Undying Love

V.

Meanwhile, green eyed rotting corpses wandered the streets of Kallam. Some were banging on doors and windows trying to force their way in to consume the living flesh that hid within. William and the two guards combed through the streets and fired at any zombie they saw. Each shot to the zombies' heads caused them to burst like a water balloon sending foul smelling black blood and decaying flesh all around. They eventually reached the town square where William had reunited with Amelia. Maurice gasped and William's stomach turned when they saw a large collection of zombies scattered around the area. They moved lethargically but their strength were in their numbers. The streets had only a few solitary zombies at a time, but here the three men were grossly outnumbered. Before anyone had a chance to tell Maurice to wait, a shot flew from his trembling gun and bolted straight into a single zombie's head. Rotting and congealed ooze splattered onto the nearby corpses, causing them to slowly turn to face the men. They stood there, petrified, as the rest of the horde sluggishly turned around to face them. Without a moment's hesitation, they all began slowly stepping towards William and the guards. A vile groan caused William to turn and look behind him. A zombie had snuck up on them and had its hands clawed to grasp Maurice's hair.

"Watch your back!" he cried as he smacked the zombie's face with the butt of his rifle. The corpse's head fell hard onto the ground causing it to crack open like an egg. Maurice turned around. His mouth opened to let out a swelling wail at the sight of the motionless body laying behind him with dark ooze creeping from it's shattered skull.

"Don't yell at them, shoot them!" Gordon shouted. He and William began firing at the zombies heads, very careful not to miss a single shot but also frantically picking them off as quickly as possible before they got too close. Maurice didn't fire. He clutched his rifle in both hands, his body shook uncontrollably. His knees began to buckle and he whimpered through clenched teeth.

"What are you doing, you idiot?!" Gordon roared in between his deafening shots. "Fire!"

William's eyes moved down to Maurice, who was crouching on the ground whimpering and trembling.

"Maurice, you need to get up!" he spoke in as calm of a voice as he could whilst firing at the approaching onslaught of walking corpses. They were close enough to hear their laboured groans and death rattles.

"I can't," Maurice mewled. "There's too many of them."

"We can't do this without you, Maurice! Get up!"

Maurice's rifle dropped to the ground. He curled himself into the foetal position and helplessly bawl in terror.

Gordon and William's rifles continued to make thunderous cracks until they both clicked. They were out of ammo.

"No!" Gordon cried out in fear and frustration. "No, no, no, no!" He frantically searched his belt for more ammo, but he was all out.

"Fuck!" William shouted as he grasped his rifle by the nozzle and held it like a baseball bat. "FUCK!" he shouted again at the approaching zombies, their stench assaulting his nostrils.

The mouths of the emotionless decaying faces, now only a few meters away from the three men, opened revealing rotting gums and teeth. The men could smell the iron and dead flesh creeping from their throats. William swung his rifle at the zombies as their fingers clawed, preparing to tear skin and rip flesh.

Suddenly, they all froze. Some of them let a light gurgle escape their mouths. Every single being in that moment was still. The humans were frozen in fear and the zombies were frozen by a supernatural force beginning to fade from their bodies.

The evanescent green that filled the corpse's eyes began to shrink down to their centres. William looked on in amazement while Gordon smirked. The zombie's eyes eventually appeared glassy, dead and devoid of any soul. One by one, the zombies dropped to the ground. Some of the more fragile ones broke apart as they fell in a heap. They once rose as zombies, now they fell as nothing more than dead bodies. William and Gordon felt their muscles relaxing as the bodies continued to fall. Eventually, what looked like a meadow of bodies lay before them. The air around the town square was still but began to feel warmer. The front doors of the surrounding houses began to open. Citizens of Kallam that hid within began whispering to each other. Some even stepped out onto their porches and poked the bodies with their foot or a fire prod. A little boy gasped at the sight of his grandfather.

Gordon finally broke the silence. "What the hell just happened?"

Gordon's voice snapped William out of his petrified gaze. His eyes widened as he suddenly realised what would have caused this.

"Oh my God..." he uttered as he let his empty rifle fall to the ground. "She did it."

Gordon expression softened. William felt a lump in his throat and his eyes moistened.

"She did it."

He turned and sprinted in the direction of Parliament House.