Zombie Pink

by Noel Merczel

  She was just standing there, staring at Mimi with a blank expression on her face. Well really, it was more of an evil expression with a slight smirk on her lips.

  In the bright light of the DeFazio's decorative lawn ornament, the woman appeared dirty, and her skin had a sickly pinkish purple tint with an angry rash of exploding boils and pustules erupting all over.

  The big fake hipster-like glasses - not unlike the ones Mimi had purchased in an attempt to shorten her face - looked incongruous on the woman's fucked-up face.

  The way the woman stood there in one place, staring, was so unusual and unnerving, that Mimi halted her self-engrossed march up the street and froze - right there in the middle of Candlepin Avenue.

  She stared right back at the woman.

  "Mimi!" Roger exclaimed, catching up to her.

  Roger assumed his wife had a change of heart and that was the reason she had stopped.

  "Let's talk. Come on. Nothing can be that bad!” Roger insisted. I'm not having an affair with Janine, damn it. She acts that way with everyone. I told you...that's how we get the sales."

  Truthfully, Roger really did want to work things out with Mimi. Okay, so he wasn't happy with his wife at the present moment. But he knew there was more to her than this anti-social, depressed jealous maniac she had been acting like lately. The real Janine was still in there - somewhere - buried underneath.

  Mimi had been so sweet when they were dating.

  She must be going through some personal shit, Roger thought. Maybe it's a medical problem....

  That's when Roger saw the strange woman on the DeFazio's lawn.

  "What the..." he started to say.

  The woman just stood there, staring at Roger out of her chalky white soulless eyes. She bared her teeth, just slightly, and a small growl escaped from between her thin dried-up lips.

  Her eyes...they were so white they practically glowed! And her skin...it was such an odd color. It was this almost translucent magenta with black spots and blisters and bright red patches all mottled together.

  "Ehhhh...." the woman growled, slowly moving towards the shocked couple.

  "Is this some sort of joke?" Roger asked, taking a few steps back. "Are you doing like a cosplay thing for Dead Heads or something?"

  Roger had caught the popular show a few times, and he knew there was a character named Blakely who wore giant black-framed hipster glasses.

  "I dunno," Mimi answered, as though Roger had asked her the question.

  Mimi felt paralyzed there in the middle of the street, like she was in one of those dreams where your legs turn to rubber and they're of absolutely no use.

  She had become the proverbial deer in the headlights. She literally couldn't move. No one else was around. There was just one light on in the DeFazio house, upstairs....

  "Alright, enough is enough!" Roger ordered. "Great costume, lady, okay?"

  Although, the woman wasn't really wearing a costume - aside from the glasses. She wasn't wearing anything unusual at all... just plaid sleep pants, some sort of sparkly flip-flops, and a light blue T-shirt.

  But her face wasn't normal. Her expression...her eyes.....her movements.....

  She was shuffling slowly and methodically, making a B-line straight over to Mimi.

  "Mimi, come on!" Roger commanded. He was attempting to sound tough to cover up his sudden apprehension. "This person isn't right."

  He thought that maybe the woman was high or sick or something.

  "Let's get the hell out of here!"

  But Mimi couldn't move. She tried, but she just couldn't.

  Roger sighed and whipped his smartphone out of his back pocket.

  First, he snapped a picture of the woman. Then he said, "Hate to do this," and dialed 9-1-1.

  The woman was slowly closing in on his wife.

  "Mimi!" Roger called.

  "Meeee..." the woman growled, as though she was trying to imitate what Roger had said.

  "Damn it!" Roger swore.

  For some reason, his call wouldn't go through. All he got was a busy signal.

  9-1-1 wasn't working? What the hell?

  "Fuck!" Roger said.

  The sickly woman was now about two feet away from Mimi. Her fucked-up mouth was twisted into some weird other-wordly smile. Roger heard someone coughing from a window in the house behind him.

  "HEY!" he shouted. "HELP! HELP! COME OUT HERE!"

  Whoever was coughing disappeared.

  The light in the DeFazio house suddenly switched off. Roger thought he saw a curtain rustle in the main window downstairs. However, no one appeared to be rushing to their aid.

  Roger reached out for his wife. Just as he grabbed her arm, the strange woman grabbed Mimi's other arm and emitted the most horrendous inhuman shriek Roger had ever heard. .

  "HEY! HEY! COME OUT HERE! WHERE IS ANYONE?" Roger yelled frantically, tugging at his wife.

  However, Roger’s formidable strength was no match for the power of this evil grinning woman who easily yanked his wife away.

  As the woman's twisted demented face closed in on Mimi, all Mimi could do was stare, as though she was in a trance.

  "Even you look better than me," she murmured.

  After that, all Mimi heard was Roger yelling and the sick squishy noise of teeth digging into her ear. The woman bit off her earlobe!

  The pain was like nothing she had ever experienced before in her life.

