Subtle Vengeance

It had been a long and desperate struggle. My assault rifle was hot and stinking of fire, but somehow it had kept firing with no sign of wear. I crouched in the loft of a barn, one which had once belonged to a family with kids and pets and a pickup truck. Tonight, it belonged to a different family: mine.

Tomorrow, it would belong only to the infected.

I had radioed for a rescue before fleeing up here to join my wife and son and our friend Bill. I had been a little reluctant to hand an automatic weapon to a four-year-old, but he’d practically begged us to let him get a piece of the action, and he had listened intently when I’d described how to hold it, how to run with it, and how to use it.

The first wave went incredibly well. My teeth clenched in concentration as Bill and I fired hot rounds into anything that dared climb the ladder, while my wife Holly covered the big hole in the wall leading out onto the roof. Jimmie stood with her, firing far less clumsily than anyone had expected into anything that ran across his sights.

Suddenly I heard a roar. My balls leapt up into my body, and my stomach sank down into my scrotum. “Here comes a tank!” I shouted. “I’ll find it, stay put.”

Reloading my rifle, I stepped cautiously out onto the barn’s roof, then quickly dodged back as a giant rock crashed into the board next to my head, sending an explosion of splinters flying back at me. “Left side, there he is,” I called back. ”

Suddenly behind me I heard a scream. “Jimmie, no!!” It was Holly. Whipping my head around, I searched desperately the source of her distress. It was a quick search, as she was screaming out the barn window – a window out of which my son had foolishly leaped. Running to her side, I saw him standing in the open farmyard under a spotlight, firing his gun bravely in the general direction of the monster.

Fatherly instinct rose up inside me, blooming from my gut and suffusing my entire being. “Shit! I got him!” I called out as I ran out the window, landing hard on the dirt below. “Jimmie! Come this way-”

The tank caught up with my boy as I ran toward him. Its mighty swing sent him flying back against the barn, and he screamed. “Mommy! Help me! Mommy!” He cried out, over and over, his nerve broken. I called out to him. “I got you, Jimmie! Hold on!”

Praying desperately that I was fast enough, strong enough and lucky enough, I fired round after round into the monster that was hurting my son. I steeled myself, moving closer, gripping my rifle hard to keep the kickback from putting a round into the boy as I dared the beast to turn and face me.

Finally it fell to its knees, defeated. “Jimmie! Come on, follow me,” I called out, only to hear him scream “Oh no” as a smoker seized the opportunity to grab him and drag him back against a fence. My ears pricked up as I sprinted to save him again: the horde had returned.

Firing in frantic arcs, I managed to get Jimmie back into the barn, but he was too shaken to climb back up to the loft. “Dear! I need some backup!” I yelled as we pushed our backs to the barn wall.

Like a demon beast from hell, my wife landed on the barn floor. Her hands shot fire and hot metal as she ran toward us, a cloud of blood and blown-apart flesh preceding her. “Let’s just hold here,” she said coolly as she took position on the other side of our son. “Mommy’s got you, baby.”

Bill was there, too.

I had no time to appreciate how very much in love with her I was, because the infected were still coming at us from all sides. I swept my rifle back and forth, shielding my son with body and bullets. Finally Bill called out to us. “The truck’s here, let’s go!” I stepped out into the farmyard again, coaxing Jimmie to follow me.

His nerve regained, Jimmie hauled ass up into the armored truck. Holly and I followed behind to shield him. My rifle finally ran dry or jammed as I stepped onto the ramp, and I dropped it to draw my pistols. Holly was surrounded below me, but we knew that no matter what happened, it was alright. Jimmie was safe.

Shot after shot I fired into the horde as they beat on my wife. “It’s clear behind you, get on the truck,” I called. Inch by inch, my beautiful Valkyrie fought her way up the ramp. The Infected clawed at her legs, but they only slowed her down. With a final cry of effort she heaved herself back into my arms. Bill slammed a fist on the front wall, and the driver roared the beast into gear.

We cheered and laughed as the truck hauled ass out of there. Smiling ear-to-ear, I turned to my wife.

“JimmieR has earned the achievement STANDING TALL,” I said.

~fin

1. Tozetre says:

   February 3, 2010 at 10:53

   Sweeeeeet.