“Egg McMuffin.” Damien answered.
“Breakfast ended…well now six minutes ago.” The cashier rolled his eyes, order something else. The man wasn’t kind about it.
“I do not want anything else. I want an Egg McMuffin.”
The cashier eyed the young man, “And I want a blonde with 34DD’s, but it’s not gonna happen. So listen here Stephen Hawking…unless you can build a time machine and go back to a time when we were still serving breakfast, I suggest you pick something else…okay retard.”
Johanna was shocked. She was about to say something when Damien spoke, “Relax Yo. I got this.” Damien wheeled himself up a little closer, “Now get back there and make me an Egg McMuffin or else.”
“Or else what?” The cashier smirked.
“Or else I will give you a brief history of pain by driving my wheelchair up your minimum wage bass. That is what mother father.”
“Bass? Mother-father? What the fuck is this tardo talking about?”
Johanna stared at Damien, “His parents had all his curse words blocked on his text-to-speech engine.” Johanna put her hand on Damien’s shoulder, “Damien Judas Bergoglio…we don’t use that kind of language. It isn’t nice.”
It took a moment, but then Damien’s speaker came back to life, “No you do not use that kind of language, I would love to use that kind of language. It would be very appropriate for this fudge-head.”
The cashier screamed, “Fudge-head? You mean fuckhead? Listen here you little retarded bastard. You’re lucky I don’t step around this counter and slap you around like the little bitch you is?”
“Mr. Nee…foo…hair…une…za…ga? I’m going to have to ask you to please not talk like that to one of my students. I’m sure Damien will apologize.” Johanna said with strained politeness as she eyed Damien. She knew the young man was going to be trouble the whole way down. He was smart, and generally well behaved when things were going his way, but for someone that was wheelchair bound, and couldn’t actually move…the seventeen year old was fiery well past the point of common sense.
“It’s Nifwuairyoonzaga, Urhiness Nifwuairyoonzaga. What? Don’t you people speak English?” Urhiness snapped. The cashier then pronounced his name slowly, as if it was the people in front of him that were stupid, and not his parents for naming him Your-Highness Knife-Ware-Eon-Zaga.
The other employees came out of the back to see what all the commotion was about. One of them has still holding an Egg McMuffin. Johanna pointed at it, “Can’t Damien just have that one?”
Urhiness laughed, “It’s after 10:30. So no he can’t have that one. It’s getting thrown away along with anything else we have left over. It’s trash.”
“But it’s perfectly fine…be reasonable.” Johanna was trying to keep from having another incident with Damien. The young man may have been completely immobile, but if you crossed him he could be sneaky and had a mean streak that most people wouldn’t believe.
Urhiness looked back at his coworker holding the Egg McMuffin. “Margarita? Bring me that.” Margarita handed the Egg McMuffin to the man that was her acting supervisor. Urhiness held it out to Damien, “Well here it is…and if you want it. You just have to reach out and take it.”
Johanna gasped. “Come on kids, we’ll go somewhere else. This place just isn’t providing the amazing quality of service I normally expect from a McDonalds.” It was the closest she’d allow herself to come to actually insulting the man. Johanna, or Yo as some of the kids called her, wanted to slap the taste out of the man’s mouth. Unfortunately, she was having to be the mature adult. She was in charge of a flock of kids, and many of them had certain emotional issues. If she got angry, they might react to it violently, and many of them weren’t able to really understand the consequences of their actions.
Urhiness pulled the Egg McMuffin away. “Oh…I guess the little cripple doesn’t want it that badly.” Then he tossed it into the trash.
“Dog-bone-lick-corvette-Mandy-zebra.” Damien was so angry he couldn’t focus on any of his words and phrases. Instead a stream of complete randomness flowed from his speaker.
“Aww…did I break the little cripple?” Urhiness laughed, and then he looked back at the other employees. Most of them just rolled their eyes, but Margarita gave the man the finger. “Bitch! Go clean up the bathrooms, and you better do a good job, or you’re fired.”
Margarita sighed and went to grab a bucket. Damien was still spraying out random words by the time she walked by him with the mop and bucket, “Sorry. What he did was pretty fucked up, but there’s not much I can do about it.”
