Thursday, July 29, 2010

Zombie Street: Part 6

I took a quick look outside to the deck and saw nothing out of the ordinary.  “Let’s take a seat at the table” I said, “we need an escape plan.”  Quinn cleared the table with a big sweeping motion, sending newspapers and place mats flying, clearing frustrations that had been building.  From where I was sitting, I could see out onto the deck in front of me and to my right, down the hallway, I could see the front door.  There was blood all over the place and I quickly discounted it as a viable escape route.  Quinn was standing to my left, looking out the window.  “Fuuuuuck” he mumbled.  “What is it?” I questioned.  “Well, I see people wandering around down there and who knows how many are in the forest?” he replied.  I made a mental note of weaponry: sword, frying pan, bat, wasp spray, eh, never mind the wasp spray.  “I think that if we think too much about a plan, we won’t be able to escape in time “Quinn muttered.  “Do we have to leave?  Wouldn’t more zombies be in here by now if they knew we were here?” I proposed.  With our luck, I saw something move outside on the deck.  It was bobbing up and down and I realized it was a head, bouncing as it walked up the stairs in a slow, stilted climb.  “Fuck It” Quinn stated, “let’s do this shit!”  With that, he grabbed his sword and opened the door to the deck.

Quinn resembled Tom Cruise in “The Last Samurai”, he had a fire in his eyes and it seemed to grow as he cut through the first zombie and then the second that had started to venture up the steps.  I kept my Louisville Slugger and followed after him, with no need to swing.  Quinn stopped when he got to the bottom of the stairs and I followed his gaze.  All over the lawn were zombie men, women, and even, zombie children.  Their eyes looked dull and lifeless in the moonlight.  The sight was beyond fucked up.  I don’t think an escape plan would have worked, because we hadn’t anticipated so many zombies.  Quinn turned to me and said, “Best bring your A-game.”  With that curt phrase, he took off towards the zombies.  I personally would have liked to avoid them, darting in and out like Jahvid Best.  I had never seen Quinn moved like he did, running towards the zombies while slashing whatever he could.  There were heads and arms creating a trail of destruction.  If you were to come back later, you could have retraced Quinn’s warpath.  For the zombies that were still alive, I would swing at their heads to stop them dead for their 2nd miserable life.  Quinn reached the front of the house, stopping by a basketball hoop, obviously catching his breath since he had his hands on his knees and he was breathing heavy.  I caught up to him and we re-assessed the scene.  We had two options, try running through the forest to get back on the street or run up the dark pavement.  Since both options were going to be uphill, we decided to stay on the pavement even though there were several zombies awaiting us.  “Let’s stop running” I told Quinn, “we won’t make it very far at this pace.”  Quinn nodded his head while breathing through his mouth.  I knew that I was going to have to take a lot of these zombies on first so Quinn could recover.

Friday, July 23, 2010

Zombie Street: Part 5

Quinn’s wide eyes stared at me with a hint of discouragement.  We sat with our backs against the island; in front of us was a breakfast nook and a door to a deck on the right.  I glanced outside to see what was out there.  It was dark outside but the moonlight showed a barbeque grill and a table for four.  “We are going to need to get that sword back” I told Quinn.  “There are two of us, and one of him.” 
“I don’t think I can go back in there, Graham.  I’m scared.”
“Pull your shit together, or we won’t make it out of here alive.”
“I felt like I was a goner in there.  You need to go get it for me.” Quinn hinted.
“Ok.  I need you to calm down and I’ll go get the sword.  I have watched enough zombie movies to know that someone needs to be the hero” I replied.  I got on my feet and peered over the edge of the island.  The man wasn’t in the kitchen, thank God.  “I’ll be right back, check the kitchen for any extra weapons.”  I tiptoed to the corner, peered back at Quinn and gave him a wink.

I could hear moaning from the bathroom while I prepared for my second at-bat.  I am a career .300 hitter but I knew that this was a clutch situation and that I needed to come through for our team of two.  I got as close to the door as I could to try to get a mental gauge of what was going on in there.   There was still moaning but I didn’t want to look in.  “Think, dammit!” I thought to myself.  I got my grip on the bat and knocked against the door frame, hoping to draw the zombie man out.  To my surprise, it actually worked, though it took a good three minutes for the man to appear.  The sound of the zombie pushing it self up sounded like a sack of potatoes coming alive.  I got in my best Josh Hamilton batting position to knock this zombie out of the ballpark.   I saw his head first and the sword in his hand second, which confused the shit out of me.  I tried to swing but my arms wouldn’t listen to my brain.  His blood red eyes looked at me like a fat man looks as his McRib sandwich.  Something moved behind him and I thought that we now had two zombies at hand.  A loud “CLANK” was the first thing I heard and then another and the zombie man fell at my feet.  Quinn was grinning at me with a frying pan in his hand and he replied a well rehearsed line, “McShay style.”   I chuckled, a laugh was a good thing, and then I nudged the zombie with my bat.  His back had a bloody hole on it from the sword but he didn’t move.  “Check his pulse” I instructed Quinn.  “I’ve got a better idea” Quinn replied as he picked up the sword and sliced the zombie’s head off.  A quick high five and we went back to the kitchen to plan our escape.