Mark Tufo - The End Has Come and Gone

Eliza snapped out of her trance. “Do not be so confident, Tomas,” she said to her brother. “Now Michael, I believe you have what is rightfully mine.”

“I do, but I have decided on another set of terms,” I told her.

“I grow weary of this,” Eliza said. A cheetah would have been amazed at her speed as she grabbed the locket and was back in her original spot just as I blew a hole in the surface of the roof, damn near taking my foot off.

“I was expecting that. I just didn’t think it would happen so fast.”

“Kill them,” Eliza said before she looked the piece of jewelry over.

The zombies began to close the circle up, hunger intensifying their movements. April fainted outright. It was Mrs. Deneaux that was the first to fire. The front line of zombies dropped quickly as the rest of the group took to arms. Rifle fire crackled, smoke rose into the air, human shaped monsters dropped by the dozens. Missed shots from fifteen feet were a rare occurrence, and then the zombies were eighteen feet away and then twenty. I held up my hand for a cease fire. It wasn’t that the zombies were retreating, they just weren’t advancing anymore.

“Clever Michael,” Eliza said coolly.

“I watched Interview with a Vampire,” I told her. “You vamps move pretty fast.”

“Where is my locket?”

I shrugged my shoulders.

“I can still kill all of you now and then sort out the pieces later,” she told me ominously.

“Do you really want to look through zombie offal for something you obviously value so much?” I asked her. Can a vampire be a germ-a-phobe? I mean I doubt it, they suck the blood out of people. Who’s to say where that neck has been, or what disease is running rampant through that person’s veins. “And it might not even be on us,” I threw in for good measure.

“You lie, I can smell it on you,” Eliza said.

“The lie or the locket?” I asked.

“Both. But you are right, I would rather you hand me the locket on your knees rather than search among these diseased vermin.”

“Well at least we agree about the vermin part,” I told her. “Let’s make a straight up trade, all of us leave here and you get your locket.”

“Where is the fun in that?” Eliza asked me.

“I think it sounds like a lot of fun,” Mad Jack piped up.

“Me too actually,” BT added.

Gary raised his hand in acknowledgement also.

“Enough!” Eliza said forcibly. “That is not an acceptable bargain. Someone must die here today.”

“There’s always you,” Justin said a little louder than he intended.

“Oh my pet,” Eliza said turning her head to face him. “You do not know what you have thrown asunder. I could have brought you on an incredible journey. You could have danced across the graves of everyone who has ever wronged you.” Justin pulled his gaze from Eliza. She laughed. “Silly boy, it is a shame you will never see the dawn of a new day.”

“I will fight Durgan,” I said.

“No Talbot,” Tracy said obstinately.

“Hush,” I said, putting my finger to her lips and hoping she wouldn’t bite it off. “I will fight Durgan but when I kill that asshole, we ALL leave unharmed and unpursued.” (Now that I said and wrote that word I’m not sure if it’s actually a Webster’s Dictionary approved word. Oh well, it’s not like anyone besides me will ever see this.)

“Those were not our original terms,” Eliza said.

“It’s called leverage Eliza. I have a little bit and I plan on using it.”

“If anyone on your side should step in and alter the outcome, our agreement will be null,” Eliza said, speaking directly to BT.

“No one will,” I said turning to face my friend.

“What? I haven’t even done anything,” BT said guiltily.

“And you won’t, right?” I asked him.

“But what if he’s beating the crap out of you, can’t I at least kill him before they get us?” BT asked. I gave him the sternest look I could muster, but it didn’t do much considering it was aimed at his sternum. “Alright, I won’t do anything even if your spindly ass is getting spanked and or demolished,” he grudgingly conceded.

“Thanks man,” I said sarcastically. “Eliza, do you agree to this?”

“I will let everyone including yourself leave here unharmed, IF you kill him.”

“What about not pursuing us?”

“That will be my leverage Michael. You can all leave here and I will let you go, but not forever.”

“Don’t take the deal, Dad,” Travis entreated.

“I welcome the opportunity to put a spike through your chest, Eliza,” I told her. Eliza sneered. “Swear it, Eliza.”

“I swear it on the Blood Locket, Michael.”

“Tomas?” I asked.

“She is bound,” Tomas said.

I pulled the locket from the barrel of the shotgun where I had stowed it once the zombies stopped approaching. Eliza gasped.

“It would have been the first thing destroyed,” I told her.

Eliza walked purposefully over to me and took the locket from my extended arm, making certain that her ice cold touch came in contact with my hand.

“We could still have some fun,” Eliza told me as she kept her hand wrapped around my wrist.

“I’ve already dated enough cold heartless bitches in my lifetime, thank you very much,” I said, trying to control the fear that was threatening to run away with my nerve.

“Very well. It is a beautiful day to die,” she said as she released her grip.

“I’d actually prefer a good rainstorm, maybe some hail and a crap load of lightning. It’s that whole flair for the dramatic,” I told her.

“Even at the end, you jest. You are a unique individual, Michael. I will almost miss you.”

“My mother told me that once.” It was the first thing I could think of.

“Dude?” Paul said.

“Too far?” I asked him.

“A little bit.”

“You will surrender your weapons now,” Eliza said as she stepped back next to Tomas.

“Whoa, that wasn’t part of the agreement,” I told her.

“Yes, as a matter of fact it was. When you die, the rest of your group will surrender to me. With their weapons they will not be so willing to follow through.”

“I say we just go out fighting now Mike,” Brian said.

A few others thought the same.

“We voted on this already, either we’re all in or we’re all out. I’m prepared to fight to the end by myself or with all of you by my side.”

More zombies began to funnel through the breech point in response to Brian’s call to arms.

“We’ve voted,” Alex said. “With Mike we have a chance. I’ve said my piece and I am at peace with the decision. I am prepared to meet my Maker.”

“I’m not sure if I should be honored or not with that comment Alex.”

Alex shrugged his shoulders.

“Well at least you clarified that, buddy,” I told him.

The small pile of rifles and pistols we produced could have kept a guerilla unit in Southern Peru stocked for a few years. I honestly don’t know how we could have carried all this armament and still move effectively. Now I know why the ladder bowed so much under BT. Sure, a good part of it was his bulk, the rest had to do with the two rifles and three pistols he contributed to the pile, plus the five hundred or so rounds he had stashed on him at various locations on his body.