by Thomas Baker
"Yeah and I agreed. It's going to be totallysick," Tyrone added.
"You guys, that is the best thing I've heard in like forever," said Ashley.
Excitement grew as evening approached. Tyrone recruited JT into helping him gather the firewood. Harold told them to only skim the edge of the woods. He didn't want to have to pull them from any of his traps. They went out in the field, away from Harold's crops, gathering sticks and twigs in their hands. When they were done, JT thought they had built a respectable stack.
Night fell. The stars came out, painting the darkness. It was a night sky those who grew up in the city had never seen. The fire roared. JT and Tyrone had found camping chairs for everyone who wanted to join.
JT found Harold in the kitchen. "You going to come out?"
Harold rubbed his head. "I'll be inside if you need me." JT was relieved but tried not to show it.
JT didn't bother trying to find Alan. He didn't really expect him back anytime soon. When he got back out to the fire, everyone else had settled in.
"So what are we going to do?" asked Gus, chuckling. "Sing a rousing round of row, row, row your boat?"
"Sorry Gus," JT said, "I didn't think about carrying my acoustic guitar through the zombie apocalypse."
There were some light chuckles, then an awkward silence. JT's mind went blank.
"How about we tell some stories?" Hannah suggested. "You know, from before. Even though we have been together awhile, we really don't know that much about each other."
"Hannah!" Ashley exclaimed, exasperated. "I thought you said this would be fun."
"Hey, it could be," JT said. "I would like to hear about Hannah, the early years."
JT felt happy when he got a smile for his comment.
"Sounds dumb. Well, who wants to go first?" Dusty asked in a harsh tone. "Ashley? Why don't you give us what is sure to be a sob story first?"
"Back off!" Hannah chimed, defending her friend.
"You really going to start this already. You can't help but be an asshole Dustin?" JT said.
"Fine superstar, why don't you start-."
"Jesus you people are worse than wet farts in a pair of granny panties. Sometimes I just don't know about the lot of ya!" Gus exclaimed. "I'll start. It's almost past my bedtime, anyway. I expect one of you to get me some s'mores while I'm yappin."
"I woke up five minutes before my alarm went off, as usual. It was a typical Tuesday morning. You know, now thatI think about it, I should have known something bad was gonna happen that day. My morning dump was too easy, I didn't nick myself shaving, and I woke up with a raging stiffy."
Tyrone tried to stifle his laugh.
"No need to laugh young man. You think these girls don't notice the morning trees in your tidy whiteys?"
This brought the whole group to tears.
"Tyrone, you looked as embarrassed as a kid caught with his hand in the cookie jar," Gus cackled.
That started an uproar. When they all quieted down, Gus continued.
"Anyways, let me fast forward. I'm at my surplus store, getting all my shit together. Then I head off to the bank as usual. Stop at the gas station, flirt with the chubby red headed lady with the big knockers behind the counter while I sipped my coffee. I played with my mustache while looking over the front page of the morning paper. Leave the gas station, head to the bank. Pull up to the drive thru because I'm too lazy to go inside. From my truck you get a better view down them pretty bank teller's shirts anyhow."
Hannah and Ashley eye rolled, hard. Gus laughed inwardly and went on.
"It's business as usual when all of a sudden the cute blond behind the counter looks right past me. She has this horrified look upon her face. More than she should just by looking at my old face. It was like she had just seen a ghost. I look to my right and it's in the McDonald's parking lot, shambling towards us. One of those dead sons of bitches."
Gus paused, taking a drink of water. I wish I had a little something stronger, like vodka. That's the only thing Harold here is missing, some alcohol.
"It was dragging one foot behind him," Gus continued. "A boy of maybe sixteen, pale skin whited out eyes. I sat there figuring this was some kind of prank until a lady and her little boy walked out of that McDonald's. As soon as those people screamed, that dead boy was on top of themin seconds."