Damien moved the wheelchair towards the swinging door that led to behind the counter. Urhiness watched him roll past the swinging doors and turn the wheelchair to face him. “What the fuck do you think your crippled ass is gonna do? I should just go stick a broom handle in your spokes and stick you out on the grass like a lawn gnome.”
“Bring it on mother father.” Damien’s eyes locked on the man.
“Oh…you want to throw down with me? You better get you head straight son! I will beat that cripple ass all day long. I’m gonna beat you so bad that…that…well I’m gonna just beat you pretty damn bad. You crippled, retarded, stupid, motherfucker! Why your parents didn’t just abort you is anyone’s guess.”
Johanna saw the glint in Damien’s eyes change, and she knew exactly what that meant. She’d seen that look in his eyes before. If one of the other kids got hurt, or if a caregiver was too rough with a needle. Damien’s mood could go from grumpy to scorched earth at the drop of a hat. He was there now.
“I am going to beat your bass so badly that the entire cast of Roots will be calling you Toby, and when I am done everyone that sees you will call you the beach that got his bass kicked by a cripple. Now bring it on you stupid shirt-eating fudge.” Damien edged his wheelchair forward.
“Fuck you!” Urhiness screamed, and then the man ran at the wheelchair bound child.
Damien’s mouth twitched. It was the closest he could come to an actual smile. Urhiness was almost there, and that’s when Damien triggered one of the self-defense measures. His parents had always worried that their young teen’s mouth might get him into trouble. So they had a few “improvements” made on his chair. So as Urhiness got closer, something akin to a cattle prod extended out from the front. Damien steered the prod so that Urhiness ran right into it.
*Zap*
Urhiness was facedown and twitching on the floor when Damien backed his chair up, turned it around, and then backed up until the chair was over Urhiness’ head. Damien activated the hydraulics in his chair. They were originally designed to make his ride as smooth as possible so that he could better focus on the words for his text-to-speech engine. The chair rose and fell over the man’s face, and Damien said, How do my balls taste mother father. You like that. Yes you do. Yes you do. My balls are a part of your delicious breakfast. Now suck on some pepper spray you dumb bass hole.” Damien activated the second part of his defense measures, and pepper spray went out in all directions at about knee level. Damien’s parents had it designed so that he could spray them after tazing them. That way he’d have a chance to get away.
Danior watched the cripple rolling away in celebration, and laughed. The young man was brave. Damien saw him giggling. He rolled right to him and said, “Do we have a problem.”
Jimbo leaned over and grabbed the kid, “Keep your filthy retard hands off my Master!”
A half second later Jimbo was lying face down. There was a huge hole in his leg from where makeshift cattle prod made contact. Danior looked closer, the prong was silver. Silver burned through Danior and his kind like acid, and so it was going to take a while before Jimbo healed properly. Danior was mulling over the situation as he watched Damien repeatedly back over the man’s head with his rear wheel. Danior looked at them all. Damien, and all the others were hardly what anyone would consider threatening, but the young man had just taken down two able-bodied men, and he‘d done it quickly. A
smile twisted up onto Danior’s face. These people were exactly what he needed go walk in anywhere without getting too much scrutiny. If someone saw them they’d either excuse their behavior, or they’d do their best to ignore them completely.
Lula Mae felt her master pull against their blood connection. She was up and walking towards the exit, and she didn’t even know why. She was afraid, but she couldn’t even control her own reactions. A person looking at her would have thought she was completely calm, but inside she was terrified. She didn’t understand why her body refused to listen to her. Lula Mae watched her hand reach up and twist the lock, and that’s when everything went crazy.
Jimbo awoke to a full-body cramp. He felt his teeth loosen and fall out. Then he felt bones begin to shift. As much as it hurt, he still wasn’t prepared for when the fur started ripping out from under his skin. He looked over and saw Lula Mae going through the same change. He heard the screams, but right now he didn’t care. The pain was too much, and then it was over.
