by Weeks, TJ
“Wow, just getting in?” The drummer asked.
“Yep.” H e answered without explanation and headed to his room. The band all looked at each other , leaned their heads and turned to look at Bo’s door then back at each other.
A few hours later, Bo woke with Grace on his mind. He couldn’t shake the woman from his brain. He made his way out of the bus as he heard the band playing one of his older songs. He quickly made his way to the stage, grabbed the mic and started singing. His screams were better than ever and he was feeling every note in his soul. He was ready for tonight.
Everyone broke for lunch while Bo sat down on the edge of the stage and hung his legs off the edge, pulled out his notebook and began writing. The poetry flowed from his mind onto the paper with ease. He could not help himself. In the middle of finding something that rhymed with Grace, Bo was startled by the door of the club slamming shut. He shot his head up to see her standing across the empty floor.
“Well, hey there good lookin’.” The sweet voice echoed through the emptiness.
“ Hey, you’re early. We don’t start for another couple of hours.” He told her.
“I know, but thought it would be cool to watch a little practice, if you don’t mind?” She asked.
“ I would say yes, but we just got done and the guys just took off for lunch. I’m the only one left. I’m sorry.” He told her.
“It’s all good. I kinda just came to listen to you anyway. Sing me something.” She requested.
Bo shot her a look trying to come up with something that he could sing. He grabbed his guitar sitting on the stage behind him and began to strum a beat of nothing in particular.
“Okay, how about this one.” Bo began to sing a few lines from one of his favorites. It was one of the slower songs, but still had the screams that Grace liked. She smiled as he finished up.
“That was the best.” She told him. Bo could feel his heart almost flutter as she walked towards him. She hopped up on the stage and sat down next to him. He pulled his head back a little at the feelings he was having.
“You okay?” She asked.
“Yeah, great.” He stated not sure of his feelings. She raised her hand to the bartender and signaled two. She quickly brought over two beers and handed them. Bo took a swig and watch her take a swig of hers.
“Look, I don’t date or have feelings or …care. I don’t know what the hell you have done to me, but you are absolutely awesome.” Bo was honest with her.
Grace stared at him for a moment and leaned over and kissed him. He reached behind her head and pulled her in to keep her there a bit longer. The kiss was one like he had never felt before. Bo let her loose, took her hand, pulled it to his mouth, kissed each of her knuckles, set it on his leg and held it. She stared at him for a moment longer and turned away.
“Ummm…wow!” She stated. “I’m sorry, I’m not sure where that came from.”
“Don’t be sorry. Hey, can I come see you tomorrow before we leave out, we are headed out tomorrow night, but it won’t be until late.” He told her.
She nodded. “I would like that. How about come to my place and I will fix you dinner instead of that greasy truck stop food.” She
suggested.
Bo nodded at her and stood up on the stage. “Want to hang out back here until we get done?”
Grace stood next to him as he wrapped his arm around her waist standing a whole head and shoulders over her and guided her gently to the side of the stage. She smiled that smile that took his breath away again and took a spot that was out of the way as the band began to pile back onto the stage. Each of them peered over at Grace as they entered and then over at Bo.
“Yes guys, she is with me.
Everyone this is Grace. Say hello and be nice.” He joked.
Grace sheepishly smiled and waved at them all and dropped her head with a bit of embarrassment. They began to play a few of their songs just for a bit of practice and decided that it would be a good time to go get changed into concert clothes. As the band exited, the drummer stopped.
“You are the first girl that Bo has EVER brought back stage. You must be pretty bad ass.” He told her.
Bo walked up behind the scrawny brown headed guy and stood to listen to what he had to say before placing his hand on his shoulder making him jump. Grace laughed as he almost fell down the metal steps and throwing his hands in the air to block whatever he thought might be coming.
“My gosh, do you beat your band?” Grace laughed watching the man run to the bus with his hands above his head laughing obnoxiously.
Bo shook his head with disbelief. “I knew they would pull something.” He stood next to her. “I have to get dressed, wanna come to the bus for a few minutes?” He asked. “I promise I will try and not let them bombard you with BS.”
“I can hold my own.” She warned following him down the few steps and out the back.
She climbed the three steps into the bus and scanned the area. Everyone stopped their movement and stared.
“Really mother fuckers, you act like I’m gay or some bullshit and can’t bring a woman aboard. Damn guys, get a damn life!” Bo hollered, smiling at them all standing with a dumbfounded look as they pranced through them to the room in the back.
Bo closed the door and offered a seat on the bed that covered most of the room. He grabbed his clothes and began to change.
She watched him pull off his shirt and stared at the fit tattooed body he bared to her. She held her composure as he pulled on the red t-shirt and then tied a bandana around his head to hold back his dreads. He dropped the lighter colored pair of Levi jeans to the floor and Grace laughed.
“What, I have on underwear.” He stated stepping out of his jeans. Grace put her hand over her
forehead in surprise. “You have on iron man boxers Bo.” She laughed.
“So, you don’t like Iron man?” He seriously questioned her. “This may be a deal breaker.” He laughed and turned from one side to the other to let her see the entire picture of Iron Man.
