Alternative Ending to First Person Shooter

            I put my hand on top of Janine’s and slowly lower the gun. Her hand is warm and full of blood. I should be excited to be touching Janine but instead I’m worried about Zombie Lady. Her finger falls out again, and we all look down at it.

An uncomfortably long silence fills the air until I hear a sharp and painful groan come from Zombie Lady. All of a sudden, she begins to put her hands over her ears and cry out in agony. I look up from the finger to see that Zombie Lady suddenly looks annoyed, enraged even. She stumbles back as I watch the last bit of humanity flicker from her eyes, leaving nothing but her animal instincts behind. I exchange looks with Zombie Lady and Janine for what feels like an eternity until suddenly, she lunges out as Janine with her teeth barred. Janine tries to raise the hand cannon but my hand feels frozen in place on top of hers and by the time she rips the gun away it's already too late. Her wobbly arm and panic cause her to miss her one and only chance of killing Zombie Lady. Before she can fire a second, Zombie Lady has already pounced on her and has begun sinking her teeth into Janine’s neck as Janine screams in agony. I stand there in shock, watching as Janine gets a few kicks on Zombie Lady’s stomach and legs while Zombie Lady begins ripping into Janine’s stomach. It takes no longer than a minute for Zombie Lady to finish the job and for Janine to fall completely limp. 

Zombie Lady stands up and inspects her kill, seemingly satisfied with it for a brief moment until the pain of Janine’s kicks finally catches up to Zombie Lady. She buckles on her newly scratched and bruised left leg as her breathing grows heavy. She reaches for her side and leans up against the shelves to rest for a moment. She looks at her bloodied hands and then at me. Tears start to swell in her eyes and the Zombie Lady I recognize flickers back into the eyes of the creature as she looks back down at the lifeless Janine laying in front of her. Zombie Lady looks ashamed and terrified of what she’s done as she leans down to close the eyes of her victim. A tear rolls down her cheek and onto the forehead of Janine. She begins to get up until she sees the gun resting at my feet and looks me in the eyes, still half hunched over. I’m still completely frozen in place, unable to even cry for Janine. Zombie Lady begins walking towards me and I know no matter how hard I try I can’t stop what’s about to happen. I close my eyes, hoping whatever method of execution she chooses will be quicker than Janine’s. I wait in terror for about a minute until I realize something must be wrong. 

When I fearfully open my eyes, I see Zombie Lady limping along halfway down the aisle with the gun in her right hand. I realize what she’s about to do and try to cry out to stop her, but can only manage a squeak. She stops in place for a second, but doesn’t turn around. I’m about to try to yell out again to stop her but the realization that I was able to muster the strength to squeal for a bloodthirsty killing machine and not my coworker who I have known and loved for some time dazes me. All at once, the past few minutes of hell catch up to me as I woozily fall to my knees and watch as Zombie Lady gives me one final sorrowful look before turning the corner of the aisle. I give one final yell as a just out of sight gunshot echoes throughout the store and watch as a four fingered hand flops back into view around the corner of the aisle in a pool of blood.

When I initially read “First Person Shooter” I thought the story would end with a pessimistic twist where Zombie Lady snaps and becomes the stereotypical killing machine we expect from a creature of the dead. And, as much as I liked Yu’s ending to the story, the curiosity of how a malicious change in Zombie Lady's personality could change the story still captivated me. The hardest part of rewriting the ending was trying to make it feel like a believable extension that not only built upon the ideas of the original, but also kept the tone of the original story intact. I wanted to avoid ruining my new ending with an ill timed joke, so I piggybacked off of keeping the quick and relentless pacing rather than leaning into humor fit for Yu’s more optimistic ending in order to keep the tone as consistent as possible without breaking the tension of the new ending. 

Another problem I faced when rewriting Yu’s finale was keeping the message of the original mostly intact while adding a grimmer outlook to the ending. In my somewhat delusional eyes, Yu’s story was about exploring the similarities between Zombie Lady and our human characters and exposing our somewhat unjustifiable hatred towards the undead. I wanted to write what I believed to be a more realistic conclusion to the story, but I didn’t want to completely overrule the idea of Zombie Lady’s dwindling humanity connecting her to our human narrator. Because of this, I made sure to give the reader another glimpse at her sympathetic and understanding side where she feels guilt for her actions before finishing my version of the story.

Lastly, I wanted to explore the possibility of Zombie Lady encountering a real death, a curiosity planted in my head after her encounter with House of the Dead 2 created a sense of discomfort and distrust between the story's narrator and her. The only way I figured I could put one in the story without creating a completely unrelated and useless plot twist was if Zombie Lady temporarily gave in to her zombie half to set up the scenario and then switched back to her humane side to have the sympathetic and understandable reaction I wanted. As an unanticipated yet welcome result, separating her two halves raised many questions about whether Zombie Lady deserved forgiveness for her actions, if Zombie Lady's death was necessary to save the life of our narrator, if Zombie Lady is completely innocent, or if she really was in control as she ended the life of Janine. I had a surprisingly enjoyable time rereading and reinterpreting the potential themes of "First Person Shooter" and I hope my new ending was at least somewhat entertaining for you as well.

Have a nice day!