“Grrrrrrrrr braaains,” growled the zombie leprechaun, licking its lips.

It opened a starved mouth full of rotting teeth broken into jagged edges where slime dripped. Ratom had additional brain matter leaking from the ripped open stitches on his noggin, but also still had an undead fondness for the witch who had stitched him and his brother back together.

This new dame had gotten Nancy blown away tricking friendly fire. All that plus the intense hunger pains of many moons not being fed had him revved into a frenzy lusting for the bitches blond hair britches brains and blood. He would’ve eaten anything living however being a zombie snarling forward. It was time to ruin a pretty face.

Ratom charge attacked claws outstretched. He darted through the debris field of flaming boards, craters, all sizes of log from chip to half trunk, none cut the same length by the force of nature apocalypse.

“Stay back you,” yelled Bessie, aiming down her rifle's iron sights from where she had tumbled.

The dead slithered like a snake remaining unbothered by the threat.

“Bang”.

Her missed shot flew just under the zombie gunning forward like a tweaking squirrel. Ratom darted in between torn toiletries and broken kitchen scraps torn about.

Bessie swiftly lever actioned readied the next round and steadied her nerves. She breathed in and out just like her Pa had trained her from age 6 when they had started shooting tin cans, 7 cutouts of the King, 8 clay pigeons, 9 ducks, after 10 how to harvest a hog. She had the confidence of having slept in the crib with magazines on hunting.

“Bang!”

Stuffing burst from behind Ratom’s body as he went tumbling from the bullet's impact. Bessie immediately made sure the lever was good for another shot ready to go, but in the process was temporarily knocked on her face due to close impact. She tried climbing on her feet while the zombie looked alarmed at a gaping hole burst into the chest. Bessie tried to stand but couldn’t and had to remain on one knee. She used the rifle's butt as a crutch to steady herself.

In the background the cabin continued to burn, and asteroids rained into the muddy field of craters.The zombie leprechaun had vanished somewhere else for now, but she knew she hadn’t delivered the necessary headshot to permanently end its troublemaking existence. It would be watching for as long as it took for her to weaken.

She laid back and sighed, cradling the weapon for comfort in the clearing sky. Would she have enough for another go when she had already lost so much energy to fight from previous injuries. Even if it was cripled for good the undead were scary resilient. She corrected the rifle's lever fully locked in, and pushed the safety out on the red dotted side.

A dangerously close explosion blew and she rolled into a crater for cover. The flying dirt covered her from head to toe and a rock smacked her elbow, but where her body had just been was another flaming moon rock.

Bessie hauled her wounded body towards the crackling warmth of the cabin fire. The good news was that the raining storm of impacting objects falling from space seemed to have slowed their shower of terror for now. The bad news was she was probably going to soon bleed out or eventually die of hypothermia, but at least the flames emitting from the burning building were nice and hot enough to keep things going for now. Hopefully Jed was long gone for the hills by now. The skeleton necromancer would certainly be back in her plot armor that was surely undefeatable and this area didn’t need anymore zombies roaming around. The dead should stay there for their own good.

There were many lights that seemed to float in the wasteland below their elevation. There had never been a major population center in the area, but it looked like a small town had been ravaged far away near the lake that steamed like a piping hot stew full of moonballs. The mountain across from them seemed to have had its legendary face dusted off by a massive chunk of moon that fell partialling into the valley. The forest fire continued in the few and far between zones that still had trees standing.

“Oh no,” Bessie began to sob, thinking of all the woodland that was forever ruined, not to mention if her father and home had probably not survived the meteor storm.

She crawled underneath a blocky wooden desk close enough to the fire for warmth, but the smoke conveniently drifted elsewhere. She focused on ripping apart her scarf and tying it to stop the bleeding on new cuts. There was brown grass here and the surrounding area once a forest was eerily quiet except for the crack and pops of the large fire pit that was where the cabin had previously stood..

It was far too much to process in the short time she seemed to have remaining to live. She figured it was better to focus on the memories because she wasn’t changing reality. Bessie cleared her frozen tears and smiled. The stars looked mighty fine tonight, and a full moon had replaced the destroyed one.

Nearby lay Jed collapsed onto the rockpile that had provided enough utility to save his life. The wind blew in fresh snowflakes onto his jacket. There was bush's burning and what remained of a blown apart tree stump. Lights appeared floating through the mangled blow downs while his vision blurred and he fought off the overwhelming urge to sleep. Jed tried to stand but his legs wouldn't cooperate. There was something that sounded like shouts and calls in the distance. He felt his heart slowly beat to a crawl while he lay drifting off into the great beyond away from this ugly area.

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Jed fell on his stomach and began crawling back towards what remained of the burnt log cabin. He kept pushing while the floating lights intensified and he thought he heard the shadows calling out his name from down the hillside. He had to rest just for a second. The lack of sleep and cold was numbing his mind from just how much danger he really was in.