"I jumped out of my truck and watched in disbelief as people ran out to help her. But no matter what they did that thing would not go down. In the midst of this unfolding chaos that little boy sat straight up. Got up with this dazed look on his face, shambled over to the distracted group of would be heroes and took a chunk out of one of their legs. As that guy screamed out in pain that little boy's mom was back on her feet and coming at them."
"I grabbed my phone and tried calling the police but all the lines were busy or something. I glanced back at the bank window. It was full of faces pressed against the glass, watching in horror."
"A loud crash behind me drew my attention towards the parking lot of the grocery store across the shopping center. There were four more of them dead things, ripping at an old couple in a convertible. It had crashed into a delivery van. Not reallyknowing what else to do, I hopped back in my truck and hauled ass back to my store."
"I knew I had a short window to either try and protect my store or get all the supplies I could and get the hell out of dodge. I chose the latter prettyquick as I drove down the street. Whole damn town was starting to look like one of them disaster movies. Maybe Volcano and I was playing Tommy Lee Jones. I got back to my store and threw together two survival bags and as much ammo as I could carry. The whole time ignoring people frantically screaming for help outside the store. Hell, I'm just an old man. What was I going to do against an army of zombies? At least that's what I tell myself now."
Another pause, another sip of water.
"Anyhow, I threw the bags in my truck and as I was locking the door, I caught a reflection of one of those things behind me. I spun around and it just stood there, staring at me like it didn't know what to do. It was quiet as a church mouse on Sunday. It continued to just stand still, a woman in ripped jeans and nothing else. Something red was around her mouth, and I don't think it was lipstick."
"As I jogged around the backside of my pickup to avoid it, she reached out at me like she couldn't move. As I drove away her face smacked off the passenger window. I watched it diminish in my rearview. She just stood like a stone statue, watching me leave. I arrived home and found two zombies feasting on my mailman's guts in my driveway. That pretty muchsettled it for me. I drove around back, ran in, and grabbed my guns, knives, more ammo, what little food I had, and a couple toolboxes. I was hauling ass out of town until I ran into bumper-to-bumper traffic. Everyone trying to do the same thing I was. I couldn't believe how quick this thing was unfolding. Had it reallyonly been just a few hours?"
Gus shook his head. He could almost see it before him again.
"Lucky for me though, I knew the back roads from many huntin' and fishin' trips. I pulled off the highway first chance I got. At night I kept bedding down where I could. Had to siphon gas a few times, that almost got me killed more than once. Thought I was doing pretty well for myself until my truck blew a tire and I flipped the old beast. I loaded everything on my shoulders I could carry and kept going until I found a farmhouse off the beaten path. Place had clearlybeen uninhabited for a while so I took refuge in one of the upstairs rooms until the day I got woken up with a loud crash. It was Dusty here, kicking in the front door. The rest is history."
"Just be lucky I found you old man, before they did," Dusty said, his arrogance grating JT's nerves.
This guy. JT just shook his head.
"Lucky? You call leading them things right to my hiding place lucky? If that's your idea of luck then I need a new definition. My idea of luck was the day these two young ladies strolled into my life shedding some beauty on this ugly sumbitch of a world," Gus said, grinning.
"Aww! You're a real ladies' man aren'
t you Gussy-poo?!" Ashley smirked. Gus seemed to blush from her comment.
"What no witty comeback?" Hannah teased.
"Oh Jesus people what is this a Camp Sunshine slumber party?" Dusty sounded unimpressed with the whole thing.
"Alrighty, calm down there Crusty Dusty," said Gus laughing to himself. "Who's next?"
They all just kind of sat staring at the campfire. JT wondered now where tonight could be going. It was supposed to be fun, but here they were, each replaying their own personal nightmares of the Outbreak.
"How 'bout you kid? Why don't you tell us how a fine young black man like yourself ended up with all us whities?" Gus said, giving Tyrone a thumb's up.
Tyrone burst out in laughter at Gus' comment.
"OK. Umm...I don't really know what to say," Tyrone hesitated, clearly nervous.
