Dying Days: Origins

by Armand Rosamilia

  "I mean it. I do not like you," Lyssa said.

  "Now, that hurts. I really like you, buddy. We're the only chicks alive at this point. We need to stick together. Girl Power and all that shit." Tosha came up to her floor but now Lyssa was gone. "You're either in my apartment - in which case I will be very pissed, best friend, gotta be truthful - or across the hall, in which case I will also be a little pissed. I think you need to come out and face me like a man."

  "I'm a woman," Lyssa said and peeked out of the neighbor's open door. She shook the steel pipe. "But I would love to bash your brains in."

  "You're making me wonder the reason why I didn't kill you when I had a chance."

  Lyssa smiled. "You should have. Because I will not help you when they rip you apart. You are a mean woman."

  Tosha heard the zombies coming up the steps. She smiled. "Then all bets are off. Every woman for herself, is that it? Fine. I don't like you in my building but I'll deal with you later. I hope when the zombies have moved on, you've done the same. Because, if I catch you, I will hurt you. Not kill you. I'll break both your fucking legs and leave you for them to rape." Tosha ran toward Lyssa, who ducked into the apartment and slammed the door.

  Tosha, laughing, went into her own place and closed the door, pushing furniture against it. Once again, she sighed. She'd stepped outside and gotten nothing done. She wondered why she was even doing this. Was this life worth it? She was still cold and hungry.

  When she turned and saw her dead sister, silently watching from her favorite chair in the corner, Tosha passed out.

  Chapter Fourteen: Phantoms

  Tosha pawed for her covers in bed. It was so cold? Why wasn't the heat coming on? She didn't want to go to work if it was so damn cold out. Maybe it was the weekend and she was off… maybe her sister would make the coffee for once, and some pancakes…

  She woke with a start, her neck hurting from sleeping on the cold floor of her apartment. Weak sunlight was coming in from the windows. It took her a moment to get up and look around, but her sister wasn't here. She'd never been here, you crazy bitch, Tosha thought. The stress is getting to me now.

  Lyssa might still be across the hall, although, she doubted it. She was glad to have passed out and gotten some actual sleep, and since the door was still intact she guessed the zombies had moved on or were hanging out in the hallway, waiting for their next meal. Tosha hoped it was Lyssa. The bitch needed a smack in the mouth.

  She looked through the peek-hole, into an empty hallway. The door across the hall was open and she hoped Lyssa was inside, ripped apart and in a million bloody pieces.

  Tosha's stomach growled, threatening to alert the undead for miles. She wasn't a big girl to begin with, and she feared she'd shrink away to nothing, too weak to continue. "Stop being a drama queen," she whispered as she moved the furniture. She put her hands on the door, waiting for it to be kicked in at any moment.

  When she was satisfied she wasn't under immediate attack, she opened the door and stepped out into the cold hallway. Tosha was getting numb and didn't know if it was a good thing. Didn't you stop feeling your fingers and toes when you got frostbite?

  The apartment across the way (Rasta Dude's) was open but empty. She didn't see anything moved around and no new blood, so she figured Lyssa had waited until the zombies wandered off and then split herself. She was glad the bitch was gone but knew she'd see her again. Lyssa obviously felt like they had unfinished business to attend to.

  Tosha was getting sick of this shit. She was hungry, cold and tired. Fuck it, she thought. I'm going to eat or die trying. She grabbed her baseball bat and flashlight and loaded up on as many shirts and jackets as she could put on and still be able to move faster than a zombie.

  Without another thought, she headed right down the steps and outside, crunching in the snow as she didn't break stride. She looked around but she was alone. For now. She decided to head to her right. She had no clue where she was going, and she supposed it didn't really matter. If she walked fifty feet or fifty miles, the result would be the same: she'd be cold and hungry. Tosha didn't think she'd get out of this shitty world alive, and right now she didn't care.

  Two blocks later, she trudged through the snow to the 7-11 convenience store and stepped over the shattered doors and into the looted aisles, crushed cookies and punctured soda cans on the floor.