Just a moment more to rest he thought, closing his eyes. The problem with dying now was he still had so many dreams, and he figured the universe had owed him a good decade to live it up in retirement at least. It was pretty disappointing to be dying out in the middle of nowhere. Having never delivered on the shipment of a lifetime, or lived…

Suddenly the first of many lawmen showed up galloping throughout the wasteland on horseback. More small wagons followed their lead, narrowly navigating the debris. The man in front of them all dismounted with a lantern. He wore a heavy fur over matching cotton uniform, leather weapon strap and a shining gold star badge out front.

The light flickered, illuminating the survivor half encased in ice. Bessie groaned where she had fallen moments from freezing to death.

“Ma’am names Sheriff Nat Spit, did you know you have been traveling with a dangerous fugitive here,” he said, lowering a hand but hesitated. “Oh dear get the medic he's left her near dead with attempted murder,” finished the sheriff.

“What?” Bessie faintly asked, her gun falling over splatter into the mud where it sank away.

“Easy there dear, I'm not gonna hurt ya,” he said, lowering a hand to her. “take him away boys,”.

“Yes sir,” shouted the others.

Jed was hauled out by two cops handcuffed. He struggled in a fight until a third threw him in a reinforced bar wagon and slammed the prison door shut. Bessie was being treated by a medic while wrapped in a blanket for warmth. A cop winked while grabbing hold of her rifle. “Nice piece, we will give it back to you,” she said.

“Your farm happens to be just down at the bottom of the valley if it is still standing”

“If the apocalypse here hasn’t destroyed it, we will take you there for shelter,” said the lawman, pumping his shotgun..

“Take me to the hospital,” she sighed.

“It’s been destroyed in the nearest town from here don't you have eyes,” replied the cop.

“I’ve been surviving an onslaught of zombies,”.

“Yeah now's not the time for talking miss sorry, " said a cop manhandling her.

Bessie was gently forced into the backseat of a police wagon.

“What did he ever do?,” she struggled climbing inside the lifted vehicle on account of being wrapped up so tightly.

“We’ve been tracking his ass for a long time. Jed’s wanted for murdering a mass of army soldiers, and at least one Knight not to mention all the killing of Killin company employees which last I checked,” The sheriff paused to knock the ice that had accumulated off his mustache, “Now let’s get a medic to save you from dying. Miss I'm not taking anything else but saving you from yourself,” he commanded, picking her up.

Bessie didn’t have the energy to fight back.

“Unfortunately you will have to ride in the back of the prison wagon with the dangerous criminal who seems to have ruined your life a little longer in order to receive proper medical attention until we meet the rest of the fleet of survivoring officers,” he finished.

The medic hastily beckoned for them with his kits unzipped on the wagon's open tailgate. Jed was handcuffed to the bars in the dark of the far corner closest to the window to the drivers. The medic worked away stitching, spraying stinging disinfectant, bandages and burn cream to treat Bessie near the rear en route back to the farm. They took what felt like days to slowly traverse throughout the field of smoldering craters.

She was told she had been given the best medical attention as could be given out here in the sticks. Then she was crammed into the heated passenger seat of the waiting heavy machinery on treads that they met in a clearing further down the mountain. The metal beast spewed smoke as it snow crawled down the steep side of the path taking a precipice shortcut.

The cabin rumbled while the engine worked overtime. She sat on the seat doing nothing but worshiped the heat emitting from the vents, and avoided eye contact with the driver. There was the ever growing tension of what they were going to find tonight. It was something you could not think about but was ravaging the body's anxiety system to nothing behind the scenes.

The farm appeared out of the mist to her through the window. Her stomach dropped with the big barn burning up in flames. Their house was in the background untouched.. Near the fire a tractor drove carrying something in its bucked while the highbeams provided additional temporary light for a farmer to drive through the ring of flames.

“Papa,” Bessie cried as he drove fearlessly towards the smoke.

The tractor dumped water out of its bucket onto the flames, and sped off into the dark. The police convoy continued down the unplowed road until it suddenly stopped where the bridge had been taken out by an asteroid.

“You guys turn around and stay close. Keep guarding the girl, we are gonna wrangle up the father,” yelled the sheriff from his advancing horse. .

“Let me see my dad,” Bessie yelled, throwing open the snow-crawler's door to escape.

She was jump scared by the masked medic holding a needle.

“No,” Bessie cried, as the medic injected her with the tranquilizers.

“Sorry miss, but we do things by the book just gotta secure the area,” said the sheriff , who directed his horse through the craters while the wagons were stopped in their tracks. “Giddy Up ah yup,” he yelled, angrily forcing his horse to gallop after climbing onto flat ground.

Most of the other cops on horses followed after him speeding across the ruined farmland towards the burning barn. Others ran after their dogs. Bessies father drove back into the fire being pursued by The dozen lawmen on horseback.

The medic carried Bessie back to the same jail bars that trapped Jed. She slumped into the same deafened position as him drifting out of focus. It was a miracle both of them were still so uninjured after so much nonstop action. She fought as hard as she could to stay awake watching the dark for any signs of life behind the collapsing barn.