Dying Days: Origins

by Armand Rosamilia

  "I find it hard to trust people."

  "Since the world went to fuck?"

  Lyssa smiled and looked back at Tosha. "No, this has nothing to do with it. I hated people beforehand, and especially men."

  "Why?"

  "Oh, I won't bore you with my life."

  Tosha laughed and made a show of relaxing in the chair. "I have all the time in the world."

  "Forget it. I'm going to finish packing up and get out of here."

  "And what about me? You're going to just leave me here to starve to death, or freeze to death, or be raped to death by zombies? That's pretty shitty, if you ask me."

  "Can you please stop using profanity?"

  Tosha laughed. "Fuck that. Jesus fucking Christ, are you serious?"

  "Please stop, and don’t use the Lord's name in vain!" Lyssa screamed. She put her hands on the sides of her head. "I can't have you doing it. No one can do it."

  "What the fu… what are you talking about?" Tosha realized the chick was nuts. Before she freaked out again and called their position away to anything crawling around the building, she'd need to react.

  "Are you from Pennsylvania?"

  Tosha nodded. "I live across the street. I'm from here. Why?"

  "I'm not from around here. I was living in Iowa before this all happened." Lyssa pulled up another kitchen chair and sat down but kept her distance. "I met a guy on the internet. I believed his lies, and I bought a plane ticket and flew out to meet him. I spent every last dime I had because of the things he told me in texts, e-mails and on the phone. I was so stupid."

  "What happened when you got here? Did he leave you stranded at the airport?"

  "Yes." Lyssa stood and paced around the chair.

  Tosha admired her nice ass in her tight jeans. She decided not to tell Lyssa, and wondered why she was suddenly acting like a horny dude.

  "I waited for three hours for him to show and he never did. Not even a phone call and he didn't return my texts. I was stranded at an airport I'd never been to in my life, and I had no money to get anywhere."

  "Why did you get on a plane with no money and fly to meet a stranger?" Tosha was curious to know how unstable Lyssa was and if she had been to start, or if being in this shit had made her or contributed to it. "That seems… unsafe."

  "I was in love." Lyssa put her thumbs against her temples. "We were in love. I trusted him. He said he had a hotel room for us near the airport, and we were going to spend the weekend together with vodka and takeout food."

  "He sounds romantic," Tosha said but Lyssa wasn't listening.

  "We talked for months. Webcams, cute texts and I sent him so many pictures."

  "What kind of pictures?"

  "Embarrassing pictures. A few photos of my ass in a thong. He likes my ass. He couldn't wait to get his hands on it, he told me. I believed him. I'm so stupid."

  "Love is blind."

  "I was an idiot. I sent him my worn thongs and candy and other things, and he told me he loved me. He told me we were going to be together forever, and I believed his lies." Lyssa looked around. "Plus, he told me he had money. But he lived in this dump. I hate Pennsylvania. I’d never been here but always disliked anyone from the state. Now I know why. It's filled with liars and thieves. He stole my heart and then tossed me aside."

  Tosha heard something crash downstairs. "You should calm down. You're getting loud. Drawing attention."

  "Don't tell me what to do," Lyssa yelled. She pointed a finger at Tosha. "I'm in command. If I want to yell, I'll yell."

  "I've had enough walking on eggshells for one day. Listen, you stupid bitch, you just rang the dinner bell. Can't you hear them downstairs? There must be a score of them coming right to the sound of your grating voice."

  "I have a lovely voice." Lyssa opened the silverware drawer and pulled out two large knives. "I was in choir in church. All the boys asked me out. I was quite the catch, but I made a mistake. I'm horrible picking men. It's a character flaw, I suppose. I find the ones who will tell me anything to get in my pants. And the more I resist and act like a good girl the more enticing I become."

  Tosha casually tested her weight on the chair. In the movies, she'd be cemented to the floor, unable to move. In actuality, she'd known the second she came awake she wasn't in any real trouble. "Right now, you are about to become zombie food, unless you untie me and let me take a stand with you."

  "Untie you? So you can attack me? I don't think so."