  When a zombie, behind the counter, tried to come around at her, Tosha simply bashed its brains in with her bat and kept moving. She went into the small stockroom and smiled. There were three cases of Budweiser in perfect shape and Tosha found six bags of potato chips. She went to town, drinking four warm beers and stuffing a bag of chips into her mouth. With that crazy bitch loose, she didn't know if it was safe to lug this shit back to her apartment and store it only to have Lyssa steal her supplies. With nothing else to do, she was sure Lyssa was watching her every move. If Tosha knew where Lyssa was, she'd be stalking her to find her weakness and pounce if she got close enough.

  Tosha went to the back door and unlocked it, opening it slowly. The snow was pushed against it but she forced it open. She stepped outside into a caged-in area with two dumpsters. A high wooden fence blocked two sides, the building blocking the third and a padlocked gate for last. "Perfect," she whispered.

  She carried the rest of the supplies from the stockroom and hid them between the dumpsters and the fence. She'd use this as a food dump. The cold air would keep everything nice. When Tosha went back inside, she pushed a cabinet against the door to hide it.

  Four miserably cold hours later, Tosha had gathered items from several businesses on the block, including finding a set of golf clubs, a loaded .357 in a pickup truck, and enough stale food and flat soda to last her for a few weeks. Everything was stacked behind the dumpsters except for what she could fit into a new backpack she'd found. Even though it was Hello Kitty, it was better than carrying stuff in her hands.

  Satisfied she'd had a productive day and amazed the streets were no longer crawling with zombies, she went back to her apartment building, expecting to get attacked at any moment. There were no zombies inside the foyer and Lyssa didn't jump out with an axe.

  Tosha went upstairs, as quietly as she could, and went into her apartment. As she dropped her backpack on the couch, she got a creepy feeling and turned, golf club up and ready to strike. Outside, on the fire escape, was her dead sister.

  "Trista," she said quietly. "What do you want?"

  Her sister was silent, slowly looking up before standing and taking the steps up and out of sight.

  "Fuck you. I'm not following. I've seen enough horror movies to know I don't want the clue at the top of this ladder. No fucking way," Tosha said. She opened the window and stuck her head out. Her sister was gone.

  Tosha closed the window and crossed her arms. She wasn't going to be blindly guided by a dead woman. Even a blood relative. She looked up at the ceiling and shook her fist, knowing she looked like an idiot.

  "Not gonna happen, sis!" she yelled.

  Tosha unloaded her backpack. She had four beers and a bag of broken chips, as well as two lighters and a set of colored pens. She didn't want to keep too much in the apartment from now on.

  She needed a real game plan. Scrounging in the snow for things wasn't going to keep her alive, and she was cold all the time. One night the fire would go out and the temperature would drop and she'd die a Tosha popsicle.

  When she was done, Tosha sat down on the couch and decided to take a nap or just relax. She was tired. Even with filling up on beer and chips, she was still losing weight and feeling weak. Tosha stared at the ceiling and thought of her sister.

  "Damn you, bitch," she finally said. She knew against her better judgment what she had to do. Grabbing a golf club, Tosha opened the window again and stepped onto the fire escape. Nothing moved below her. She looked across the street, expecting to see Lyssa in a window watching her, but she didn't see anything. The crazy bitch might still be there but she didn't see her.

>   Tosha went up the fire escape, turning her brain off until she got to the roof. "Now what?" she whispered, looking around.

  The roof was empty. She didn't know if she was expecting her sister to give her a monologue about the secrets to staying alive, or find a surplus of canned goods stockpiled.

  Tosha walked to all four corners of the roof, starting from the farthest two. She looked down to the street below, into the buildings around her and up to the sky. It was cold and gray but at least the snow had stopped. Hers were the only footprints on the roof, and she was careful not to step onto exposed pipes or trip over anything hidden in the blanket of snow.

  When she looked again at the building next door, she saw Lyssa in her 'boyfriend's' apartment, staring at her with a blank expression. Tosha gave her the finger.

  Beyond the building, however, was something Tosha was not expecting.

