Undead Ally
Issue #3
by Tom Zjaba
Chapter Three
Fallen Angel
The sun rises and the rays peek through the window of Trish's bedroom. As the light hits her face, she squints and curses herself for not covering the window better. She struggles to get up, enjoying the feel of a real bed. She really wants to go back to sleep, but she knows that she needs to get a better idea of what is around here. As relaxed as she was last night, she has a nagging feeling that something is not right about this place. It is too good to be true. Why was it abandoned and what happened to the people who owned it. She is worried that they are going to pop out of a closet or something and attack her. She rises from her bed in her t-shirt and panties and stretches. She smiles as she opens the curtains and lets the sun's rays fill the room. With her eyes closed, she tilts her head up towards the sun, enjoying the heat on her face. A smile creeps over her face as she takes the moment to indulge in the simple pleasure. The thought that she has nowhere to go and no one to answer to is comforting. For the past week on the bus, she was led around like cattle. Stop here, go here, do this. The men with the guns made the decisions and all she could do is follow or get shot. But now, she found a house that seems safe. There is an abundance of food in the pantries and a well with fresh water. Even if she knows it will not last, she wants to enjoy it as much as possible.
While she is looking out the window, she does not know that she is being watched. The three men are hiding right in the tree line across the street. With the aid of their binoculars, they can see her, but she cannot see them. Johnnie is holding the binoculars and is staring at her. He is smiling as drool runs down his face. "All I see is one girl. Look at the jugs on her, I cannot wait get a hold of those. I get first dibs." Tobias rips the binoculars from him and glares at him. "We are here for food and other supplies. Understand?" Johnnie glares back at him. "If you wanna go faggot, that is up to you. But if that bitch is all alone, then I am gonna get me laid. Understand?" Syn pulls out a long hunting knife and puts it to Johnnie's throat "If you do anything to jeopardize our lives, I will personally kill you. Understand?" Johnnie pushes the knife away "Get that thing away, unless you intend on using it." Syn puts the knife away as he replies "Trust me, I do intend on using it."
As the two men argue, Tobias looks through the binoculars. "So far, it looks like one person. We will wait until we are sure." He then hands the binoculars to Syn, who watches as Trish takes a brush and brushes the knots out of her hair. He watches as she runs the brush through her long brown hair. "Just keep thinking everything is safe. It will make it easier on all of us." Syn says as he smiles.
Looking through the drawers in her room, Trish finds some clothes to wear. Having been forced to wear the same clothes for a week, she literally had to peel them off. Now she is ready to burn them. After her bath last night, she did find an oversized shirt and some boxer shorts to put on. Not exactly as comfortable as her usual panties, but at least they are clean. And it isn't like she wants to look sexy for anyone. Digging in another drawer, she pulls out a pair of jeans that are a few sizes too smaller than what she normally wears. But as she slips them on, she finds the are a little snug, but overall fit well. She must have lost some weight with all the running and sporadic meals. She then finds the underwear drawer and pulls out a bra that is a smaller cup size than she wears. But her bra has not been washed in weeks and she did not want to put it back on. She takes off her shirt and puts on the bra. Luckily the size is the same, only the cup size is different. Instead of her usual C cup, it is a B cup. While it is tight, it pushes her breast together and gives ample cleavage. Turning to the mirror, she looks at how she is spilling over the top of the bra and thinks how much Guy would have been turned on by that. For the first time in ages, she just stares into the mirror and looks at herself. She really has lost some weight. The little tummy she had is gone. So is the extra baggage she was carrying on her backside. The woman in the mirror really looks pretty good. With her hair cleaned and combed, she actually looks better than she has in years. Too bad it took a worldwide disaster to get her to finally lose weight. The only thing that detracts from her beauty is the large bags under her eyes and the weary look in her face. Also, her teeth are losing their white appearance from a lack of brushing and too much junk food and sugared drinks. One of the things on her list is to find some toothpaste and give her teeth a good brushing. Without dentists, it is more important than ever to have good oral health.
With a new set of clothes, she decides to head downstairs and have some breakfast. What she really wants is a cup of coffee. She saw some instant coffee downstairs but not sure how she will heat it up. As she digs around the kitchen, she finds an old coffee pot and figures she could heat up some water and make a cup. Realizing that she will need more water, she heads outside to fetch a bucket of water. Opening the side door, she smiles at the day and starts whistling as she walks towards the well with her bowl.
