1. The Day the World Ended for Kowalski

Characters: Benton Fraser, Ray Kowalski

Narrative mode: third-limited

Word count: 524

First published: December 13, 2009

Last updated: December 13, 2009


The day the world ended for Ray was when he watched Fraser shoot six-year-old Little Sally Rubinski dead at point-blank range. He watched as she fell, and he remembered it every time in slow motion, her blond curls bouncing in the air as her blood sprayed out in a dark read arc from the shot to her temple. She fell backwards and landed on what was left of the back of her skull, which wasn't much, and at the time Ray's first thought was, "hunh, when did Frase start using hollow-point?"

The world did not end the first day the plague was reported, although Ray remembered that day because the Duck Boys made all sorts of tasteless jokes about zombie recipes for brains while Franny squealed in disgust.

The world did not end the day the President declared a national emergency, and the world did not end when what was left of the National Guard started trying to round up victims for quarantine. The world did not end even when Fraser finally filed the paperwork so he could start carrying a gun (which was when Ray found out exactly what "loaded for bear" actually meant, because Fraser did not carry a gun. He carried two matching 9mm semi-automatic pistols, a small folding .22 rifle, a palm-sized five-shot .38 revolver, and a .45 Long-Colt lever action rifle. Every day. All the time. And, a machete.)

Instead, life was fairly normal for what passed in the wacky world of Ray and His Mountie, only they had to shoot more people and it felt a lot more like saving the world than being a cop ever did before.

Then Little Sally caught them on the stairwell, close enough to bite. She was drooling blood and her eyes were livid yellow and swollen. Ray was in the lead, getting the up-close and personal view as she snarled at them, and he thought for one moment that after all they had been through he was going to be taken out by a six year old baby-Barbie zombie.

Fraser reached out and shot her right over Ray's shoulder, and it took two days for his hearing to come back online completely but the girl was dead, and Ray was alive, and Fraser shoved him aside to shoot her again just to be sure. Ray felt terrible about the small child, and looked up from her corpse to say something about hauling her out so the disposal teams could grab her and bury her – do something right for her, after dying like that – but Fraser wasn't there anymore. He stood on the stairs, glancing back at Ray with relief in his eyes, but something was missing. Fraser was standing over the dead child as if she was one of arctic hares they used to eat during the Quest, as if she was nothing to him, while he checked and holstered his gun. Then he stepped over her body like it was trash, his protective and possessive hand grabbing Ray's arm to drag him out.

The world ended for Ray when they left the building and Little Sally's rotting shell behind them.

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Scene Info

Characters: Benton Fraser, Ray Kowalski

Narrative mode: third-limited