The Rising: Selected Scenes from the End of the World

There was an explosion and the anchorman’s throat exploded in a wet, red spray. A black-gloved hand appeared, blocking the camera. A voice shouted, “Turn it off! Turn it off now! We’re shutting you down!”

There was another gunshot, and then the picture dissolved into snow.

He changed channels, and found the local news broadcast. A county official was wringing his hands, pleading for the populace to remain calm. The reporter laughed at him, but the official continued. But Will wasn’t paying attention. He was still thinking about the zoo—and the zombie elephant.

“The animals, too.”

He stopped scratching Hunter, and picked up the rifle. Ally didn’t move. She cocked her head and continued staring.

Will didn’t meet her eyes when he pulled the trigger.

The blast frightened Hunter and woke up Boo. Both cats scrambled for cover, howling and spitting. Will reloaded and then finished the job, shooting each of them in the head, just as he’d done his mother and sister.

Then he stood panting in the middle of the floor, tears streaming down his face.

“I’m not crazy. I’M NOT FUCKING CRAZY!”

Clutching the rifle by its still smoking barrel, he collapsed into the recliner.

“They could have been infected,” he muttered.

“What else was I supposed to do? I’m not crazy.”

The man on the television agreed with him.

“I’m not crazy,” the official snarled at the jeering reporter. “None of us are safe. There’s no rhyme or reason. Any one of us can become one of these things. And sooner or later, we all will. Sooner or later, we all have to die.”

Will blinked. The guy was right. Despite what he’d done, he still wasn’t safe, not even here, barricaded inside the den. He could become one. Eventually, he would.

So he put the rifle in his mouth and pulled the trigger, while the world ended on the television screen.

With the gunshot still echoing inside the garage, the power went out and the screen faded to black.

THE FALL OF ROME

The Rising

Day Seven

Rome, Georgia

Eddie Coulter watched the fall of Rome from inside a little room at the top of the 104-foot Tower Clock. The stone structure sat atop a hill just east of the city’s downtown district, giving Eddie a clear view of the atrocities below.

The street was littered with body parts, and the gutters ran with blood.

He wondered if he should consider himself lucky to be alive, or cursed because he wasn’t dead yet. Of course, if he were dead, then he’d be a zombie. Eddie wondered if they knew—remembered—who they’d been.

The soft strains of Pink Floyd’s “Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Part One)” drifted from the headphones hanging around Eddie’s neck. The headphones were connected to an iPod that had belonged to a Hispanic guy. Eddie didn’t know his name. Didn’t know anything about him at all, other than he’d apparently liked Pink Floyd, since it was the only thing on the iPod. The Hispanic guy hadn’t been able to speak, because a zombie had bitten his tongue in half. He’d reached the Tower Clock, and Eddie sheltered him, tried to make him comfortable. When he finally bled to death, Eddie dropped the body from the top of the tower before he could wake up again. But the Hispanic guy didn’t land on his head. Sure enough, he rose again, and crawled away on shattered legs in search of prey.

Eddie didn’t put the headphones in his ears. He wanted to be able to hear if the creatures found their way inside the Tower Clock. He wished he could, though. He needed something to drown out the screams from below.

“Remember when you were young?” Roger Waters asked him. “You shone like the sun.”

Eddie did indeed remember when he was young. Hell, he was still young. Too young to die. But maybe too scared to go on living? He wasn’t sure yet.He picked up the sniper rifle, poked the barrel through the window, and sighted with the scope. A zombie staggered by an antique store. Its arms were missing. Eddie squeezed the trigger. The rifle jerked against his shoulder. The explosion drowned out Pink Floyd, and smoke filled the room. The store’s display window shattered, and the zombie crouched down. Eddie fired again. The bullet made a small hole in the back of the zombie’s head, and its face exploded. The creature crumpled to the sidewalk.