What she is unaware of is that her every move is being watched. As she heads down the path to the well, Syn is watching her. "I really think she is alone. Not a good move." he says as he smiles. He was hoping this would be easy and it is looking to be better than they expected. "If she is alone, what are we waiting for? Let's get laid!" Johnnie says as he starts to get up. Tobias quickly pushes him down as he grabs the binoculars "We can't just rush in there. We need to make sure to get her by surprise. The last thing I want is to get shot." With that, he gets up and motions for the other two to follow him. But Johnnie doesn't listen as he rushes towards the house. Tobias and Syn look at each other as they see him rush off. Tobias then nods his head to Syn, who understands exactly what he is saying. Syn lifts his rifle with a scope on it and aims it at Johnnie who is heading across the street. A smile comes over his face as he aims at his head and then goes down a bit and pulls the trigger. The bullet flies off and hits Johnnie in the back of the neck, going through his neck and severing his windpipe. He falls to the ground, where he tries to cover the hole with his hand. Blood is spurting out of both ends of his neck as he struggles to breath. His eyes bulge as he feels like a fish out of water, writhing around the ground.
Hearing the gunshot, Trish drops the bowl and rushes back to the driveway. She sees Johnnie on the road with blood coming out. She does not know what to do. Should she help him or run away. Her mind is made up for her when she sees the two men step out of the woods with their guns. Syn aims at her, but she quickly runs away as the bullet flies past her and hits the house. Scared to death, she runs towards the barn, hoping to hide in the rafters or something. It is not a good plan, but right now all she wants to do is get away. These men just killed someone and now they are after her. Why are the after her? Why did they shoot that man? Right now, she doesn't know and doesn't want to stop and ask. She just runs as fast as she can towards the barn.
The two men run across the street and down the driveway. They want to catch up with her and eliminate her. They thought they could possibly avoid this, but with Johnnie blowing the plans, things are different. Now, they want to secure all the supplies for themselves and that means killing the girl. As they run past the house, they see her head to the barn and open the door. Syn stops and aims at her as she fumbles with the door. He shoots just as she pulls the door back, sending a bullet into the door. She stops cold as the bullet penetrates the door and goes past her head. Hoping to be a smaller target, she ducks down and runs into the barn. Once inside the barn, she runs towards the ladder and heads up into the loft. In the back of her mind, she is thinking how stupid this is. She is trapped in the barn with no weapons. If she had run into the corn fields, maybe she could have escaped. But it is too late to change her plans. she needs to hide in the hay and hopefully she can surprise them. As she reaches the top of the ladder, she runs over and dives into a pile of hay and tries to bury herself the best she can. Her heartbeat is racing as she fears the worst. Will they just kill her or will they rape her and then kill her? She prays for a quick death.
Tobias is the first one into the barn. He has his gun out and looks around. He aims it in all directions, waiting for her to jump out. When he does not see her, he motions for Syn to come in. He does the same thing, looking around with his rifle aimed. They look around the barn and do not see anything. It is dark and there are stalls to the left. The stench of dead animals is in the air. Flies are everywhere and keep getting in their face. They shoo them away but they keep coming. It is these reasons that when Trish went into the barn yesterday, she was only in a minute. She saw the lantern and grabbed it. The stench and the flies overwhelmed her, forcing her to leave her exploration for another day.
As the men look around, Tobias points upwards to the hay loft. He aims his gun up there and begins to shoot. Three bullets penetrate the hay, one of them barely missing Trish. She has her hand over her mouth to keep from screaming. The two men then start walking towards the ladder, slowly with their guns out and shooing the flies. What they do not see is something moving out of the shadows towards them. With their backs turned, they aim towards the hay and shoot a few more shots. The noise muffles the sound of shuffling feet from the being behind them. Before they know what hit them, a pitchfork stabs Tobias in the back, going through him. He screams out as the pitchfork rips through him and sends blood and flesh flying. Syn turns around to see a zombie pushing the pitchfork through Tobias' body. He has no time to rationalize the situation, instead he just starts shooting at the zombie, putting two bullets in its stomach. Despite being shot twice, the zombie is unfazed by the bullets. It then pulls out the pitchfork and stabs it right into the shocked Syn. The gun drops to the ground as the pitchfork reaches the internal organs. The zombie smiles as he shoves it deep into the body, causing internal damage that cannot be undone. As Syn falls to the ground, the zombie picks looks down and says "Don't you know to aim for the head?" He then grabs both guns and puts one over his shoulder. Looking up, he sees Trish peeking out of the hay and waves to her. "It is safe, you can come out now." From her height, she cannot tell he is an undead. All she sees is two dead men and one standing over them. Slowly, she climbs out of her makeshift hideout and walks to the edge. "Who are you?" she calls out to him. She squints to see who he is, but the barn is dark and she cannot see anything more than a figure. "My name is Fred." he says as he puts the guns down on the ground as a sign that he means her no harm. "I'm coming down, but I must warn you that I am armed." she says as she heads to the ladder.