  "I'm going to ask nicely just once more. I'd actually like some company. It is lonely and cold on my own. So… please, take these ropes off so we can fight these things."

  Tosha could hear a thud on the steps as the zombies began their ascent. From the sound of it, there must be quite a few. She heard something else crash in the foyer and figured the way was now clear for a hundred of them. Tosha and Lyssa were going to be in trouble soon.

  Lyssa was spinning the knives in her hands and smiling. "I wonder if I could learn to juggle them. How cool would that be? Maybe a couple of chainsaws and bowling pins, too. I went to the circus as a kid, and I remember the guy was juggling all kinds of crazy objects. I always wanted to learn to do it. I guess now I have the time."

  Tosha stood up, feet tied to the chair and not together. As Lyssa saw her and turned, Tosha put her shoulder down and lifted the wooden chair and moved to her right, at an angle, at Lyssa.

  The blades bounced off the top of the chair, near Tosha's head, just as Tosha slammed the chair into Lyssa. The momentum carried them both across the room and into the nearest wall. The chair shattered, freeing Tosha. Lyssa was knocked against the wall and dropped both knives.

  "I told you to let me go," Tosha said before punching Lyssa across the jaw. "You're going to get us both killed. Instead, you're the only one dying today."

  Tosha picked up both knives and found her baseball bat. She wished she had time to gather all the canned goods and supplies but knew the zombies would be on her in the next few minutes. Lyssa had burned all her time, and Tosha was pissed.

  Tosha stared at Lyssa for a moment. She should leave her here for dead. Lyssa deserved it. She'd been given ample chances to let Tosha go. She was a crazy bitch, and she would only be a hindrance.

  "Aww, fuck you," Tosha murmured. Instead of taking the time to grab a few cans of food and run, she dragged Lyssa by her feet and jammed her into the bottom of the hall closet, piling clothes on top of her and shoving the kitchen table into the hall to block the zombies from getting at her.

  Tosha ran out into the hallway just as the top of the first zombie head came into view. It was eerie to see the monster stay so calm. She expected growling or rage in their faces, but it was an impassive dead stare she received.

  Across the hall she ran into the apartment, and went right to the windows. There was a fire escape and the ladder was still up. She climbed through the window and pushed the ladder down, grinding her teeth at the loud noise it made as it slid slowly down, metal on metal.

  Tosha looked back just as the first zombie walked slowly into the doorway of the apartment. She gave it the finger and then threw a kiss, making sure it was locked on her and following along.

  She went down the ladder, the metal cold in her grip. She had to drop the baseball bat to the ground but tucked the knives in her waistband. She moaned when the baseball bat disappeared in the snow, and hoped she could find it again. Tosha needed every weapon she could get her hands on.

  The last few feet she had to drop, but landing on the snow was good. Tosha landed on her feet and began searching for the baseball bat. She thought it would be easy to find since she'd tossed it off the side, but the snow drifts were four feet in places against the building and the side street between the buildings.

  Tosha began dragging her feet and smiled when she heard the clunk as she kicked the wooden bat.

  Just as she lifted the handle and pulled it from the snow, a zombie fell from above, slapping the snow-covered pavement with a solid thud. Chunks of cold flesh a
nd brownish blood splattered.

  Tosha looked up to see another zombie as it leaned out the window at her, its weight tipping it over and into a freefall. It was only two stories, but the rotting body against the hard ground was no match. It fell chest first and exploded, tossing parts and gore in all directions, like a thrown water balloon.

  Shattered glass sprayed from above as the zombies tried to force their way out of the apartment.

  Tosha began to run, knowing the street in front of the building could be loaded with zombies. She heard another thump behind her, followed in quick succession by two more.

  She ran into the street and was amazed to see only a few stray zombies. The gaping entryway was still packed with undead but they were intent on getting upstairs and at her.

  A few quick strikes with the baseball bat cleared her path and Tosha Shorb made her way back to the safety of her apartment, still without food and now even colder than she was before.

