I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love

Kyle, running away and hiding with you, I felt safe amongst the roaming dead. I never thought they'd get me here...

It had been a week since we took refuge in the shopping mall. It seemed that the majority of the dead were roaming around below us, mindlessly moving about in search of prey.
Some of the dead were on fire, burning like walking torches into our last place of salvation. They set everything on fire, plants, clothes, hanging tapestries, each other. The sprinklers kicked on, but did little to stop the blaze.

"Do we stay in here the entire time?" I asked Kyle.

Kyle had made a bed out of sleeping bags and couch cushions that he had found in the lounge. He was reclining back, his face covered by a hand.

"It looks like it. I think we're the safest here anyway," he said quietly.

"Well, we're almost out of food in here, and the closest food source is downstairs near the walmart that I saw."

Kyle waved me off, "It's too risky. We'd get overrun, eaten, and made into one of them."

He was right, but we had weapons, enough ammo for a small raid. I was certain we'd stand a small chance against them, if we moved quickly and quietly.

I stood up, putting on the shoes I had found in a lost and found box. They are a little too tight on me, but better than barefoot. I took up my pistol and a baseball bat I had found in one of the storage closets.

"Where are you going?!" Kyle protested.

"Down there, we need food Kyle, I'm not going to starve to death in a cramped office!"

Kyle got to his feet, "Stop! It's suicide! What if you get bitten, or hurt, or..."

"Then I'll put a bullet in my head okay? If you don't want to come, that's fine. But I'm going with or without you."

He sighed impatiently, putting on his pair of lost and found boots, then grabbing his shotgun and spare ammo which he tucked into his pocket.

"Listen though, if anything happens to me, I want you to kill me. Okay?"

I nodded, not really taking him seriously.

"I mean it, you have to kill me! And I'll...I'll do the same..for you," his voice stern.

"Yeah okay, let's just get this over with."

Even though we were in the elevator, we could hear the horrid laments and moans of the dead. It was chilling and disturbing to hear. We readied ourselves, the elevator doors would open, and who knew what was waiting behind it. We knew that a gunshot would alert the other undead, so we readied our melee weapons. Me with a wooden baseball bat, and Kyle with a sledge hammer.

The doors slid open, the area seemed clear. We cautiously stepped out, looking both left and right. Amazingly, nothing was in sight. Still taking caution, we moved silently, hugging corners and walls. We came to a mall directory, and saw that the food was on the other end of the mall, but we noticed on the way there, there was an outdoor sporting goods store. They would have ammunition and firearms! We felt a spark of hope with the prospective thought of having more firepower at our hands.

We crept around a corner, then another. We weren't sure if it was our scent, our body heat, any noise, or even the sight of us, that would alert them, that made us even more timid and wary. I was afraid to breathe, fearful that my inhale or exhale would call the alarm of any nearby undead. We could see the lit sign of the store, amazingly the backup generators to the mall were still working, as well as running water. We were lucky, at night we'd see nothing but dead space, still burning fires, and darkness. Occasionally, we'd hear screams, gunfire, and sirens. Even a helicopter overhead. We never ventured onto the roof, for fear it might attract more zombies.

I passed a small outcove, where the phone booths were, not paying attention. A decaying arm shot out from behind me, grabbing me by my hair and pulling me in. I struggled, doing my best not to scream, but it made no difference, the zombie let out an inhuman howl that echoed off of the high ceiling and walls of the mall. It drowned out the cheesy elevator music being played over the speakers.

As I struggled, trying to keep this thing from biting me, Kyle ran up on it and with a running start, swung his sledge hammer across the back of the zombies head. It's bloodshot eyes popped out of their sockets, dangling by strings of dead sinew and muscle. It's mouth moved up and down menacingly, desperately trying to get a bite. I was able to get my baseball bat, and wedge it in the monsters mouth, like shoving an apple in a pigs mouth.
It bit down hard, it's yellow and black teeth gnawing hungrily, until they chipped and cracked, raining down onto me like a sickly rain. Kyle swung again, crushing the skull inward, which forced the zombies head forward against the bat, splitting the head in two. The lowe jaw hung limply, snapped out of it's socket. The zombie spasmed as it's body started to shut down. Kyle pulled it off me, throwing it to the side. I got to my feet, then gave it a swift kick to the groin, not that it made a difference. I used my bat to pulp the skull, leaving a greasy brackish mess on the tile floor.

Kyle had to pull me away from my primal killing, hissing in my ear, "Enough! Do you think they heard us?"

We didn't have to wait long for an answer. a long moan filled the mall, just as haunting as the first rally call. We both looked at each other, and ran.

It made no difference if we remained quiet, they knew we were here. We ran hard and fast, almost like we were racing the undead, the finish line was the ammo shop. Just as we came upon the store, a horde of zombies appeared, trudging shoulder to shoulder from wall to wall. We were outnumbered badly. The door was locked, so Kyle once again, removed the lock with his shotgun. We entered quickly, Kyle searching desperately for something.

"What are you looking for?!"

He continued to search, "The gate hook! The thing that will help us lower the gate!"

