The Oh So Sweet Taste Of Victory--A Short Story About Tamera Lane, Zombie Killer

   Laura glanced at me desperately. "Tammy, I think--" she was cut off by a rather loud explosion, though while she cringed, I grinned. There was nothing better, or more satisfying, than blowing out the brains of mindless, flesh eating bastards. Oh, excuse me, the 'turned,' a more PC way of saying human-eating zombies.

   "C'mon, Laure! Where's your sense of adventure?" I laughed.

   "You're suicidal, Tam! Bat-shit crazy!" Laura looked slightly panicked, and I couldn't blame her. I was feeling the same, along with the adrenaline, but I was just better at hiding it.

   I readied my gun, aimed, and fired right between the eyes of a zombie standing not two feet behind my closest friend. There was no blood. After all, corpses don't bleed, and these mutants were definitely corpses, though just a little bit more... flexible than most.

   Laura spun around, wide eyed, to see the freak fall. "Oh, thanks," she said weakly, and then threw up what little breakfast she had eaten this morning. Had it only been just this morning when we were laughing in our tent, wishing for chocolate and a trip to the mall? Had it only been this morning when I had kissed my boyfriend goodbye to go on the front lines of a war? A war that could've come straight out of some freaky, horror/sci-fi movie, like that I Am Legend book. At least I wasn't the last human. Well, not yet, anyway.

   "La-La," I muttered, using her old childhood nickname. "I love ya and all, but we need to move now." Laura wiped her mouth with the back of her hand, looking faintly green. I couldn't help but feel for her, but sympathy could wait. We were about to be swarmed, and I wasn't going to die, not today. I grabbed Laure and shoved her gun in her hands, then loaded my own. 

   I ran on automatic; load, cock, firefirefirefire. Boomboomboom. I could've been this way for minutes, for hours, but it was all a blur of blood, bullets, bombs. Even I was starting to feel sick, what little was left in my stomach threatened to come back up. So this is war, I though to myself, during those parts that I allowed my brain to work. Otherwise, I was focused on keeping La-La and my own self alive. I couldn't worry about Justin, my sweet and loving doctor boyfriend, whom I had met back when the zombies first showed up. All I could really remember of that day we met was that my little sister was screaming about some guy attacking her, me taking her to the hospital, and the bright blue eyes of Dr. Justin McKellin. Luckily, sissy wasn't bitten, thank God.

   I shot another Turned, but when I looked around, I couldn't see anymore. The other soldiers looked just as dazed as I did. "That's it?" I heard someone say. "It can't be that easy."

   Easy? No, it wasn't easy. I mean, there were dead people everywhere. But he had a point. Was that it? I heard a murmur start the crowd. A slow but steady, "I think we've one." I saw La-La and, wait, was that Justin with her? It was. I pressed a hand over my mouth--noticing the silent tears running down my face--before gagging and finally emptying my stomach.

   No one ever told me that vomit was the taste of victory.