Zombie Food

by Lisa Doesburg

  "Well?" he asked them. "Are you listening to her or are you just gonna stand there like a bunch of dumb sheep? She's right! The rotters are the enemy, not people trying to survive like we are. Come on, get out of there and lets fight these things off, cause I sure don't want to end up like Simon or worse."

  Ant saw Shae and was amazed at her transformation. Gone was the nasty smirk, in it's place, a new-found confidence. "Ruby?" he asked, "I thought you were dead!”

  "I'm not Ruby anymore, Ant, my real name is Shawna, or Shae for short. This group invited me to stay with them. I'm staying." she told him. "You should, too."

  She turned to the rest of the group. "You all should forget about this guy," she said, pointing to Simon on the floor. "He's ruled us by fear. I would much rather be with a group that watches your back, not terrorizes you."

  They all knew he was right, and one by one came out of the stall to stand by Ant and Shae.

  Takeover complete. Now it was time to deal with the dark reality outside.

  The cacophonous pounding, moaning and scratching was increasing by the second and I knew we were in dire straits. Then I remembered the tunnel.

  "Come on, everyone! Let's get out of here!" I yelled just the barn doors started to bend inward from the sheer weight of rotters pushing against it. "Down into the tunnel!"

  I ran over to the group in the stall, telling them to move over so I could open the trapdoor on the floor.

  "Go! Now!" I told them, "Hurry! Run east and we'll catch up! Any funny business and you know I will not feel bad about killing you!"

  They all eyed my gun nervously, remembering how quickly I disposed of Simon Says. But for now, we had a momentary truce. Ant led, followed by Skye, Shae, Micah, Malachi, Einstein, and Josh, with me in the rear. As they ran down the tunnel to reach the treeline at the end, I stopped, remembering what I had in my backpack. Digging it out, I tapped Josh on the shoulder, a Cheshire cat smile on my face. I pulled the pin on the grenade and lobbed it up and out of the tunnel into the barn. I was feeling bad ass just then.

  Laughing, Josh took my hand and we ran for our lives down the dark tunnel, his flashlight a glowing, yellow path. The explosion was deafening, my ears ringing as it reverberated inside of the tunnel's stone walls. Bits of dirt and small rocks rained down on us as we ran the last twenty-five yards to freedom.

  Our group was huge. The six in the stall, Ant and Shae, Malachi, Micah and Einstein, Skye and myself. Without Simon around to dictate his campaign of cannibalism and fear, the group opened as we traveled back to the water treatment plant, introducing themselves and telling their stories of survival. It never fails to amaze me how resilient people is. One member in Simon's group, Olli, short for Olivia, was my age. She and her little brother Daniel, fourteen, narrowly escaped being eaten alive by their own grandmother on a weekend visit. One early morning after caring for their grandma's animals in the barn, they found her munching happily on their baby brother after succumbing to a heart attack. In a rage, she and Daniel didn't just kill her, they chopped her up and left her in pieces strewn across the kitchen. The worst part was rekilling little Jaydon. Daniel hadn't spoken a word since that morning. For some strange reason, two of them always made sure they weren't more than a few feet away from me always. Ant said it was because they saw me as some kind of hero for killing Simon, whom they were deeply afraid of.

  As we walked I also noticed that Josh kept looking at me funny. I wondered if I had something hanging out of my nose and checked conspicuously. After catching him multiple times, I slowed, letting the group move on ahead of me so I could confront him.

  "Hi," I said, sidling up next to him. "What's up Doc?"

  He smiled that gorgeous smile of his, making my insides quiver.

  "Hi," he answered, "you feeling okay? I swear, I could sleep for days, I'm so beat."

  "Yeah, me too, " I answered, "and I could eat a horse right about now, too."

  Our feet dragged along the forest floor, all of us feeling emotionally and physically drained.

  "You were good back there, Elli," he told me, "I swear, when you pulled out that grenade and smiled at me, I never wanted to kiss a girl so bad in all my life."

  "You did?" I asked, "So what's stopping ya now?"

  He stopped and looked at me, his eyes searching my face for signs of laughter. Seeing none, Josh stepped closer, taking both my hands in his.

  "When I first saw you fighting those three rotters, I couldn't believe my eyes. You looked like some sort of warrior woman standing there with a knife in one hand and a gun in the other," he said, looking deeply into my eyes, "I knew then and there that you were going to be my girl."

  I almost fainted with joy. His girl? Plain ole redheaded me? We let the others go on ahead, caught up in a moment that rivaled any Hollywood movie. Stepping closer, Josh put his hands on either side of my head and pulled me close, his lips closing over mine, whisper soft. I sank into his strength, feeling something, I've never felt before. It started in the pit of my stomach, a kind of heat that traveled downwards, spreading out into that private part of me that was becoming a woman. Pressing tight against him, we kissed deeply, savoring each other.

  "Hey, you guys! Get a room, for God's sake!" It was Skye. "Malachi and Micah went on ahead and just got back saying there's trouble at our place!"

  Josh looked at me, reluctant to let me go. "This isn't over, Elli," he promised. "Let's go see what's up!"

  We ran, following Skye to a grove of pines just inside the treeline of the property that the plant was on. Malachi and Micah and waiting for us.

  "Josh, there's trouble down there," he said, pointing to the north side of the plant. "We spotted some vehicles pulling in, two of them. There's about four guys with weapons dressed in military fatigues, and they are searching for a way in. What do you want to do?"

  Josh took the field glasses that Micah handed him and looked for himself.