He grabbed the pair of darker colored Levi’s from the small closet and slid them on one leg at a time. He pulled on his boots and nodded his head at her that he was ready to go. He stuck out his hand to her to help her off the bed and opened the door. He held his head high as they walked out of the bus holding hands.
The group was quiet and watched each step until they were no longer able to see them.
“I think they think there is
something wrong with you, or maybe they think there is something wrong with me.” She wondered to Bo.
“Screw them guys, they don’t know what the hell they think.” He told her. They entered back into the bar and up the stage steps. Grace took herself back to the spot that was out of the way and watched Bo place his guitar where he wanted it and put things in place. He took a drink of water, let out a loud deep scream, then breathed in deep, and let it out. He shook both of his hands down by his sides and shaking off any nerves he may have, bounced a bit and rolled his head from one side to the other. The rest of the band started entering the stage. The drummer raised his hand to Grace as he passed by and high fived her. Grace smiled at his acceptance that she was there. They all took their places. The curtain raised and the band started. They ran through their course of songs and played to the crowd as they cheered. The feeling on the stage was intense. Bo ran back and forth across stage and interacted with his fans as his dreads flew everywhere. He wiped the sweat from his forehead and let out the last scream of the last song. He thanked the fans, waited for the curtain to fall before bending over and placing his hands on his knees taking a few deep breaths. He stood up and turned to the band.
“Awesome show guys!” He told them. “Dude, you had some crazy growls going on, they were awesome.” One of the members told him. “What’s with you tonight?”
Another of the members pointed to the side of the stage. “Showing off.” He joked.
Bo shot him the finger and shook his head at Grace at th
e side of the stage. She smiled that smile that made him almost melt all over the stage. The guys all looked at Bo as he stared at her and couldn’t tear his eyes away.
Everyone exited stage and out to the barriers. Bo took Grace’s hand as he passed her and pulled her outside with him. He signed every paper that was stuck out at him and took pictures with each person that requested one. Grace watched him genuinely care about each fan.
Bo was nearing the end of the line as Grace waited at the bus entrance as a scream echoed through the crowd of people wanting autographs. Grace jumped at the sound and Bo stepped back from the crowd as they all scattered in different directions. A man stood over a woman’s body pulling out her intestines and pulling them to his mouth. Bo watched in horror as he couldn’t take his eyes off of the bloodied man wrapping the insides of this woman around his hand and pulling them to his mouth.
He scanned the area, the rest of the band had already made it into the bus, and he was hoping that Grace had gone in with them. Just as Bo stepped over the barrier and started to make his way to the man and woman that laid on the ground, the man’s head shot up and glared at Bo. He began making his way over to Bo stringing the long slimy entrails behind him, he quickly stuffed them in his mouth and raised his hands out towards Bo. Bo backed up and tripped over the barriers that still stood, the metal hit the ground and Bo caught his feet quickly. The man had bloodied hands and his face was smeared from the slaps of the intestines he had been shoving in his mouth. Bo ran to the bus door, pulled the lever, hurried into and slammed the door behind him.
“What the fuck was that?” Bo hollered to the ones that were staring out the windows. “Where is Grace?”
All of them shook their heads no at him. Bo turned to the door, placed his hand on the door, and hesitated. He looked out of the small window of the door, pressed his face up against it and scanned outside. A woman was limping away from the bus. Her head was rolling back and forth on her shoulders to the point that it looked like it would come off at any moment. Bo clicked the handle and slowly pushed the door open. The squeak of the door caught the attention of the limping woman, she turned her body as her head stopped rotating on the top of her body and rested on her shoulder. She stared at Bo and began limping her way to him. Blood covered the front of her Murderfly band t-shirt along with the blue jean capri pants that she wore. Her creepy stagger made even the biggest of men like Bo cringe at the sight of her. Bo kept his eyes on the woman as he ducked over to the side and out of her arm’s reach, she followed him with her eyes as she slowly turned around when Bo passed her.
Bo studied her speed as he made it by her without her getting to him, turned his back to her and started to run in the direction of the parking lot. He ran up and down the rows of parked cars and realized there were more of the walking and bloodied people wandering the parking lot as well. Some were tearing people apart, while some slowly walked around bumping into cars looking this way and that. Every time one of them would see Bo moving fast, they would begin to head his way. Soon he had a mass of them behind him following him in and out of cars. Finally
spotting Grace’s truck, he made a beeline for it. He grabbed the door handle, hoping that it is unlocked, it was. He pulled it open and climbed up and quickly shut the door just before the group of them surrounded the truck.
“BO!” Grace yelled. Bo jumped and turned grabbing Grace by the shoulders. He wrapped her up in his arms and leaned back and kissed her forehead.
“I thought I had lost you!” He muttered through her dark hair covering his face.
“As soon as I saw the guy eating that woman, I high tailed it to my truck. I was going to try and leave, but everyone was trying to leave, so I just sat here.” She stated as she pulled away. “Is this what I think it is?”
“I think so. I think the apocalypse has really started.” Bo admitted. They both scanned the mess of dirty people that surrounded the truck. The unbalanced group slammed their hands against the windows trying to get to them.
