Love, Revenge and Zombies

by Travis Cotter

  “So are you busy tomorrow?” she asked with a smile and a bashful giggle.

  “I’m off tomorrow. So I’m all yours,” he said back to her with his own smile spread across his face.

  “For now I need to get back to work,” he said as he began to walk away.

  “I’ll hold you in my heart until I can hold you in my arms again,” he said and turned and walked back to his truck.

  He drove off back to work but work was an after thought. He ended the day with his truck parked in front of the motel and headed to bed. The only thing on his mind the rest of that night was her.

  Ten

  They had text each other a few times that morning and Paul was eager to get the day started. They had already decided they would start with brunch at a small diner that her dad had taken her to all the time. She told Paul they had the best waffles she ever had. He was all for the waffles but most of all he was excited to see her. To him it didn’t matter what they did that day, all that mattered to him was that she had a great time.

  Abby pulled up in front of the motel, she had brought her car since Paul still didn’t have one. She honked the horn to let him know she was there but Paul was halfway out the door before she was even able to finish honking.

  She smiled at him as he got in the car and said “good morning handsome.”

  “Good morning to you too, you look beautiful as always,” he said with a smile.

  They pulled out of the motel parking lot and were off to start their day. Abby’s car was a late 90’s model Ford Taurus, the paint was a faded off white but the car was nice enough on the inside.

  “I really need to get one of these,” he said.

  “One of what?” she asked with a puzzled look on her face.

  Paul chuckled to himself after realizing that he had been taking inventory of the car but hadn’t said anything out loud until then, “a car, I need to get a car,” he answered.

  “I don’t mind driving you and you’re welcome to use the car whenever you need to,” she said.

  “I appreciate that,” he answered back.

  Paul looked out the window at the city passing by, it was a gorgeous day. The sun was shining and the temperature was supposed to be in the mid seventies that day. It was a beautiful fall morning and the trees lining the street were a kaleidoscope of different colors; the leaves had changed color with the changing of the season.

  They sat in silence again but this time it wasn’t an awkward silence, it was a comfortable silence. It was the kind of silence that grows between two old souls that have spent a lifetime together. It was amazing how quickly they had grown close to each other and how it almost felt like it was meant to be.

  Before he knew it they were parking in front of the diner, it was actually an older Victorian style house that had been turned into a diner. The inside of the diner had a very homey feel to it, there were tables set up through out the bottom floor but every table was set up to feel like the dining room at home. It reminded him of when he would go to his grandmother’s house for the holidays. He now understood why Abby liked it so much. They were led to a table in the back of what would have been the living room.

  The waitress brought them some coffee in a pot and fresh squeezed orange juice in a small pitcher. Paul poured some of both for Abby and then poured himself some. It was a few minutes of random small talk before the waitress returned to take their order, Paul ordered the banana nut waffles and Abby was going with the traditional blueberry.

  They continued their small talk about life and shared stories of the past, before they knew it two hours had passed. They had eaten their waffles and finished the coffee and orange juice. The whole time was spent just talking about everything and anything that came to mind. Paul wanted to know everything about her and it seemed to him that she was just as interested in learning about him.

  “So what did you want to do now?” Paul asked has they went to pay for their meal.

  “I had an idea but I don’t know if it’s something you would be interested in,” she answered back and shot him a small grin.

  He chuckled as a variety of things crossed his mind as he pondered what she could be thinking of “you have my attention, what did you have in mind?”

  They paid for their food and headed to the car before she shared her idea with him “I saw an ad online last night that said the old theatre downtown is having a Romero movie marathon.”

  “What’s a Romero movie marathon?” Paul asked as they got in the car.

  “He’s the king of zombie movies. They are showing a marathon of his original zombie movies,” she answered.

  “I’ve never really been into zombies but it sounds good to me. Let’s go check it out,” he said.

  She starts the car and pulls out of the parking lot. They were still talking about zombies as they found a place to park downtown. The movie theatre was still closed when they walked up to it, the marathon started at two that afternoon.

  “We still have an hour or so to kill, what do you want to do?” she asked as she looked down at her watch.

  Paul looked around at the shops lining the street until he saw a place that caught his eye and said “I have an idea.”

  He took her hand and led her down the street until they arrived to the shop that had caught his eye. It was an old fashioned ice cream soda shop.

  “What a great idea, I haven’t been here in years. My grandma would take me here when I was younger,” Abby said with a big smile on her face.

  The ice cream shop was like stepping into the 1950’s, they ordered a giant banana split to share. After they got their ice cream they went and found a booth to sit down in to eat it.

  “So I know we’ve talked a lot but you haven’t shared too much about what you did before you moved here,” she said as she dug into the banana split.

  Paul had been waiting for this to come up, he had done a good job so far trying to share with her about his life but not get into his time in the Army.

