Killing Never Changes

I walked outside and started to walk towards the strip club. I started to wonder if this job was some sort of set up. Maybe the Lion was trying to kill me, but why? In my line of work it wasn't hard to kill the wrong person and earn a price on your head. This wasn't going to be a fun walk by any means. Then again, something wasn't right about this whole thing. I've been set up before, and this didn't have the same feel to it at all. Those people who came after me didn't look like assassins. Something wasn't right, and I had a feeling there would be answers waiting for me when I seen the Lion and got my money, one way or the other.

I was hurrying just a little, trying to get away from the seen of the kill before anyone important showed up. I was cutting down ally ways, and side streets, and so far had avoided all human contact. It was still strange to not have passed someone by now, but I wasn't exactly complaining. I cut down another ally way, and I seen a hobo huddled next to a dumpster. It was actually a little bit relieving, just to see something normal. As I got closer though, I realized it was anything but that. His face was buried in the stomach of a young girl, probably right around my age. I could have asked him what was going on, but I had a feeling I wouldn't get much of a response. I pulled my gun out of the holster and shot him execution style in the back of the head. Something was definitely going on, and the more I seen, the more I knew it wasn't anything good.

I turned the corner of the next street and seen a large group of people headed in my direction. I started to approach the group, and when I got about halfway to where they were, Waving my arms to try and get their attention. It must have worked because it wasn't long before they were all in a full blown sprint, chasing me down the street. I emptied the rest of my clip into the front of the group, which slowed them down just enough to get away, and take refuge in a small diner. I pressed my back against the back door and looked around inside. It was empty, at least at first glance. I started to make my way towards the rear of the diner, trying to find some sort of back door that I could use to escape. I was trying to figure out what exactly was happening right now. The only thought that crossed my mind was that maybe that epidemic or whatever I had heard about was something more. Maybe it was like those fucking movies I never watched and everyone was now a bunch of man eating zombies. I kept trying to talk myself out of that thought. Things like don't happen in real life. There was a perfectly good explanation for all of this, and I was determined to find it.

I made my way into the kitchen area, and seen five people tearing away at something or someone in the corner. I took two steps and they must have heard me, as all of them turned their attention towards me and began charging my position. All of them drooling blood, and screaming like they were possessed by Satan himself. There was no way out of this, I was going to have to fight. Out of bullets, I was going to have to use the knives, and I was now regretting the decision to only carry three with me. I took out the biggest three first, landing throwing knives all the forehead. I decided if this was like the movies, it would be my best option, given I remembered only way to kill zombies is to destroy their brain. I wasn't buying into the hype quite yet that these were zombies, but I wasn't taking any chances.

The next two were going to be a bit trickier, given I was either going to have to improvise a weapon, or get passed them so I could pry my knives out of the other three. Given the knives were so lodged in their heads, and it was going to take some time for me to get them out, I decided upon improvisation. I hopped onto a prep table, and grabbed one of the knives laying on the table. When the first one approached I jammed the knife through the top of its skull, and then kicked the second one towards a deep fryer across from me. Before it could recover and make another charge I hopped across the gap and stomped its head into the fryer, being careful not to get too close to the oil. After a few minutes of struggling, I could feel the body go limp, and I hopped off the top of the deep fryer.

I could hear the glass towards front of the diner start to break as I pulled the knives out of the bodies on the ground. I hurried out the back door before they could make their way into the kitchen and continued down an ally. I kept one knife in hand just in case something came at me unexpectedly. The strip club was about ten blocks from here, and I wasn't at all looking forward to the walk. So far I had remained blood free, but with my luck a cop would pull up and see me armed with a knife, marching down the street. I wasn't really in the mood for cop killing and running from the authorities after all of this. I just wanted to get my money and go home, and wait for this whole thing to blow over. I'm sure the government was hard at work taking care of this issue... On second thought, taking care of this issue might involve nuking the city. Okay, so maybe I needed to get my money and get the fuck out of town.

