Free Will To Live by C. M. Wright

my eyes roll round in my head, but I force a response, “Yeah, Bert. It sure was.”
    “ Oh, dear. I'm so sorry. Come back in, I won't shoot you this time.”  
    I struggle to get up, letting out a gasp, and feel my face contort into a painful grimace when it feels like a knife is stuck into both sides of my head when I lift it off the floor. My hands fly up to hold it in place, and an image of Humpty Dumpty pops up in my scrambled brain.
    I now know how that damn egg felt.  
    Under my breath, I mutter and curse Bert as every movement brings new pain to my poor head.
    “ What's that dear? I couldn't hear you,” she calls out.  
    I almost do the right thing and not repeat it, but I blame the pain – and the violent head trauma – for my next mistake.
    “ I said...if I ever get off this floor, I'm going to stick that damn gun up your ass!”  
    I enter the room as I end my outburst to find Bert sitting on the floor with Ernie's head in her lap. Ernie's eyes are wide open and shooting laser beams of death in my direction. I feel bad when I see the hurt look on Bert's face – I really do – but just as I open my mouth to apologize, Ernie cuts me off and tells me to come to him.  
    Like an idiot, I do.  
    Well, shit! It's not like I was expecting him to slap me across my damn face!
    Were you ?  
    Well, maybe you were.
    Bert immediately gets onto Ernie for slapping me, but his next words shut her up, and leave me even more speechless that I was before.
    “ I will not have a child of mine talking to her mother that way! Go to your room, young lady.”  
    I begin to explain that I'm not his child – he has no children, but he hears none of it. He's fully convinced I'm his and Bert's daughter!
    Bert tries to explain, but it does no good. He's in another reality completely. I finally catch Bert's attention and let her know that it's okay. Then I quickly look them both over. Bert has been shot in the arm. Ernie has a lump on his head, which could be the very reason he's so confused, and blood soaks the shirt covering his stomach.
    I deal with Bert first since I'll need her help with Ernie. I take a thin dishcloth and tie it tightly around her arm, then we work together to pack the bullet hole in Ernie's stomach. There's not much else I can do, knowing Jake could show up and kill us all at any time, and there's still a horde out there coming this way.
    Together, Bert and I help Ernie out to the truck. Bert holds him propped against the side of the vehicle as I unlock the door and reposition Nick so that we can all get inside. It's a tight squeeze, but we manage.
    I tear out of their driveway and leave the farm behind...and hopefully, leave a seriously wounded – or dead – Jake behind too. The further we drive, the more the zombie population increases. Ernie's mind seems to clear up pretty quickly, as he no longer thinks I'm his daughter – which is a godsend, because he can now lead me to back to Missouri, avoiding St. Louis after I explained how destroyed and overrun it was when Jake and I left it.
    Several hours later, we pass a sign that reads,
    Welcome To Missouri
    and I just start bawling my head off. I honestly never believed I would make it this far.
    I pull over to give myself time to recover from the overwhelming emotions and to check on the three others. Nick had finally woke up less than an hour after we had left the farm. A bullet had grazed his head and he believes he may have whacked his poor head on the truck, then the floor, when he went down. His head is fine...well, to him it hurts like a bitch, but he'll live.  
    Nick then took over trying to clean and bandage my arm, which was fortunately just a graze, and Bert and Ernie's wounds. Neither bullet had exited on the elderly couple, so he got the fun job of trying to dig them out. Surprisingly, Bert's was the worst. He really had to get in and dig that one out. I don't think I will ever get Bert's screams out of my head. It was just so