Thousand ways to die in the apocalypse

It was not the first time Mark fought against a runner. They were weak beasts and could die if hit by a bullet. The only problem was the method of killing it.

Mark looked at the two researchers lying on the ground and shouted, "You two, run to the truck. I will cover you!"

The two researchers, not knowing what was happening, did what Mark told and ran in the direction of the vehicle.

Seeing both running, Mark hid behind a small bush, kneeled on the ground with his rear leg while the other leg supported his elbow. Mark was using a basic shooting position he learned in the army and after taking position, he changed his rifle to single shot instead of burst and aimed.

But he was not aiming at the beast running around, he was aiming at the bearded researcher's back, the one running slower.

'Wait, Breath, Keep calm' thought Mark to himself while seeing the bearded researcher running with his life, and just as Mark expected the noises of shooting stopped,it was the moment the beast was hiding, and it only hid before it attacked.

'Its coming' thought Mark, seeing the bushes behind the bearded researcher moving. Mark held his breath, and when he saw the vulture of the beast jumping, he shot at the researcher's back.

~bang~

Mark fired a single shot, the researcher fell, and screams of fear and panic were heard from him. He was alive.

Mark knew the only method to kill a runner was using a bait, and he also knew no one from the army would volunteer to be the bait, that left only the two clueless guys in white coats.

Mark was not sure if hit the beast in the head or in another deadly spot, but seeing the two researchers were alive, he guessed that at least the beast was knocked out, thus he ran in their direction.

Approaching the two, he saw the beast with a bullet in his stomach.

~bang~

Mark shot the beast's head, just to be sure.

"Are you two ok?" asked Mark, seeing both stunned and laying on the ground because of the shots.

Both nodded but said nothing. They didn't see the beast coming, but they were smart enough to figure the situation, thus Mark avoided saying anything else.

"Enter the truck. We are leaving. Runners are like the 'scouts' from the beasts. The others already heard the shots by now and will come here"

The two researchers stood up and moved to the truck. By now, the other soldiers were already coming back to the truck, too. People in the army knew how those things worked. One thing was to kill a lone runner, but raise that number to three and they were doomed.

Mark almost did not believe that this mission would go smoothly. No one died, and they were already leaving. Things seemed way too good to be true.

~bang~ ~bang~ ~bang~

'Dammed mouth,' thought Mark, already turning and aiming his gun toward the shots, but what he saw made him want to facepalm himself.

A rabbit, dead, a soldier shaking with a gun in his hand and smoke coming from the chamber, and another soldier lying on the ground with two bullets in his chest.

"I thought… I thought…. He was shooting at me! I swear!" screamed the soldier.

~bang~

Mark turned his head and saw the lieutenant by his side, with a pistol in hand.

Now there were two bodies lying dead on the ground, and a rabbit.

"That's treason, no matter what you say, and there is only one punishment for treason." said the lieutenant putting his pistol back in the holster, and looking at Mark. "You know what to do, hurry up!"

~sigh~

Mark gave a long sigh and ran in the direction of the dead people. He already knew what to do. The drill was always the same.

Approaching the two dead guys, he gave two shots, one in each one head. It was a protocol from the army, if they were not dead they would only suffer when waking up, they called it 'mercy shot', but for Mark it was just a wasted bullet.

After giving the mercy shots, Mark grabbed the dog tags on their necks, the rifles, the ammo, and…. the rabbit.

'This will save me 3 credits' thought Mark, because he could skip dinner at the barracks and eat the rabbit instead.

Mark shook his head, lamenting the guy's misfortune and ran back to the truck with a smile on his face, because today he will have a rabbit for dinner.

Time passed and the trip back to the military base was calm as expected, the beasts preferred places with vegetation, and that was the reason why this base was one of the safest of them all, because apart from that small forest there was nothing around for hundreds of miles.

Entering the base, Mark saw the familiar streets once again, the base used to be a small mining town, with buildings no higher than 4th floors, people walked around doing their duties and Mark walked toward his apartment, one of the advantages of doing an outside mission was that he could take a few days without doing another mission, and the credits he gained could last for the entire week.

"What is that Mark? It's a rabbit?" asked John, the first friend that Mark had made since he came to this base.

"Yes, and I'm not selling it!" said Mark, still walking toward his apartment direction as if trying to avoid his friend, because he knew ‌John would keep pestering him to sell the rabbit. The guy hated the army meals, everyone hated, but John? He would do anything to eat something different. He even tried to join the kitchen of the army so he could prepare something different for himself.

"Oh common, I will give you 2 credits!" said John while following Mark.

"Two credits? I will save 3 credits just from not eating in the barracks, and I will also eat rabbit! rabbit! When was the last time you ate rabbit?" said Mark, shaking his head.

"Ok, Ok, six credits, ok? That's all I have!" said John, making a pleading face.

"Six? Is that all you have? What will you eat tomorrow?" asked Mark, stopping in his tracks and looking at his friend.

"I will find a way, pleeeease? Sell me the rabbit?" asked John.

'This bastard! I bet he is thinking of joining an outside mission' Thought Mark, but he knew that John was not the fighting type, he probably would die if he went on an outside mission.

"Not selling! And how the heck did you spend all your credits? Last time you had what? 30 credits?" asked Mark.

John scratched the back of his head and looked down to his own feet and said, "Well… I kind of… I bought a pack of potato chips from a guy that found it hidden in an abandoned car a few days ago"

"You what? Geez! Wait….You didn't share with me? You know… I was about to call you to come home and eat this rabbit with me… but now? Your glutton! " said Mark, turning his back to his friend and walking in the direction of his apartment.

"Oh, come on! Don't be so sentimental, it was only a few chips!" shouted John, but he knew he had wronged Mark and didn't follow him anymore.

Without turning his back and still walking, Mark raised his hand and showed his middle finger.

After a few minutes, Mark finally entered his small apartment, he wished he could bath, but that was a luxury only reserved for the bigshots in the army, every base was the same, some had water in abundance while electricity was a luxury, while others didn't have good accommodations and everyone shared a single building, in this base, electricity and heat were cheap and everyone had their own apartment, because the city was by the side of a coal mine, but water? They had to collect from a river miles away, because the groundwater was contaminated by the coal mine, and it was the same reason why ‌‌this city became a ghost town even before the apocalypse came.

Mark shook the useless thoughts, and grabbed a knife and started to skin the rabbit. It was not the first time he did something like that. His father loved to camp outside and hunt, and Mark learned how to do it.

'Should I make soup or barbecue?' Thought Mark while removing the skin of the rabbit, 'Nah, soup will use too much water. I only have a bottle left, barbecue it is'

Mark removed all the skin of the rabbit and cut his head off, he was not sure if he would eat the head, but he left to decide it later, by luck the bullet hit the neck of the rabbit and didn't hit the bile of the rabbit or his guts, otherwise the meat would be as good as a pile of shit and he would not be able to eat it.

After skinning the rabbit, Mark went to the fireplace, shoveled coal inside, and started the fire, but when he came back and looked at the rabbit again, he noticed something was off.

The dead rabbit's eyes were now open, probably because of some twitching in the muscles when he cut it off or because he moved the head, but that was not what was troubling Mark, what was disturbing him was the right eye of the rabbit.

"What the heck? The eye is fucking green!!

Mark grabbed the rabbit's head and looked closer. He used to hunt with his father from a young age and knew that rabbits had many eye colors, blue, red, brown, but never green.

Mark never saw something like that before. It was not pale green or some mixed color, it was green like someone with pretty green eyes.

'Is this a mutation? Like those guys said back in the forest? Should I report it?'