Nineteen
The explosive sound of “click” filled the car. Seth looked at the gun, a large black piece of weaponry with a sight mounted on the top and flashlight attached near the end of the barrel. “What the hell?”
“Shoot him! Shoot — What’s wrong?” Ruth was bouncing in her seat. She had stopped looking for the keys when Seth had slammed the gun onto the dashboard. She whiped the hair from her face with the backs of her hands and leaned forward toward the gun. “Why didn’t it fire?”
“I don’t know!” Seth could feel his face turning red, both from embarrasment and anger. He looked around the trigger for a safety latch. His eyes settled on a small metal pin next to the ejection slot. “Gotta cock the fucker,” he said quietly. He pulled the pin back and it clicked into place. “Hold your ears!”
Thunder erupted from the barrel of the gun, a solid metal slug leaving the tube and breaking through the windshield of the cruiser. The outer shell crumpled, but the harder metal sleg continued on, hitting the creature on the hood in his shoulder, just to the side of his neck. The undead thing screeched and grabbed at the new wound, sliding down the hood, his feet pulling him back to the ground.
“Aha!” Ruth yelped with joy and held the jingling keychain in the air. “Found the fuckers.” She jammed the key into the ignition and wrenched it forward, the engine roaring to life. She pulled the gear arm down to D and slammed her foot down on the gas pedal. The former cop was wobbling in front of the grill and she barreled over him, turning quickly to avoid running the car into the brick wall of the building making up the far wall of the alley.
Once the car was safely back on the pavement, Ruth and Seth both looked back over their shoulders to see what had happened to the dead cop. He was still laying on the sidewalk, the car mostly just knocking him down. One tire seemed to have caught his left knee. The leg lay strangly flat on the sidewalk concrete. Ruth laughed and hit the gas again, doing a donut in the middle of street. She backed the car up several yards and eased it back onto the sidewalk. She stomped on the gas and ran straight for the downed cop. A sickening crunch came through the engine’s rumbling as both sets of tires on the driver’s side crushed his skull.
“Think that got ‘im?” She was all smiles and giggles. She stopped the creeping car and turned around in her seat to see what destruction she had caused. The cop’s body way lying on the sidewalk like before, but with a very distinct tire-wide depression down the middle. His head was flatter than normal, red blood that was quickly turning black, spreading out around it. The gory sight calmed her enthusiasm.
“Yeah, I think you did,” Seth said, somewhat quietly. “Good job.” He didn’t know where to look. He had looked back at the body when she had. He kind of wished he hadn’t. If this… disease… was affecting police and paramedics and everyday people…. What the hell was going on? He shuddered involuntarily and tried to push the thought from his mind. “I guess we should get going. It won’t take us long to get to the hospital from here. And if we encounter any others, I guess we know how to take care of ‘em.” He picked the shotgun up off his lap a little and Ruth nodded. He chuckled. “Heh. I guess we don’t even need the gun with your driving.” She smiled over at him and nodded.
“Alright, let’s get going.” She put the car back into gear and started driving down the street toward Eden Medical Center. The car crept along, neither of them wanting to hurry into a worse situation.