  She could hear the distant sounds of gunfire and see smoke. But the smoke wasn't a typical fire and it was moving at a steady pace to the south. Cars? Trucks?

  Tosha decided to find out what the source was. Maybe it was the military, killing zombies and saving the world. It might explain why the zombies were few and far between right now.

  Giving another finger to Lyssa, she went down the fire escape and back into her apartment.

  "Thanks, sis," she said and grabbed her backpack.

  Mathyu, standing near the doorway, only stared at her.

  Chapter Fifteen: Menace to Society

  "Where are you going?" Lyssa shouted down from an open window as Tosha walked past.

  "I'm going to fuck your boyfriend who dumped you. Fuck off, whore."

  "Take that back," Lyssa shouted. "Or you'll be sorry."

  Tosha kept walking. "Go fuck yourself, bitch. Or better yet, come down here and face me like a normal person. I guarantee, one on one, I could kick your fat ass."

  "I don't have a fat ass."

  Tosha smiled as she passed the building. "I've seen it. Like you're smuggling two watermelons in your granny panties."

  When Lyssa didn't comment back, Tosha knew she'd struck a nerve and the crazy bitch would be coming down to face her. Tosha decided not to be standing around when she did, and ran into a side alley two buildings away. There was a zombie at the other end of the alley but it hadn't spotted her yet, and, even if it did, it would take it forever to get down here just to get its head smashed in.

  "Where are you?" Lyssa yelled a few minutes later from the street.

  Tosha peeked out and saw the woman, who wasn't bundled up. It was still cold out and Tosha got the funny notion to call out and tell her to get a sweater.

  "I just want to talk," Lyssa said, but she was carrying a baseball bat and had two steak knives stuck in her belt. "I think we got off on the wrong foot. I want to be your friend now. I need to find my boyfriend, and, if you know where he is, you need to tell me."

  She was insane. How the hell did she think Tosha knew where this guy was? He was long dead, like just about everyone else. As much as Tosha wanted the company of another living, breathing person, Lyssa was too far gone to be of much use. At some point, even if they could call a truce, the bitch would turn on her and slit her throat. Not an option.

  Tosha glanced back to make sure the zombie behind her hadn't suddenly started jogging or wasn’t joined by ten of its friends, but it was still wandering in circles down there.

  Lyssa was on the other side of the street, looking into apartment building foyers and street level stores, but she was too far for Tosha to get a shot at her or attack without her footsteps in the crunchy snow giving her away. She wanted Lyssa to keep moving and then she'd follow her and bide her time.

  "Just come out. I swear on my life I will not hurt you," Lyssa yelled. "I'm sorry."

  Tosha watched the woman as her shoulders slumped and she leaned against a wall, baseball bat now loose in her grip. Is she going to cry? Tosha felt sorry for the woman. She had definite mental problems but maybe Tosha was being too hard on her. What if she just cracked under the strain of what was going on and needed someone to talk to?

  I cannot believe I am going to do this, Tosha thought and stepped out from the alley. Lyssa was looking down, wiping her eyes with her free hand. "Hey," Tosha called out.

  Lyssa looked up with a smile and hefted the baseball bat to her shoulder as she pushed off the wall. "I knew you'd come out, you pathetic jerk."

  "Wow, you are a fucking bitch. I can't believe I fell for your crocodile tears act," Tosha said, but, as she got closer, she saw Lyssa really had been crying. "You need help. I hope for your sake this shit gets settled and they open a sanitarium for your sorry ass. You are truly a menace to society."

  "Take that back," Lyssa said. She swung the baseball bat in the air. "Or I will bash your pretty skull in."

  "You called me pretty."

  Lyssa shook her head. "Stop confusing me." She took two steps forward and pulled one of the knives out. "I will cut you into little pieces."

  "That I don't doubt, but I won't stand here and let you." Tosha tapped the golf club with her hand. "I plan on bashing your pretty skull in with this, and then beating your fat ass as well."

  "Stop calling my ass fat," Lyssa said and actually stomped her food like a child.

  "No." Tosha smiled. "Fat ass."

