You can't call them Zombies!

Ducking behind the corner of the steps, he locked eyes with Anna.

“Don’t hurt me.”

“Where you think you going? It’s not safe out there.” The man said and moved down the hall toward her.

His pulse speeding, his legs tense, Kyle waited, unsure of what to do. He knew he couldn’t let this slob shoot her.

The man’s footsteps plodded down the wood floor. Clop. Clop. Clop.

The tip of the rifle came into view and Kyle lunged. He reached for the barrel, slipped and crashed into it with his stomach. The shot went off, his chest burned and he groaned. Anna screamed behind him. The man laughed.

“Stupid kid deserved it.”

The room spun, his flesh stung and his mind went to the first thing. Anna. He failed her. Crashing through the glass doors into the dining room, shards crumbled around him as he fell.

The floor met him and the pain subsided. This must be what it felt like to die as he rolled onto his back. The man stepped through the remaining door, his single round rifle pointed at Kyle’s chest. The cocky, insane grin on his lips. “You’re one dumb kid.”

“Please don’t hurt her.”

The man raised an eyebrow, popped a new round into the chamber and cocked it. “Hurt her. No. Not yet.”

Kyle shoved with his legs, hoping to move away, but the man stomped on Kyle’s foot. He didn’t try anything, resigned in his fate. Looking up at the popcorn ceiling, he pretended they were icicles and that the torturous burns on his chest would end.

The gun went off, Kyle flinched, expecting it all to end, but instead the floor beside him exploded, carpet and wood bits stung his face. He blinked, and saw Anna struggling with the man over the gun. Looking down at his chest, no blood to be found. The burst from the rifle must have burned his shirt and skin. His shirt had a hole in it now, and his skin underneath was blistered, but he wasn't dying.

Renewed vigor rushed through him. He picked up a glass shard, climbed to his feet, and went to help Anna. The man threw her off, just as Kyle drove the pointed end of the shard into the man’s chest.

The man didn’t make a sound as the glass went up to the hilt.

“It didn’t have to be like this.” Kyle said as the man’s eyes went out of focus.

The man fell backwards, the rifle crashing to the floor.

A scream erupted from upstairs. The woman. Anna grabbed Kyle’s arm as they both looked up.

“What should we do?”

The woman’s scream came again, howling through the house like a gust of wind.