“Start the truck Grace.” He
instructed still looking out of the window.
The truck didn’t start and Bo turned back to Grace who was still staring out of the window. He grabbed the back of her head in his massive sized hand and turned it towards him to grasp her attention.
“GRACE, START THE….” Bo stopped as she turned to face him. Her face was grey in color, she let out a low growl and lunged at him. Her mouth open wide and her hands reached for his chest. Bo placed his hand on her forehead and pushed her back. She grabbed his dreads and pulled herself one hand over the other coming closer and closer to his face. He pushed harder and she finally released her grip. He punched her in the face with apprehension, she shook it off, headed back in to try and get a bite. Bo didn’t want to lose Grace, but at this point had no choice. He kept his hand across her face, reached passed her and opened her door, he quickly pushed her out of the door and pulled the door closed. He lifted both of his legs over the console and moved into the driver’s seat. He peered down at Grace as she rose to her feet and began beating on the window. Bo felt terrible, but could not die by a zombie, what kind of
headline would that be? He thought.
Bo started the truck and put it in reverse, turned on the headlights and slowly started to back up. Both back tires made their way over whatever was behind him. He hit the two cars that were parked behind him, not thinking about anything but getting the hell away from this craziness.
He pushed the cars back enough to make room for him to turn and put the truck in drive. He started to pull forward as Grace stepped in front of the truck.
“No, please move.” He whispered. Grace stood walking into the truck over and over. Bo knew he had no choice. He eased forward, hoping to push her out of the way. Instead she fell underneath the truck’s front tire. He closed his eyes as he pushed a little harder on the gas. He made his way over her and three more before finally reaching the road. He pulled off with the bus getting smaller in the rear view mirror. He wanted to stop and save his band, but they were surrounded as he had been before. He hoped they made it and stayed in the bus until the undead made their way somewhere else.
Bo drove out of town, stopped on the side of the road after passing many abandoned cars and running over hordes of zombies. They were everywhere at this point. He needed to process the situation through his head.
“Where in the hell can I go?” He asked himself. He sat and looked around at the masses of shadows making their way through the dark. The headlights cast just enough light to see them
wandering off to the sides of the road and into the darkness and out of sight. He knew he had to move and get somewhere safe before he starved or was worse off, eaten.
“Texas!” He belted out to himself. Bo had said he would never go back to Texas after he left when he was quite a bit younger. Since he seemed to get in quite a bit of trouble, it was just easier to not go back; but this was the apocalypse and what better people to be safe with than the gun toting rednecks in Texas.
He eased forward at the shadows that covered the road and headed to the highway that would lead him towards home.
He thought about his situation and was thankful that the truck he had was so big that it was not easily damaged and that Grace had a full tank of gas. He made it across Florida and finally hit the state line of Alabama. He knew all he needed to do was get over and through Louisiana and he would be on his way back to his old stomping grounds of East Texas.
He was thankful he was on the west edge of Florida and it didn’t take much gas to get to Alabama. He was starting to get tired, but needed to move on, so he lit up a cigarette and cracked the window. He could smell a dead animal smell that filled the truck. He cringed as he blew smoke out of the window, decided that he would roll the window up and hopefully get rid of the dead rancid odor that filled the air.
He made it across the small part of Alabama and crossed state lines into Louisiana just before sunrise. Bo decided that getting gas woul
d be a good idea, so he began looking for a store hoping that he could find gas and fill up enough to get to Texas and figure out where to go.
He pulled up to a pump in a small gas station, scanned the parking lot not seeing anyone walking around or even moving on the side of the road as he had been seeing. Bo opened the door, jumped down out of the truck, and made his way into the store. He pushed open the door and waited to see if anything came out of nowhere. He walked in and noticed none of the electricity was on, so he knew that getting gas from the pump was out of the question. He began to process a few thoughts through his mind on how to get gas. He looked out at the abandoned cars and wondered if any of them carried gas cans with them. He had to find out. Bo ran back to the truck and pulled out of the parking lot. He slowly pulled next to the first vehicle and slowed down, he turned the truck so his door was near the trunk. He grabbed the crowbar that was in the back seat floorboard, took a three sixty view of his area and jumped out when he didn’t see anyone, he quickly popped the trunk of the red four door Ford Focus and the trunk sprung open.
“BINGO!” He yelled louder than he needed to. A big red gas can sat in the corner of the trunk, he grabbed it and jumped back in the truck just as a man walked from the side of the road towards him. Bo hung his head, he knew he had made too much noise and drew attention to himself which was a
mistake. Bo pulled forward quickly to a bright red truck and stopped, he peered down from the window and looked into the back of the truck and all that was there was a spare tire and jack. He moved onto another car and watched the one zombie that
wandered aimlessly on the road. He jumped out once again, destined not to make as much noise this time and popped the trunk of the old Cadillac, no gas can was in the back. He looked at the upcoming cars spying a large flatbed truck up ahead. That was where he was going to find some gas. He jumped back in the truck and stepped on the gas to move up to the flatbed. He looked in his rear view and saw the man that had made his way on the road along with a horde of others.