Jimbo didn’t remember much from the first time he changed, but this time he had complete clarity. He tried to stand, but couldn’t. The whole in his leg from the prod still hadn’t healed, and by the look of things it would be a few hours at the earliest.
Danior gave the order, and the three of them attacked. They slashed Johanna down her back before biting chunks out of her, and then they began biting the other handicapped kids. Danior saved Damien for last. He leaned down and gently bit the boy’s shoulder. Damien impressed him, and so Danior felt that the teen had earned a more personal touch.
After they spread the disease to Johanna and the handicapped kids, Danior turned his attention to the employees. Lula Mae ran into the bathroom and found Margarita. The pretty young Hispanic woman tried to fight the young were off, but in the end she couldn’t do anything to protect herself. Lula Mae pushed her back into a restroom stall, grabbed her by the back of the head, and then proceeded to shove the woman face first into the filthy brown toilet water. Margarita flushed the toilet, and was able to steal a few breaths during the time the water flushed down, and the time it began refilling.
Each time Margarita was about to pass out, she flushed the toilet and found some air. The fourth time she tried to flush Lula Mae screamed in frustration and grabbed the mop handle. Margarita was jerked up out of the toilet, and slammed back first into the wall. The impact was so hard that it left an indentation that outlined her shoulders and her butt. Lula Mae roared at the young Hispanic woman, and then she pulled one of her arms out until it was perpendicular with her body.
The young werewolf took one of the broken halves of the broom handle and rammed it through the woman’s hand. Blood ran down the cream colored wall. Then Lula Mae did the same thing with the woman’s other hand. Lula Mae looked at her for a moment with wild predatory eyes. Then she tore the woman’s shirt off, exposing heavy breasts. The young wolf stared at them, and then looked down at her flat, furry chest and snarled. One swipe of her claws was all it took to remove both breasts. All that was left were a few meaty strips that dangled. The sudden trauma took her body a moment to process, but after a few seconds she began staring down at her ruined chest and screaming.
That’s when Lula Mae started using her claws to peel strips of skin off of the woman and eat them like Fruit Roll-Ups. Within minutes the woman was slick with blood. Danior stepped into the bathroom. He’d changed back. The larger wolf body was still melting and peeling off. In another few minutes he’d shed himself of all the fur, and the rest of the wolf’s head would fall off exposing Danior’s human face underneath. Lula Mae looked at her master, whimpered, and backed away from the woman.
“Kill…me.” Margarita Sanschez’ voice was barely a whisper. Danior leaned over, and she begged, “Kill…me…please.”
Danior smiled, “No.” The man then looked at Lula Mae and then back to Margarita. Lula Mae felt the compulsion take over. She plodded over to the woman, and bit down on her arm. The young woman was hurting so badly that she didn’t even jerk when the teeth tore into her flesh.
Danior led Lula Mae back out to the rest of the McDonalds staff. Jimbo was still chewing on the fry cook. There were two more employees lying face down in their own blood. The only one left remaining was Urhiness.
“Get back!” Urhiness screamed as he threatened Danior with a bin of ketchup packets.
Danior felt some of the handicapped children waking up. He could feel the pull from their blood tie. Instead of attacking the cashier himself, he decided to let the kids and their caretaker handle it. Johanna changed first. Her deep brown fur erupted from her skin so quickly that it gave an audible tearing sound. She stood in front to protect the others. Danior realized immediately that she’d be an asset, especially since he had so many handicapped. Johanna would also be useful with Lula Mae. That was good because he didn’t want to leave the girl in Jimbo’s care.
The other kids changed fairly quickly. Of course there were some issues. If their legs didn’t work when they were human, then they didn’t work now that they were werewolves either. So some of the werewolves still had to wear leg braces, or use crutches. Two of them had walkers, and then there was Damien Bergloglio.
The young man just didn’t change like the rest of them. He only changed in patches. Damien’s left leg from the knee to the ankle changed, and his right arm changed. His face changed, but Damien’s ears stayed the same. Danior shook his head and considered killing the teen to put him out of his misery, but then Damien’s speaker howled a very robotic, “Ah…rue.” Danior stepped in front of the young man. Damien made the chair swivel back and forth while he howled again in his robotic voice, “Ah…rue.”