I was hurrying down the street and seen a gun shop. I decided to stop in and reload the pistol before I continued on. I just hope its abandoned like everything else on this street seems to be. I'm a little short of cash right now, seeing as I have no where to keep money in this getup. The welcoming bell chimed as I opened the door, and started to look for the ammo I needed on the shelf. I heard a noise towards the back room just as I found what I was looking for and worked fast to load my clip. I'm still a little pissed at myself for only taking one with me. I looked over and seen a figure emerging in the doorway. Slowly it the shadow lifted, and I could see who they were... And unfortunately they were pointing a gun at me.

“Who the fuck are you!?” the man shouted, as he he tucked a one of his stray dreadlocks behind his ear. “You've got a gun, but I've been shot at a few times today by these fucking things! Say something!”

“Something. Now... Who the fuck are you?” I asked.

“I asked you first!” he replied edging closer to me. He continued to get closer, and when I felt he was within striking distance, I took my gun and smashed it against the side of his head, taking his weapon at the same time. He went down, and I could see the look of shock and confusion in his eyes... It was my favorite look on a man.

“What the fuck!?... How did you... I mean... That was...” he stammered as he tried to make it back to his feet. I wasn't about to let him up until I found out more about what was going on. For all I know, he was out to kill me from the start. Although if that were the case, I'd say he was probably the worst assassin ever.

“Impossible? Unfathomable? Awesome? There's a lot of different ways you can describe it I suppose. All I want to know is who the fuck you are, and what the fuck is going on right now, and then maybe, if I get the right answers, I'll let you live today,” I explained.

“My... My names Evan... And as far as what's going on, I have no fucking idea either. I just walked out of my apartment and these fucking things have been after me all day. Somehow made my way here... Figured I'd need a gun at some point.”

“Well Evan, I'm sorry I bashed the side of your head in. Take some Tylenol and you'll be fine. Thanks for fucking nothing. Have a wonderful life.”

“Wait! You're leaving!?”

“Yea. I have something I have to pick up. Try not to stare at my ass as I walk out. I'm letting you live, but I'm a woman, and I'm entitled to change my mind.”

“We should stick together! Let me come with you! Strength in numbers and all that! I watch your back, you watch mine! That sort of thing! Haven't you ever seen a zombie movie!? The loner always gets killed!”

“That's cute, but you watching my back is exactly what I was talking about earlier. Besides where I'm going, a guy like you wouldn't last two seconds.”

“A guy like me?”

“Yea, a wannabe Jamaican white boy, who's too stoned to realize I'm trying to help him by telling him to leave me the fuck alone.”

“Wait... I'm not high!... Right now... But seriously! This is huge! This is the zombie apocalypse! Please let me go with you! I'm begging you!”

“Zombie apocalypse? What makes you think this is the zombie apocalypse?”

“All the signs are there! That epidemic on the news! Blood drooling people with rashes eating people! This is it! I think they're more like 28 Days Later zombies than George A. Romero zombies... Which is kind of bad... Not sure why the fuck I got shot at though. That's very unzombie-like.”

“Smoke another one. That sounds so fucking ridiculous...”

“I know it does! But you have to admit, shit is pretty fucked up out there.”

“Doesn't matter to me. You're not coming with me. I'm on my way to get what's mine...”

“Where are you going?”

“I swear to fucking God if you interrupt me again I will not hesitate to put a bullet through your head! Are we clear!?”

“Ye... Yea... Yea... I'm sorry, I was just... Curious is all.”

“I'm headed for the red light district. Don't try to follow me.”

“Oh... I see... One of those kinds of girls... Explains the costume.”

“What the fuck did you just say!? Strike fucking two! You'd do well to remember who's holding the fucking gun right now!”

“I'm sorry! I didn't mean it that way!”

“How else could you have meant it!? You know what? Just shut the fuck up. I'm...”

The crash of the storefront window interrupted my exit speech. I turned around and started firing into the crowd trying to break its way in. It must have been that group that was chasing me in the diner. Or maybe not, it was hard telling. Didn't matter, they were here, and there was a lot of them. Luckily I was in a store full of guns and ammo. It would be more than enough to take them all out, and I was quite frankly sick of dealing with this running shit.

