The Sunshine Dame of Doom

by Fizzotti, Marcos

  “But madam…” The waiter mumbled with a powerfully French accent. “This is highly unorthodox. I don’t think we can…”

  Shane turned darkly serious all of a sudden “Georgiou, will you please take our order?”

  “Tres bien mademoiselle.”

  “Good.” She sweetened her face again.

  “And tout de suite!” Paul said.

  The waiter left.

  “What do you do in here anyway?” Susan asked Shane. “I mean, what’s your work, your job, you know, your occupation…?”

  “Oh yes, the conversation we started. I’m a kind of public relations in this place. I run my share of things, have access to this or that privilege, some of which you’ll soon be enjoying.”

  “Alright, that’s it, what’s the angle?” Nick queried in a very suspicious tone.

  “Stop it!” Susan scolded him again. “I guess we had enough!”

  “Not this time, Sue. Come on, am I the only one here who thinks this whole thing is at least peculiar? We simply jumped from hell to paradise just like that, Becky turns nice all of a sudden, yesterday we were about to be eaten by zombies, but today we’re eating in a fancy restaurant!”

  “I just saw the wrongs of my ways.” Becky finally spoke something. “I thought you were going to like it.”

  “Alright, Shane” Nick continued “amenities time is over. What’re you up to?”

  “Nick!” Susan faced him. “I can take these two little friends of yours acting like animals in a elegant place, even being assholes about things none of us ever had, things we’re now having totally for free, but what I really can’t take is you spitting on the plate from which you ate!” She turned to Shane. “Look, I really apologize for my friends…”

  Shane immediately placed a hand on Susan’s hand. Such unexpected touch caused Susan to feel something she had never felt before, a very bizarre sensation, yet extremely soothing and pleasant.

  “No apologies are necessary whatsoever.” She spoke to Sue in a sweet tone of reconciliation, like a mother trying to educate her little girl. “Nick is right to be suspicious. He reminds me of me when I first came to this place. As for your friends, they’ve been through a lot, Sue. May I call you Sue? It’s just fair to cut them loose, at least a little bit, so they can blow off some steam, don’t you think?”

  Susan didn’t answer. She had listened to each and every word spoken by Shane, but she was still trying to come to terms with those sensations massaging her soul. Shane let go of her hand and the sensations were gone.

  “You can call me Sue.”

  “Thanks.”

  Then, Shane fixed eyes on Nick. A strange chill ran down his back. Somehow he knew how abnormal that was, but something in his mind told him to just enjoy it. Such chill was awfully comforting.

  “Nick,” Shane said “I was once as lost and confused as you are now. I had lost everything I cherished the most to this epidemic, pandemic, pretty much the story of most of us. But then, Mister Hedgiest found me and brought me here.”

  “Mister Hedgiest?” Nick murmured the question, his eyes lost on Shane’s.

  “Yes.” She continued. “He’s the industrious force who came to a city devastated by this strange disease, packed with sick souls who didn’t know any better than destroying healthy humans, and he turned this entire community into what it is now.”

  “He kicked all zombies out of the city?” Paul asked.

  “Yes, with the help of other people willing to follow his leadership.” Shane replied. “We don’t like to call them zombies, for they used to be like you and me. We’d rather call them drifters. And this wonderful man found me, a frightened little lamb ready to succumb to the idiosyncrasies of this new terrible reality. He gave me hope, a reason for living. And do you know what reason is that?”

  The group of youngsters shook their heads.

  “You!” She answered emphatically. “You and others like you. Mister Hedgiest did wonders for me, and I just think that helping others who were once like me is the least I can do to repay him. Believe me, what I’m doing for you, I did for many others, and I’ll keep bringing people in for as long as I live!”

  “And we appreciate you taking us in very much.” Susan said.

  “As I said, there’s no need to thank me.” Shane smiled. “This is my mission in life and I enjoy doing it.”

  “And you built those walls we saw to keep the zomb… the drifters away?” Frank asked.

  “The community did.” Shane responded. “The whole town helped.”

  “Speaking which, you seem very important around here.” Nick observed still suspicious, but it was like he had to fight to bring the words to mouth. “Care to explain that?”

  “Nothing to it, really” Shane calmly replied. “Since my rebirth in here, I’ve been working hard to bring as many people as I can to Heavensville. Then, I guess I kind of grew on Mister Hedgiest’s concept and he made me his director, so to speak.”

  “And what Mister Hedgiest is to all of you, a kind of mayor?” Paul queried.

  “Yes, we can say that.” Shane answered with a smile. “But we prefer to call him the Minister.”

  The waiter came back with their food and drinks.

  ACT 9

  “All right, Pink Floyd girl, I’ve been postponing this discussion because I know it’s not your favorite topic, but I guess this is as good a time as any to bring the subject to the table. We’ve been on this road for quite awhile now, sleeping in motels, stopping by gas stations, rest stops and small cities to get supplies and all. Now it’s time to bring new balls to the court, as we say in tennis.”

