Apocalypse Atlanta
Page 74
I wanted a zombie story that follows the early stages of an outbreak. I’m not saying it’s never been done, because it absolutely has, but even my favorite zombie stories often seem to blast right past that part to get to the zombie killing pretty fast. I wanted to explore a little more of the initial portion than I usually see done.
After all, if we ever find ourselves saying things like “this can’t be happening, this is real life” while zombies beat on the door and chew the arms off our next door neighbor, the initial phase of the outbreak will be the most crucial part. It sets everything else up. I’m not saying you should run out and start stockpiling MREs and ammo, but I am saying you should maybe do a little thinking now. Thinking is free. What would you do?
Finally, I’ll leave you with this hopefully amusing little anecdote about a guy I used to know fairly well. We’ll call this person Jim. He was a pretty intense guy. Went into the military, came out, and both before and after was always a pretty big fan of guns. Jim wasn’t a violent guy, but he just liked weapons. He liked having them, he liked maintaining them, and he liked going to the range to shoot them.
As you probably know, not everyone in the world today is as eager to love guns and implements of destruction as Jim is. Some of these people would occasionally ask him why he had so many guns, why he spent so much time with them as a hobby, and other inquiries along those lines. In case you’re wondering, Jim had many guns. Many.
Jim’s answer used to be “Well, they’ll come in handy when the revolution starts.” At this, most people would edge away from Jim slowly, carefully keeping an eye on him. Then one day, Jim’s answer to this query changed. The new answer?
“They’ll be useful if zombies ever attack.”
For some reason, that answer never seemed to bother people.
So, I guess what I’m saying, is even pacifists recognize the need to kill zombies.
David Rogers
Atlanta, Georgia
2013
Author Bio
David Rogers was born in Atlanta and has lived there for over twenty-five years, with the only interruption between birth and Atlanta being a detour of about a decade into Florida. If you’ve never been to Florida, let him save you a trip. It’s very flat and quite tropical. Oddly enough, Georgia is very hilly and quite humid, so maybe there’s not so much of a difference between the two. Also, it wasn’t his fault. His parents made him go.
Since escaping childhood, David has been a secretary, file clerk, tech support operator, telemarketer, gopher, FedEx truck washer, and office manager. He loves good stories in nearly all forms, particularly novels and movies, though television is gaining rapidly since some of the quality there has shot up quite a lot in the past few years.
Every Christmas Eve he watches Die Hard and Lethal Weapon, because they’re the best Christmas movies ever made. Family, friends, and beating the crap out of the bad guy with your bare hands . . . what more do you want in a Christmas story? BB guns? Please, you’ll shoot your eye out.
Also by David Rogers
Dancing out of Darkness, https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/236458