Kirk Allmond - What Zombies Fear - A Father's Quest

“John, red shirt, middle. I need a bullet one foot on either side of his head the second you hear my shot.”

“Got it, Tookes.”

“Here goes Max. I’m sorry. Turn around and cover buddy.” He wrapped his arms up over his head, pressing them into his ears. I squeezed the trigger. Throbbing pain shot through my whole upper body, my left arm had fallen asleep. I heard two shots almost simultaneously from below and left of me. Three bullets sped towards the lead zombie. One heading for his forehead and one on each side. Whichever way he dodged, he would be hit. I worked the bolt and fired once more, this time at the leader’s groin, covering myself in case he dodged straight down trying to duck the bullets.

All four bullets flew true. Just before they struck home, the zombie turned into smoke, and reappeared about six feet in front of his original spot.

“Oh Shit. Upgrades!” I said into the mic. “Marshall, he can teleport, and he’s fast! He teleported through the bullets!”

“Max, is there any way for me to tell which ones are bad guys?” I asked.

“You just have to look.”

“They look the same to me,” I said.

“Look closer, Daddy,” Max said.

I concentrated. Nothing. I focused my brain, searching for anything different. The way they moved, looked, anything. I focused on my own mind, searching for anything. I needed to be able tell them apart. I had to. I couldn’t kill all those humans, the species needed them, but more than that, I’m not sure my conscience could handle killing that many people. That many families further torn apart, not by zombies, but by my actions.

I felt a snap. A sharp pain in my skull, and my eyes hurt. Everything was surrounded by bright colors. Max had a baby-blue aura around him; my own hand was glowing blue. I looked through the scope. The humans all had colors, mostly blues. The zombies did not. ‘ Thank you, Max!’

I picked the first shape with no aura and squeezed. Acquire, squeeze. Over and over. While I was firing, Leo closed on with the red shirted zombie. A circle formed around them. With the mix of humans and zombies, John was out of the fight.

“John. Focus on the red shirt. Don’t shoot Leo!” I said, into the mic.

“Marshall, where are you?” I said.

“Vic, I have the entire field trapped. They won’t make it another hundred feet. If you’re going to save these people, do it now.”

I looked at red shirt. He was the key to this. I watched him fighting Leo. She was way too fast for him, he couldn’t catch her, but every time she landed a strike, it hit only smoke. I focused on him; I focused all of my concentration on seeing him. Right as Leo landed a strike, he stretched in about twelve different directions. His ‘shadow’ moved out in different directions, one of them solidified. Right as the strike landed, he dispersed and reappeared at the end of the solidified shadow. I watched this for several strikes, all of which happened in the space of less than two seconds. Every time, he would stretch in different directions. I realized I was looking at his decisions. When he stretched, he went to all of his possible destinations, when he decided on one, it solidified.

He reappeared above Leo, out of her line of sight. In the time she found him, he landed a blow across her cheek, cutting it pretty deeply. This had to end, but I was too far away, too much bullet travel time between me and him. The Juliet balcony was about ten feet above the porch, I considered jumping off. Immediately my shadow stretched off the balcony, and I saw it lying on the ground with a broken leg. I changed to going off the side and hang dropping, and it showed me a sprained ankle. Every route I tried ended with me getting hurt. Down the stairs out the door I ran into a zombie right as I hit the front door and I got bit. Shadows shot out of me in every direction. The best option was the window in Max’s room. That path solidified for an instant and then they all disappeared as I made my decision. I leapt off the floor, leaving the rifle and grabbed the .22 semi automatic.

“Max, get under your bed. Stay there until I come back.” I said, as I opened his window.

The last thing I saw was Max holding his hand up, pinky, index, and thumb extended in the sign for I love you. I let go of the window frame, and shot the same sign to him as I fell to the porch. Just as my shadow predicted, I fell backwards and hit my funny bone on the brick porch.

I ran down the front stairs, and raised the rifle to my shoulder. My shadow shot forward, and got bitten by a zombie from the left. I turned left, shot that zombie first, and then the one on the right.

I ran for all I was worth towards Leo and the now famous, Red Shirt. The humans had slowed down, and were coming towards the house on their bellies. The zombies were still mostly advancing.

“John. Shoot all the standing ones. Leave Red Shirt to me.”

Finally able to enter the fight, John made up for lost time. He went down the line, only the slightest pause every seventeen shots while he switched magazines.

I focused on Red Shirt, watching him. He was predictable. If he had two options, he went right before left. He mostly went backwards over forwards. He was figuring out Leo’s blind spots, and keeping her busy. I don’t think he was even trying to win. I think he had more tricks up his sleeve. I wondered what he was waiting for. He looked up and I knew he saw me coming, because he started considering options of coming towards me, but always returned to focusing on Leo. They sent him to take her out of the fight. They sent humans with the zombies to keep John from the fight.

“Marshall,” I called over the radio “Get ready with whatever you have! This ends now!”

I yelled out loud as I ran “Humans! Four of us have beaten all these zombies! We will free your families, lay down your weapons. I don’t want to kill you!”

I watched Red Shirt decide to go left and forwards, right in front of Leo. They were fighting facing right of where I was coming from. I stopped, and put three bullets in the spot where he was going to go right as he reappeared. He reappeared right on top of one bullet; it exploded out of his head. The following two bullets impacted his head, which was decimated. Gore splattered Leo’s face. I swear I saw some blood actually moving towards the cut on her face.

“Mom... Leo’s coming in. She’s got a pretty good cut.” I said into the radio. “She’s going to need stitches.” By the time I got to her, she had wiped her face in her shirt. Her cheek was healed.

Marshall had the humans lined up along the driveway. The few that had weapons had left them on the other side of the drive. I walked up beside him. John appeared on his other side and Leo on the right.

“Vic. There are a hundred fifty-three of them. Where are we going to put them and their families? And how are we going to get their families?”

“Listen up, all of you!” I shouted. “We’ll get your families. We can beat them. Stay calm, listen to Marshall, he’ll get you squared away under a roof, and we’ll find food.”

“Marshall,” I said quietly. “The upstairs of the barn will hold them. We’re going to need bedding though. Watch them, none are zombies, but I’m not sure I fully trust them. I’m going to pass out.”

22. Logistics

I limped upstairs, my shoulder on fire. It’s amazing how much you can ignore when the adrenaline is pumping. I couldn’t have held a rifle steady enough to hit anything at ten yards.

When I got to our rooms, I found Max, still under his bed. He had a flashlight and some race cars under there and was playing happily. I laid down on the floor and looked under the bed. “Hi Max,” I grinned.

“Hi Daddy.” He smiled. “Can I come out now? It’s hot under here.”