Note: My fiancé wrote this story. I only edited his grammar. Please do not ask why he portrayed Rochelle as a sassy black woman from the hood. He has… problems… *shiver*
On all fours, Nick was panting relentlessly trying to catch his breathe. The blood mixing from his sweat and the rain formed a small puddle to wear Nick could see his own face. Locked in a stare with his reflection, life seemed empty and pointless.
"Man what the fuck are you doing; get up! GET UP!" Ellis yelled.
Helping Nick to his feet they ran off with countless undead behind them. Looking up he could see flashes of light from where gun fire was originating. It was Zoey and Rochelle. Luckily, their aim had greatly improved since their initial meeting two months ago. All hope seemed lost. Ammo was running short. Food was already scarce. These were minor details in the current problem of undead running on dead sprint to another meal.
Without thinking Ellis shoved Nick into one of the warehouse windows. Glistening, was a magnum .45, ready for action with the slide of the receiver to chamber a round. Ellis darted off down the side of the warehouse and toward the horde away from the others.
"HEY YOU SONS A BITCHES! OVER HERE!" Ellis shouted at the top of his lungs as he drew his singular weapon twenty-five feet from his compatriots and an undying hunger of death. Nick, Rochelle and Zoey all screamed in protest to deafening gun shots and undead moans. Ellis however fancied himself a GPS device with a distinct beeping sound that could hopefully save them. After shooting the nearest undead, he pulled the device out, activated and threw it with all his strength away from him and the group. A loud beep and sequential quieter ones as the device flew in the distance behind the horde. The undead stopped as they heard this in their tracks. Confused to the beeping sound like a dogs whistle they instinctively followed the sound.
All gun fire stopped immediately when the horde stopped and with military precision did an about face toward a distance beep. It may not have been far but it was enough. Ellis ran back to the rest of the group.
"Let's go, now while we can," Zoey choked out as she tried to catch her breath.
"We can shack up in that police station a block north of here. " Rochelle lead the way, picking up anything that may be of use. Each had learned the art of scavenging while being silent and being fast. These were essential skills you learned to survive.
As fast as it started. It ended. When the group of four arrived at the police station they knew they could find solace. Barred windows, a reinforced steel door. They need only be quiet. Not a sight or smell of the living would be sensed in that building as countless horde staggered about in the road toward some unknown destination that almost seemed instinctual.
As night fell the group gathered the little resources and comforts they had found. They always stayed in the same room for fear of some unspeakable horror that might manifest itself from their nightmares. Silence was usually the conversation before bed.
"Thanks Ellis, you saved my life back there. I don't know what happened… I just..." Nick broke the silence with a mumble that was nothing of the Nick the other three knew. Nick was an unrepentant asshole. To hear him apologize was to hear the voice of God end this nightmare.
"No problem, man. I am sure you would do the same. I only wonder why you were looking at the mud for so long?"
"I don't know. The blood. The gore. The death. The hopelessness. That big armed running thing that got Bill at the bridge. It just... It got to me. Seeing Bill being grabbed like a rag doll and that thing just ran. " Nick's voice was still ever quiet. There was not a shred of his unrepentant tone in his voice. This was the confessions of a prideful man broken.
"I tried... Going after him but what I saw... ". A deep sigh to interrupt the last vestiges of a eulogy for a fallen friend was enough for Nick to lose all sense.
"That thing threw him into a wall... I saw him crushing him. It only took two slams. I should have... I should have done something different. Fuckin' old man. Why the fuck did he not stick closer to us." Nick stopped.
"Hey man… we have seen some shit no doubt 'bout that." Ellis responded, sadness lingering in his voice.
"There was nothing you could have done." Rochelle added. "We've all lost someone. Bill will be no different; all we can do now is remember him and hope we don't see him again."
Zoey remained silent. She knew all too well what it means to lose someone close. The group remained silent after that. They had seen a new horror in this nightmare and it took the life of a friend.
"I will take the first watch." Nick said suddenly. " I won't be able to sleep anyways. I will switch off in two or three hours." Only the roar of a distant horde could be heard after that as the group tried to get another restless sleep.
Day break with a breakfast MRE and bottled water was a breakfast of champs in this apocalypse. They were able to find a military supply Hummer with food rations, medical supplies and water. They were all gathered in a circle facing each other enjoying the rations.
