Garyhad one more surprise left for them. He had been getting closer all the time the two of them were yelling back and forth. Now he stood up directly in front of Paul, close enough to see the survivor’s dark lips moving in an unspoken curse. The hunting rifle came up andGary grabbed the barrel. Even as Paul fired he yanked it downwards so it exploded against his sternum. Pain, real pain vibrated throughGary ’s body and his shirt caught on fire where the rifle had discharged but he didn’t even wince.
Perfectly calm,Gary pulled the rifle out of Paul’s hands and threw it behind him into the street. He called out for his companions and Noseless and Faceless responded, advancing on Kev. The bee bee gun snapped a couple of times and Noseless rocked on his feet as the tiny projectiles bounced off his forehead but soon the two undead had the smaller survivor pinned. They made no move to bite him, merely twisting his arms behind his back.Gary expressed his approval and he could feel Faceless trying to smile, the exposed musculature of her face splitting in an obscene rictus.
“So are you done now, or what?”Gary asked Paul. “Maybe we can do this the easy way. I used to be a doctor-”
Paul’s face darkened with many, many questions. The first one to came out was,“You were a doctor?”
Garylaughed. “I know, I know. I used to fight to save lives and now I take them away. It’s so fucking ironic I could just rip your head off.” The survivor went pale andGary realized he had breached some unspoken rule of tact normally observed between predators and their prey. “I promise I’ll make this as painless as possible,” he said. He turned to glance at Faceless and Noseless. “Was he actually trying to kill us with bee bees?”
Kev answered for himself. “If I got you in the eye you wouldn’t be laughing! Paul-you’ve gotta help me, man! Get these things off of me!”
Paul licked his lips. His eyes were very bright. “Let me get this straight. You’re planning on eating both of us, right?”
“Yeah,”Gary admitted, wondering where this was going.
“And nothing that I can possibly do at this point is going to change your mind.”
Garyshrugged. “You did try to kill us. It seems fair, you know?”
“Sure,” Paul said. “Well in that case-hey, what’s that?”
Garyfollowed Paul’s pointing finger, only to have the big survivor put one hand in his face and push him over on his ass. Gary went sprawling and by the time he’d recovered he could only see Paul’s back tearing down the street, his feet flashing wildly as he ran.
Garyhadn’t felt so humiliated since dodgeball in middle school. He got his revenge, though. A dozen or so strong, well-fed undead came around the corner just then, responding toGary ’s summons. Paul tried to run around them but a dead woman with enormous broken fingernails snatched at his belly as he passed her. He kept running a few more steps before stopping to look down. The front of his shirt was red with blood. He looked up atGary as if pleading with a doctor to make it all better in the moment before his broken skin tore open and his intestines spilled out steaming onto the asphalt.
The dead converged on him. He tried to run again but a dead man picked up one end of his small intestine and started chewing on it. Paul tripped and fell on his face. With aching slowness the dead dragged him across the street back toward them, reeling him in like a fish on a line. When he was close enough-screaming and kicking but weakened by loss of blood-the undead squatted down over his shaking body and took turns biting chunks out of his face. Eventually he stopped screaming.
Garyturned to face the other survivor. Noseless and Faceless stared atGary as he came closer. He looked only at Kev. The survivor’s face was glossy with sweat and his mouth didn’t seem to want to close. “You-you said you would make it painless, remember?”
“As painless as possible,”Gary said, “but gee.” He held up his arms and looked down at his pockets. “I forgot. I’m fresh out of anaesthetic.” He lunged forward and sank his teeth deep into Kev’s neck, twisting his head around once he got a solid hold on the living man’s jugular to tear his throat out in one bloody piece.
David Wellington - Monster Island
Monster Island
Chapter Six