Urban Undead Battle

“I am going to be so sore tomorrow,” I said as I drove the tip of my spear into a zombie’s throat.

“I know, right?” Charlotte said behind me.

I heard an unpleasant squish near her, but my attacker was still coming at me. I turned my body, changing my grip on the spear so I could swing it like a sideways lever. I could already feel my hip bruising from using it like a fulcrum before, but the maneuver worked so well. The zombie's head detached from its decomposing neck.

She said, "So much more motivating than my pilates instructor.”

I punctured an oncoming zombie in the shoulder. “Britney?” I asked.

Charlotte grunted with effort. I saw a zombie head fly away from her in my peripheral vision. “She’s too bubbly.”

I kicked the zombie off my spear, then plunged my tip between its eyes. Charlotte slammed her axe downwards at a diagonal, removing half the skull and one ear from another zombie.

We looked around. Scenes of slaughter played out on other nearby roofs, but we were alone.

“I’m a nerd now,” I declared. “I’m a gamer girl. I’m going to have to get one of those headphone sets with cat ears.”

“Oh come on,” Charlotte said.

“What? The immersion is amazing. I can feel cold, sticky gore on my skin. Our clothes look torn and dirty from undead urban battle.”

“And the smell,” Charlotte said.

“The stench of death,” I agreed.

“There’s no way you can afford an Augmented Reality rig this good.”

Beneath us, something thumped with increasing speed and intensity.

“I’ll save up,” I insisted.

The roof collapsed under us. The falling sensation knocked me off my feet. Charlotte and I scrambled to fight an oversized monster. She hacked off a dozen or so arms and legs, all mismatched in skin tone and levels of decomposition. I smashed six knees before it fell over. I sank my spear into its head and Charlotte split its bear-sized torso apart like firewood.

We gagged on the stench.

“I think that was the boss battle,” I said.

Charlotte asked, “Don’t video games have credits at the end, just like movies?”

“I think so,” I said. “And I figured there would be music, too. Some sort of triumphant ‘You did it!’ melody. Maybe J-pop.”

Nothing happened.

“Okay, well, I’m thirsty and tired,” Charlotte said. “I am done. If the dude doesn’t come to turn off the game and get us out of our rigs soon, I’ll do it.”

“They said not to,” I scolded her.

“I’m not going to break it,” Charlotte said. She waited another few seconds. Then she dropped her axe, peeled off her gloves, and fiddled with her helmet. She pulled it off and stared at it, then at me.

“Weird,” I said. “I didn’t expect to see you in the game after you got out of it.”

Charlotte screamed. Pain scratched over my arms and sank into my neck. Everything went dark. Game over.