  "Shit! Alright, Stephen, get everyone in the compound through the hole in fence in front," he said, "Malachi, Ant, Daniel, Elli and what's your name?" he pointed to a dark-haired guy about nineteen or twenty.

  One of Simon's.

  "John," the kid answered.

  "Okay, John, can you shoot?" Josh asked, "I need a sniper to cover us, so we can see what's going on."

  "Yes sir, I can do that alright," John answered, "Simon had me up on the tower in our other place."

  "Awesome, have Malachi give you a rifle and get situated in a position where you can see both the front and the west side."

  "Gotcha," John said.

  "Okay, the rest of you come with me," Josh said, "We're going to find out what these boys are up to."

  I was so happy to be included with 'the boys', and I think Josh knew I would have resisted be sent into the plant with the others. For once there was none of the dead anywhere to be seen, and I had a sneaking suspicion those strangers took care of that so wouldn't be distracted from whatever devious plan they were concocting. I prayed the ones inside were okay. The five of us headed down to the plant as John set himself up to cover us. Using hand signals, he sent Malachi and Micah around the south side, Daniel, me and Josh headed for the east side until we had the whole place surrounded by our group. Using stealth, we walked right up on two of them trying to scale the fence.

  "Don't move or a bullet is going to hit your spine, paralyzing you," Josh warned the men.

  They froze.

  "Now get down, and turn around and face us,"

  The men were older, in their thirties, I think. Both had beards and mustaches and wore military fatigues.

  They put their hands up in surrender, giving each other looks like they wanted to pull a fast one. I ran over and patted them down, retrieving two, very large hunting knives, three revolvers, and a sniper rifle. I pushed them down to the ground on their knees.

  "Now start talking!" Josh ordered, "Why are you here and what do you want? How many more of you are there

&
nbsp; "There's just us," the man on the left lied.

  Josh aimed the gun and shot a bullet about two inches from the man's foot.

  "Alright, alright, dammit!" he yelled, "There's two more on the south side of the building! There's a herd of biters coming in from the east, hundreds of them. We were looking for shelter and found this place. Look, we don't want don't want to get caught out in the open with a herd that big. We don't want to hurt you, we just want shelter. We don't even have to be in the same room or floor or whatever it is you got in there."

  Josh and I looked at each other. Should we trust them? Gunshots on the south side of the building got everyone's attention. Motioning the two men to stand, he pushed them forward towards the sound.

  "Tell your friends to back off, we have women and children in there and I won't hesitate to kill anyone I think is a threat, got it?" he told the men.

  I was skeptical about their story. A gut feeling told me these guys were shady as hell. They were up to something. When we walked around the treatment plant to the south side, we saw that Malachi and Micah held the men's partners at gunpoint. The men had a set of bolt cutters ready to cut a hole in the fence to gain entrance. They must not have seen the hole in the fence on the other side of the building.

  With all four men together, Josh asked the same question to the newcomers. "Why are you here?"

  "I already told you," the guy we found climbing the fence started to say.

  "Shut up! I know you did!" Josh yelled, "I want to hear what he has to say! Now, let me repeat myself. Why are you here."

  I saw the first guy close his eyes in frustration, and I knew. They weren't here to find shelter. They were here to hunt.

  "We're here to find food," the second man said. "We have no food or water."

  "How many of the dead did you see?" Josh asked, staring right at the first man.

  "There's a whole herd coming this way," he answered. "Biggest one I've ever seen."

  While still staring at the first man, Josh pulled trigger aimed at the second man's head, killing him instantly. I know I shouldn't have, but I felt glad the man died, wondering if perhaps we were becoming like them. But things have changed during the zombie apocalypse. Trust was like gold. If you were untrustworthy, you had to go. That was the way it was now. The only way it could be. If you gave up every shred of humanity to hurt and steal from other human beings trying to survive, you were subhuman, a predator.

  "Now, how about telling me the REAL reason you're here," he told the first man, "But let's make things interesting."

  Josh knelt at eye level to the man.

  "You whisper it in my ear," Josh said. "Because if your buddy here tells me something different, you're the one getting the bullet this time."

  "You're freaking crazy, man!" the predator said, his eyes wild.

  "Just shut and tell me, real quiet like, why you're here," Josh repeated. "Elli, place the barrel of your revolver against his buddy's head and get ready."

  I nodded and without a shred of emotion in my eyes, did what Josh asked.

  "Okay, you crazy motherfucker!" the man said to Josh, "We're here to rob you and take what we need."

  "Does that include people?" Josh asked, "If I dump out your bag here, am I going to find evidence that you eat people like those rotters out there?"

  "Hey, we have to survive, don't we?" the man said dangerously, "We do what we have to survive."

  Josh had heard enough. He knew exactly why the men were here. To steal, rape, and kill for food. Leaving the predators on their knees, he got up and walked over to me.

  "Come on, Elli, let's go inside with our family." he said to me.

  As we walked away, leaving the three men who were left still kneeling, Josh gave the signal to Einstein. With our backs turned, Josh, Malachi, Micah and I didn't even flinch when three shots rang out from the treeline. Entering the hole in the fence, we went inside to join the only people who mattered. Skye held my hand tightly, squeezing, which I gratefully returned. My little zombie girl. I loved these people, they were my family now. We had no time for people like those men. With our group considerably bigger, we could protect everyone now. But I wondered one thing, was that man telling the truth about the herd of rotters heading our way?

  The huge herd shuffled aimlessly through the forest, minimum brain function moving their feet forward, the basic need for food pushing them on.