Undead Detours and Dead Ends
Day 57 of the Apocalypse
Weather: sunny
Mood: excited
Daily Mission: Meet up with Josie!!!
Main Mission: Stay alive a little bit longer
Thirty days since the rooftop.
Thirty days since Josie told me, with that half-smile and full sarcasm, to meet her here again, today. Noon sharp. She even pointed at the rusty clock tower in the distance. It still works, somehow. It's noon now.
And she’s not here.
I’ve been here for ages and my mood has done the roller coaster thing and went down the toilet at the end. I’ve waited so long, I even started talking to a pigeon just to pass the time. I’ve tried to make him my sidekick. He wasn’t impressed. This ungrateful, brainless bird, just flew off with my piece of rice cake. So now I’m both abandoned and hangry.His name’s Alastor, by the way.
During the agonizing wait. I was picturing Josie in my mind, her graying hair, her half smile, her weird, cute way of making fun of me. I was so bored, I started having conversations with her in my head. We were making plans about how to survive together. I was sort of trying to get her on a date. She said I was a bit young to be her type. We laughed. But in reality, I was still there. Alone. Not laughing. I tried to get a grip and think.
Josie said she wanted to check on her uncle. Or cousin? Some blood relative who supposedly lived "north of the city, in a farmhouse where the cows are mean." Not super specific, but it's a lead. And I can’t just sit here feeding pigeons rice cakes until the end of time. So I pack up my things. Including my newly improved stealth armour. I’ve replaced the shoulders and thighs with torn-up motorcycle leather and thick cloth, but kept the chest, gauntlets and the helmet. Further down it’s just jeans and more leather and reinforced worker boots. Less clang, more ninja.
Day 58 of the Apocalypse:
Morning
Weather: foggy
Mood: pissed
Daily Mission: survive this shit
Main Mission: find Josie
Got out of the city.
Sort of. Still in the suburban outskirts, where all the lawns are dead but still aggressively trimmed. The air smells like burnt tires and pine-scented deodorant. I passed a nail salon with a shattered window and a sign reading "We’re Still Open!". Bold.
Saw my first zombie of the day around 10. A real go-getter. Sprinting type. I ducked behind a garden gnome and let him pass. Felt like Solid Snake. But then a spider crawled into my helmet, and I let out a little cry of surprise.
I was at this moment that he knew, he fucked up.
The Z turned. Lunged. I rolled. There was a kiddie pool filled with rainwater and raccoon bones nearby. He landed on me, but I managed to turn him on his back with his head in the pool. He flailed. While I - like an idiot - tried to drown a dead person. I looked around and found a garden rake and jammed it through his head. It made a sound like wet cabbage. Kind of satisfying, honestly.
What a mess! I’m completely drenched and soooo pissed.
Midday
Still heading north.
Passed a pile of burned-out vehicles on the main road. Found a protein bar under a seat. Mint chocolate chip. Raised my mood just a pinch.
I climbed the mount of cars to have a better look. I saw a convoy of pickups and motorcycles in the distance that send shivers down my back. They had zombies strapped to the hoods. Still moving. Still snarling. Still dead. You get the picture. I hid and observed them until they disappeared. I was terrified at the idea that they might have Josie and that somehow I’d have to meet them. I am in no mood to discuss the release of a captive, with a gang of crazed survivalist rednecks.
I continued my search, trying to focus on finding clues instead of picturing me or Josie on one of these hoods.
After a while, I reached a lonely shack on the side of the road. That’s when I saw it.
A green 4x4 jeep with beige tarp on top, lodged into a tree. The front end was crushed, the windscreen spider-webbed. And there it was, tangled in the branches: Josie’s hoodie. Black, with a faded Hällas Star rider patch on the bicep. My stomach did a high-dive off a cliff and left my heart dangling behind.
I pulled the hoodie free, fingers trembling. The fabric still smelled faintly of smoke and lavender. It was hers. No doubt. It felt like finding a ghost. I put it in my backpack and put on my imaginary Sherlock Holmes hat on to look for more clues.
The doors were open. No blood inside, just crumbs, and what looked like a half-finished crossword puzzle. “Love Bird” in 4 letters …. What?!
My heart was banging on my chest plate like it was a Jamaican steel drum.
Tracks led away from the scene. Human. One set. Limping. Shit!
I followed them. My reinforced Stabby stabber tightly gripped in my shaking hands.
About ten minutes into the woods, I heard groaning. Not human groaning. Hungry groaning. I ducked behind a log.
There were three of them. Zombies.Two of them males wearing dark green overalls and rain boots, one of them a straw hat. Cliché much? The third, a woman in a torn dress and red hair. She was yapping in the creepiest way possible, as if she was imitating her lost zombie dog. Dayum, I fucking hate Zombies!They were tottering in front of a house, pushing each other out of the way, trying to get up the stairs to the door. Could it be Josie's’s uncle's House? Maybe she was trapped in there!I didn’t think. Just moved. My new stealth upgrade made barely a whisper as I flanked the nearest one. My hands with my lance raised over my head, I brought it down like it was the wrath of an enraged god. His head impaled on my lance, he went instantly limp and fell to the floor. I grabbed the second one by the throat as he was turning around to look where his brain eating compadre went, and threw him to the ground, straw hat flying. Flailing and attempting to grab my legs, his head went “plop” when it met my boot. Fresh grass and brain mixed. I left the last one out of sight for a second to step on his friend, and that was my second mistake of the day.
The Zombie lady rammed me, head first, open-mouthed. WTF lady! The impact threw me on my ass, with a dead woman going wild, on top of me. She was biting furiously. Slobbering all over me. I grabbed her hands and headbutted her. It just made a dent in her skull, but it threw her back far enough so I could get up. That’s when I realized I was towering over her, still holding her arms. I jumped, letting them go with an “ewww” of disgust.
While she was struggling like an insect on its back, I grabbed my Stabby stabber and finished her. Dead. Again.
“Whew! That was …. Too close my friend” I said to myself. I could hear a voice in my head asking me what I was thinking, and also calling me a bunch of names.
I stood there, covered in gore, breathing like an asthmatic on a treadmill.
Afternoon
When I recovered and cleaned up, I went in the house. Breaking in through a boarded up window because the front door was impossible to move. I landed like dead fish on a boat deck, in the middle of the living room. Everything looked clean enough, a little dusty maybe, but someone went to a great deal to make it cosy and zombie free here. Behind the front door were a pile of furniture and sandbags. Nice touch. After going through each room downstairs, I went up but found no sign of Josie. Except maybe two beds and a portable camping stove. I looked around the house and maybe found a trail leading out of the back door to a big barn and a field with a bunch of rotting cows lying on their side. I could smell them from where I stood. It was so intense, it made me tear up and my tongue stick to my palate. My meagre meal wanted to come out the way it came in. I decided that I will check it out tomorrow, because the sun was going down, and I had to find a cloth or something against that stench.
After a fine dinner (heated up Rice Cake with peanut butter on the camping stove and coke) I decided to stay the night in the house. I had to reinforce a few places, especially the window I so gracefully entered from, to be sure I’ll have an asshole free night.
Exhausted and worried, I fell asleep on one of the mattresses, trying to comfort myself with the thought that maybe in the morning I’ll find a clue to where Josie went. I'm hoping against hope she's still alive.No rest for the wicked and no peace for the righteous.