"Next!" Dusty interrupted.
Tyrone eyed him wanting to say something, but obviously afraid to.
JT glared. "Seriously Dusty? Shut it. Take your time, kid. Start when you can."
"Okay," Tyrone said, still hesitant to begin. "Well, when I woke up that morning, it was supposed to be an awesome day for football. State playoffs, us versus Highland Park. We were all hyped for it too. We were undefeated. Best record our school had ever ha..."
"Do you think we care about hearing another football story from you now?" Dusty interrupted again.
"Let the kid tell his tale," Gus said, shaking his head. "Go ahead, sport. I love football. Dusty's just got a stick up his ass because he wasn't even good enough to be the water boy."
Tyrone smiled as he started in again. "Everything felt real normal that day, you know what I mean? I remember how nervous I got when they announced they were letting the football players be released from class early."
"We all loaded up and got onto the buses. We had three buses that day. We usually only had two. We left the school and were on our way to Highland. They were undefeated too."
"We were all roasting on each other and pulling pranks on the way. Even Coach Lane got in on some of the battle raps we were having. We were having a good time until some lady sounding all scared came over the radio saying something we couldn't really understand about turning the bus around and getting us kids home."
"The bus driver and coaches yelled at us all to shut up and listen but they never could get that lady to answer on the radio again. You could tell our bus driver was nervous or scared or something. The buses stopped on the shoulder and the three drivers all met outside."
"Our driver came back and talked to Coach Lane. Coach told all of us to try our cell phones, to see if they were working. All we got was the same high usage, try again message. Coach told us to stay on the bus no matter what. All the adults then went outside, I guess to talk about what to do next."
"Coach Lane came back on the bus and said they were worried something may have happened, so we were going to stop in the next town and get a hold of somebody at the school."
"That's when things started getting reallyweird. The driver kept trying to call people on the radio but no one answered except the other two drivers. He kept trying his radio for news but every station was just these reallyweird tones, like a steady beep."
"We all sat staring as we passed a car flipped up on its roof. We slowed down but didn't stop. About half a mile up the road we passed a car seat sitting in the middle of the road."
"That's when we slowed down and then the driver pulled over."
"From the bus behind us the driver and Coach Pullian got out and went up to the car seat. Out of nowhere this lady covered in blood came running out of the cornfield beside the road and attacked the driver and Pullian. A bunch of other adults ran out to help. They took her down, punching the shit out of her, but not before Coach Pullian got his throat ripped open like in some horror movie. We all went silent. The other bus driver had blood coming out of bite marks up his arm to the elbow. The adults were barely back on the buses when the lady they knocked on her ass got back up. You could tell right away something was wrong with her. You know what I mean?"
"It must have been the bitten bus driver, who started screaming over the radio, GO! GO! GO! The bus lurched forward. All three buses were back on the road and hauling ass."
"As we were coming around this curve, we saw this big white truck like the electric companies use flying up this side road. I thought it was gonna hit us. I spun around in my seat in time to see that truck t-bone the bus right behind us and then the bus behind them slamming into the wreck. Our bus driver hit the brakes. We all stood up and were taped to the windows as some kind of deranged man climbed out of the destroyed electric truck and just stood in the street. When the kids got out of the third bus, the electric man turned towards them and attacked."
"Our bus started to go again. We were all wailing at this point,looking back as the man tore into our teammates that were coming out of the wreckage. We were all yelling for the driver to stop. Someone then yelled COACH! I looked toward the front of the bus and saw Coach Lane writhing on in the aisle. He looked like he was in a lot of pain."
Tyrone stopped, visibly upset. Why shouldn't I be? It was like sharing the worse nightmare he had ever dreamed. He took in a giant gasp of the night air.
"Go on when you are ready," Ashley said. She flashed him her prettiest smile.
Tyrone was positive he saw flirting in that smile. If this was the normal world, he'd be all up in that. Instead, Tyrone smiled weakly back, swallowed, and continued on.