  “There’s not too much to tell, as you know I was in the Army for about ten years and then I left and started over here,” he said while still trying to be as vague as he could but still answer her question.

  “So I’m guessing you were stationed at the base outside of town,” she said.

  He took a bite of the ice cream and thought about how he was going to deal with this and how much he wanted to share with her about his time in the Army.

  After a few more bites he began to talk again “yea I was stationed here for the last couple of years but I wasn’t here very much, I spent most of my time in the military stationed in the Middle East.”

  “So you spent a lot of time in combat?” she asked but as soon as she finished the words she wished she wouldn’t have asked.

  “I’m sorry, it’s probably not something you want to talk about,” she said.

  “It’s okay; I don’t mind talking about it. I was in the action a lot and I figured if my brothers were going to be there fighting then I wanted to be there watching their backs,” he answered and then went back to eating the ice cream.

  She took another bite of the ice cream as well and asked “so you weren’t scared being there?”

  Paul thought about the question for a minute and then spoke “there are definitely times when it can get scary but that’s part of the training. Learning to deal with the fear and still do your job. Plus as much as I was there to watch their back, I knew they would have mine.”

  “Were you happy in the Army?” she asked.

  “I loved it, I was good at it and I never really had a family growing up so the Army became my family. I also liked the idea that I was helping people and making a difference in the world, it’s a great feeling,” he answered and then seemed to drift away as he thought about the past. He was brought back to reality when he heard Abby begin to speak again.

  “If you loved it so much then why did you leave? Did you get hurt or something?” she asked.

  Again he sat there silent fo
r a minute as they finished off the ice cream. He then answered “it was the hardest thing I’ve gone through in my life when I had to leave. It’s not something I wanted to do; it just came down to an order I couldn’t follow.”

  She felt bad that he had gone through that and that she had brought it up “I’m sorry, it’s okay if you don’t want to get into it.”

  “I’ll tell you the full story someday but for now we should get going. The movie theatre should be open now,” he said as he got up from the table and offered his hand to Abby.

  She took his hand and got up from the table, they stayed holding hands as they left the ice cream shop and headed down the street to the theatre. There was a line of people already gathering outside of the theatre, there were a variety of people in line. Some people were even dressed up as zombies and Paul couldn’t help but smile when he saw Abby get excited about it.

  “I didn’t realize people got this into these movies, there must be almost a hundred people lined up out here. Do you think we will be able to get in?” he asked as they reached the end of the line and took their spot.

  “They are showing it on four screens so hopefully we’ll be able to get in,” she answered.

  They waited in line for another thirty minutes before they were able to buy their tickets, once inside they hit the snack bar and stocked up on supplies for the marathon of movies ahead of them. They spent the entire first movie cuddled together and Paul couldn’t think of a single place he would rather be than right there with her.

  They spent the short intermission after the first movie restocking their snacks and stretching their legs.

  “One down and two to go,” Abby said with that same smile on her face that Paul was growing to love.

  “Are you having a good time?” she asked as Paul handed her back her soda that he had refilled.

  “Yea I liked it and I’m really enjoying the view of the girl sitting next to me,” he answered back with a grin on his face.

  “I hope you’re talking about me,” she said with a grin of her own and then pulled him towards her and planted a kiss on his lips.

  “Of course I am,” he responded after they finished their kiss and planted a kiss of his own back on her lips.

  “We should head back in, the next movie should be starting soon,” she said as she took his hand and they went back to their seats.

  They spent the better part of the second movie making out like teenagers out on their first date. Occasionally they would laugh and take a break to watch the movie but then it was right back to locking lips. The second movie came and went quicker than they thought it would but part of that might have been because they were interested more in each other than the movie.

  “So do you want to head to the snack bar before the next movie starts,” Paul asked.

  “I think I’m good for now, I didn’t really touch my soda or popcorn. I was a little distracted for most of the movie,” she answered back with a slight smirk on her face.

  They both giggled at her comment and then embraced again in a gentle kiss.

  “So are you enjoying the movies?” she asked and then again they both couldn’t help but laugh.

  Paul looked at her and smiled and the responded “I like them; I just never got that into the zombie thing.”

  “So there’s one more movie if you’re interested in watching it, if not I had another idea,” Abby bashfully said as she smiled and looked away.

  Paul smiled and said “are you trying to seduce me?”

  “What? I was thinking we could go get some dinner,” she said.

  Paul’s face turned red as a tomato as the embarrassment rolled over him; he wasn’t sure how to respond to what had become an awkward situation.

  “I’m so embarrassed, I completely read that wrong,” he said while trying to be cool and play it off but he wasn’t pulling it off very well.

  Abby burst out laughing and laughed so hard that she began to cry.

