Have You Ever Risked Your Life for Yourself?

The call went straight to a busy signal. Gavin couldn't hear the phone ringing from inside the room, either.

The two zombies outside the door showed no sign of being lured away by the ringing phone outside.

In the bathroom, Madison slowly ran the tub, then sat on its edge, staring blankly at Gigi's corpse and the vomit.

Even without a body, Gigi's head was somehow still moving. It opened and closed its mouth, staring at Madison.

Madison and Gigi stared at each other for more than ten seconds before he finally snapped out of it. He got up, went to the bed, and brought back a blanket to cover Gigi's head and body.

As blood soaked through the blanket, Madison let out a relieved sigh. Then he stripped naked, climbed into the tub, and sat beneath the running water to wash himself off.

As he rinsed himself, something seemed to come to mind. He suddenly retched twice, then leaned over the edge of the tub and vomited again and again.

Hearing Madison throw up, Gavin's throat twisted with nausea. He felt like he was about to throw up, too.

Fighting the urge to vomit, Gavin tried calling a few more teammates.

Without exception, no one answered.

Instead, he heard the faint sound of glass shattering outside.

Gavin suspected that zombies in other rooms had broken through the windows and fallen into the yard.

The sound of breaking glass startled Madison. He scrambled out of the tub and rushed to the window to look outside.

A couple of seconds later, he turned back and shouted helplessly to Gavin.

"Outside..."

"Keep your damn voice down!"

Smack!

Gavin's warning cut him off. Madison instinctively slapped a hand over his mouth, then quickly turned back to look outside.

After confirming that he hadn't attracted any zombies, Madison left the window and crouched over to Gavin.

"There are seventeen or eighteen people out there, and they're running like hell. Fuck, they're just like the zombies in Brad Pitt's new movie!"

"I know. Fuck, hurry up and get dressed so you can take over for me. I'm still not dressed!"

Gavin kicked him. Madison hurried back to the bathroom and scooped up some warm water from the tap to rinse himself off.

Then he jogged to the wardrobe and rummaged around for Gavin's clothes.

The estate belonged to the owner of the Dallas Cowboys. Gavin and his team had celebrated there more than once. It was even a party venue for the Dallas Mavericks.

So every room in the villa had plenty of oversized clothes on hand for the Cowboys and Mavericks players.

Madison put on an oversized tracksuit and several extra pairs of socks. He also found knee pads and elbow pads and layered them on one after another.

Once he was mostly dressed, he went to the door to relieve Gavin, bracing himself against it as his teammates kept slamming into it. He spoke in a panic.

"Are we just going to keep holding the door? Come on, we're dead, we're fucking dead!"

"There were more than three hundred people here last night, right? Damn it, even the basketball players showed up. This is way too fucking many!"

"Can you hear it? There are more people outside now. We're finished!"

"I have six kids, damn it! What the fuck am I supposed to do? My kids—what about my family? I..."

"Could you at least keep quiet, Madison? Don't make me shove this knife down your throat. Sam Off has to eat."

Gavin cursed as he got dressed, making Madison turn around in misery.

He leaned his head against the door. Within seconds, tears began to fall onto the carpet in rhythm with the shaking of the door.

While putting on his socks, Gavin saw how hard Madison was crying. He tossed his phone at Madison's feet and said, "Call your family. Though you'd better not, because if you don't, you can still have a little hope, buddy."

"What about you, Gavin? Did you call your family? Your mom or your dad? You're not married!"

Madison answered as he crouched down to pick up the phone.

But just as he crouched, the sound of rotor blades reached his ears, spinning faster and faster.

Thup-thup-thup-thup...

The instant the sound reached the room, Madison clutched his phone.

"Gavin!" he warned.

Gavin nodded.

"It's a helicopter."

"A helicopter! Thank God! We're saved!"

Madison let out an excited whisper, then widened his eyes and repeatedly jerked his head toward the window, urging Gavin to take a look.

Gavin nodded and walked toward the window, still wearing only his socks.

But before he could reach it, the helicopter's sound—audible for only six or seven seconds—cut off abruptly. It was followed by the sound of the helicopter crashing and a tremendous explosion.

Screech!

Boom!

Crash!

"Fuck!"

Madison was close to breaking down. His huge body collapsed to his knees in front of the door, like a mountain giving way.