  Chapter Thirteen: Ultra Violence

  Tosha ran out of books in the middle of the night and had to scrounge for new items to burn in order to stay warm. She was sure if the world hadn't gone to shit the newscasters and weathermen would be running around with hard-ons talking about the major storm front currently pummeling Pennsylvania. There might be as much as fifteen inches of fresh snow on the ground right now, and Tosha didn't want to chance another journey outside.

  She looked out the window to the building across from her but it was dark. Everything was dark, although, the glow off the snow gave her some light. Nothing moved out there. Nothing Tosha could see, anyway.

  The zombies weren't much for hiding.

  She wondered again how Lyssa was faring and if she'd been found in the closet and attacked. Tosha figured, if the weird chick was now a zombie, it would be fitting for her to die by Tosha’s hand, right? It was so cold and Tosha didn't care about anything right now. She just wanted to get warm and no matter how many layers of clothing and blankets she dropped onto herself, it wasn't helping.

  "Motherfucker," she moaned. She'd need to get up and ransack another apartment, pulling off cabinets and doors to burn. She was running out, though.

  Throwing off her layers, Tosha picked up her baseball bat and flashlight, put a hammer and screwdriver in her back pockets, and went into the cold, dark hallway. She'd yanked the thin wooden doors off the hinges this morning and they'd all been burned, giving off thick white smoke because of the paint on them and who knew what else. Tosha imagined she'd die of lead poisoning or toxic clouds from what she was using as fuel.

  Downstairs she went, taking one step at a time and trying not to use the flashlight she had in her free hand. If there were zombies in the street, they'd be attracted by the light.

  Tosha turned to the two apartment doors at the bottom of the stairs and stopped. They were both open, and the front door was ajar. "Holy shit," she whispered. She had company somewhere in the building, and it wasn't undead unless they suddenly learned how to turn a doorknob, in which case she was royally fucked.

  She turned on the flashlight and put the bat on her shoulder.

  The front door was kicked in suddenly, two zombies vying for the limited space to enter. Tosha, startled, fell back onto the steps and the flashlight went flying.

  Through the shuffling of the zombies, Tosha couldn't hear her own scream. She stood on shaking legs and began swinging the bat in the dark, striking about half the time. She kept striking out blindly in front of her but she was connecting. She heard what sounded like a watermelon exploding and then a body hit the floor, but she still had another one to contend with.

  Her mind registered the undead trip over the downed one the second before it fell heavily into her. She scrambled like she was covered in spiders, kicking and punching and pushing away. The baseball bat had fallen.

  The thin light from the glowing snow outside let her see the shadows, and she took advantage as she attacked furiously with her hands and feet. Once she was sure they were both down and not moving, she retrieved the flashlight and the baseball bat.

  "Are you fucking kidding me?" Tosha asked as another shadow appeared in the doorway, a hulking zombie with only one arm. She struck it with the bat but it had little effect. She hooked the door with her foot and tried to close it before the undead entered, but, just as it closed, the zombie moved forward and knocked the door off its hinges.

  Tosha was ready, standing her ground and swinging the baseball bat, connecting with the giant head of the zombie. When it stopped but didn't go down, she reset her feet and swung again, connecting with its jaw with a crack.

  Before it could move, she attacked, bringing the bat down on its head over and over, splitting the face in two and denting the front of its skull. The zombie finally stopped moving and fell backwards into the doorway.

  Tosha was panting but held the baseball bat in her hands, expecting, at any moment, another zombie to shamble into sight.

  She went to the destroyed entryway and peeked outside. It was quiet, snow falling in a blanket to the ground. With no power, no streetlights and no sounds, she got a chill from more than the cold weather. This was freak-out time, and she was expecting foreboding music to follow her every move.

  Tosha stepped back over the zombie and took the three large chunks of the door that were left, carrying them upstairs and placing them in her trash drum, where only a lick of fire still existed amidst the piles of ash.

  Back downstairs to the foyer, she pulled the door to the old woman's apartment off the hinges and carried it back up. Despite the cold, it felt good to be moving and doing something useful, even if it was taking the building apart piece by piece and feeding the fire. She'd strip the cabinets, chairs and kitchen table, anything flammable in the apartment she could find.

