Chapter 1: Just Another DoomsDay…
Thursday, October 29th 2012, 05:08:59
**How many "apocalypse" movies have you seen? How many books have you read on the subject? How do you imagine yourself going out? What does your last minutes of life look like to you? Being held by a loved one... Surrounded by friends and family as you mutter "I love you" for the last time... Not for me...oh no... My last moments are now. Back to back with Janet as the last three shells in this shotgun are pumped into a hoard of the undead.**
**But let me tell you my story, before I die. Just listen, it's nothing special but then again it might just be.**
Monday, September 28th 2015, 11:26:32
I slept in my AJS102 class for the second time this month as the teacher just kept teaching. My dreams all involved numbers but who cares.
I was awaken, by the sound of the bell sounding, and swore under my breath then stood up and began to walk out when my teacher addressed me.
"Jeff, can I talk to you?" She said, after erasing the board and sitting on her desk.
"Sure." I said and walked over to the neat wooden desk, and dropped my backpack on the ground.
"You're one of my more attentive peers, why were you sleeping today? It happened on the 16th too."
"I know. I'm sorry. I worked real late last night and didn't get to bed till about 2 in the morning. I promise, Mrs. Furr, that it won't happen again."
"Please see that it doesn't. I'd hate to have to fail you, Jeff. You're a good student but we're with four more tests and the final on the way, there's still time to fail my class."
"I'll make sure to get more rest, Mrs. Furr."
"Thank you. See you tomorrow, Jeff."
"You too." I said and picked my backpack up, tossed it over my shoulder, and headed out.
**Everything was normal up until that night, at least for me. See: I am...was...whatever...an Administration of Justice student. Yup, another cop, deal with it. Well actually I was studying to become a juvenile parole officer, since there will always be a huge demand for those. But that's what I wanted to become, at that time my profession...was a little different.**
Monday, September 28th 2015, 19:21:11
"1245 E Florence then 10257 S Allison. Dear lord I need a Teleportation machine." I mumbled as I placed the two Pizza Delivery bags into my car's passenger side and walked over to the other side.
I mentally prayed as I turned the key in the ignition and the car struggled for a few second then purred into life with its entire 1.8v engine. I put my car in gear and silently cheered that it didn't stall then started forward then stopped as some guy ran passed me at full speed.
"The fu..." I began and looked after him as he jumped over a wire fence and kept running.
I began to drive forward then turned to my left, at the empty lot next to the small time pizza shop that I worked in, and saw the figure of a woman as she stumbled and limped her way towards me in the dark.
"'Hey, girl, I think that you've had enough' 'don't tell me when I've had enough, I'll tell you when I've had enough...'" I said mockingly to myself then sighed. "Stop talking to yourself, Jeffrey."
I headed out of the parking lot and into the main road then immediately turned and headed down Florence Street. I didn't last a minute before I began to get bored and plug my phone into the auxiliary connection coming out of tape in my radio and opened Pandora. It took ten million hours to load on the crappy 2g internet, but when it did, it began playing some Japanese anime song named line-dash-squiggle-squiggle-sideways happy face-random squiggle-other squiggle by an artist that couldn't read, let alone pronounce. I would have skipped it but it would have taken another lifetime to load another song so I just left it alone.
I reached the trailer park, which was my first destination, and pulled in while mumbling the tune to the dueling banjos as I found mobile home number 17 and parked my car outside.
I pulled out the two extra-large pizzas with extra cheese and pepperoni and held it up as I headed to the front door and knocked.
The door opened a few seconds later. A stick thing white girl with blond pigtails and a pair of torn shorts and a shirt that said Mount and Doo looked at me through the screen door.
"Yeah?" She asked while chewing gum. "You here with the pizza?"
"Awe, would you look at that, yes I am. Man you're good." I replied.
"Ma! Pizza kid is here." She said and took the pizza from me as a semi-truck wearing a shirt, that made me happy that I didn't have a pen with or else it would be sticking into one of my eyes, stepped into view and shoved a twenty and two singles in my direction. "Change is tip." She said and closed the door.
"Santa madre..." I mumbled and stepped into my car that turned on at the first time and I drove off before the Mount and Doo girl told her father that I got her pregnant and chased me off with a shot gun.