  “I’m sorry,” she said before having to pause to continue laughing.

  “I’m glad I am able to entertain you,” he said over her laughter and then began laughing himself.

  “That was too funny not to keep it going but I have a confession. I wasn’t talking about dinner at all, I was trying to seduce you,” she said as she regained control and tried to stop laughing.

  “That was mean,” Paul said as he leaned over to kiss her.

  By now some people in the theatre had turned to see what was so funny behind them, Paul just smiled and waved at the people who were staring at them.

  “Maybe we should get out of here, people are starting to stare and I still need to try and seduce you,” she said as she looked around to see all the people still looking at them.

  “Let them stare, the only person I’m concerned with is you. And what makes you think I’m so easy to get into bed,” he said as he planted another kiss on her and chuckled.

  “I guess we can stay and watch the movie then,” she replied with a smirk.

  “Well I guess if you’re going to be so adamant about getting me into bed than I should stop resisting,” he said as he laughed and took her hand and led her out of the theatre.

  The lobby of the theatre was empty as they headed for the door and made their way out to the street. The sidewalks outside were now a crowded mess of people coming and going from the many shops and restaurants that lined the downtown streets. The personal space was nonexistent as they walked down the street towards the parking lot where they had left the car. They felt like salmon swimming upstream the wrong way, there were people bumping into them every couple of seconds. Paul was beginning to become uncomfortable as more and more people continued to bump into them and crowd him. Abby could tell that he wasn’t doing to well with the large crowds so she took his hand and turned to lead him out of the crowd.

  She spoke as she led him “there’s an alley over here that we can take, it’ll take a few extra minutes to get to the car but it’ll get us out of the crowd.”

  Paul let her led him out of the crowd and responded “thank you, I’m not a fan of big crowds.”

  The alley they entered was dark and gloomy looking; it was lined with dumpsters and random trash that hadn’t made it into the dumpsters. The slight light coming from some windows a few floors above them was the only light visible in the alley. They walked for a few more minutes and the alley seemed like it was never ending. The alley they were walking down intersected with another alley.

  “We have to turn here and this alley will lead us right to the car,” Abby said as she led him down the new alley, this one was darker then the last.

  The buildings lining the alley had no windows on this side of them. They were able to make out the shapes of dumpsters and trash cans by the light of the street about two blocks or so ahead of them. Paul was able to see the edge of the parking lot they had parked in just up ahead of them at the end of the alley. There was noise coming from behind a dumpster a half block ahead of them in the alley.

  “Did you hear that?” Abby asked as she stopped walking and clung on to Paul’s arm.

  “Yea I did, wait here. I’ll be right back; I’ll go check it out. I promise nothing will happen to you,” he said as he gently pulled her hands off his arm and walked towards the noise.

  He slowly approached the dumpster and he could hear the noise growing louder as he got closer. The noise began to sound like muffled cries for help the closer he got and this made him break out into a run towards it.

  “What is it? Why are you running?” he heard Abby yelling from behind him.

  When he made it to the dumpster he saw a man attacking another man who was pinned beneath him.

  “Help me,” the man on the bottom cried out to Paul.

  The man being attacked continued to fight back, striking his attacker in the face over and over again but it didn’t seem to faze him at all. Paul grabbed on to the man's jacket from behind but before he was able to pull him off, the crazy man bit down into the oth
er’s man cheek. The man being attacked was screaming frantically and he continued to fight his attacker off but no matter how much he fought the man would not stop. Paul pulled with all his might and was able to pull him off of the still screaming man. Paul gasped in horror as he threw the man to the ground; he could see part of the other man’s cheek hanging out of his attacker’s mouth. The man behind the dumpster began to clutch at his face, he cried out in terror as he realized the damage that had been done to him.

  “That crazy bastard took part of my face,” he yelled out.

  Paul turned his attention to the injured man and said “hold this hard against the bite,” as he handed him a handkerchief he had pulled out of his back pocket.

  “It’s clean I promise,” Paul added as the man pressed it against his face.

  “Paul, look out he’s behind you,” Abby yelled.

  Paul spun around just in time to grab the man by the throat before he could get close enough to attack him.

  “I think he’s trying to bite me too. What the hell is wrong with you?” Paul asked the man as he continued to hold him by the throat.

  Paul stared at him for a few seconds and then said “you need to calm down before you get hurt.”

  The crazy man was relentless in his pursuit to attack Paul; he repeatedly grabbed at his shirt and snapped at him with his teeth like a starving wild dog.

  “I called the police,” Abby yelled out from the safety of her spot down the alley.

  “Calm down now,” Paul yelled out at the man again.

  He could see Abby coming closer to him out of the corner of his eye.

  “The cops should be here in a couple of minutes, are you okay holding him for a while longer?” she asked Paul as she continued to walk up closer.