It's Just Across The Street

"Get into the house? Without you?! Where are you going?!" Niko asked Dad. He nodded, blankly staring off into the distance before refocusing on Niko.

"It's obvious to me now, that Korin isn't fit for our home. I'll solve this problem, slowly, but surely," Dad vaguely said. He ran out in the middle of the street, in perfect view so the zombies could all see them. They were making an effort to break into the school, pounding on the windows, and trying to figure out in their zombie brains how to open the door.

"HEY! OVER HERE YOU DUMB ZOMBIES!" Dad shouted out. He shot his gun at parts of the crowd by the bricks. He was able to consider the momentum of the bullet and didn't shoot into the zombies in fear that the bullets would travel through and break the windows, permitting the zombies to enter the building.

The few he shot and killed plummeted to the ground, and then it went dark as Niko moved everybody inside.

"What is going on?! Can we go out there and help him?!" I yelled out to Niko. He started pushing chairs, looking for any zombies inside, and drawing them out with noise to attract them.

"One here!" Cody shouted out.

Two shambling zombies came from a room by the kitchen, and Niko jumped into action. I pulled out my gun, ready to do my best to save him, but he held his arm out. My immediate reaction was to point it at the floor and away from him. Niko turned back to me, throwing his arms around the chair, and throwing it at the older zombie in front of him.

He fell to his back, and Niko pulled out his knife, stabbing it into the chin of the female zombie next to the male. Both of the zombies were bitten and torn-apart skin was flailing as Niko basically threw them around like they were toys. After stabbing the girl zombie, he threw her back into the wall. I guess because of where he stabbed, the girl zombie didn't die, and the male zombie was back up on his feet.

Cody jumped on the counter and I ran into the living room, looking for anything to help Niko. In the zombie shows, they never talk about how hard it is to deflect two grown adults from throwing themselves at you with their full body weight.

It was a bad joke, but "dead weight" was a real thing, and the zombies felt much heavier than they should've.

Niko kicked the male zombie back and into the wall while ducking under the girl zombie's advances on him.

Cody threw a pot and a pan at the girl zombie which stunned her enough to back off of Niko. She turned toward the opening in the kitchen that connected it to the living room, just to be faced by me and my 'shield'.

While everything was going down, I picked up a cushion off of the couch and ran at the girl zombie with it.

Because it was soft and had a ton of force like a tackle, I pushed her over into the glass table, shattering it easily while standing on it so she couldn't get up.

Cody slammed a knife into the top of the male zombie's head, reaching into his brain, and digging it around until he dropped dead violently. He had grabbed a kitchen knife from one of the drawers while he was standing on the counter and finished him off to save Niko's life.

Niko walked over to the girl zombie, stabbed her cleanly in the head, and adjusted his shirt while panting heavily.

"Thanks, guys... I owe you one," He said. Niko crudely spit on the male zombie and went over to the window to check up on Dad once more, crouching and hiding behind the blinds.

Dad was leading all of the zombies to the outer gate by one of the ends of the road. It was on the western side, so it would be closer to our home. It looked like Dad was going to lead all of the zombies away.

"He's crazy... there's too many of them!" Niko said. Cody and I were only looking toward Dad, but on the opposite side of the school, it felt like a sea of zombies was crashing up against the road.

I knew there were a lot of people on Earth, but this number of zombies was insurmountable to my tiny mind. It felt unbelievable as if I was seeing an illusion.

"Holy shit... what the hell man?! What did Korin do?!" Niko shouted out. He peered out of the window, nervously bouncing back and forth while thinking of a solution.

As he peered his head out of the window, it became silent. I remember watching forward with an inquisitive mind, watching how Dad masterfully evaded full zombies and pushed them over to get closer to the gate.

Then, a bullet slid through the window, right beside my face. I didn't notice it at first, as it happened so fast, but the glass shattered before I felt the wind from the bullet's speed go right past my head. I covered my head and eyes, dropping to the floor as glass covered my body, and Niko and Cody both dropped as well, watching me with fearful eyes.

"Leon! Please, tell me you're okay!" Niko shouted out. Four more bullets came in through the wall. I wasn't sure who was shooting at us, but I picked my body up and ran halfway up the stairs to hide in cover.

"I know that motherfucker doesn't have a gun... I'll kill him, I'll kill him!" Niko shouted out. He was irrationally screaming out, or maybe at that level, it would've been rational. I couldn't keep my mind straight, as my childish mind slowly processed that I was almost killed. Somebody shot at me... somebody didn't heed the same warnings as me. They had full intention to kill me, and the only thing that stopped them was their inaccuracy.

"What..." I mumbled, trying to get a grip on myself. I felt adrenaline go from my brain to the rest of my bones. It was the first time I felt a true sense of danger and a sense of bitter rage that could only be cured through revenge.

Everything Dad taught me had gone to waste. To level my mind, to respect human lives other than my own, it all slowly fell into the garbage as I understood that Korin was the one who shot at me. The people in there are in danger, and Korin has successfully warranted his own death.

"We can't just sit here... dammit! How did that young kid even come up with this plan?! To separate us from the school like this? That little bastard..." Niko mumbled again. I had never heard him be so one-sided with anything. His rage was unrelenting, and I often found him clenching his teeth in aggression as he moved his eyes all over to try and find Korin through a gap in the house.

While we were all hiding behind the stairs, more gunshots rang off. These ones, however, were different. They weren't hitting the house, and obviously not coming from the house, which meant somebody was shooting elsewhere. Niko peeked his head up the stairs to the window right above and saw something interesting enough to get him to stand up all the way.

"Come on, let's go," Niko said. He ran back down the stairs, grabbed both Cody and my wrist, and led us out the door.

"We're going back, the path is opened!" Niko told us.

We curved around the house, watching a bunch of dead zombies in the street twitch as the last impulses of movement coursed through their bodies. I wasn't exactly sure that I wanted to run back into the place I was being shot from, but I trusted Niko above all else.

I looked back to find Dad near the corner with another person. Upon closer observation, it was Uncle Brandon. He had one of the rifles in our possession in his hand and he was shooting into the crowd to kill more zombies with him. Both Papa and Jason joined the two of them and shot more into the crowd of zombies to take them all out.

Niko ran over the dead bodies, pushing both Cody and me to the front of the school, and crouching down in front of us.

"Stay here, if it gets dangerous, run back to Dad. I'm going to go make sure no other zombies can get through that opening, I just need you guys to be hidden and safe, alright?" Niko asked both Cody and me. I was still too stunned to interject, so I only nodded my head and watched him run off.