Danior nodded, and his new pack attacked Urhiness. They were going to kill him, but Danior stopped it. Instead he made sure the man was infected. Twenty minutes later Margarita came walking out of the bathroom covered in blood, but otherwise okay. The other employees got up looking completely unharmed except for a few bloodstains. Even Urhiness looked perfectly fine.
Danior explained his plan. It was simple. The employees would infect the customers, and then Danior would call them to serve him via the blood tie. The way Danior figured…there’d be a few hundred of his kind ready to serve him by the end of the week. Meanwhile Danior and his pack of handicapped werewolves would be preparing an all-out attack on the nearest major city that he could find.
“Well that’s easy. The closest major city is New Orleans, but it’s full of people this time of year for Mardis Gras.” Jimbo answered.
“Mardis…Gras?” Danior asked. Jimbo explained Mardis Gras, and the more he told Danior, the bigger his master’s smile grew until he finally said, “Perfect.” Mardis Gras was just the type of event he hoped for. People from all over coming to this one location. It would allow him to spread his influence as quickly as possible.
“Just one problem.” Urhiness said as he rolled his eyes, “How are we going to spread the infection?”
Danior grabbed the man and drug him into the back. Then he threw him down on a table where they prepared food. Danior forced Margarita to walk over to him, and then she reached down and tore off a chunk of Urhiness ass. Urhiness screamed, but held still as he was commanded. Then Margarita took the chunk of the cashier and began cooking it just like a regular hamburger patty. A few minutes later she had it on a bun and ready to serve.
“I don’t like this plan.” Urhiness groaned. Then his body changed as Danior forced him to become a werewolf. The werewolf howled before becoming docile and accepting his fate. Almost immediately the man’s butt cheek was knitting back together at an alarming rate.
“He’s too hairy to use like this, so he has to stay human, but when he starts to run low on meat then he’ll have to change to replenish what’s missing. Keep him fed so he’ll heal when he changes, otherwise use him to feed the customers.” Danior spoke with calm finality. Then he Danior forced Urhiness to change back.
“What? I’m not gonna be someone’s dinner you son
of a bitch.” Urhiness screamed. Danior watched him coldly, and then pushed his will into the man. After a few seconds Urhiness was smiling and calm...at least on the outside.
The first customer drove up requesting a McFlurry. Margarita stared at Urhiness while she tried to determine the best way to give the customer what they wanted. In the end she cut off a finger and chopped it up as finely as possible before tossing it in the McFlurry. The pieces were so finely chopped up that they didn’t even affect the texture of the ice cream. The taste was a little off though, but not so bad that the customer noticed.
There were spare uniforms in the back, and so Danior and the rest slipped on some McDonalds shirts. The only one that didn’t need new clothes was Damien since his transformation was never complete. The McDonalds employees resumed working. They used their coworkers infected body to taint the meat and drinks. For the most part their day to day work hadn’t changed. Danior then led the rest out to the front, on the way he took all the money in the cash registers. It was enough that they could buy a few things if needed. They were able to salvage their pants for the most part, but they were stained and shredded, so getting replacements was a priority. Lula Mae had to walk out in just an extra-large employee shirt because her dress was ruined. The shirt was large enough that it hung down on her like a dress.
Johanna opened the door to the bus. She loaded Damien up onto the bus. He parked his chair in the back, and some of the others locked his tires in to keep him safe. Lula Mae sat down beside him and smiled shyly. Damien tried to shift his wheelchair so he could see her, but he couldn’t move. Finally he just said, “Hi.”
Lula Mae looked ecstatic. “Hi.” She responded, and then turned beet red.
Johanna put the bus back on the highway, and in no time they were going seventy down the road. Jimbo and Danior stood in the aisle way as they watched the two kids talk back and forth. Lula Mae blushed almost every time the young man talked to her. “I think Lula Mae has a crush on the cripple. Ah…to be young, dumb, and in love.” Jimbo said, and then his eyes welled with tears, “It makes me miss Baby.”
Uncle Gary's Campfire Stories: Bayou Zombie Werewolves Page 34