The horde slammed against the weakly-barricaded door, their limbs turning to mush but denting the metal all the same. It wouldn’t hold. It couldn’t.

I gripped the gun I tripped over tighter. I never held one before. Never saw the need to despite the work we were doing here.

One of the horde managed to break through the glass of the door. To my growing horror, it didn’t just mindlessly wave its arm around but tried to reach for the door handle. It wouldn’t do anything since there was a heavy cabinet blocking the way but it was still disturbing how quickly they were learning.

I checked the magazine again - it was full. Good. I counted around fifteen of these things. If the worst came to it, I still would keep one just for myself.

They broke through. I wish I could say that I roared in defiance but it was more akin to the startled cry of a particularly pissed chihuahua.

I shot once, fully prepared to miss and be devoured.

To my surprise, the closest one to me fell, it’s head reduced to a memory. I was shocked. As was the horde.

It lasted but a moment until the rest ran at me. Everything turned to blur as I just kept shooting. One after another, the monsters fell to the ground.

I was almost out of bullets but there were no things nearby anymore. I looked at the gun again - was it some kind of prototype? Some self-aiming gun?

“Aaaah! Help me!”

I looked at the dead things and then at the gun. I am not sure why I didn’t use this lucky break to run away there and then.

Maybe I was going through some kind of episode.

Maybe I was just going crazy.

Whatever the reason, I found myself running towards the screams.