Rochelle hunched over and vomited on her deceased camera man. After she wiped her mouth, she tried again to look at what was once Jim. One leg from the camera tripod was lodged into his skull, the other two jammed in his neck. Yellow pus and blood oozed out around his body. And now he was covered in puke.
What a horrible sight.
"Oh my GOD." She stood slowly, tonguing the roof of her mouth. The vomit was still tastable.
The reporter wavered on her feet, gathering her thoughts. She just killed someone. Not just anyone, her friend. Back when she was an intern, he was the one to guide her through those hard first months. And she killed him.
She tried to shake away those thoughts and walked to the tent, pushing aside the green tarp that acted as a door. There were three beds, two IV's next to them, and a dead body in the corner. He must have died recently; she was only here for two hours before Jim attacked her.
Rochelle approached the corpse carefully, aware of what could happen. In his bloody hand, he held a machete. It lay next to a strange bottle of green liquid. She picked up the weapon, sliding it between her belt and DePeche Mode tee. Then, she picked up the jar and inspected the label.
There was a huge biohazard sign on the front. Small red text said: "Warning: Do not open. Contains highly dangerous materials."
She lowered the bottle. In its place, two gray hands clawed at her shirt. A scream began to rise in her throat, but it just got stuck and she couldn't breathe. As soon as she looked up at the infected man, she backed up, trying to reach for her the blade. He stumbled after her, coughing up blood with every rugged step he took.
Panicking, she threw the hazardous bottle at the zombie's ripped up torso. The container exploded, knocking him backwards and covering him with the green ooze.
Rochelle covered her nose and mouth, diving backwards behind the last bed. After a few seconds of frantic whimpering, she peeked over the side to see why he hadn't followed her.
As he stood there, angrily wiping the bile from his eyes, dozens of zombies swarmed in through the tent door and began beating each other mercilessly. Some of them started dropping to the ground, while others stood and took the punches. A green mist started clouding around them.
Rochelle sat back down behind the bed, heart pounding.
After a few minutes of catching her breath, the grunts and screams of the zombies ceased. Shakily, she drew out her machete. She ducked around the corner of the bed and looked to see how many were left.
Immediately, she regretted it.
Several more zombies were standing at the door, but this time they weren't killing each other. They were just standing there, looking around for something to eat.
"You looked like a dipshit."
Ellis opened his eyes too quickly. The bright sun blinded him and he grunted, shielding his face with a filthy hand.
"Hey! Talkin' to you."
He shifted his head and looked up to a shadowed face. His eyes still blurry, he blinked a few times. Not helpful at all.
"That thing was ridin' you! Shit, if you hadn't of gone an' hurt yourself, it woulda been the funniest shit ever."
"Keith?" Ellis managed to mutter. The blur stood up, offering a hand to Ellis. He could hardly see it. "Why can't I see?"
"You got a little blood in your eyes. That thing was scratchin' at your face like shit." When Ellis didn't take their hand, the figure sighed and kneeled down once more. "And I ain't Keith."
"Who are you, then?"
"Kelly. Nice to know I soun' like a Keith."
"Oh, no, I didn't mean nothin' like that. Don' be mad, I wasn't sure. I couldn't hear right. I'm sorry."
She chuckled. "You talk too much. C'mon, let's go meet who saved your ridiculous ass."
"Keith?"
Kelly stopped and eyed the man who was laying on the ground, staring up at her with an excess of hope. "Who the hell is this Keith? Your boyfriend?"
Shocked, Ellis stood and brushed off his overalls. "No! Nothin' like that! He's jus' a friend, is all."
"Mkay. Now, it's 'nother chick. You don't go callin' her a boy's name, alrigh'?"
He nodded. Kelly started to walk away and Ellis looked around him. He had been laying on the same filthy tile as when he passed out. The sun was shining through the giant glass windows, setting itself in the middle of the sky. Must be around noon.