  “When you finally get to the point, you know where you can find me. I’ll be the girl behind the wheel.”

  “Where are we going anyway? What’s the limit? Are we ever going to stop?”

  “Ahead, sky, not for the moment” Lily yawned. “Those are the answers to your three questions.”

  “Right. You are aware of course that, at a certain point, we’ll run out of land and there’ll be nothing but ocean in front of us.”

  “I considered that.”

  “Ah please, don’t tell me this contraption can also turn into a boat!”

  “I’ve never tried, but I don’t think so. But perhaps it floats. Daddy was full of surprises. I just didn’t try each and every button and lever in this thing because I’m afraid the seats can be ejected.”

  “Do me a favor, please, don’t try each and every button and lever in this thing.”

  Lily smiled.

  However, an exaggerated billboard by the side of the road could definitely not escape their attention. It read your destination is here, so is your destiny. Come to us and suffer never more.

  “A nice promise” Clark commented, gazing at the gigantic sign.

  “And surely in big letters.”

  “Yes.”

  “It’s a little overdone considering the overall situation.”

  As they drove, smaller signs appeared along the road, practically at every mile - keep on going, we’ll take care of you; we can give you food, we can give you dignity; you are close, don’t stop now; you are almost there, be more than welcome.

  “They believe in signs.” Clark observed.

  “I don’t like it, too much publicity.”

  Lily had to stop. The road ended in two huge gates, so tall it was not possible to see beyond them. Equally big walls extended on both sides of such entrance until the eyes could see.

  “What do you make of it, Lily?”

  “I don’t know, mate. I mean, Clark.”

  “It looks protected though.”

  “Too protected.”

  Loud noises resembling gears moving echoed through the air all around. The gigantic gates started to move backwards from Lily’s truck and some seconds later, they were wide open, revealing what seemed to be a nice, civilized village behind the walls.

  “They’re inviting us in.” Clark realized. “It looks cozy.”

  “I d
efinitely don’t like it, too good to be true. What do you think?”

  “I believe we’d better give this issue some thoughts before stepping in.”

  “I agree.”

  Lily turned the vehicle around and sped away from the gates.

  “Only problem is driving around this thing.” Clark said. “Whatever is beyond those gates is goddamn big.”

  “We try to find some back roads.”

  “I hope there are gas stations on them.”

  “There will be. Besides, I trust my dad’s wisdom. I wouldn’t be surprised if this rig could also run on urine.”

  “Now that you mentioned…”

  “We stop, don’t worry. Let’s just put some distance between us and those walls, whatever they are.”

  “Okay. A thought just hit me.”

  “What is it?”

  “Maybe this rig can also run on alcohol, like those cars in Brazil.”

  “Then all I have to do is breathe on the tank.”

  Clark laughed boyishly at that comment. Lily couldn’t resist and laughed too.

  ACT 10

  Nick, Paul, Susan, Frank and even Becky were doing quite well.

  Susan had always dreamt of becoming a teacher; then, Shane got her a position in a prime elementary school, within a very prosperous district in town.

  Nick and Paul leaned toward architecture and civil construction. Because of this, they were allocated on projects to maintain protection around the city, also participating in futuristic plans to build more houses and expand the village.

  “Those are the layouts.” Nick handled some papers to the chief engineer, a very nice, sportive boss by the way.

  “Great!” He responded. “Perfect, that’s exactly what we need. You and your friend Peter…”

  “Paul.”

  “And Mary!” The boss joked. “Sorry about that. You and Paul will surely be a great addition to the team.”

  “We’re happy to help.”

  “You’ll fit in just fine. Now, take a break.”

  “Really?”

  “Yes! You surely earned it.”

  “Thanks. Um, Mister Noble…”

  “Yes, young man.”

  “The structures to improve security along the walls are ready for shipment. Just say the word and I deliver them to our field personnel.”

  “Oh, you just leave those on the patio, by the trucks. We have people to do that for us.”

  “Okay.”

  Frank became a competent system analyst. Computers, firmware and software were his passion. He did a very good job, between one videogame and another.

  Becky was the fashion celebrity in town. Shane made her the main ad girl for a large variety of products, ranging from cosmetics to clothes, sometimes advertising even tools and general hardware. Pictures of her pretty face and sculptural body were all over town, on walls, public buildings and billboards. And she loved all attention received.

  Like many other souls, in the middle of a growing hell, that small breakfast club seemed to have found their places in the sun.

  After a hard and productive day in the office, even breaking some personal records on Until Dawn game, Frank came back to his apartment, way bigger than he needed, but he did not complain.

  He was taking the t-shirt off when somebody knocked on his door.

  “Great, just my luck!” He growled to himself, putting the t-shirt back on. “Better be important. They’re about to show the Texas Chainsaw Massacre, director’s cut, double gore version, on the local TV.”

