Free The Death Doll by Brian P. White Page B

it had to have died so painfully to look like this now.  It needed mercy, but she just couldn’t do it.  It was like home all over again.  What’s wrong with me?
    “She’s not going to get any deader until you put her down,” Didi practically sang, leaning against the spacious lobby wall with her arms across her body.
    “I know, but—” Rachelle searched for an excuse to avoid looking as weak as she felt.
    “She’d thank you if she could still think.  Trust me.”
    Rachelle frowned, and the thing tried to grab her.  She had to back up.
    “Is this too difficult?” Didi asked.
    “I can do this,” Rachelle said while steadying her aim.
    Didi shrugged dismissively.  “If you insist.”
    Rachelle sidestepped the beast.  “How easy was your first kill?”
    “You really don’t want to know.”
    “Come on.  I can handle it.”
    “Even if you can’t handle this?”
    Rachelle ran to the other side of the room.  The teenage mutant continued limping after her, paying Didi zero attention.  She got her aim, but still found her finger unwilling to move.  She cursed herself.
    “A group of them chasing a mother and her child,” Didi finally said.  “I came up behind them and hacked them down.  They never saw me coming, not that they could see much anyway.  Their vision gets pretty blurry over time, being rotten and all.”
    Rachelle pushed the deadhead back with her foot.  “So how do they find you?”
    “Ears still work,” Didi said while tapping her own ear.
    “Can they smell you, too?”
    “They’d have to breathe to do that, wouldn’t they?”
    True , Rachelle thought as she dodged the monster again and took aim. 
    “Actually, the fresh ones can, because they only breathe out of habit or instinct or something.  Let’s hope you don’t meet too many newbies.”
    Tired of holding herself back, she finally pulled the trigger.  All she heard was a click.  She tried again and again, but nothing fired. 
    Didi just smiled.  What the—
    Rachelle tripped on her own feet and fell onto her back.  Before she could move, the monster was on top of her, snapping its jaws at her face while trying to claw at her face.
    “Uh, oh, she’s got you,” Didi teased.  What the hell?   “What are you going to do now?”
    “Help me,” Rachelle pled, but her so-called mentor didn’t budge an inch.
    “But what if I’m not here? What if I get taken out?”
    Rachelle frantically glanced between Didi and the monster trying to eat her face off.  “Seriously.  This isn’t funny.”
    “No, it’s not,” Didi said like she was scolding.  “You told me you were ready.  Show me.”
    The rotter made a bold snap at Rachelle, and she pushed back as hard as she could.
    Didi popped off the wall and paced behind the battle.  “You can’t be a defender if you can’t defend yourself.  Bullets run out, weapons fall, and you have to make the most with what you have left.  Do you want to let circumstances decide when you die?”
    “That’s God’s choice.”
    “Then let her eat you,” Didi said, as if it meant nothing.
    “What?” Rachelle cringed at Didi until the thing snapped at her again.
    “Who’s to say that dead kid on top of you isn’t how God chose for you to die?”
    Desperate to avoid that outcome, Rachelle pushed as hard as she could.  Her revolver had bounced too far away, so she couldn’t even bash the thing’s head in with it.  She had no blades on her, and nothing sharp lay nearby.  The thing kept closing in on her.  She slipped her elbow under its jaw, but her arm sank into the bite wounds in its neck until reaching its spine.  Fortunately, it kept her jaws at bay just long enough for her to grab its shoulder and toss it aside. 
    She scrambled to her feet and caught her breath, not realizing how long she had been holding it.  Her heart beat over a hundred miles an hour in her throat and she wanted to puke.  Or cry.
    The thing slowly crawled after her, growling like a