Undead Ally
Issue #5
by Tom Zjaba
Chapter Five
In-Convenient Store
Fred is filling a hand basket full of food and water. He has
a stack of candy bars, energy bars, even some chewing gum. He looks over the
first aid section of the gas station and grabs all the bandages, aspirin,
stomach medicine and anything else he can fit in the basket. He even grabs a few
boxes of tampons, knowing that she will probably need them. He looks at the
condoms that are behind the counter and laughs. That is one item he will never
need again. Too bad as Trish is kinda cute. Even if she was attracted to a dead
man, he is not sure if he can do that anymore. He has not had any feeling down
there for a long time. Nothing kills a sex drive like being undead. As Fred
fills the first basket and goes to grab a second one, he looks over at the car
to make sure everything is fine. He has not heard the car horn, so he guesses
everything is fine. But as he looks out the window, he sees a sight that chills
his already cold body, several undead headed towards the car. He does not see
Trish in the car and fears the worst. Did she get out and run away? He hurries
out of the gas station and towards the car. The two undead that are nearing the
car, pay him no mind. They are focused on the car. As he walks as fast as
possible towards the car, he sees Trish moving inside the car. She is not paying
attention and looking around the car. He yells out to her, but with the windows
rolled up, she does not hear him.
Before he can get to the car, the undead reach it first. They
hit their bloody hands on the driver's side window, scaring the daylights out of
Trish. She instantly jumps up and is greeted by the sight of an undead banging
on her window. Another undead begins to climb on the front hood, clawing its way
toward Trish. It seems completely unaware that there is glass between them as it
reaches for her in vain. She freezes as she sees the undead trying to get at
her. Not sure what to do, she beeps the horn. While she is trying to get Fred's
attention, she also gets the attention of other undead that are in the
surrounding area. They hear the noise and turn to head towards it. They do not
know what it is, but like Pavlov's dog, they are conditioned to respond to
noise.
As Fred makes his way towards the car, he sees a tire iron on
the ground. He reaches down and picks it up. Wielding it like a club, he goes
over to the undead on the hood of the car and bashes his head with the tire
iron. The blunt weapon hits the undead in the head and knocks it into the glass.
Blood trickles out the back of the head from the wound, but the undead slowly
turns to face its foe. It stops as it sees another undead. Not sure what to make
of it, the undead stops as Fred bashes it in the head again. This time, he
cracks its skull open and blood pours out of the large wound on the forehead.
The undead's eyes close as it slowly slides down the hood and falls to the
ground. He then turns to the other undead and rushes towards it. Once again, he
easily comes over and clobbers it in the head. After a few good hits, the undead
also falls to the ground. He kicks the bleeding, decayed body to the side and
opens the car door. "Are you alright?" he asks as she is crying. "Please, let's
go." she says as she motions for him to get into the car. "We should have a
little time before more undead show up and we need supplies. Let's go in
together and get as much as we can grab and then get out." She gives him a sad
nod as she agrees but reluctantly.
The sound of the car horn did attract more undead. Down the
road, a few of them slowly walk out of the woods and head towards the gas
station. Since the area was not heavily populated, the undead seem to be found
in small groups, with a sizable amount of space between them. Most are found
near buildings or other places that seem familiar to them. Some are found
wandering through the woods and on the roads. Lucky for them, this is a sparsely
populated part of the country.
The two of them work like machines. They each take a basket
and begin filling it as fast as possible. Trish grabs a few items, turns and
looks out the window. She is fearful of more undead coming and being trapped in
this store. But she is in the automotive section and grabs as many things as she
can fit. Quarts of oil, fix a flat, window washer fluid, flash lights and as
many batteries as she can fit in the basket. As the basket is filled, she
quickly runs it out to the car, which has the hood open and drops it in. With
the basket safely in the trunk, she looks around and doesn't see anything. She
stops for a moment to listen for the groaning sound. She hears a faint sound in
the distance and it chills her. Running back in the store, she quickly grabs a
basket and yells out "They are in the distance, let's grab and go." Fred looks
up at her and nods in agreement. He has hit a CD rack and grabbed as many
different music CDs as he can get. Not sure what kind of music she likes, he
figures he will get all the selections. They are the generic compilations that
are priced $5.99 or 2/$10.00. He grabs the Allman Brothers Greatest Hits, a
selection of Country Songs, TV Theme songs, Hits of the 80's and more. He then
finishes the basket off with a selection of canned cheese and boxes of crackers.
