“What happened?” Lily came from behind him.
She saw the zombie on the ground with its scalp pierced by the scissor.
“Yes, you can use this one.” She said. “Just take it out of the pack next time.”
“Wow! Did you see that? Very soon, people will be calling me Apocaclark!”
“Are you all right?”
“Sure! I saw ugly here coming and I knew exactly what to do.”
“I heard a scream.”
“It was the zombie.”
“Oh.”
But a very familiar choir of unmistakable growls echoed through the market. Clark took the scissor out of the dead skull and out of the pack.
“Ugh, this is gross!” He spoke.
Seven more cadavers found them. Lily drew her two knives.
“You know what to do, lad.” She said.
And Clark needed to hear nothing more. Boosted by a courageous surge of stamina, he jumped to one of the growlers and thrust his new weapon right in its left eye.
“This is great!” He cheered himself.
And that was it. In a matter of minutes, Lily and Clark finished all attackers. Clark bravely killed the already mentioned zombie, while Lily killed the other six.
“Nice teamwork, partner!” He said.
“Right on!”
“I’m getting the hang of it.”
“Good, that may come in handy. Now, we’d better go. I’ve already got everything we need for the moment. We’re making too much noise and I don’t want to start another party.”
They went to the counter. Lily grabbed the tennis bag full with supplies and headed toward the glass door. But she retreated and turned to her partner.
“Hey Clark, we may have a little problem.”
The man looked outside through the glass.
“I see.” He spoke. “It seems the party already started.
“And we are the main course.”
At least fifty rotting corpses were walking around Lily’s truck, like drifting boats.
“What we do now?” Clark asked.
“We open our way through them.”
“Okay.” He said, but not so self assured.
“Take this.” She gave him the tennis bag and he strapped it to his back.
Clark raised his knitting scissor.
“Just one thing,” Lily said “take this matter seriously, never underestimate those dead psychos.”
“I won’t.” Clark mumbled.
She opened the door and they left. It didn’t take long for the living dead to notice them. Lily just walked toward the hungry enemies with Mate right behind her, getting nervous at every step. The beasts were inches from them and coming fast. Finally, the Australian woman decided to grab the hockey stick to mount it.
But Clark didn’t have to do anything actually. With big shining eyes, he gazed with admiration at the elegant ballet performed by Lily, while she swung and twirled the hockey stick like the most skillful of swashbucklers, cutting heads as she went.
One by one, two by two, three by three, the hungry beasts tumbled down inert and nullified. She cleared their way enough so they could get to truck. But once they were inside, more corpses came.
Very soon, a horde of zombies completely surrounded the vehicle, pounding and climbing, shaking the truck real hard.
“Alright” Lily said behind the wheel. “The secret to safely deal with those creatures can be summarized in a single word, velocity. The faster you kill them, the better. Always look around you. They may be slow, but they can surprise you. They may come from behind you, from above you, or even crawling on the floor, they may come from everywhere. You have to be prepared all the time.”
“Yes, I appreciate you taking the time to teach me and all, but I really think we should do something about those monsters on the verge of turning the car around!”
“You’re right.” Lily pulled a lever right below the dashboard.
Several pointy spikes shaped like cones projected out from all sides of the truck, impaling a good deal of the zombies. Lily pushed the lever back to its original position and the spikes retreated back inside the vehicle, dropping perforated creatures on the ground.
The falling of the zombies directly connected to the truck gave Lily enough room to start the engine and speed away from the rest of the horde.
“Spikes that come out of the hull…” Clark divagated aloud.
“Yep.”
“Let me guess, daddy did this too.”
“He had a problem with strangers messing with his property.”
“And a very subtle way to show it, I can see.”
“Daddy had a delightful way to handle matters, don’t you think?”
“That’s for sure. Is there anything else this Apocamobile of yours can do?”
“It takes you to places.”
“It also takes you out of places, thank God.”
“It’s amazing what you can do with just a few gallons of diesel.”
“Well, I’m just glad we got out of there. Damn, we were shaking more than Elvis’ hips in that Ed Sullivan Show.”
“Who's...?”
“Oh please! Don’t tell me you’re going to ask who Elvis is!”
“I was going to ask who Ed Sullivan is. Of course I know who Elvis is! You're talking about Elvis Presley, right, not Elvis Costello?”
“Who's Elvis Costello?”
“Never mind. Anyway, I do know who Elvis Presley is.”
“Oh yeah?! Prove it!”
“Wop bop a loomba blop blop boom boom, tutti frutti, au rutti, tutti frutti, au rutti, tutti frutti, au rutti, tutti frutti, au rutti, tutti frutti, au rutti, wop bomb a boom bam blah blah, bang bang...”
“All right, stop that! You made your point! Jesus!”
“Elvis is the king.”
