As the World Dies by Rhiannon Frater

responding. He became aware of the tears rushing down his cheeks and he sniffled loudly. "Pull the trigger."
        
        Another voice, maybe the voice of reason, whispered in his thoughts to flip off the safety and his thumb did so. The same voice urged him to raise the gun higher and he did. But still, his finger on the trigger would not obey.
        
        "Brandy," he wailed in a soft voice.
        
        She kicked Pepe aside as she had often did in life and the little dog yelped. Her lovely hands reached out to grip his shoulders and he felt them slide along the material of his shirt. That terrible wound revealed her lolling tongue and champing teeth and he gasped as she tried to pull him close. The gun was firmly between their bodies, holding them apart.
        
        With a whimper of despair, Eric shoved with the gun and she staggered back a few feet on her broken leg. Howling with frustration, Brandy launched her wounded body back at him, but this time he raised the gun a little higher and shoved the barrel into her open mouth. She didn't seem to notice as she pushed hard against it, her perfectly shaped white teeth grinding against the metal.
        
        Pepe hysterically barked at their feet and tried to pull on Brandy's shoe to get her away from Eric.
        
        "Brandy," Eric said softly as his heart broke even more. "I'm really sorry."
        
        At last, his finger obeyed his inner voice and the bark of the rifle going off filled the air and seemed to echo around him. He was able to handle the recoil a bit better this time and stood his ground as the gun fired again, but he had to look away. He could not stand to see Brandy's torn face or witness her final death.
        
        Pepe lapsed into silence and Brandy’s growls ceased as the echo of the gunshot faded away. Eric felt the shotgun grow heavy with her weight and he lowered the barrel and felt her slip off of it. Her body hit the ground next to him with a heavy thud.
        
        "Brandy," he sobbed softly. He turned his gaze down to her broken body and saw that her face was turned away from him and her hair had fallen to cover it almost like a death shroud.
        
        Pepe sat next to the body and whined sadly in his throat. For some reason that sound unleashed Eric's agony and he fell to his knees sobbing. Pepe laid a little paw on Brandy's arm and began to piteously howl. Together, the man and his dog mourned a woman that had been a part of their life for the last two years and despite everything she had done to them, they both had loved in their own way.
        
        Time passed as they sat together and mourned. Eric took off his glasses and wiped his eyes as he cried. At some point, Brandy had turned back and returned to the town. Obviously, something had happened on the road that resulted in her coming back.
        
        "She was coming back," Eric said to Pepe. "I bet she was sorry and was coming back to us."
        
        Pepe looked over his shoulder at Eric and whined a little.
        
        He would have forgiven her. He knew it. He would have forgiven her and together they would have faced the undead horde. It was easy to imagine their reunion, their stand against the zombies, their fight to freedom and safety with little Pepe at their side.
        
        It was too easy to imagine and too painful to realize it did not happen and would not.
        
        Instead, Brandy had died somewhere nearby and he had given her final, terrible death.
        
        Somewhere nearby…
        
        He scrambled to his feet and shoved his glasses back on. Pepe looked up at him in alarm.
        
        "There are more out there," he said to the little dog.
        
        Pepe hopped up to all fours and looked around.
        
        Eric quickly broke open the shotgun and began to reload it with the shells from his pocket. He was suddenly and