Free This Rotten World (Book 2): We All Fall Down by The Vocabulariast Page A

was dead weight with
an asthma problem and a top speed of three miles per hour, which he could only
sustain for half an hour.
    Amanda was there, pulling
something out of a white box. Asthalin. She held the inhaler to his mouth, and
he wrapped his thick lips around the light blue inhaler, thanking Amanda with
his eyes. He inhaled the medicine, and he felt the change immediately. He sat
on the floor, gasping and sucking up as much air as he could as an unseen force
behind him tried to push the door open. Rudy wedged his feet against the
counter, and used all of his weight to keep the door closed.
    His back vibrated with the
banging of the dead upon the door. From his spot on the floor, he could see
more of the dead banging on the glass of the pharmacy. Death was here, looking
for a way to get in.
    "Shit," Chloe said.
"I knew I should have ditched you guys when I had the chance."
    "I'm glad you didn't,"
Rudy said, sincerity feeling weird on the tip of his usually acid tongue.
    Chloe just glared at him and
began looking around the pharmacy. Amanda knelt next to Rudy. "We're going
to be alright, don't worry about her. They have to get tired sometime
right?"
    Rudy said nothing. He
concentrated on breathing, deep, even breaths. Chloe kicked the boxes on the
floor as she stalked back and forth, looking out through the wire-mesh windows.
She was furious. Rudy could see the rage rising in her. Her beauty melted away,
replaced by an ugly creature, a hateful, spiteful thing full of anger. Suddenly,
he could not see the beauty in her. Who was this woman? Who was this raging
entity that stalked through the pharmacy, swearing, shouting, and knocking
medications onto the floor?
    When she pulled her gun from the
back of her jeans, Rudy instinctively put his hands to his ears. Amanda did the
same. Chloe fired through the wire-meshed window. On the other side, a man with
no shirt on stopped banging on the glass. A hole in the glass lined up with the
hole in his head, and his face squeaked as it slid down the glass.
    Chloe didn't stop there. She
fired again and again, emptying her gun into the mass on the other side of the
window. When she was done, there were nine holes in the window, and several of
the creatures were on the floor. But still there were more of them. Rudy
removed his hands from his ears and asked, "Are you satisfied?"
    Chloe shot him a murderous
glare, but before she could answer, more shots rang throughout the store, but
they weren't from Chloe's gun. It hung limp at her side. "Get down!"
Rudy yelled, but Chloe stood there, looking like the world's most beautiful
mannequin. Shots ripped through the windows, and blood plastered the glass,
making it hard to see. Amanda fell into Rudy's arms, and he squeezed her tight,
jamming his legs against the counter of the pharmacy to help keep the door
closed, while their ears rang from all the gunfire. It seemed to last an
eternity.
    When it was done, Chloe began to
yell, "In here!"
    Over the ringing in his head,
Rudy could hear bootsteps and shouting voices. As Amanda unfurled herself from
his arms, Rudy couldn't help but wish that the people outside would go away.
    "You alright in
there?" a male voice asked.
    "Yeah. We're okay, now that
you guys are here," Chloe replied.
    Amanda helped Rudy to his feet,
grunting at the strain. His hand lingered in hers for a second, and then it was
gone, the softness still hanging on his fingertips. The door slid open behind
them, and several corpses sprawled onto the floor, the non-animated kind of
corpses. They were Rudy's favorite.
    They shambled out of the
pharmacy, Amanda handing him a couple more boxes of his Asthalin. He shoved
them in his bag as the men outside told them to line up against the wall. Rudy
did as he was told, along with Amanda and Chloe.
    One of the men came over and
took Chloe's gun from her. "Look what we've got here," the man said to
another soldier.
    "Search 'em," the man
said. He was clearly the one in charge.
    Rudy saw the