Lauren stopped screaming. I heard a body fall to the ground. From behind shielded eyes, I could tell that the light was gone.
I let my hand drop and I spun around as I opened my eyes. Where the corpse had been, there was a small green stone shining on the ground and ash surrounding it in the shape that the corpse had been in.
'What the fuck just happened.'
I heard Zane yell behind me. "Lauren! LAUREN! WAKE UP!"
I turned around. Lauren was lying in Zane's arms, completely unconscious.
'Did she stare at the light? She might turn into one of them.'
I heard several more screams from the direction that led down the ramp. I glanced towards the screams even though I knew what they meant. That one zombie had screamed and had brought all of the others.
'We have got to fucking go.'
Instead of pulling out my glock, I took the assault rifle off my back. "ZANE GET THE FUCK IN THE TRUCK."
I flipped the safety off and brought my eye up to the iron sights. I saw six of them. BANG. BANG. BANG. BANG. BANG. BANG. The six of them fell to the hard sloped concrete like ugly dolls made limp as their heads exploded in quick succession.
'That felt nice.'
I turned around, with my AR-15 in my left hand, my right hand stuffed into my jean pocket reaching for my keys, and my legs pumping hard against the concrete. I opened the car door, threw my AR-15 in the back, and turned the keys in the ignition.
As the car started begrudgingly, I switched gears to reverse and floored the gas. We spun around, and I noticed several bright green flashes in my rear view mirror. I ignored them as I switched to drive and floored the gas again.
Zane had said something, but I ignored him. I was focused on driving and I was thinking.
'I need to pull over and we need to take a look at Lauren. I'm not going to let her turn into one of those monsters in my car.'
We traveled about a mile before I stopped the car. "Get out of the car Zane, we need to take a look at Lauren."
He was in the back cab area with her. He nodded. "That's what I was saying!"
We got out of the car, and put her down. Zane put his finger on her neck. "She isn't breathing. I'm going to do mouth to mouth CPR on her."
I put my hand on Zane's huge shoulder and I spoke more softly than I believed possible. "Zane, she is about to wake up, but when she does, she is going to be a Zombie. Please just listen to me. I don't want her to bite your throat. She will do it."
He shook his head. "I don't care. Let me go."
'There is emotion in his voice. He isn't thinking properly. I need to take care of this.'
I unholstered my Glock that was safetied. I brought the barrel down on his head hard. Despite all of his muscles, he toppled over his girlfriend unconscious.
'I'm doing this for him. I don't care what he thinks when he wakes up.'
I dragged him away from Lauren. I waited next to Zane and Lauren for several minutes with my Glock at the ready.
'I'm the best damn premarital counsel this world has now.'
With a growl, Lauren stood up with glowing green eyes like a wraith. BANG. She fell back down to the ground.
'Perhaps she wasn't a snake. I will not think bad of the dead.'
I turned my head away from her corpse and also turned my brother on his back so his eyes wouldn't be facing her corpse, even if they were closed.
I waited a minute, and then two. There was no explosion.
'Now that I think about it, the first two Zombies I killed did not explode. Maybe it takes time for the energy to charge or something.'
I walked back to my truck and took out my camelbak. I brought it over to Zane and I poured water over his face. It took a few seconds, but he began to cough and then his eyes fluttered open.
He rolled to the side and clutched his head. "Did you fucking hit me?"
I shook my head. "Your girlfriend woke up and brought her knee to the side of your head."
"I don't- remember that?"
"You probably got a concussion. I had to put her down. She had become a Zombie. I saved your life."
'I have to lie right now. We can't be fighting over little things like this. I'm not going to be driven down to hell by his stupidity.'
I grabbed his hand and pulled him up. "Look, we need to drive back to your place. Those Zombies could be chasing us here."
He nodded slowly. "O-okay."
I helped him get in the car and then I quickly ran around to the driver's side.
As I drove several more miles down the offshoot road, Zane was silent.
He only spoke when we stopped. "I need water."
As we stopped, I got out and offered to help him out, but he shook his head. "I'm fine. Just meet me inside after you grab your gear. I'll get the water myself."
'This is the brother that I need to rely on. This is the Marine side of my brother that I love and hate.'
As I sat down next to him on his couch, we talked. Long and hard about the Zombies. Our conversation never touched upon Lauren. We both avoided that. Our conversation eventually came to the green stone that had dropped from the zombie's body.
Zane looked intently at me. "That stone probably had an accumulation of power which it released in the blast of light. That means that the energy and light released from that is what is causing all of this."
I shrugged. "Well yeah."
Zane looked at the ground. "That ugly son of a bitch killed my girlfriend. I won't let this go. I will kill every zombie I fucking see."
'He's not wrong. The light from that zombie killed her, not me. I saved him, and I even told him that I did. Everything is fine.'