"Don't bother looking. It's all over. Even the helicopter went down. No one's coming to save us. We're completely—"

"We got lucky."

Gavin's sudden remark cut through Madison's despair. He looked over at him in confusion.

Following Madison's gaze, Gavin crouched beside the window and lifted part of the curtain, showing him the glow of the fire coming from the blind spot to the left of the window.

Even from a long way away, Madison could see dozens of figures sprinting across the courtyard toward the fire and the sound of the explosion.

Apart from three or five unlucky zombies that had fallen into the pool and couldn't climb out yet, every zombie on the estate had been drawn by the explosion.

Gavin pulled the curtain aside and, relieved, pointed behind Madison.

Following his gesture, Madison suddenly realized that the pounding had stopped!

He quickly pressed his ear against the quiet door to make sure.

Gavin looked at Old Mac, then out the window. After waiting three or five seconds, Madison turned around and gave him the all-clear.

"They ran off! Damn, we're lucky. We're really fucking lucky!"

Madison felt a lot better. It was such a relief not to have zombies pounding on the door, and Gavin relaxed, too.

He casually drew the curtains, then went back to the wardrobe to finish dressing.

"Those things really are like the zombies in Brad Pitt's new movie. They change fast, and they run insanely fast."

"I watched Gigi turn after just two retches. You said Leonard turned within seconds of being bitten, too."

Brad Pitt's World War Z had come out this year, in 2013, and the new movie had been doing pretty well lately.

At another time, Madison wouldn't have minded following that up by chatting with Gavin about Pitt's ex-wife.

But right now, he just wanted to find Pitt and beat him to death.

Or have Pitt's ex-wife put him out of his misery.

Seeing that Madison wasn't in the mood, Gavin hopped up and down on the carpet twice, getting used to the feeling of his joints locked in by all the protective gear. Then he went over to the fireplace.

He took down a military knife and handed Madison the other one, which was just as dull.

"Quit spacing out. Take it. You know what to do in a minute, right?"

"Yeah. Damn right—touchdown!"

Madison gripped the knife tightly and nodded hard before continuing.

"I'll watch your back like I do in a game, buddy. Nobody's getting to my quarterback before I go down!"

"That's right. Just like in a game—stay calm, focus, and give it everything you've got!"

Gavin patted Madison on the shoulder.

"Once we open the door, go straight to your room and get your phone. Then head to the owner's room and look for a gun. That guy's an old cowboy. We've used his hunting rifles before. We even played frisbee with him yesterday afternoon."

As he spoke, Gavin firmly grasped the doorknob, ready to open the door.

He wasn't the type to hesitate when facing a zombie crisis.

Rather than sit in a bedroom with no food or water, he'd rather die fighting his way forward.

But...

Just as Gavin tightened his grip on the doorknob, Madison grabbed his wrist.

"Wait!"

Madison's voice trembled.

"Are we really going outside? It's pretty safe in here. Maybe if we wait until morning, the police and militia will come rescue us."

As soon as he finished, he seemed to notice Gavin's disapproval. He swallowed and pressed on.

"We're in the richest part of the Rich District, aren't we? The mayor of Dallas was at the party last night, too. Maybe help will come!"

"Is that so?"

Gavin looked at Madison, who was still clinging to hope, and asked without expression, "Since Gigi turned, more than six minutes have passed. How many cries for help have you heard?"

"Fewer than three!"

"How many people were at the party? At least two or three hundred! And yet there was only one scream, one gunshot, and a helicopter that only managed to start up briefly! What does that say about the rate of infection?"

"Apply that ratio to the police and the military. Especially now, at around three in the morning. How many of them do you think made it?"

As Madison watched in despair, Gavin shook his head and sneered.

"Rescue? Give me a break!"

"Instead of hoping for rescue, we should be grateful the helicopter crash drew so many zombies away."

"And we should be grateful that getting bitten means turning in just a few seconds."

"If zombies corner us, at least we won't suffer for long before we die."

"Most importantly, if we don't take our chance while the zombies are distracted by the explosion and try to find food, water, and weapons, do you want to wait until they're ready?"

As he finished speaking, Gavin freed himself from Madison and slowly, carefully turned the doorknob.

Click.

As the latch opened, Gavin turned his head toward Madison and sneered.

"Madison, have you ever risked your life for yourself?"