Consequences (Warm Bodies fan fiction)

Chapter 22

BANG!

R flinched, once again fearing it was the end of the road for him.

But as before...

Nothing.

Opening his eyes he looked around to see what he could easily describe as a miracle in progress. Around him, almost half of the Purists there, the half that R had seen look thoughtful during his little speeches, were wrestling the other half to the ground, blocking their weapons and trying to disable them. He didn't have time to feel relief though, the men who still followed Scott were still aiming to do as they were told. R jumped out of the way, just missing a shot to the head and found himself crashing into a wall. Fortunately, he had turned in time and braced himself, crashing into it back first. Even so, it left him a little winded.

A man rushed him. R ducked again, spinning around on the floor and kicking his foot up, connecting it with the man's undercarriage. The man turned red and R used his pained distraction to shoot up to his feet and ram his fist into the back of the man's head, knocking him out. He recognized the man now, it was Derrick. R shook his head and limped his way out of the way, relaxing only slightly when he noticed that most of the men still working to do Scott's bidding were disarmed. R had not been paying attention to the one man that really mattered though.

Scott's hands wrung the bar he held where he stood on the catwalk. His teeth ground and his face twisted in rage. Betrayal! Betrayal by his men! By everyone! No! Not this time! If he couldn't rely on anyone else, he'd rely on himself!

Julie had not been just idly sitting by. The knife that R had kicked out of Tommy's hand had slid close enough to her. While everyone was distracted, Julie rocked the chair she was tied to back and fourth until it gave out and she fell with a thud. Her shoulder jarred painfully against the concrete floor but she couldn't worry about that now. Twisting herself in the chair, she managed to snail-crawl her way to the knife. Turning against the floor again, she reached desperately for the knife, her eyes still trained on the mad man trying to aim at R's head. Julie knew if she tried to warn him, Scott would just shoot regardless of where he was trying to aim. Julie nearly cried for joy when she finally managed to get her hands on the knife and quickly worked to cut herself free. "Yes!" she let out a small cheer and slid across the floor over to a pistol on the ground, some feet away from her. Julie ignored her fatigue and pain and forced herself around again, forcing her hands steady as she aimed the gun.

"Time to die, corpse!" Scott sneered. R whirled around, his eyes wide with panic, but once again fate had other plans for him.

"I don't think so, fucker!" Julie growled.

BANG!

Scott's head suddenly jerked violently to the side, blood pouring out of a hole just above his eye. Moments later his body collapsed, lifeless.

The room stilled.

Julie sighed in relief, the major threats to R's life finally being dealt with. She smiled to herself and let her eyes drift shut, finally allowing herself to succumb to her exhaust. "Julie!" R gasped, stumbling over to her, ignoring the pain his body was in to reach her. He slid down next to her and pulled her to him. "Julie? Julie!"

"Mmf..." Julie muttered in her sleep, but didn't wake. R relaxed, letting out a breath of relief. At least she wasn't dead or in a coma.

"We'll take care of these men," one of the 'good' Purists told Kevin. "You and your men should get out of here now," he added.

"You're just going to let us go? After we killed your leader?" Kevin's brow rose.

"Yeah. Some of us never agreed with his ways, but I guess we were just too cowardly to do anything about it," the man shrugged. "Took a badass chick to do it for us," he nodded respectfully toward R, who now held Julie in his arms, despite the subtle trembling in his tired legs.