  But at least the excruciating physical pain helped Mimi forget the even more excruciating emotional pain of being ugly.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  Gina DeFazio was seventeen years old. Five feet two, with curly cornflower blonde hair and wide spaced aquamarine eyes, she was young and innocent looking and loved to play up those two facts by being a big tease.

  In fact, teasing men was Gina's favorite pastime.

  "I'm ripe for the pickin!" Gina joked, peaking out the window of her bedroom.

  Gina's bedroom faced Candlepin Avenue, and right across the street lived old Mr. Barnaby. He must be about a hundred and ten. He was gross. So gross!

  He shuffled and hobbled around his yard, his bony sickly white arms with the flesh all dangling off reaching out to pick up a stray piece of garbage that had drifted onto his driveway.

  Then he would stand up... as much as his stooped body could stand up... and stare at Gina as she sat in her front yard pretending to pick weeds.

  This past week, Gina had developed a brand new routine.

  Well really, it was more like a brand new game. The game was called Pretending to Pick Weeds.

  Gina would bring out a waterproof cushion from the back deck and set it down next to the big maple tree with the Hosta plants underneath. Then she'd sit on the mattress while wearing her new super short tangerine skirt from Maybelline’s with white lace cotton panties underneath.

  Next, she would half-heartedly pluck some weeds out from between the Hostas and plop them into an old flowerpot. She'd sit with her legs bent up; the triangle of white cotton panty between them clearly visible as she “worked.”

  She'd pretend she was intent on her weeding job. But out of the corner of her eye, she would see old Mr. Barnaby's weird milky white eyes staring over at her... devouring the site of her nubile young body exposing the wedge of naughty white panty, right in broad daylight.

  When that happened, a gloriously naughty warmth spread over her nether parts... it was a warmth that was so intoxicating that the rest of the world was blotted out and nothing else existed except for that delicious hot oozing sensation. This luscious sensation propelled Gina to spread her smooth tan legs even more.

  Old Mr. Barnaby would just stand there, staring at her exposed panties, not even trying to hide the fact that he was staring. Eventually, Gina would spread her legs so wide, she knew the panties were exposing a tiny bit of her smooth plump outer vagina lip.

  That's when she just couldn't stand the excitement any more and wo
uld rush inside her house, race up to her bedroom and lay down on her bed. Then Gina would yank down her panties and rub herself, imagining old man Barnaby staring at her naked body the whole time.

  It was so funny! Yesterday, Gina's Mom spotted the flowerpot full of weeds sitting out in the yard. When her mom came into the house, she caught Gina making herself yet another mint chocolate chip ice-cream cone.

  Gina was sure her mom was going to complain about Gina having the snack right before dinner. But instead, Mrs. DeFazio exclaimed, "Gina! You’re doing yard work without being asked! I'm so proud of you!"

  "Yea..." Gina said, catching a drip of the minty blue green ice cream as it trickled down the side of the sugar cone.

  Like she cared about the stupid yard! She would rather have a yard filled with lollipops and gushy cream-filled chocolates, like that yard on the Willy Wonka movie. Who cares about dumb old plants, anyway?

  Okay, so maybe Gina felt a little guilty about her mom's misguided praise. But not guilty enough to stop playing her new game - even though it was so perverted. The problem was, playing the game just felt so darn good!

  And how do you stop doing something that feels so good? Well...that just goes against human nature, Gina reasoned. So it wasn't even her fault that she couldn't stop.

  Tonight was the big night! Tonight Old Man Barnaby really would get to see her naked!

  Gina had stacked up some pillows on her bed, so she was at a high enough level to be viewed out the window.

  She knew old man Barnaby sometimes just stared out his upstairs window... probably hoping to catch a glimpse of her getting dressed – or undressed. So Gina waited patiently for him to stick his old gray wizened skull out the window.

  And BINGO! There he was, hacking away... spreading his disgusting old man germs throughout the neighborhood.

  "Game on!" Gina sang.

  She was wearing a frilly short white nightie with no panties underneath. Gina was so excited about her plan and the anticipation of it all, that she was totally wet between her legs.

  Her parents were downstairs watching a Harry Potter DVD for the millionth time. It was so weird... she was the young person in the house and she couldn't stand Harry Potter. But her parents loved the geeky movies. They were always saying "Brilliant!" as though they had suddenly become English.

  “I can’t believe Hagrid has a girlfriend!” Gina heard her mother exclaim, as though she hadn’t seen Goblet of Fire ten dozen times before.

  Gina strode around her pink bedroom, casually flipping on the light switch. She knew old man Barnaby was probably on the verge of a stroke, watching her march around in a short frilly nighty; the cheeks of her plump young ass peeking out the bottom.

  Biscuits. That’s what they called it when the bottom of your ass sticks out in plain view. Gina learned that term recently when she looked up “funny people shopping at Walmart” on Google Images.