“Oh yeah, he is.”
“But he’s not number one.”
“He isn’t?”
“Huh uh.”
“Then who’s number one?”
“Pink Floyd!”
ACT 7
Hector woke up with a cockroach in his mouth. He coughed it out, almost choking on it. He was confused, his head hurt. He tried to wipe sweat off his forehead. That was when he noticed he was in chains, attached to a makeshift bed with a torn mattress.
Hector looked around frightened, he could barely move. His eyes found Vince lying on a similar bed beside him.
“Vince! Hey Vince! Wake up, man! VINCE! WAKE UP!
His brother moved, but couldn’t open his eyes. Drool came out of his mouth.
“Come on, Vince, fight it man! Snap out of it!”
Slowly, Vince got a grip of reality, a terrible new one.
“What? What?” He mumbled scared, trying to move, but shackles strangled his wrists and ankles.
“Are you alright, bro?”
“Do I look alright to you? Damn it!”
“I know what you mean.”
“Where are we? What is this place?” Vincent asked with a very fainting voice.
Suddenly, they shook real harshly.
“We are moving, goddamn it!”
“It looks that way.” Hector agreed.
He saw another man lying in front of them, with thick beard and sidelocks, also in chains. He looked barely awake.
“Hey partner…” Hector called him.
“Yes…” He replied with an equally fainting voice.
“I don’t suppose you know what this is all about, right?”
“No, my friend, I don’t. All I know is I was participating in this rally, me and my colleagues, when some men in black suits came. That’s the last thing I remember before waking up in here.”
“Yes, pretty much like us. What’s your name?”
“Aaron. What’s yours?”
“I’m Hector, this is Vince. We are brothers.”
“Nice meeting you, my friends.”
“Likewise.”
Then, a strange smell invaded the place and they blanked out a
gain.
Hector and Vincent walked with arms and legs shackled together, escorted by two men in military outfits. The brothers were numb and drowsy, as if under drugs. They were forced to stop in front of a room, where a third man carrying a club was waiting.
“All right, boys, strip.” He ordered, tapping his hand with the club.
“W-what?”
“To your bare asses, scumbag, if I have to say it again, I break your ugly face!”
The brothers did not have a clear idea of what was going on. Their vision was blurred. Very slowly, they took off all their clothes, a terrible headache stabbing their skulls. In an instinctive gesture of shame, they covered their genitals with the hands.
The two men in uniforms pushed them into the room, causing them to crash against a tiled wall. They fell on the cold floor. All of a sudden, a strong jet of even colder water whipped each and every one of their pores, making them roll to the wall again. The brothers screamed in despair and pain, the water was drowning them, they couldn’t breathe.
“It’s cleaning time, boys!” The man holding the thick hose said.
“Too bad we can’t wash this black skin off their bodies, huh?” The other man spoke.
“We can try and paint them!”
They laughed.
“So, did you have fun with the Jew boy?” The man with the club asked.
“Oh yeah, he cried like a girl when I shaved every single part of his disgusting body, you should’ve seen it, man!”
“I’m sorry I missed that one. But at least I’m having some fun with the wet niggers over there!”
And they laughed, laughed and laughed.
After being given shirts, pants and shoes without socks, Hector and Vince, again in shackles, were escorted by the two uniformed men to a huge, clean and air conditioned room. A distinguished man in a lustrous grey suit stood before them.
“Ah, they are much better now!” He said. “Well, at least within possibilities. Good morning, gentlemen. I’m the Minister and that’s all you need to know for the moment.”
“I don’t care who you are, alright?!” Hector blew up very loudly. “This is a total absurd! We are American citizens who are supposed to start a new job here! Nobody’s going to treat me like a prisoner anymore, you hear! I demand to speak with your superior right now!!!”
One of the thugs clubbed Hector right below his nape, causing him to fall down on his knees in pain. The other hit Vincent on the back of his legs to make him kneel down as well.
“Oh, and you will start your new jobs very soon.” The man calmly said. “You’re just not going to get paid for this one. Um, by the way, as I’m sure you’ve already realized, in here you only speak when required to do so. However, now that you mentioned, it’s important to say that I’m the only superior you got for now, and you’ll respectfully refer to me as Minister. That being said, you’ll be transferred to the power plant shortly, where you shall begin your new functions.”
“Power plant?” Vince mumbled. “But we know nothing of…”
He was brutally interrupted by a harsh blow on his shoulder.
“What did I just say?” The Minister reminded him. “Now, before you go, you’ll be allowed to spend some quality time in the patio to get some sun, not that you need it. It’s my policy to always let my employees enjoy some good moments of relaxation before starting the hard work. After all, we wouldn't want anybody accusing us of being cruel, now would we?” He turned to the guards. “Gentlemen, if you please…”
And Hector and Victor were pushed out of the Minister’s office.
