The Dead Will Walk - Part 3

Jim stared at the owner seeing the suffering in his eyes. Jim knew he needed to make a decision. As far as they knew there was no way to cure the infestation of the parasite. Jim began to raise his gun when all of a sudden a shot rang out from behind him. Jim whirled around to see Luke standing there, arm outstretched, holding a pistol.

"Too slow Jim. Now lets get out of here." Luke said in a somewhat cheerful tone.

This severely disturbed Jim, but he writ it off as Luke trying to keep the mood light and decided he would be watching Luke carefully from now on. Jim stood up and walked over to the first aid box. He unlocked it and grabbed the safety kit out of it. When he turned around, he realized he was alone.

"Luke, have you finished out there? I got the kit." Jim called but was met only with silence.

Jim came back into the main part of the shop and saw the business man crouched by the front window. Luke motioned for Jim to come over to him and pointed out the window. Jim crouched down and crawled over to Luke. He steeled himself and looked out the window. There were at least twenty of those creatures walking towards the diner, its bright lights working as a summoning beacon.

Before Jim could say anything, Luke strode to the back of the shop and removed two pistols and some ammo from behind a glass case and threw them one at a time to Jim, saying,"Catch!" Jim caught them, still lost for words. Luke then removed a shotgun from the wall and a box of shells from the counter. Striding purposefully towards the front door of the shop, he loaded the shells in the shotgun with an eager look on his face.

"I don't think this is a very good idea," Jim said, trying to get Luke's attention, but the man seemed to be completely set on his own goal and ignored Jim's plea. Luke exited the building as Jim reluctantly followed.

Luke waved to Kathy who was still nervously peeking over the edge of the roof, and he walked right up behind on of the infected and placed the barrel of the shotgun up against the creature's head. It slowly turned around and was greeted by Luke's winning smile just before he pulled the trigger and the creature's head exploded, littering the pavement behind it with black brain matter.

"You're going to bring the whole city down on us!" Jim said, trying to keep the panic down in his voice, but once again Luke ignored him and prepared to continue his rampage. Luke obliterated two more of the freaks before Jim realized it was far too late to hold back on noise and decided to join Luke in the firefight. Aiming down the sights of his pistol, he carefully aimed at a nearby man wearing light blue pajamas and a night cap. Dried blood covered a large section of the pajamas, and the man was missing an arm and half of his face.

Jim looked around, half expecting some admiration for his efficient dealings with the creature. All he saw however was Luke steadily increasing his kill count against the undead as he blasted his way through the small crowd.

Looking around, Jim could see more lumbering shapes coming towards them, and he knew they would quickly be outnumbered. He turned and shouted to Luke, "Pack it up, Luke, and head for the roof! We got more freaks incoming!"

Jim headed towards the dumpster that they had used as a step ladder, and it was Luke's turn to reluctantly follow. Jim hoisted himself onto the roof, and Luke tossed the shotgun to him before climbing up.

Jim slumped to the ground, exhausted, and said, "We're back."

"Yeah, we heard you knock," Donovan growled angrily.

Luke approached Jenny who had joined Kathy at the edge of the roof to check out the situation and retrieved his suitcase. He visibly settled down when the leather bag was in his possession and resembled the normal business man in the diner only an hour ago rather than the gun-crazy monster hunter that had recently emerged.

Jenny left Kathy and joined Jim and Donovan's company. "I think we should be fine up here, at least for the night," she said. "We should all get our rest and figure out what to do in the morning."

Donovan nodded in silent agreement, and Jim had already drifted into a deep sleep.