Dead Endz by Kristen Middleton Page A

said a gravelly voice behind us. “Everything’s ripe for the pickings, why let it go to waste?”
    Nora and I turned around and found what had to be two of the ugliest human beings left on the planet. One of them was a tall skinny dude with long stringy hair and missing teeth; the few he had were blackish yellow and crooked. The other one was a squat dumpy man with some kind of crazy lazy eye that darted all over the room.  Unfortunately, at the moment his good one rested on my legs.
    “Can I have the skinny one with the cane?” asked the short one, licking his wormy lips. “Please Dewey?” He reminded me of an old bulldog with his dark watery eyes and drooling jowls.
    Nora burst out laughing. “Dewey? What kind of pansy name is that?”
    Dewey smiled coldly and raised his gun towards her head. “The kind that’s going to blow your brains out if you don’t shut the fuck up.”
    “Um,” I said, raising my hand, trying to defuse the situation. “I’m sorry; she didn’t mean anything by that. We’ve just been through a lot of stress these last few days.”
    Dewey shrugged. “Well, then the bimbo better keep her pie hole shut if she wants to live any longer.”  
    Looking back now, I’d say it was very fortunate for us that Nora hadn’t yet learned to control her temper, even with her martial arts training. I held my breath and watched in morbid fascination as she erupted like a volcano and let out a shriek so loud that it would have woken up the dead if they hadn’t already been wandering the streets.
    “Asshole!” she screamed, launching herself at Dewey, slamming him to the ground. She was much smaller than him but she packed some real powerful punches, and that’s exactly what she started doing to his face. He’d somehow lost the grip on his gun and I knew with her rage, it was all over for him.
    The stunned look on Dewey’s craggily face was enough to wake me up. I moved towards Wandering Eye and kicked him in the face so hard, I’m pretty sure I corrected his vision.
    “Oh, my God, you bitch!” he growled, holding his bloody nose.
    “Really? That’s so… original,” I said.
    “You’re dead,” he spat, moving towards me. “I’m going to kill you and then really have some fun.”
    That sounded a little creepy and not in my best interest. Before he lived up to his sick fantasies, I picked up a metal chair and slammed it against his head. He fell to the ground and groaned.
    “Are we done?” I asked. “I’m tired and I have more important things to do than deal with your crap.”
    “Whore,” he whispered in anguish, reaching towards his ankle. It was then that I noticed the gun holstered to it.
    “I’ll take that,” I said, kicking at his hand. I grabbed the gun and pointed it at him. “Last chance to stop embarrassing yourself.”
    “Screw you. That’s my gun, bitch.”
    I cocked the gun, but really only to scare him. Even though he was an asshole, I wasn’t about to kill anyone still breathing if I could help it. The zombies would eventually get their hands on him, anyway. “Listen creep, we’re leaving with the gun. You should probably take a break anyway,” I said. “Your, um, face looks a little more messed up than usual.”
    The look he gave me would haunt my dreams even more than some of the zombie horror I’d witnessed in the last few days. One eye burned into mine with murderous rage, the other stared furiously at some kind of wart on his nose. It was…unsettling.
    “You’re fucking crazy. I hope a zombie eats your brains,” he growled. Then he groaned and put his head in his hands.
    At least he knew when to give up.
    I sighed and then glanced at Nora to see if she needed help, but she was still pounding Dewey in the face, who I think may have stopped fighting some time ago.
    “Nora,” I said evenly. “He’s either dead or going to wake up needing something much stronger than aspirin. Come on…let’s get the heck out of here before someone or thing shows