  He opened the door. To his incredible surprise, Becky was standing by the doorway.

  “Hi.” She said.

  “Um, hi” He mumbled the courtesy back.

  And she didn’t need any invitation to come right in.

  “I need to talk to you.” She said.

  “Yeah, I mean… Okay. Why don’t you come on in?”

  “I’m already in.” She spoke with a soft smile.

  “Oh yes.”

  “You’ve always had a crush on me, right?”

  She was close, her well built belly almost touching his. Obviously, her voluptuous breasts were already compressing his chest. Such proximity caused him to break in cold sweat.

  “Um, I…” He stammered “kind of.”

  “You know, I’ve always liked you too.”

  “You have?”

  “Right from the start.”

  “Jeez, I mean, you treating me like garbage since middle school really got me fooled.”

  “No, I was a fool.”

  She was nearly inside of him.

  “Becky…” He stepped away from her. “Not that I don’t want to live up the American dream, and every boy’s dream for that matter, but are you alright?”

  “Never better!”

  She came to him again. He gave two steps back, but was almost touching the wall.

  “Becky… What about Lucas?”

  “He was a jerk.”

  “He was? I mean, hey, don’t talk like this! He was my best friend!”

  “He mocked you on your back.”

  “He did?”

  “He called you pool naked wiener.”

  “Damn it! That only happened once and I was in my underpants! I wasn’t even in the pool!”

  “Are you in underpants now?”

  She took off his t-shirt so fast it made his head spin, in both technical and figurative senses. A second more and her hand was into his pants, her mouth and tongue running along his chest and belly.

  “That’s right, let’s skip foreplay…” He whispered, already engulfed by waves of extreme pleasure.

  Frank woke up next morning feeling the king of the world. And better yet, he stretched one arm to his left and felt his companion still lying in bed with him.

  “Great!” He thought. “She actually spent the night with me after we had sex! I guess I broke another record today.”

  And, to make his caldron of happiness overload even more, he soon found out she wasn’t quite sleeping. Becky turned around and mounted on him, their bodies touching in aphrodisiac contemplation. She brought his right hand to her left breast, while she kept her other hand behind her back.

  “Good morning!” He said all so happy.

  “Good morning, my darling.” She returned very softly.

  “So, what else you got in your tool box just for me?”

  “Now that I purified your inner side, time to work on your outer side.”

  “What?” He frowned.

  Becky put a cloth soaked in chloroform right on his face. She firmly compressed it with both hands against the boy’s nose and mouth. He struggled, desperately shaking legs, hands trying to take the cloth off his face, but all in vain, her grip on him was just too strong.

  He passed out under the gorgeous, perfect body of his night companion.

  “I hope you enjoyed my so precious gift to you, honey dear.” She spoke to the unconscious body. “Now sunshine will bring you redemption.”

  Nick was taking a coffee in one more moment of relaxation when Shane appeared in the break room.

  “Hello Nick.” She said. “How’s work?”

  “What work?” He answered. “I almost don’t get to do anything, unless the very easy part.”

  “You don’t like it?” Shane frowned.

  “Of course I like it! What’s not to like? It’s actually a dream work.”

  “Then what’s the problem?”

  “It’s just that… it doesn’t feel right. I don’t think Paul and I are contributing enough.”

  “Do you like this job?”

  “Well, I don’t think it’s about…”

  “Just answer my question, do you like what you do here?”

  “Yes! My call in life is civil engineering. That much I know.”

  “So, that’s it.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  “You’re doing what you like the most, so to you this barely looks like work at all. Believe me, I talked to Mister Noble
and he told me you and Paul are real hard workers, but you don’t realize it because your job is also your hobby.”

  Nick pondered those words for a moment.

  “Yes, you may get a point there.” He finally agreed.

  “Don’t worry, Nick. I totally understand your scruples and I appreciate very much you having them. We walked a long hard road to make this place what it is now and we still have a lot of work to do. Believe me, we don’t take bums in here.”

  “We’ll help the best we can.”

  She smiled and went for some tea. Nick sipped a little more of his coffee.

  “Um… Shane?”

  “Yes?”

  “Actually, I’m glad you stopped by, there’s something I’d like to talk to you about.”

  “Sure, what is it?”

  “How come I’m never allowed to visit the field personnel?”

  “The field personnel?”

  “Yes, you know, the guys who really get their hands dirty, the ones who actually raise the things I design.”

  “Yes, I know who they are. I’m asking why you want to meet them?”

  “Just to get a better grip on the reality of things and how the stuff is really done, maybe even help them in whatever they need.”

  “Do you have any experience in field work?”

  “No, but I didn’t have any experience in design matters either, only some knowledge I got from high school and from my family business every time I helped dad. But your people taught me a lot and I just thought dealing with some hammers and nails for a change wouldn’t hurt, also a great addition to my skills.”