"Some of the other adults jumped up and were trying to help Lane. Knowing what I do now, I guess he was bit somewhere. The bus driver was distracted, looking back, asking what was going on. He wasn't really watching the road I guess, and the bus turned hard. Next thing I knew we started to tip to the right and came crashing down hard. People from the other side of the bus fell on me. Dirt and glass sprayed into the bus as we slid on our side. The last thing I remember was trying to lift my head away from the window and then a sudden stop that threw my head back. I woke up later and three dead bodies were laying on me and a backpack was over my face."
Tyrone shook, reliving that moment. Ashley scooted over and put her arms around him. "You don't have to tell us anymoreright now," she said, trying to comfort him.
"That's OK, there really isn't much more to tell. I must have been knocked out. When I came to, I was alone. Everyone else left or was killed I guess. Whoever else was still alive after the crash, maybe they thought I was dead. Who knows? I crawled to the other bus that was still upright. I barred it up. Guess I was lucky that no zombies were around. I didn't even know what was going onat that time. Later, I was too scared to even try to leave the bus. Not with the craziness I was seeing outside. That's why I'm glad you all found me. I don't know what would have happened, you know what I mean."
He stopped for a long pause.
"I think I am done." Tyrone settled back into his chair, arms folded across his chest.
After a few moments of quiet, JT spoke up. "I guess I'll go next. If we're going to keep doing this, let's get it over with."
"Go ahead superstar," Dusty said, "This story should be worth a chuckle. Let's hear how you were lucky enough to manage surviving." JT gave Dusty the finger.
"About the time the rest of you were waking up, I had pretty much just gone to bed," JT said, rushing right along. "I had gotten home from work at like 4:30 in the morning. Usually Tuesday nights at the bar were prettygood too, those kinds of nights being a bouncer was easy money."
"You were a bouncer?" Dusty laughed. "I knew this would be hilarious. I'm glad I stuck aroundafter all."
JT glared at him. His jaw locked up and he could feel his pulse rising.
"Dusty shut it. There's nothing wrong with being a bouncer. Besides sometimes those guys are kinda cute." Hannah smiled big.
JT's smile back was just as wide. He took a cleansing breath before going on.
"That Tuesday though was one of the shittiest nights at work I had ever had. Early that night
I had to throw out two douche bag Army guys, who were duking it out over some girl." JT shot a look at Dusty. "I had sore ribs the rest of the night, from where one of them got in a lucky shot with an elbow."
"I was standing outside when it seemed like sirens started going nonstop all over the area. At the time we were all confused when the cops came and told us we had to shut down early. Just a few blocks away I found out they had just had a police involved shooting after some drunken dumb ass tried attacking a cop. Looking back now, the attacker probably wasn't drunk."
"The people in the bar were not happy about having to leave and I was dealing with one drunk asshole after another trying to clear the damn place out. People purposely pouring their drinks out on the floor and shucking bottles across the bar. It was a mess."
"Anyway, I collapsed when I got home and the next thing I know I wake up to the tornado sirens going off. I rolled over, saw it was two in the afternoon. I didn't even have to get up to see the sun shining through my curtains. I thought maybe I was dreaming."
"They just kept going and goingand going. I remember yelling, enough with the fucking sirens already! Imagine that, they didn't listento me."
"I grabbed my phone and was blown away when I saw I had thirty-seven missed calls and what looked like a million texts. Did I mention I sleep like a rock? Plus, my phone was on vibrate still and my shirt somehow fell on top of it, muting the noise."
"I tried my cousin Emily back first but I couldn't get through. All I got was her voice mail. So I tried texting some buddies and calling a few others in my phone contacts and got the same results. No answers"
"That's when I checked my voice mails..."
"I could not believe what I heard. My cousin was completelyhysterical. She said she was so worried about me. My buddies' messages were saying everywhere was being overrun by zombies. Zombies? Something about rabies that wasn't really rabies."