With the basket full, he takes it and the other basket he filled to the car. He
drops them in the trunk and heads back for the first basket he filled. He sees
Trish throwing twelve packs of water in the back seat.
As they are finishing up, she looks up and sees the undead
coming. It is only two of them, but they are not far off. "Let's go!" she yells
out to Fred, who is getting some last minute things. He has a bag and he is
filling it and also grabbing a few empty gas cans. He throws the last of it in
the back seat and gets into the front seat. She is already in the car and has it
turned on. "You may want to put on your seat belt, this could get bumpy." she
says as she looks over at him. "What does it matter, I am already dead." he says
with a smile. "You have been warned." she says as she puts the car in gear and
slams down on the accelerator. The car kicks up rocks as the tires spin. Once
they get traction, the car takes off with a cloud of dust behind it. She flies
right at the undead that are trying to get in front of the car, in a vain
attempt to stop it. She squints her eyes as she aims right at the undead and
hits the one, knocking it to the side in a sickening thud. She keeps driving as
the undead tries to get back up, finding its legs are busted. The other one
slowly turns around and walks after the car, with no chance of catching it. Even
the crippled one, makes an almost comical crawl after the car. Within seconds,
the car is out of sight, leaving the undead far behind.
Fred looks at Trish with fear in his eyes. "You weren't
kidding about the seat belt." She turns to him and smiles "You were warned." He
shakes his head and then reaches in the back. "I got a few things for the road."
He brings the basket up and grabs out two pairs of sunglasses. He hands one to
Trish, who smiles and says "Thanks!" He pulls out a pair for himself and puts
them on. "Hope you like them. I didn't have time to look for the most
fashionable pair." She smiles and says "As long as they keep the sun out of my
eyes, they are fine. Plus, who do I have to impress?" He laughs at the comment.
Then he pulls out a handful of music CDs and shows them to her. "And I got some
road tunes. Anything special you want to hear?" As he looks over the titles, he
reads them to her. "We have Molly Hatchet, Three Dog Night, the Breakfast Club
soundtrack, Boxcar Willie, ELO's Greatest Hits, Toto. Anything sound good?" She
looks over real quick and says "Surprise me." He smiles and grabs a CD and pulls
off the plastic wrap and put it into the CD player. After a few seconds, the
sound of Journey singing "Any Way You Want it." comes over the speakers. Not
sure who they are, Trish asks "What group is this?" Fred shows her the CD and
says "It is Journey. You may be too young to remember them, but for a moment in
the eighties, they were the biggest band in the land." She smiles and says "I
heard the name, but really didn't know what they did. I heard this song before,
it is a fun song." He starts singing along with the song as she laughs at him.
Never in her wildest dreams could she envision riding down the road in a car
with a singing zombie. But here she is.
As the sun starts going down, Trish looks down at the gas
gauge, which is reading about a quarter tank and sighs. She knows they need gas,
but they haven't passed anything for hours. The closest they came was what
looked like a bar that was crawling with undead. There has been a few farm
houses, but they did not see any cars. She has been chomping down on a Slim Jim
as she looks for a good place to stop. Fred is indulging in some cheese and
crackers. He has a jar of nacho cheese and is dipping some chicken flavored
chips into it. "Cheesy chicken, the only way this is better is with the spray
cheese." She looks at him as he eats one cracker after another and asks "Spray
cheese? What are you talking about?" He laughs as he says "It is one of the
great modern inventions. It is a can full of cheese and you push the lid and
spread it onto crackers. I lived on that stuff in college." She then puts her
hand out. "Let me try one of these crackers." He dips one in the cheese and
hands it to her. She takes a bite and says "Not bad. Never thought of mixing
chicken and cheese, but it is pretty good." Fred gives her an odd look "Didn't
you ever have a chicken sandwich with cheese?" She shakes her head no. "I was
always more of a salad eater. But now that I think about it, I did put chicken
and cheese on my salad." Fred hands her another one. "I was never too much into
salad. My philosophy is if you can't deep fry it or grill it, then it isn't
worth eating." She takes the cracker and laughs at his comment. She then replies
"That isn't a healthy way to think." Fred breaks out laughing "Yeah, maybe if I
ate more salad than I wouldn't be a zombie. I may have come back as a swamp
thing or something." They both break out laughing.
