You sit in the dark; not because the power is out, but because you haven't turned any lights on. Out of the corner of your eye you can see that a couple of the houses out on the street have their lights on, but more don't.
Part of your mind wonders if those lights are off because they are afraid of attracting those things, the zombies, or if those people have just left; fled for who knows where, for a safe-zone that probably does not exist. Then again, maybe those people are already dead.
Those people don't matter to you though; not right now. Right now you are deciding what to do with the gun sitting on the table in front of you, your hand resting on it. You can feel the weight of it under your hands; its grip warmed by your continual touch.
You found the gun this afternoon when you decided to go outside. You knew that it was dangerous, that nothing would be open, and that you really didn't have anywhere to go, but you were tired of being cooped up in the house alone on the computer talking to the ever decreasing number of “friends” you have.
You headed towards the school, hoping for... for what? For a sense of normalcy and familiarity, you suppose. The streets were mostly deserted, only three cars passed you the entire way, but you also didn't see any of the zombies roaming around. If not for the video out of the big cities like New York, you think that you wouldn't even consider what's going on to be the apocalyptic emergency that it clearly is.
What you found when you got to school were those douchebags beating on that cop. Maybe he was dead already when they got there, maybe he was infected with that Zed Virus they say is causing all of this on the news, but you don't think so. You think those assholes, Tyler, Tripp, Hunter, Dylan, and Tripp's girlfriend Ashleigh (although you hear that they've all had a turn with her) killed that man. Bashed his head in.
You stayed hidden until they got bored and left. You saw Tripp try and take the officer's gun, but he didn't know how to remove a gun from a police officer's holster, so it wouldn't budge. He took the cop's pepper spray, handcuffs, and radio instead. You went and took the gun, rolling the cop's body over so you could pull it free correctly.
You hate Tripp and his gang. They have made your life a hell since you were in grade school; stealing your lunch, shoving you in the girls' bathroom, yanking down your pants in front of the whole class, harassing you online, beating you up, putting an ad on Craigslist saying that you wanted to have sex with older men. It's not just you either, but anyone smarter than them, which is most people, who would not, or could not, fight back. If you could turn your hatred of them into a weapon, you would kill them all.
You're not a murderer though. There are other ways, better ways to get revenge. It just takes time.
You don't have time now. You may have figured that you would have until you were older to get vengeance; that you would do well, work hard, become successful, and then find a way to get back at them. Things have changed in the last two weeks though; you know it, and, based on what you saw this afternoon, they know it too.
Things have changed, but that doesn't mean you have to change.
You don't have years to get any sort of long, drawn out revenge anymore; the chances of you living that long are very, very small, and even if you do, even if this disease can be stopped, will the world go back to the way it was? No.
It might. The government if working on a cure. The military is securing the cities. Things will be okay.
All the more reason to take your revenge now, while no one will be paying any attention to a few more dead bodies. You can take your revenge today. You know where they live, and there really haven't been that many zombies in town. You can do this. You can make sure that they never hurt anyone else ever again.
But should you? Won't killing them make you just as bad as they are? Can you justify murder?
It's not murder. Murder is what you do to humans, and you don't think that those jerks are any more human than the flesh-eating ghouls you have been watching on TV, and seeing online.
It is murder. Those are people.
People don't behave like that. You want your revenge. You are meant to have your revenge, and you are not going to let the end of the world stop you from getting that revenge.
This isn't the end. Just wait for the government to get things under control.
Even if they do, then what? Go back to being bullied by them? Go back to watching them bully others? No! They killed a cop, and if they did that, who knows how many other people they have killed since this started. They are evil, and need to be stopped.
You cannot stop evil with more evil. You were not raised like this, and if you go through with it you will be changed forever. Once you murder someone, you don't get to be who you are again. Be smart, and be who you know you are. This is not you.
It is you, though. At your core you know this is who you are; who you were always meant to be.
You'll get killed. The cops will kill you, or one of those things, or Tripp, or one of his friends will.
It's nighttime; they'll have gone home by now. From what you've seen online those things move slow, and the cops have bigger things to worry about than you, as long as you keep to the shadows.
What about their parents? Just because your parents can't get home to you doesn't mean that theirs' can't.
Kill them too. They deserve it for raising such monsters. You have to do this, not just for you, but for everyone that has ever been hurt by them.
No.
Yes.
You lift the gun from the table, it feels lighter than before, and rise from your seat. You've made your choice. You're tired of being passive. You're tired of being abused. You're tired of always taking the pain yourself, and you're ready to start inflicting it.
A sense of power fills you; you can taste it, smell it. It tastes like blood, and you want more of it.
You have made your choice. You have seen the fork in the road and chosen your path. You will have satisfaction. You will have your vengeance.