  Evidently, there are lots of "biscuits" on display in Walmart at any given time, in warmer weather.

  Gina pretended she was bending over, putting something away in a drawer.

  "I'm exposing my soft naked biscuits to you, you dirty old man!" she purred softly.

  The oozy warm feeling was flowing through her again. Gina casually arranged herself on her platform of pink satin pillows.

  Then she laid down on the bed and pulled her nightie all the way up, exposing her firm young breasts.

  "Look at my naked body, old man!" she exclaimed, in an exaggerated little girl voice.

  Gina started to finger herself between her legs....slowly....

  That’s when she heard a young man's voice outside shouting, "HEY! HELP! HELP! COME OUT HERE!"

  Oh, great! Gina thought. Somebody saw me!

  But why would he be yelling for help?

  Did she give him an out-of-control erection?

  Gina pushed her nighty back down and slid off the bed. Then she quickly crawled over to the light switch, jumped up and flicked it off. After that, she crawled over to her window, feeing nervous.

  Old man Barnaby wasn't looking out his window anymore. But what Gina saw out in her front yard under the Maple tree was weirder than old man Barnaby dancing hip-hop in the park!

  She saw that good looking guy from down the street, the one who was always jogging by, and his ugly nervous wife. Plus, she saw some strange freaky woman with long dirty hair and giant glasses. They were all fighting on her front lawn!

  It looked just like a scene from Scary Movie.

  Maybe the good looking guy was having an affair with that freaky woman and his wife found out?

  Such drama! Suddenly, Gina forgot all about Old Man Barnaby, and just decided to enjoy the show.

  "Real Housewives of Shady Oaks!" she joked.

  Suddenly, there was this low growl that ended in some kind of shriek like it came straight out of a horror movie. A real horror movie; not the fake kind, like Scary Movie.

  To Gina, it sounded exactly how she imagined the devil would sound.

  "What the hell?" Gina asked herself.

  Then the woman with the long tangled hair was pulling the other woman away from the man...maybe those two were lovers...maybe the three of them were lovers?...Gina's mind was buzzing with possibilities when, WHAAAAT?

  It appeared as though the dirty tangled-hair woman was chewing the ear off the guy's ugly wife....and the guy was shouting, "HEY! HEY! COME OUT HERE! WHERE IS ANYONE?"

  Suddenly, the scene didn't seem so amusing to Gina any more. Now it seemed downright gruesome.

  Something really, really bad was happening out there.

  CHAPTER NINE

  Gina jumped up from her position on the floor and grabbed a pair of flowered shorts out of her dresser drawer. She tugged the shorts on, without putting on any underwear first. Then she ran down the stairs zipping up the fly.

  All the lights were off downstairs and her parents had abandoned Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire in favor of peeking out the front window in the living room.

  "What the hell is going on out there?" Gina asked.

  "SHHHHH!" Gina’s Dad commanded.

  "Why isn't anyone calling the cops?" Gina whispered, wondering idly if Old Man Barnaby was seeing any of this.

  "Can't get through," Gina's Mom told her. "Not on the cell phone or the land line. It's just a busy signal."

  ”That is so weird," Gina said. "I never heard of that happening before. Like there's a war going on or something."

  "Internet's down too," Gina's Dad added.

  ”We should help her...." Gina said, about the woman being attacked on their front lawn.

  The family stared in wide-eyed horror as the strange woman with the giant glasses and the long tangled hair appeared to be eating the other woman's head.

  The man was now kicking the monstrous woman in the head.

  The woman reared up and chased the man a few yards away, before going back to her meal.

  "This looks like a scene right out of that show Dead Heads!" Gina exclaimed in disbelief. "Isn't that the woman from down the street? And isn't that her husband?"

  "Could be...." Mr. DeFazio said, squinting. "Perhaps it's some sort of promotion for that show you mentioned, Gina...what’s it called again?"

  “Dead Heads, dad,” Gina said with a sigh. “Everyone knows that. But why would people from our own neighborhood be in a promotion for a TV show? Unless they're like really crazy fans..."

  "Don't you think that's going a bit far if it's true?" Gina's Mom asked. "I mean, come on! How is anyone supposed to tell the difference between what's real and what's not? See...I knew there was a problem with all these gory TV shows and movies, and all the violent video games....they go straight to people's heads. Especially young people. Pretty soon they can't tell the difference between what's fake and what's real!"

  "Yea, but these people aren’t even young," Gina pointed out. "Maybe to Old Man Barnaby they’re young, but everyone’s young
to him. They're adults! Oh God...I see lots of blood on our lawn! I think someone should go out there!"

  "Calm down, Gina," Gina's Dad said. "It's probably fake blood."

  "That's just what I'm talking about!" Mrs. DeFazio exclaimed, exasperated. "Fake or real...how does anyone know? Like fake breasts and all those dumb hair extensions! How do you know what's real and what's not anymore?"