Free Heartland Junk Part I: The End: A ZOMBIE Apocalypse Serial by Eli Nixon Page A

the man. He ignored it and
clawed at the SUV's roof, using it to pull himself up. He gained
his feet, then dropped back to his knees and gripped his face
tightly. An immense full of howl of pain and sorrow surged out
between his fingers, rattling my bones.
    Watching that
moment of profound struggle, I felt a wave of pity wash over me. He
was still fighting it. Whatever darkness was rising to claim him
from within, he still had a sliver of sanity left. We could help
him, I realized. Maybe I could hold him still long enough to get
some pills down his throat. He wasn't gone yet.
    The man crumpled lower, dug his elbows into his ribs and
touched his forehead to the ground, fingers clawing over his eyes,
now merely whimpering. Jesus, it was awful. Get the pills, Ray. You can save
him.
    An engine roared again, and the Ford soared over the ditch beside the road and struck the
man. The truck crunched into the Cadillac and scraped along the
roof, metal shrieking, leaving a thick red smear across the white
SUV and a garden-hose splash of crimson all the way to the top of
the roof.
    It was over as
abruptly as it started, but the sight of the blood carved a deep
scar inside me. Maybe my empathy tied us together in some invisible
way, me and that man. Twined a thread of our souls into a single
strand. I wonder if, if our world hadn't gone to shit, someone
would have found a way to measure empathy, quantify it, like
electricity or radio waves.
    All I know was
that I felt a brief connection with that man, and then something
snapped inside me when I saw his insides smear across that
metal.
    I rose to my feet,
knees shaking. The truck had stalled in the middle of the lawn,
just past the Cadillac. A rose had bloomed across its windshield.
Rivet tumbled out of the driver's seat and ran toward me, followed
by Jennie. I found it hard to focus on their voices.
    "Ray, you
alright?"
    "Did he hurt
you?"
    "...tried to warn
you."
    "Got that
sonofabitch!"
    "You don't look so
good."
    "Stand up, man.
There."
    "Christ, you're
bleeding."
    I looked down, but
didn't see any fresh blood, didn't feel any pain. Jennie was
looking at my face, and I wiped the back of my hand across my
forehead. It came away red. I stared. Jesus, it wasn't my blood.
The man had gone off like a cherry bomb in a mud puddle. If I'd
just moved sooner...
    "You...son of a
BITCH!" I rounded on Rivet and shoved him. He landed on his ass,
shocked, goggles askew. I jumped on him.
    "What the hell,
Ray!" He tried to fight me off. My hands went around his neck.
    "Why'd you kill
him!" I roared.
    "Ray!" I felt
Jennie's hands on my shoulders. I shrugged them off.
    "We could have
saved him," I shouted. "He wasn't completely gone. We could have
saved him. We could have saved him."
    The words rolled
out like a mantra, but each iteration found them streaming with
less anger and more sadness. I collapsed to the ground beside
Rivet, crying. "We could have saved him," I sobbed. So much fucking
blood.
    "You're welcome, asshole," Rivet stood and brushed himself
off. "Last time I save your life." I watched through blurred halos of light as he stormed
back to the truck. Jennie knelt beside me and put a soft hand on my
shoulder.
    "We could have saved him," I whispered to her. "Why didn't we
even try? "
    "We don't know
that, Ray. What if we couldn't? He was trying to kill you, and
Rivet did what he thought was best. He did it for you. No matter
what you're thinking right now, remember that: He did it for
you."
    This was all so fucked up. Was there a line with this shit?
Some border where humanity ended and the cannibal psychosis began?
Did any of it mean anything? It was all shades of gray, shades of brown, muddy
watercolors, pigment mixing, blending, dreary and dark, as if the
spirit of somber Joshuah Hill itself had possessed its citizens and
spurred them to bloodshed.
    Rivet swore loudly
and Jennie and I both looked up at the truck. Rivet tramped around
the the front and lifted the hood, tinkered with