“Listen to me Evan!” I shouted through the gunfire. “Find guns! And start loading them! When I yell for you to toss me one, you do exactly that! Do we understand each other!?”

Evan nodded, and I dropped the clips on both guns I was carrying. I tossed both guns to Evan and screamed for him to toss me another gun. He had found a shotgun, but I could tell by one glance he had no idea how to load it. I rushed to where he was and snatched it out of his hands. Then I hurried back to the ammo rack and tore open a box of shells. A few of our attackers were almost over the bodies dangling in the window and into the store. I loaded up just in time to take two of them out, and was now shouting at Evan to hurry reloading the two pistols. I kept shooting until I went through the entire box of shells. There were still more coming at us, and it seemed like they weren't going to stop any time soon.

“Shouldn't we just run from them!?” Evan shouted, still fighting with reloading the clip.

“I'm tired of running. You just get those guns reloaded. We'll be fine,” I replied.

“Are you sure!? This is pretty fucked up right now!”

“I've been through way worse than this.”

It seemed like more of them continued to show up. I had cleared the first wave, and the second wave, but now it seemed like there was going to be a third wave and even a fourth. Maybe Evan was right, maybe we should run. Then again, Evan's never been in a room full of Korean hit men armed to the teeth and out to shoot your tits off. They kept on coming, like moths to a flame, and I kept sending them all back to hell. There was a huge pile of bodies in front of the window when Evan finally got both of the pistols reloaded and tossed them back to me. I emptied both clips into the fourth wave and it seemed like it was finally over. I looked over at Evan, who's jaw was hanging wide open.

“How the!? How did you do that!? That was amazing!?” he exclaimed.

“It could have went better. I was a little off with a few of those shots. I could've used my guns a little sooner too,” I replied.

“I'm sorry! I've... Never done this before!”

“Believe me, it shows. Have you ever even shot a gun before?”

“No! Never even touched one until just a second ago!”

“Well, its been nice meeting you. Sorry I have to run...”

“Wait! Please! Let me come with you! I promise I won't be in your way! And I'll obey your every command! I swear!”

“Look... You're a decent guy alright. But no... You'll end up dead if you're with me... One way or another you'll end up a corpse.”

“I'll be a corpse without you! I can't survive in this! If you wouldn't have bailed me out of this I'd be dead right now!”

“You stand a better chance without me... I'm leaving and if you follow me I swear to God I will kill you, and I will make sure it hurts. Do we have an understanding?”

“Well then you might as well just kill me now!”

“Alright if you insist,” I replied pointing my gun at him.

“No! Wait! I was kidding... Fuck!”

“Take care of yourself Evan,” I said as I started to make my way out the back door, trying to find a place to stuff a few extra clips full of ammo.

"You never even told me your name!" Evan shouted.

"And I don't intend to," I answered.

Evan followed me out, and right when we were outside, the smell of the joint he lit hit my nose. Who could get high during something like this? This guy was a liability if I ever saw one. I was feeling less and less bad about not letting him follow me. He turned his head to say goodbye and I shot the lit end of the joint off. The stunned look on his face made me smile as I aimed the gun at his head. He smiled and lifted his arms in surrender before turning to walk away. I kept the gun aimed until he was out of sight, and then I turned and started to make my way towards the Lion's.

A few things were haunting my brain right now. As many people as I've killed in my life, I will have to admit, I've never killed that many in such a short period of time. I've never killed so many people in such a public setting either. Something was definitely wrong with everything that was going on. Evan mentioned the zombie apocalypse, and I was almost starting to think maybe he was right. What had happened while I was out of the country? Things seemed normal enough last night. What could have made it all change so suddenly? Then something else Evan said made me think.

That epidemic, the one the driver was hoping he didn't have. That cough of his, the one that made him sound like he was going to die. The Lion had it too... Could that be it? If so, this was going to be a very interesting visit to the red light district. I stopped at the corner to check myself out. All this killing and not even a drop of blood on me... Sometimes I even impress myself.