I started to search with him, found it behind the counter, and with it, began to lower the gate.
We could hear them getting closer, there wasn't much time!

Kyle pushed me to the side, "Here, I'll handle this, you hold them off!" he said, handing me his shotgun.

"What do you want me to do with this thing?! I can't handle a shotgun!" I protested.

"No time! Listen, I'm taller than you, I can get this thing down faster! When I've almost got it closed all the way, I'll let you know so that you can slide under it okay?!" he explained as he worked.

I had no choice but to nodd. I stepped back out into the mall, to face the oncoming horde. They saw me, and quickened their pace, some were missing their lips and seemed to be smiling at me. I took aim with the shotgun and fired into the crowd.

"Save your ammo! That's no good a that range! use your handgun, aim for the head! Use the shotgun when they get too close!" Kyle shouted at me from within the shop.

I switched over to my pistol, aimed as best I could, and fired. The shot struck a zombie in the shoulder, knocking it back a few paces, but not stopping it. I fired again at another zombie, same thing.

"The head!" Kyle shouted, he was almost done with the gate.

"What's taking so long?!"

"Damn thing is rusty and stuck!" he replied, jiggling the gate desperately.

I turned back to the horde, now only twenty feet from me, their smell was nauseating.
I aimed again, and fired, striking one in the forehead. It dropped instantly, tripping some of the zombies and causing a massive pile up of roving arms and legs mixed with desperate moans. I smiled and fired again, hitting another in the mouth, the smoke trail billowing out of it's mouth and nose. It stumbled, wasn't quite dead, so I fired again, snapping it's head back with a direct hit to the right eye socket.

"C'mon, I got it!" Kyle shouted at me.

I didn't hesitate, I ran towards the gate and slid under it. Kyle immediately closed it and locked it down. We both stepped back, as the zombies threw themselves against the grate, fingers clawing madly at us. Their eyes glazed and glaring hungrily at us. A little girl, an old woman, a young man, all of them wanting to devour us. We took a few more steps back, mesmerized by the scene before us. We had neve really faced the undead face on. We came to our senses, remembering we were in a gunshop. We scurried about like children in a toy store, finding and foraging weapons and ammo. I grabbed more 40. caliber ammo, a bolt action hunting rifle, and a combat knife along with extra ammo. We didn't want to pack too heavy to conflict with movement. Kyle grabbed more boxes of shells, took a 9mm Glock 19, and a machete to replace his hammer. He noticed a 50. Desert Eagle.

"Honey..."

He looked at me sheepishly, "What?"

"Don't."

He reached out for it, "What? We need all the fire power we can get!"

Ignoring me, he took the large heavy handgun and a box of ammo. He smiled and winked at me, as he loaded it up with the large sized bullets.

"Bad idea.." I said, looking away.

He slapped in the magazine and took aim. He steadied himself for a shot.

"I've always wanted to fire one of these things!" he said like a child.

"BOOM!" the handgun roared, sending Kyle flying back twelve feet into a display case, showering him with glass fragments and ammo boxes. He slowly got to his feet, dusting himself off.

"I told you!" I said with a laugh and smile.

He smiled back, "Dayam!"

I looked at what he was talking about, and saw at least three zombies dead, pinned against the grate. The large bullet had penetrated one zombie and hit two other ones. Amazingly, it blew off all their heads in a neat row. I think at that point, we both got the idea.

We scurried, taking up positions and firing into the mass of bodies. Shot after shot, it didn't matte if a shot missed, the next one would hit it's mark. We unloaded magazines in seconds, reload another, and commenced firing. Bullet casings rained down on the floor and counters, singing a dull metallic song of payback and survival horror. We painted the walls with brains and blood, showing no mercy for their kind.

"Where'd you learn that head trick?!" I asked over the roar of gunfire.

"CNN!" Kyle replied as reached for an AR-15 semi auto assault rifle.

"What?!"

He smiled, "Joking, from movies and books! Everyone knows you shoot a zombie in the head!"

With that, he fired his weapon, taking out a gaggle of zombies with well placed headshots.
I followed with a few shots from my bolt action rifle. I guess it paid off having a marine for a father.
Soon the room wreaked of gunpowder, cordite, and rotten flesh. After what seemed like half an hour, the zombies by the gate were dead. They littered the ground, some stuck in the gates links and slats. Blood stained and spread over the floor, a crimson paint job. We made our way through the broken glass, empty shell casings, ammo boxes, blood puddles, and skull fragments. At one point, I think I stepped on an eye. I looked over at Kyle, and got his attention. He had a small grey blood laced lump of brain matter on his left shoulder and sleeve. He looked at it in disgust and flicked it off.

Now came the business of getting out of the shop. There were too many piled up bodies, at least a thousand corpses in front of us, how would we reopen the gate? Kyle found some heavy duty wire cutters, and went to work. He snipped and pried an opening for us. We stuffed what ammo we could into duffle bags we had found in the store.

As we made our way out, I heard Kyle curse angrily.

"What?" I asked.

"Nothing, it's nothing. I just slipped is all, almost fell."

I thought nothing of it, we headed out.