Ellis turned to follow Kelly and nonchalantly itched his nose. He felt a band-aid and a sticky liquid. Inspecting his hand, he saw little streaks of blood across his dirty fingertips. He tore off the band-aid and felt the wound. It was simply a hole in his skin, dug by the claw of the monster.
Kelly was standing at the back of the kitchen, holding open a large silver door. She beckoned at him, her puffy brown jacket making a sheik noise across itself.
The mechanic hopped over the counter and bounded into the dark room, ready to thank his savior. He immediately hit a shelf full of frozen patties and a few fell to the floor. Mumbling apologies, he scrambled in the dark to retrieve them.
A bright light startled him.
"Ah! The fuck?"
"Watch your mouth, please." A soft, frail woman's voice spoke. Ellis searched the room for the girl and found her sitting on the floor next to a small portable lamp.
"Whu's wrong with her?" he asked Kelly, who now stood behind him.
"It's you. Wonder why I had to treat y'er wounds, even though she were the one to save ya?"
Ellis shrugged.
"Ya'll look exac'ly like 'er ex." Kelly whispered. "Well, he ain't her ex, more of her kinda bein' a widow. He's dead."
The head of frazzled blonde hair lifted and examined Ellis. She sobbed and put her head back down.
"Oh, shit, no, I'm sorry, don't hate me, I didn't mean to-" he scrambled to the floor and waved his hands around her shoulders, unsure about touching her. She cried again and leaned into his open arms.
"Aw, no, shush now, everythin'll be okay." He hovered his arms above her back for a few seconds, uncomfortable. Then he softly brushed her hair back and hugged her.
"I couldn't believe it..." she moaned. "I didn't-I didn't even believe it at first. I just said...I just told myself that he was gone, that he'd be back if I waited long enough. G-god, I'm fucking stupid..."
"Hey, ya'll watch yer language, please."
She looked up and stopped crying for a second. Ellis grinned at her and she smiled back.
"I'm sorry. I'm Shauna. You are?"
"Ellis."
Shauna sniffed and wiped her tears, breaking away from his embrace and standing on her wobbly feet.
"You may look like Kevin, but you remind me of my brother," she said with a feeble smile. Ellis returned it with his own huge grin.
Kelly sighed. "He was a sweetheart."
Shauna told Ellis her life story over flat soda. They were sitting in the broken freezer with the door wide open. Ellis and Shauna sat facing each other while Kelly was leaning on the door frame.
Shauna had grown up somewhere in Nevada for her first ten years, but when her dad got a new job offer they moved here. Here, she met Kevin, Kelly, and all her other friends. In fact, Kevin was her first and only boyfriend, who asked her to marry him on the beach near New Orleans.
"We were on a trip," her eyes lazily watched as she swirled her drink. "I wanted to see New Orleans so bad. He offered to drive, my parents insisted I go, all that crap. I guess he had them in on it, too." She took a large gulp. "That was the best day of my life."
She had the air of a drunk veteran telling war stories. Sad, but unfeeling. Angry, but soft.
"How'd he die?" Ellis sucked in his breath once he realized what he said. He watched Shauna carefully, mentally preparing for another breakdown.
Instead, she just brought the Pepsi cup to her lips. She didn't drink.
"Someone killed him."
Kelly walked outside. Ellis pretended not to notice, fixing his eyes on Shauna's pale face.
"It was right over there. Right outside the goddamn restaraunt." She pointed out the door at the parking lot. Ellis could see a body in the bushes, but didn't dare ask if it was Kevin. "The whole time he was being held at gunpoint, I was sitting in here. But he didn't scream. He didn't yell, 'Shauna, I need help.' Nothin'."
She grimaced and Ellis could see her expression break.
"But ya couldn't've helped him, anyhow. You walked out there, and whoever it was woulda shot you too."
"But the thing is, I don't know why. He could've just went with them. It was CEDA, y'know. They wanted to take us away, but Kevin refused. I heard a gunshot, but I thought it was Kevin, because he had a gun. After two days, I called Kelly and we've been here ever since."
"Why can't you jus' go home?"