Once in the big patio, the brothers walked under a melting sun burning their faces. The large field they were in was a vast piece of flatland that stretched all the way to mountains on the horizon.
In the vicinities constructions stood, some new, others run-down, but what really dominated the environment was a monumental dish antenna on top of a small building. They could see barbed wire fences surrounding the whole perimeter.
“Jesus, Hec, what is this, Hec?” Vincent spoke with a shaky voice.
“Hey, get a grip man!” Hector replied.
“What’s going on, Hec? What’s all this…?”
“HEY! Quiet you, let me think! There must be something we can do about this mess. I don’t know what the hell is going on, but no way I’ll just stand here and take this shit!”
A morbidly skinny and pale man passed by them, carrying recently cut wood.
“Hey, you there!” Hector stopped him.
The man might as well have been taken for a zombie if it wasn’t for the fact he spoke intelligibly.
“Yes.”
“Look, we need some help here.” Hector said. “Something is terribly wrong. We don’t belong in this place. Is there somebody we could talk to, you know…”
“Something is very wrong with this world and the people who run it!” The skinny man retorted. “And if I were you, I’ll shut the hell up right now for the sake of your health. Believe me, if you think this is bad, you have no idea.”
ACT 8
“Wow, this place is amazing!” Paul gasped.
“Welcome to Heavensville!” Shane said full of pride. “And our humble city is not named like this just by chance. This is the place you can live your life to the fullest.”
“Like things used to be before this pandemic exploded right in our faces, I suppose.” Susan said.
“Even better” Shane replied. “This pandemic, as you called it, helped us growing aware of the real important things, to never let such terrible events ever happen again. You won’t find sick people or flesh-eating monsters in here. I guarantee we are totally protected.”
“Like an Oasis.” Frank spoke.
“Or a sanctuary, like some of you might like to call it.” Shane responded.
“This place is everything but humble, I can tell you that.” Nick said.
Shane smiled “I’ll take this as a compliment.”
Becky walked alongside Shane, looking at the top of the imposing, shining houses with a serene expression.
“And what do you do in here?” Susan asked Shane. “Are you a community leader of some sort? Who built this place?”
“Ah questions…” Shane whispered “…so typical of the intelligent. I’m really lucky I bumped into you. I do believe we can talk better over lunch, what do you say?”
The maitre d' of Blue Ribbons looked dreadfully serious and awfully focused in his greeting high society’s customers work, but his face surely smoothed a lot when he saw Shane coming with her new best buddies.
“Miss Shane!” He said with the regular labored courtesy.
“Hi Bob.” She replied. “I’m bringing some friends from out of town to enjoy the delights of Mister Perrin’s cuisine.”
“Oh, and you shall have nothing but the best!”
“And make a note, Bob, put everything on my tab.”
“Hey!” Susan protested. “You don’t have to do that!”
“But if she insists…” Paul said.
“Shut up!” Susan retorted.
The maitre d’ twisted his nose to such demonstrations of roughness, but Shane laughed deliciously.
“Consider this my welcoming present.” She said. “Please, don’t hurt my feelings by turning me down.”
“We’d never do such thing.” Nick responded. “Lead the way, Bob!”
“Nick!” Susan protested again.
“You heard the man!” Shane spoke sportively to the maitre d’.
The man in tuxedo lifted an offended nose and took the group to the best table in the place. A pompous, starched waiter immediately came with the menus.
“Man, I didn’t know they made restaurants like this!” Paul observed. “This table alone is bigger than my dorm.”
“On weekends, this place is also converted in a disco.” Shane proudly informed. “And you are more than invited to join us in a little dance.”
Frank frowned at the menu “Man, how can I order anything
in here? It’s all in French!”
“Be careful not to end up eating snails!” Paul joked.
“What?”
Both Susan and the waiter looked at them with very reproaching eyes.
“Hey, mister penguin,” Frank turned to the waiter “can’t we just have cheeseburgers, chicken wings, you know, the stuff?”
“Can you please find more ways to embarrass me?” Susan complained.
“Give the boys a break.” Nick intervened. “We’ve never been rich before.”
“And by the looks of it, you never will.” Susan spoke.
Once again, Shane seemed to be having a lot of fun with all that.
“I tell you what!” She announced. “Georgiou, see if you can bring us the biggest, the spiciest, the juiciest and the greasiest six cheeseburgers you can get your hands on, together with three plates full of your best chicken wings. And don’t be stingy on the ketchup!”
“Oh yeah!” Frank and Paul said almost in unison, exchanging high fives. “And bring some milkshakes to wet it all down!”
Nick grinned and Susan shook her head negatively.
Apocalily Series (Book 1): The Sunshine Dame of Doom Page 5