  Tosha was staring at the old woman's mattress and ignoring the stench of death in the small apartment when she heard footsteps in the hallway. She clicked off her flashlight and stood poised with her baseball bat, tiptoeing into the living room and watching for shadows. If it was another zombie roaming randomly in and out of buildings, she'd dispatch it as quickly as she could. If it was another living person, she'd deal with them as well. No one was going to loot her home.

  When she heard someone taking their sweet time going up the stairs, trying not to make any noise, she knew it was a living person. Tosha tried to get through the now-dark apartment from memory, hoping she didn't trip over anything and give away her position. It felt like it took forever to get back to the hallway, and, by then, whoever it was had already gone up the stairs to the second floor.

  More importantly, though, was the zombie moving just outside, a shadowy form shuffling, inch by inch, through the deep snow. Tosha froze. If she was spotted, she'd be between a rock and a hard place and would never be able to sneak upstairs and confront who ever was there… a person who could, even now, be going through her apartment and stealing her shit.

  Fuck, did I lock the door? She didn't remember. Screw it, I'm going up.

  Tosha was pissed at the constant struggle these days, but knew it was better than the alternative. Her thoughts went to her sister, dead and frozen in the alley. Once the spring came, she'd be thawed out and begin to really rot. She pushed the morbid thought away.

  She was also done with this sneaking around and not making a sound bullshit. Since whoever was in her building was alive and breathing, she decided stealth was too much work for her right now.

  "Whoever the fuck is up there better get their asses out where I can see them, or I will send up the dogs to bite your sorry ass," she yelled.

  Nothing made a sound upstairs but she heard movement from outside. "Shit," she said and turned to see two zombies heading in her direction. Tosha moved close to Devil Beard's apartment door so she wouldn't be attacked from the stairs or behind her, once the zombies entered the foyer. That was a dumb fucking move, she thought. No one would fall for me having dogs. Nice, quiet non-barking dogs.

  "You don't have any dogs." />
  "Lyssa?" Tosha called out. She was positive the bitch was upstairs. "I guess you survived. You're welcome for not letting them eat and rape you."

  "Come up the steps and let me thank you personally."

  "I don't think so."

  The first zombie shambled into the building.

  "I'm a tad busy right now. Why don't you come down and help me clear these zombies away? Then we can talk."

  "I don't think so," Lyssa called out. "I'm going to go through your things and take what I want, since you let these monsters destroy my apartment."

  "Technically, it wasn't your apartment, sweetie." Tosha swung the baseball bat, bashing blood and brain out of the zombie. "It was your boyfriend who left you for dead, remember? Right after I sucked him off and told him what a loser you were."

  "I will hurt you," Lyssa yelled. "Take that back."

  "Nope." Tosha attacked the next zombie as it came through the door, aware she was exposing herself to attack if Lyssa ran down the stairs. Two smacks in the head took the zombie down, and when she turned she could see Lyssa standing on the next landing holding a steel pipe. "Hey, Lyssa. How's it going?"

  Lyssa moved out of sight and Tosha had to laugh. The chick was certifiably nuts, and Tosha decided she was going to have fun with her before she marched upstairs and took back her shit.

  The street was filled with zombies now. Tosha knew she could easily take them down one at a time, but she'd eventually get tired and they wouldn't. Sheer numbers would press in and overwhelm her.

  Another zombie appeared inside the foyer and Tosha poked it in the face with the bat, pushing it back, where it momentarily blocked the rest of them from entering.

  "Ready or not, here I come," Tosha yelled up the stairs.

  "Stay down there if you know what's good for you," Lyssa responded. "I'm not playing. I will hurt you."

  "I only want to be your friend. Maybe we can hang out, roast marshmallows, talk about our boy troubles. I can do your nails. We can watch a romantic comedy. Do you like Jennifer Aniston?" Tosha took the steps slowly; aware at any moment the zombies would recover and be on her ass. She just needed to move faster than they did.