Shauna stared at him for a few seconds, confused. Then she realized that Ellis had no idea what was going on.
"Wow, really? You don't know about the Green Flu? Where have you been all this time?"
Ellis picked dirt from his fingernails. "In a crappy li'l autoshop with a crappy li'l TV and a crappy li'l car."
"Must've been crappy."
"Nah. Was fun. I had Keith." His eyes lit up. "Man, I forgot! Ya'll needa meet Keith!" Ellis stood up excitedly. He looked around, but then his face dropped and he sat back down. "Oh yeah. Dammit."
"What? Who's Keith?"
Kelly walked back inside and leaned on a shelf. "Keith's his boyfriend," she snickered. Ellis turned and glared at her, a smile threatening to break from his lips. Trying his hardest, he held the look for a few seconds before she rolled her eyes and crossed her arms. "Just kiddin'! God."
"So what happened to Keith?" Shauna tapped Ellis on his broad shoulder and he pivoted on his bum to face her again.
"Ah, I dunno. We were like, sittin' in our autoshop, righ'? And this guy drives his car in, an' we were like, 'Yeah, a customer!' But he was strange. Named Dan. He was coughin' blood, all sick and shit. We was watchin' the news, and they were talkin' 'bout the Green Flu, but Keith was all, 'Reckon I see whut's outside?' Stupid Keith got kidnapped by a giant arm." He glared at his hand. "And I accidentally killed Dan. Poor sucker."
"Kidnapped? By an...arm?" Kelly sneered.
"Yeah, well, I didn't see much of it. He walked righ' on ou'side," Ellis's fingers mimicked a walking Keith. "And some giant thing jus' ran super fast an' took 'im away." He slammed his fist into Keith's hand persona. "An' 'afore I knew it, they were gone."
The girls whispered "Oh" and stared at their hands. Silence began to creep its way into the room and Ellis watched them both, unsure of what to say.
"Ya'll should help me find 'im," he threw out there. It seemed to be what they were waiting for; they perked up and smiled.
"Yeah!" Kelly grinned. "A fuckin' adventure! That's what I'm talkin' 'bout."
Ellis beamed. "Heh, yeah, this one time, me an' Keith went on an adventure. We was lookin' fer gold, and we had this map-" Something crashed outside. Ellis's story fell silent and so did everything else. All he could hear was his own heart in his ears.
"I'll check it out?" Ellis suggested, getting to his feet quietly. Shauna held up a finger and reached behind one of the shelves. She handed him a fire escape axe. Ellis took it gratefully. "Much obliged." He noticed blood, and Shauna noticed him looking at it.
"It's what I used to save your ass," she whispered with a smirk.
You're going to die. Rochelle's inner voice declared. Don't go through the front door, I said. Cut a hole in the tarp and sneak away. But what do you do? Go through the front door. You fucking dipshit.
"Shut UP!" Rochelle screeched. Her spine was laying directly on a small pebble and it was driving her mad. Zombies were throwing their rotten fists into her gut, head, and legs. She couldn't get up off the cold ground no matter how hard she tried.
"I thought-" her throat started to fill with blood. "I thought I could make it. Rid the world of a few of these monsters. I'm so fucked..."
She shielded her face with her arms and locked her jaw. Cried out in pain.
The machete was two feet away from her reach, laying on the ground, glistening with the blood of the zombies she had managed to kill. Rochelle closed her eyes and hoped for a miracle; maybe an infected will kick it to her and she can save herself.
Blood showered on her. She assumed it was from the mouth of the zombie jumping on her hip. His foot collided with her bone again and she screamed, louder than before.
Suddenly, everything stopped. After a few frozen seconds, Rochelle opened her eyes and gasped for air, spitting blood in the process. Her body started to spasm and her stomach felt tight. But there were no more zombies; she looked to the left and was greeted by the severed head of a man.
She screamed, and a set of hands pressed down on her face, shushing her into whimpers. "Don't kill me, don't kill me, oh GOD..."
The man released her. "There is no God."