"Hey, guys so we seen these sons'a bitches for some time now. What is the most messed up thing you seen? I swear this one time, I was scavangin' some apartments near my home town when this stuff broke out. And I swear I turn the corner and there was this zombie lady thing like ten feet from me. Her back was turned so she couldn't see me yet, but she was naked." The others stopped and started listening as the details emerged from Ellis. "So, anyway we all seen our share of naked zombies but this one I shit you not, had a strap-on dildo. Man she turned around to expose this pink thing that made me do a double take y'all know?" Giggles permeated as more insensitive details emerged.
"So, did you get her number? " Nick chuckled.
"Oh, I am sure he did more than a double take with a naked girl like that. Nuh uh Ellis you best be endin' this right quick 'cause I do not like where this is going," Rochelle giggled.
"No, man I swear pink dildo an' everything," Ellis laughed.
"Good lord, Ellis. I think you best be keeping your naked zombie stories to your damn self. Bad enough we have to go through that stuff without you bringing the shit you call a booty call in the conversation. Ain't that right girl?" Rochelle inquired to Zoey only to find Zoey aloof.
"I uh..." Zoey was obviously not paying attention to the conversation. She had noticed how embarrassed Ellis seemed as he was blushing somewhat. Enough to notice the fine filaments of red streak across his cheeks.
"I think he got more than her number he probably asked her on a date. After he thumped her on the head. Is that your standard M.O. Ellis?" Nick burst with laughter he could no longer contain. "Why here is some brains for you madam, let me get your hand too," squelched Nick in a mocking voice that mirrored Ellis'.
"Well then Nick what have you seen? " Ellis facetiously glanced at Nick.
"I saw this zombie get lynched up in his own entrails trying to catch a bird in an oak tree. Don't know how it happened. Don't care." Nick said proudly as if the necrotic images were a badge of pride to have witnessed. "What about you Rochelle?"
"Me? Oh no sir you do not bring me into this pissin' contest. "
"Oh, Come on, just tell us something you saw that was worth remembering. " Nick demanded.
With a deep sigh Rochelle described an armless and legless zombie. Its only ability was groaning at pedestrians crossing its limited line of sight.
"I walked past the thing staring down at it like it was nothing. As if it never had been anything but a rotting piece of corpse. There wasn't even pity. I should have at least ended its misery. But I kept walking. I wanted it to suffer just like I did." Rochelle's description ended the laughter. A cloud of reality and silence hit the group.
Nick breaking the silence finally asked; "What about you Zoey? What have you seen that was worth remembering?"
Zoey looked up, the reality of Rochelle's story still heavy on her mind. "What have I seen? What is worth remembering? How about the daycare center we came to with all the children burnt alive by their psychotic parents? We couldn't stop them you remember that? You remember their screaming!? What about my brother whom I had to end his life with a bullet in the head because the fever made him too weak to even lift his own arm? Or the countless people torn apart by those monsters? Or the indiscriminate massacre from the military?"
Zoey started to tear up and become frantic on the verge of yelling and crying. Ellis tried to interject but was met with cold raw emotion that would not be stopped.
"You want to talk about things worth remembering in this hellish nightmare? What about Bill can we remember him or the fucked up thing that killed him? What about Francis that was drug off by some tentacle thing and ripped apart in front of us? Do you remember seeing half of Francis that was left crawling at us? Do you remember that Nick? Or were you too busy pissing on the dead to not even realize we are going to die." Tears were streaming down her face. The emotion Zoey had bottled up finally erupted into a prophetic vision of hell. "In what fucked up way are you going to die. Does it even matter? You'll end up like one of those things out there." Zoey turned away to bury her tears into her knees sobbing relentlessly. Rochelle patted and rubbed Zoey's back not saying anything.
"I am sorry Zoey." Ellis softly stated. "I didn't mean..." Ellis stopped knowing that nothing he would say would sooth the emotional wound that was opened.
Nick stood up to look out the window. "There are still too many of them out there. We will probably be spending the rest of the day here at the rate they are goin'. Hopefully before sundown we can go out scavenging." Nick's statement went unanswered. It wasn't the first time the group had to waste a day one place. Nick sat down with the group but turned away in silence. The rest of the day remained wordless as the dead that caged them.