In the distance, they see a motel sign. Fred points to it and
says "Why don't we stop there for the night?" As they drive up closer to it,
they see a half dozen cars in the parking lot and the building is still in good
shape. They don't see any undead, which is a good thing. "If we can find a semi
clean room, I am all for it." she says as she slowly pulls into the parking lot.
Once the car stops, Fred gets out and grabs a gas can and a siphon hose he
picked up at the gas station. "I'm gonna see if there is any gas in these cars."
She nods and says "I will go see about getting some room keys."
He walks up to the first car and turns the gas cap. He puts
the siphon hose down into the tank and pushes until he hits what he thinks is
the bottom. He then pulls it back out to see if there is any gas on it. The hose
comes out reeking of gasoline. "Bingo!" he says as he puts it back in. He then
opens the gas can and puts it on the ground next to the car. He starts sucking
on the hose, bringing the gas up. Not realizing how full the tank is, he gets a
mouthful of gas. He spits it out as he quickly puts the hose into the gas can.
"Ewww. That is horrible." he says as he spits on the ground. He quickly goes
over and gets another gas can to fill next. As soon as this one fills, he moves
the hose over to the next one and starts filling it. He then hurries over and
starts pouring the gas can into the gas tank of their car. As soon as he empties
it, he rushes over to switch cans and start the process over again.
Trish slowly walks into the main office. It is quiet in there
and very dusty. But there is no stench of death, which is a welcome relief. She
still keeps her gun out and walks slowly through the room. She looks behind the
counter and sees nothing there. She opens the door to the backroom very slowly
as well. She peers into the darkness, looking to see any sort of movement. There
is nothing. She yells out "Hello! Is anyone home?" As soon as she says it, she
aims her gun and waits. Sound always stirs the undead. But there is no noise
whatsoever. She then closes the door and heads over to the wall with all the
keys on it. She grabs five sets of keys, not knowing if any of the rooms have
visitors or are filthy.
Outside, Fred is continuing his balancing act with the gas
cans. He has spilled a fair amount of gas, but he has added a significant amount
of gas to their car. Seeing how he is struggling, she rushes over and lends a
hand. They soon form a chain and in no time, they fill their car completely and
also fill two gas cans. When they are finished, she looks at him and says "We
are both going to need a change of clothing. We reek of gas." He looks at her
and says "Too bad we don't have any."
With the gas out of the way, she proceeds to the first room
and slowly opens the door. As she opens it, the stench of death pours out of the
room, overwhelming her. She quickly closes the door, fearful that there is
undead in there. Before moving on, she pauses to hear if there is any noise
coming out of the room. There is nothing. Breathing a sigh of relief, she turns
and heads down a few doors. Once again, she keeps her gun ready as she puts the
key in the door and opens it up. Turning it, she slowly cracks open the door and
takes a whiff. Much to her surprise, there is no smell of death. Instead, there
is only the smell of stale air. The room is hot and stuffy, with no air
conditioning, but otherwise it seems fine. To make sure, she turns on her flash
light and does a quick search of the room. Taking a step in, she keeps the door
open with one hand as she looks for any signs of trouble. Once she is sure that
all is fine, she goes back and gets Fred.
It takes a few minutes to grab some food and drink and carry
them into the room. They also bring in flashlights in case they need to make a
quick exit. Having some light would help. With everything in the room, they lock
up as well as they can, using all the locks on the door. Fred then takes the
television off the stand, ripping it out and taking off some of the wood as it
was held down with screws. He carries it over and puts it in front of the door,
giving them a little extra protection. She laughs at the television, which would
do little to stop the undead. He looks at her and says "Not like it has any use
as a TV. There hasn't been a broadcast in ages and there is no electricity, even
if there was one." She smiles as she gets into her bed. Wanting to be
comfortable, she takes off her jeans and shirt and gets down to her underwear.
Once she is stripped, she looks over at Fred and says "Now, don't think of
trying anything." He laughs as he replies "Don't worry, I am not sure if I could
do anything. I think that part died along with the rest of me." She laughs as
she replies "Good, cause the last thing I want is a zombie baby." They both
break out laughing at that.
Undead Ally ©
Tom Zjaba 2008