Another Japanese song started and I realized that my sister had changed my anime station for hers. I changed it back and the theme for Deadman Wonderland came on and raised the volume as I headed out of the trailer park and towards house number two.
Some guy limped down the street and fell over a black trash car, which made the garbage fall out. The man twisted on the ground before bolting upright.
"Brains..." I groaned and snickered as I drove down the street and turned the corner into the second house.
I stopped at a Stop sign and looked left and right then stared at a woman who quickly turned the corner while holding a woodcutting ax.
"Okay...?" I said and drove forward. She came towards me and motioned for me to stop but I just sped up and ignored the crazy woman.
"Wait! She yelled.
"Fuck that..." I said and ran the next stop sign. "What the hell is going on tonight? It isn't even Friday yet, so why are all the weirdo's out?"
I reached the second house and pulled up and got out and removed the two medium mushroom and Bacon pizzas and walked up to the front door. Two kids walked out and looked at me.
"Hey, is your mom or dad here? I brought the pizza." I said.
"No... How much?" The six year old asked.
"$23.67" I said as the other kid held out a twenty and a five out to me.
I took the money and handed them the change and pizzas then thanked then and walked away and into my car.
"Well Big Bertha gave me about five bucks in tips so it's something." I said and drove back to the base of operations.
There was no sign of the ax wielding woman or any of the other groovy goolies out tonight but did notice the two cop cars and the firefighters outside of my place of work.
I pulled in and parked then walked out when I saw my boss sitting in the sidewalk as one of the firefighters bandaged his right arm that had been bleeding recently.
"Man, are you okay?" I asked when I got closer.
"Yeah, this crazy chick bit me when I asked her if she was okay." Sam, my boss, said.
He gestured to the left. I turned and saw the woman in the back of a cop car with her hands behind her back. Dark saliva dripped out of her mouth as she snarled and kept hitting the window with her head.
"Trouble with the ladies?" I taunted him when I saw that he wasn't in pain.
"Looks like."
"We disinfected the bite, but some of the blood she had in her mouth might have gotten in your system." The firefighter said.
"So... I have rabies or something?" Sam asked.
"Well I was thinking more of an STD or something. I'm not a real paramedics but those are passed through body fluids." The firefighter said.
"Thanks." Sam replied as the firefighter walked away but crouched down in front of a police man who held his arm. "He also got bit by the woman. He almost shot her in the head but his partner helped him, man it burns."
"You should take it easy. We could close early tonight if you went. I'll open tomorrow, I don't have class." I told him.
"That's probably a good idea. Can I have you drive me home? She got my driving hand, and Malorie will kick my butt if she found out I drove home instead of calling her."
"Why don't you call her?"
"She has her book club tonight, and I don't want to bug her. Between taking care of me and the kids, she doesn't get out much."
"That's cool, let me lock up."
It took ten minutes for me to shut the ovens down, turn the lights off, and lock up. Sam called his babysitter to tell her that he was coming home early and to drop off the kids to his house.
We entered my car, which I had forgotten to put the two pizza delivery bags away.
Sam was four years older than me but we were more than coworkers. We actually hung out once in a while and actually bullshited at work. He was a cool guy and a fun boss. I could have gotten another job easily but I always stuck around because of our laid back relationship. I didn't tell him any of that though.
We pulled up to his drive way fifteen minutes later and we sat in the drive way for a little bit.
"You don't think that I could have gotten an STD because of this, do you?" He asked me.
"Doubt it. I'd still get it checked though. Lord knows that Malorie will have you do it anyway." I replied.
"Yeah, that's true. Goodnight, Jeff." He said and pounded my fist.
I waited for him to walk in, after stumbling once, then did a U-turn and drove home.
Three separate cop cars, and a paramedic, van sped past me on the way and something made me worry so I called home.
"Jeff?" A girl asked on the other side.
"Janet, are you guys okay? I saw some cop cars and got worried." I asked.
"Yeah we're okay. Are you?"
"Yeah. I'm headed home early, some chick bit Sam's hand."
"Ouch. Is he okay?"
"Yeah, he hasn't turned into a zombie or anything."
Janet checked. "See you when you get here, oh, and I might have forgotten to switch your station back on Pandora."
"I've noticed..."