The Kill

Gunshots rang one more time. Almost my turn. It was almost a physical feeling that told me Emma had shot. My turn. The rifle in my arms felt heavy. I was chained up to a post, so I couldn't go too far. But I didn't need to. The gun hardly kicked when I pulled the trigger, and the shot to his head made the stranger in white fall, now bearing red instead. Maybe that's why the cheif wanted our uniforms red. who knows? Creeping along the alleyway, my turn as offender was over. I wasn't completely frozen, but I couldn't retreat from a 12 foot radius. Maybe we really were trapped in a video game, brainwashed of almost everything. Some of us didn't even remember our own families, which was actually probably a good thing. The few of us who weren't infected and are now immune to the disease don't really need to remember the faces in case they're the ones we're killing.

Suddenly there was something closer to me, and the shrill scream that followed the movement told me it was an infected woman. I could see her leap, and I couldn't shoot. Shocked still for a moment in terrified awe, I realized she was my sister, and she was going to kill me. I knew I had to kill her, but her face was so familiar, yet so contorted that it could've been anybody. There was my strength. That's what I had to go by. She just sparked familiarity, she was NOT my sister.

Even as I shot her, though, I felt something die inside of me. She was only 17... That didn't mean anything toward her strength, though. She was a woman, and honestly, they were the worst. They were frantic killers and could leap the length of 10 men. The grunt she let out at her stomach wound wasn't like the zombie movies. She wasn't a zombie at all, though sometimes when we referred to them, we did called them the zombies. She didn't walk with her arms straight out either. The reason we referred to them as zombies, was because of their eyes and skin. The disease tore cracks in their skin, and their eyes were hollow white orbs. Still I could see the blueprint of my sister's body in front of me, blood protruding from her stomach, because of me. I heard the curse come out of my mouth, but I don't remember processing the action in my mind.

It was difficult to stay in place. I wanted very much to run from it all, though i knew it wasn't possible to escape. Maybe that is why they had us chained up like this, so that if we recognized someone, we had to kill them. They'd kill us no matter who we were. Their human brains had been eaten away by the disease.

Aiming the gun at her still-alive, wounded body, I closed my eyes and pulled the trigger. She let out the scream again. It was inhuman and conveyed the excruciating pain she held. All the females could produce the scream, but this one was a dying scream. It slowly faded as her life came too a halt in front of my eyes.

A turn was a kill. After our turn, we can only defend territory. I had to defend this side of the tower. It wasn't fair, I thought childishly. The one question that had filled the world's head, now entered my mind: Where did this disease come from? I didn't think we'd ever figure out. We'll either kill them all, and it'll be gone forever, or they'll kill us all and rule the earth. Who would win, nobody could know, until it officially happened. The numbers were way off course, but at least skills were near even.

All we could do was wait and kill, and see who could kill faster. Hopefully the Immune will live. But who knows? How can you know anything? The only thing I knew now was that it was my turn again.....