Crazy Ass Ex-Marine

I was looking up from the floor at Tony standing there with a big grin on his face. He was dressed head to toe in his camouflage He had his "shit kicking" boots on and his kabar strapped to his hip. I should have known Mr. Ex-Marine would have been well suited for a situation like this.

I finally started to get up off the floor and Erin followed suit. About the time I got to my knees I heard the blast of shotgun resonate through the house. I looked over at Tony and he was holding his left hand out with the smoking barrel of his sawed off pointing into the living room. I looked over and saw what was left of a grazer crumple to the ground. The close range of the blast had annihilated most of the creatures upper torso and left it as just a pair of legs.

Once I was up to my feet and looked back at Erin still sitting on her knees staring at Tony. I guess she was a little shocked to see a real life Rambo standing in front of her. Personally I found it all amusing since I knew Tony was in his element right now and was enjoying this way to much.

I walked over to Tony and just put my hand on his shoulder. Both of us starting laughing our asses off at the scene we were standing in. Honestly when we were growing up together at no point did the two of us imagine that we would be killing zombies in his house. It all seemed surreal for a moment then I noticed something, or should I say someone was missing.

I looked over at Tony and told him we should probably do a sweep of the house to make sure it was clear and he agreed. We both went different directions and started checking each room. I started heading up stairs to check the bedrooms and could not believe the carnage that I was seeing. There were body parts everywhere from the mini slaughter exhibition that Tony had just put on. I stepped over the torso of what I assume was one of Tony's neighbors at one time and opened the door to what used to be my room. It looked a whole lot different than it did when I had lived there. The walls were covered in children's decorations and toys. I guess this was now Abby's room but yet there was no Abby to be seen.

I closed the door to the bedroom and walked over to the next door and pushed the door open. This is what used to be Chuck's room but now looked to be a office. Where I expected to see a desk was instead a pile of different guns and ammo boxes. I guess this was in the process of being converted into Tony's little armory.

Next up was the bathroom. The funny thing is I was less interested in checking the room for zombies than I was about taking a piss. Its been so long since I in a actual livable house that I was actually excites about this bathroom. As I started to get ready to do my business I heard Tony yell up the stairs at my telling me that I better not be using that bathroom since there was no longer any running water in the house. Dammit of course there isn't, why can't things go right just once. Oh well two more rooms to go.

I walked out of the bathroom and turned to the door on my right. This was the old office when I lived here and was then converted to a nursery when Abby was born. I cracked the door open and found piles of canned floor. Looks like Tony had been raiding the local Costco for food and supplies. It appeared his military training for survival had taken over and he had stockpiled everything he could find. I just laughed to myself as I thought that Tony was almost acting like a chipmunk storing nuts for the winter.

I decided it was time to check the master bedroom. I figured this would be empty since that where Tony had been the whole time when we got to the house. I opened the door and looked around. Damn it looked almost untouched and frozen in time. The bed was fully made and everything straightened and clean. There was a small pile of weapons on the bed and a few things of fatigues laid out for use. I walked around the bed and looked into the bathroom. I saw a sleeping bag on the floor. Apparently Tony had been sleeping in here for safety just in case of a situation similar to what happened today.

I heard Tony yell again and wanted to know what was taking me so long. I started to head downstairs to meet up with Tony and Erin. When I reached the bottom of the stairs I looked towards the front door and saw a sprinter heading for the door. He was running across the street to where we were standing. I raised my .50 cal and lined up a shot. Tony grabbed the barrel of the gun and pushed it down. He just looked at me and told me to wait and watch. As the sprinter ran passed the curb and hit the grass a explosion erupted from the mailbox. The remnants of the creature where blown far away and there was nothing left. I turned to Tony and saw him holding something in his hands with he was laughing his ass off. He was holding a detonator for the explosive in his hands. The crazy bastard had put a small c4 charge in his mailbox and was just itching for a opportunity to use it. Once I realized what he had done I could not stop laughing, damn this was exactly something that I could see Tony doing.

We shut the front door and headed into the living room. We grabbed the pieces of what was left of the bodies and tossed them out the back door. I looked out onto the patio and saw a large fire pit. I could see the pieces of what looked to be random bodies in the back yard all around. I guess that's one good way to clean up.

Once the last of the bodies where out Tony told us to make ourselves at home and relax. We sat down on the couches and took a load off. I was glad to see Erin up and moving again. I'm guessing the shock of see Tony blasting through the bodies like the Terminator was a little much for her and she was still just sitting there with a blank stare on her face. Tony walked into the kitchen and headed for the garage. I heard the door open and close in just a few seconds. What the hell was he doing, we had a lot to talk about and he knew it. I heard the door open again and Tony came walking back into the living room. The sawed off shotguns he had been carrying earlier was no replaced with two ice cold beers. He tossed me one and just said "Welcome home Diggs".

He sat down in the chair to my right and let out a deep breath. I dove right in and asked where Karen and Abby where. He explained to me that when the outbreak had happened he knew that he needed to get them somewhere safe. So he decided it would be best for them to go to her parents place since it was out of the way and not near and densely populated areas. They had been there for a few weeks now. I asked Tony why he didn't stay there with them. He told me that he knew that at some point he would be but he had the same feeling that I did, he needed to know what had become of his brother and I. It turns out he had been waiting the entire time and today was the last day that he had planned to stay out the house before he went to be with Karen and Abby.

Tony proceeded to tell me all about his survival for the last few weeks. He had setup multiple CB radios everywhere so he could try to stay in touch with whoever was out there. As I had suspected earlier he had been making trips to all the local stores to stock up on food and supplies. He had been using his Dodge Magnum for the trips but knew that the car didn't have much longer before it was going to break down. It turns out that he had hit one of the creatures on his was home and had not been able to repair the damage that had been done.

I told him all about everything we had been through in the past few weeks since it was decided we would cross the country to find out if anyone was still alive. He found it very amusing that Erin had saved my life on multiple occasions and now here I was sitting in front of him with a big bandage on my head. Damn he had a good point, guess I need to start paying better attention.

I asked Tony what the deal was with all of the zombies that had been crawling around the house when we got here. He proceeded to explain to me that he wanted to have a little fun before he left the house for the last time. He had decided that he was going to let as many in as possible and then kill them all before loading up the car and leaving. He looked at it as a way to relieve some stress before heading off to be with his wife. He looked at the pile of bodies in the back yard and started to count. Once finished he looked at me and told me that he was glad we had showed up since there were way more out there that what he had expected there to be. Without us he might not have the chance to go be with his wife and now he could.

We sat and talked for hours as the day went on. Erin stayed quite for the most part only to laugh at the occasional moment. As the night progressed I started to realize that this was the most relaxing moment we had all had in a hell of a long time. Tony looked up from his beer and told us he had to go jump on the CB, it was his scheduled time to talk with Karen before she went to bed.

I watched as Tony left the room and headed to the garage. I looked over and Erin had fallen asleep on the couch. I felt like I was about ready to do the same when I heard Tony come running back inside. He ran upstairs and I heard the former office door crack open as it hit the wall. I started to get up and go see what was going on when I saw Tony running down the stairs covered in weaponry. I just stared in confusion as he ran up to me.

"We have to go now! Karen and Abby are in trouble , I couldn't reach her on the CB. Diggs my wife and daughter could be in trouble I need your help" I just looked him in the eyes and nodded. He knew I would do what ever was needed to get to them.