The trio scattered after the first gunshot exploded into the pavement before them. Several rounds followed, but Rollie remained too focused on running to tell if Will or Jack might have gotten hit. He heard no screams and hoped this was a good sign.

He gained the shelter of a series of tan rocks the lined the side of the road. He still hadn’t caught his breath when a loud hiss sounded below him. He jerked back expecting a crippled zombie to be about to assault him, but instead saw a large gila monster racing away from him through the low desert bushes.

“Damn, that would have made a fine meal,” he laughed to himself.

The bullets had stopped and he was about to call out to the others when a new growl sounded and proved to be a far worse problem than a retreating lizard. Three large zombies headed his way. He couldn’t run because the snipper could still be out there, but he noted that the shooter made no effort to drop the zombies.

Rollie’s tight fingers clutched his bat. He readied himself as the first zombie drew into range. A big beer bellied freak dressed only in a ratty pair of boxers. His bat went back and then he cracked it on the head.

Nothing.

Rollie started to panic as the thing’s grubby fingers reached for him, while the other two moved in. He smashed one hand away, breaking two fingers, but knew such tactics wouldn’t save him for long.

Placing his back to the rock wall, he braced himself and raised both legs. With a grunt he placed his feet on both of the big zombie’s thighs and pushed with all his strength. The fat zombie stumbled back and fell. Some luck had found Rollie for beer-belly-boxers took another one down with him.

The third one came at Rollie and he gave it a strong whack to the temple. This time it went down, but the other two were lurching back onto their feet. Rollie went for the closer one, which appeared to be a high school aged boy in a tattered basketball jersey. Rollie hit it on the skull and went he didn’t go down he hit it again and again. It took three smacks, but the teen finally dropped and stopped moving.

That was when boxer shorts crashed into him. A loud growl filled silence of the desert and he grabbed Rollie and slammed him against the rock. Rollie fought back, but the freak might have outweighed him by a hundred pounds. They struggled and Rollie attempted to squirm away. He fell to his knees and made for the road despite the dangers of the shooter.

Stopping just short of where he would be exposed to the gunman, Rollie was about to fight back when the big zombie growled again and grabbed a fistful of his hair. Rollie gave out a yell and the zombie moved forward for a bite. He felt the zombie’s foul breath on his neck and figured he was done and that was when the zombie had his head shot off.

Rollie hurried back behind the boulders, but it was already too late. Will had heard him shout out and had started to run his way. Before Rollie could tell his lover that he was okay, another shot rang out and Will gasped once before he tumbled into the middle of the road.



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I hope you enjoyed this part of Rollie’s dangerous journey into the second year of the Eternal Aftermath. Come back next weekend for the next part of the tale.

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You can explore more of the Eternal Aftermath here!