Waiting on the ground, Fred looks at his watch. The Superman watch he has from his days of the living still works. The time reads 9:30 AM. As she finally reaches the ground, she slowly walks up to him. As he steps out of the shadows, she sees that he is an undead. His face is pale and his skin is pulled tight. Part of the right side of his face is torn away and the bone is exposed. He is wearing an army helmet to protect his head. His clothes are torn and she can see part of his leg bone. Trish screams as she starts to run away. "Come back, I won't hurt you." he says as she runs away. Hearing him speak, stops her in her tracks. For a moment, she stops running and turns to him and says "Did you talk?" He tries to smile, but with his ghoulish face, he ends up looking more menacing. "Yes, I did. My name is Fred. I guess you can call me Undead Fred if you like." Not knowing what to think, she pauses in her tracks as she continues this conversation with a zombie. "But you're dead. How can you..." she says as she is at a loss of words. He bows to her and says "I give you the world's only talking zombie! At least I think I am the only one." Still stuck on an undead talking, she repeats herself. "But you're dead." Fred tries to smile again as he explains "Yes, I am dead. But unlike the rest of my comrades, I can still think. I have all my mental faculties. But don't worry, I don't eat the flesh of the living." She takes a look around to see if she can see a weapon. This must be some kind of trap. "If you don't eat ummm...you know...humans, then what do you eat?" He pulls out a packet of cheese and crackers from his coat and shows her. "I like cheese and crackers. Just as satisfying and no one dies." He then opens the package and pulls out the small stick and puts some cheese on a cracker. "Want one? They are really good?" She waves her hands as she replies "No thanks." He then takes the cracker and eats it. "At least God left me with my taste buds." After he finishes the cracker, he puts the rest of the pack in his coat pocket. Still not sure what to think, Trish finally just asks "Why did you save me?" Fred tries again to smile at her as he answers "Just because I'm dead doesn't mean that I am dead inside, if you know what I mean?" She looks at him with a puzzled look on her face. "What I'm trying to say is that I still have a heart and when I saw those guys trying to kill you, I had to step in." Trish looks down at the two men, who are laying dead on the floor of the barn. "Well, ummm...thanks for saving me." She reluctantly puts her hand out for him to shake. He looks at her and can see the fear in her eyes. He slowly extends his hand and says "You are welcome. By the way, what is your name?" She shakes his cold hand as quickly as possible and pulls it away. It feels strange to her and she does not like it. It makes her think of going to a funeral home and reaching into the casket and touching the body. She remembers doing that as a little girl at her grandmother's funeral and this feels the same. "Well, thanks again and I will be seeing you." she says as she starts to head out of the barn.
Fred watches her leave for a moment and then yells out "Wait!" This stops her in her tracks as she turns and looks at him. "I was thinking, if you are headed somewhere that maybe I can go with you. It gets mighty lonely out here and you are the first human that hasn't tried to kill me." The last statement makes her laugh, a small almost forced laugh. "I was headed to a military base when my bus...I mean the bus I was traveling on crashed." Fred reaches down and grabs the two guns off the floor of the barn and hands one to her. "If you don't mind a traveling companion, I am very handy with a gun." She takes the gun and looks at it. "I'm not sure, with your being dead and all." Fred laughs "I know that I am undead and all, but I did save your life. I promise that I will not eat you. Plus, I can keep an eye out while you sleep. One of the benefits of being dead is you don't need sleep." She laughs at that as she finally nods her head. "This is really weird, but let's give it a try." Fred smiles and says "We better get some supplies for the road. I am almost out of cheese and crackers." They both break out laughing as they head towards the farmhouse.
Undead Ally ©
Tom Zjaba 2008