  "I swear…"

  "You keep swearing but then you don't do anything. You're getting boring again. Either we beat each other to death out here and let the zombies eat what's left, or we go our own way and stop wasting all this time. I'm cold and hungry, and you have to be cold. I can see your nipples through your shirt, by the way. I want to get out of this shitty town but you keep getting in my way and stealing all my food."

  "It's not your food. I have just as much right to it as you do."

  "I am going to disagree. I think, once I bash your brains in and the zombies get a taste, I'm going to find your stash of shit and have myself a feast. Maybe a bean feast."

  "Don't touch my beans."

  Tosha laughed. "You are so stupid. It was a joke, but, now that I know you have beans, I'm going to eat all of them over your dead body and drip the juice onto your dead heart."

  Tosha knew she was sounding insane right now but she couldn't stop. She shivered, the cold golf club in her hands beginning to sting. Crazy thoughts were running around in her mind, blood and gore and Lyssa's dismembered head rolling on the street and her sister watching silently…

  Mathyu was standing down the street, the way they'd come, and staring at Tosha.

  "What do you want now?" Tosha asked her sister, who was too far off to hear her. And she was dead, Tosha reminded herself.

  Lyssa laughed. "Who are you talking to?"

  Tosha smiled. "My dead sister is following me." When Tosha saw the look on Lyssa's face, she shrugged. "You're not the only crazy bitch around town, you know. Sometimes I make you look positively sane. Are we done here or are we going to kill each other? I'm really tired and I still want to see what's going on with all the smoke."

  "What smoke?"

  "I was on the roof for a reason. In fact, my sister guided me up there."

  "You are insane," Lyssa said. She was still holding the baseball bat and knife. "I'm cold. Let me pass and I'll leave you alone and not follow you."

  "And don't go into my apartment."

  "Sure, whatever."

  Tosha was far from convinced. "Seriously, I will hurt you if you so much as go near my apartment. I'm not kidding."

  Lyssa smirked. "Not a problem. Go and enjoy your smoke."

  "You bitch." Tosha decided she was just going to kill Lyssa and be done with it. She was once again getting in her way and she needed to be dealt with.

  When she took a step toward Lyssa, she heard movement behind her. Tosha turned to see the alley zombie finally getting close. It was an obese woman, her guts and fat rolls dragging on the ground and painting the snow a sickly pink.

  Tosha swung the gold club and buried it in the zombie's head. Wh
en she went to yank it out, she couldn't, and the zombie kept moving at her, teeth clacking as it moved.

  She kicked at the zombie's big ankles, trying to drive it to the ground, but her blows didn't do much other than keep it at bay. Tosha spun around it, punching the back of its head (or what was left of the back of its head with a golf club stuck in it), and pushing the zombie to the snow, where she stepped on the back of its neck and finally yanked the golf club from its skull.

  Tosha slammed the club over and over into the back of the zombie's head until it stopped moving.

  There were parts of the zombie everywhere: in the snow, on Tosha's clothes, caked on the golf club.

  Lyssa was gone.

  Chapter Sixteen: Terror on the Town

  There were tracks everywhere: car tracks, what might have been a tank or something really big, and maybe a hundred footprints, all moving in a southerly direction and away from the shithole Tosha was currently stuck in. It was a large group and they weren't bothering to cover where they'd been. Of course, she was sure a mess of zombies were following along, too.

  While she'd been fucking around with Lyssa, the group had moved on, even at such a snail's pace. Tosha had had to walk over three miles just to get here, and she figured they were maybe seven or eight miles away by now. This was just as well, because, if a zombie horde was following, they’d already passed this point.

  Tosha saw a few stragglers heading in her general direction, mostly zombies missing a leg or two, and even one with nothing from the waist down but entrails. It would be dark soon, and she didn't want to get caught out here. Three miles had taken her longer than she'd thought it would. Unplowed streets and large drifts will do that.

  She thought it would be smarter to find another place to hide for the evening, but feared she'd freeze to death. It wasn't nearly as cold as it had been a few days ago and the snow had begun to melt in places but it was still winter as far as she knew.