Eve

Chapter 38 (Part 2)

He stretches and, with his free hand, pushes the gun my way. Leaning back against the wall, his eyes find mine. "You know... so I don't have to hear these assholes talk while they eat me."

I can't hold back a chuckle between the tears. "Levon..." I start, but I can't think of anything to say next.

Out the staircase door, the sound of furniture being dropped to the floor reaches us in a loud bang.

"Come on," Levon says, pressing my hand tighter. "You gotta go, Eve."

Taking a real deep breath for the first time in months, and summoning courage from I have no idea where, I let go of Levon's hand, rising from the ground.

A cold harsh wind reaches us from the windows, sending my hair crazy-dancing in front of my eyes as the helicopter hovers closer to the building. Dense white light bathes the room, and Levon squints.

With the .22 nested in my hand, I breathe deep. Levon's eyes are on me. He's crying, but he doesn't look scared.

"I'm sorry, Levon," I sniff, cleaning my nose with the back of my sleeve. "I'm so sorry."

"Grrr," Levon replies, calmly.

"You're gone, already," I say to myself, crying harder. "I can't understand you anymore."

"Nah, I'm just fucking with you," Levon says, managing a smile between bloody teeth. "Now come on. Get it over with."

The steps and grunts outside are so loud I'm half sure the zombies are just waiting for me to finish to burst through the door.

"Please, Eve," Levon says, trying to keep his voice steady. "Please do it. Now."

The bright lights flash more intense through the window as the chopper dives between the buildings.

Levon closes his eyes.

"Please, Eve."

A loud bang on the staircase door reaches us. The zombies are here.

"Please."

I shut my eyes as shut as any pair of eyes have ever been shut, so tight I fear they might rip. The noise dies away. For a second, I hear nothing but my loud, echoed breath inside my skull.

Breathe in. Breathe out. Breathe in. Breathe out.

I raise the pistol, tears running freely down my cheek.

Breathe in. Breathe out. Breathe in. Breathe --

"Thank you, Levon."

I fire. Once. Twice. Three times.

I drop the gun to the ground and I fall to my knees. The propeller and the steps and grunts all come rushing back, more intense than ever.

I don't look his way. The whole building seems to be shaking with a thousand angry zombies inside.

I close my eyes. Screw it. Let this end now.

Fuck it.

'Are there any souls inside?' comes a metallic, amplified voice from outside.

I don't answer. To hell with it. Let the zombies take me. I don't want this. I never wanted this.

'We will not land unless we have visual confirmation of non-infected, the voice comes again. "We are turning back."

Fuck everything and everyone. I don't care.

'We are turning back. I repeat, we are turning back.'

My hands go weak, and something slides from between my fingers to the floor. I open my eyes. Levon's participation medal stares back at me, bathed in sweat and blood.

The door shakes again.

I close my eyes, then I open them again. The door bangs one more time, and, with a loud thud, comes loose from its hinges and falls down to the ground.

I raise my eyes. The zombies start their limp towards me.

The propeller noise grows distant as the helicopter flies away.

The zombies grow near.

Levon is dead.

Breathe in. Breathe out. Breathe in. Breathe out.

And I get up. The Mortal Kombat medal safe in my hand, I turn to the zombies.

For a second, I'm tempted to look back. To look at Levon's body one last time. But I don't.

The herd penguins my way, a thousand zombies elbowing each other, flooding the room. More by the second.

I run towards them.

"Fuck you!" I yell, colliding against the first row. The zombies fall back, knocking others behind them in the world's most disgusting domino effect.

I regain balance right in the middle of the herd. To my left, three zombies block the way to the stairs heading up.

"And fuck you too!" I say, kicking one right in the balls. He falls down and, before the others can close in on me, I pass through them, rushing up the stairs.

I throw myself against the metal door on the last floor, bursting out into the roof. In the distance, the helicopter is a little more than a dot against the rainy sky.

"Come back! Come back!" I wave my hands like crazy.

The chopper stands still for a moment, midair like a dragonfly. Then slowly turns its nose one-eighty towards me as heads back.

"I'm not infected!" I yell, as a man in military outfit steps out of the helicopter. "I know I look like a zombie, but I'm not infected!"

A second man steps out and makes way towards me. He raises a metal device to my eye. After a second, the device beeps.

"She's all right," he screams over the sound of rain and wind to his partner.

Behind me, the metal door bursts open, and the pack of asshole zombies storms out, arms raised our way.

"Come on, we gotta go," soldier man number one says, grabbing my arm. "Is there anyone else alive in there?"

I look into his eyes for a second. "No," I yell back, as they help me up the helicopter. "No, there isn't."

The zombies pull back as the chopper takes off, one by one making their way back inside the building.