Zombie Zora

Everyone prepared to do battle when they showed up. The first of the zombies were screaming and running toward us. I braced for battle, standing on the floating deck in a come-and-get-me pose. I clenched my fists and my boots were ready. We separated taking different positions on the deck to defend all entry areas. My job was our right flank. I stood at the edge of the deck in the middle prepared to do battle on both sides of the platform.

  The first zombies entered the water. They walked into the water and kept walking toward us until their heads went under the water. They then disappeared beneath its murky depths, only to rise at a weird angle, unable to control their bodies. They floated on the surface, howling and thrashing, trying to reach us. Unable to move forward, they sort of stopped and moaned lightly. The moaning stopped the others.

  “Did you see that?”

  “I don’t believe it,” said Brittany.

  “Me either,” said Jones. “Stay alert, people. Whatever is going on, it won’t last long. Be ready for anything.”

  Charley came to my side. “Have you ever seen that before?”

  “No.” I lied. I should have told them about the store zombie incident. It nagged me. “Have you?”

  Charley ran a hand through his hair, looking out at the water. “No, this is a first. I wonder what it means.”

  I thought of Thompson. He was in the center of the deck, lying on his back. Being a scientist, he would know. I ran to him and knelt beside him. He was out. I shook him and he looked at me. “Thompson, Thompson, the zombies have us surrounded, what can we do?”

  He couldn’t see them from his position, but like us, he heard them. He lifted his head and turned to see them. “Don’t go into the water. If it is deep enough they can’t get to you.”

  “It’s more than six feet.”

  “That’s deep enough. Stay here and wait them out. They will move on to fresh game.” His voice was low and weak; I strained to hear every word.

  “How long?”

  “Until some poor soul comes along.” Normally he would be wearing his familiar smirk at this point, perhaps flying from a moving car tempered him.

  “Anything else we can do while we wait?”

  “No. Wait them out.” He lowered his head and drifted off.

  I got up and huddled with the others. “He says to wait them out, they will eventually leave.”

  Jones scowled. “That’s it.”

  “What do you expect from a zombie?” Charley’s words were as venomous as his expression. The new look didn’t suit him.

  “He’s normal. Zombies can’t talk and his eyes are normal.”

  “I know what I saw!” Charley’s face flushed with anger. He pointed to Brittany, “she saw it, too.”

  “Britt?”

  “Look, Zee,” Brittany sighed, “Charley may be right. Why is he out anyway?”

  I fumed. “He flew through the windshield of a moving car. Who wouldn’t be out of it?” My words shocked both myself and my leader. I caught him staring at me in disbelief. I can only assume it was my defense of Thompson that made him react that way.

  “Maybe because he is slowly turning into a zombie.” Charley said to me.

  “I doubt it.”

  “How do you know?”

  “How do you know?”

  “Because I saw him with my own eyes. Maybe he can’t get up because he’s in the middle of changing.”

  Charley stepped toward Thompson and I jumped between him and his target. “I wish you would.”

  Charley had what looked like a policeman’s baton in his left hand, covered with zombie brain and blood that dripped onto the deck. “Move!”

  “Jones. I could you some help here.”

  Jones stood next to me, facing Charley. I looked at Brittany. She disappointed me when she didn’t join us. I felt betrayed by her, so much for our blood bond.

  “I’m sorry, Zee. I’m not sure,” Brittany said.

  I didn’t look at her after that, I couldn’t stand her betrayal. I focused on Charley. We couldn’t have a moment’s peace. If the zombies couldn’t get to us, he had to be the hero and step up and ruin my day. I stood my ground, Jones and I.

  “Move!” Charley held up his baton.

  “You intend to hit me with that?”

  “I will do whatever I have to do to survive.”

  “I’m not moving, so you are going to have to go through me.”

  “Me, too,” said Jones.

  I felt proud of Jones though I didn’t deserve it. I was the one who had challenged his authority and took liberties worthy of a prison stay. Through it all, he was on my side and like Charley; he had a bloody baton in his hand and would no doubt use it on a fellow human being.

  I had no weapon to speak of. My fists and my boots could take out a zombie, but against a human, what good would they be. I thought of my knives, locked away in my pack. Then I remembered I had a knife in my back pocket, if it were still there. I checked and it was. I pulled it out.

  Jones and I eyed Charley with an intensity that would alarm any foe. Charley responded with an icy glare of his own. He had his weapon, Jones had his, and I prepared to stab, hit, kick, scratch, and bite, if necessary. Brittany, sensing our mood, stepped between us. It wasn’t a step, we were too close together for that. It was more of a tight squeeze. A squeeze so tight, she rubbed against all three of us.

  “Stop it. They are the enemy.” Brittany pushed Charley back and pointed to the howling zombies waiting to devour us as soon as we came to them. “This is ridiculous and it will stop this instant. I don’t know his condition and neither do any of you. For the time being, we are going to sit down and rest. We will have a bite to eat to stay strong and plan our strategy. If Thompson is a zombie, we will find out and take care of him. That is a promise from all of us.” Brittany turned to Jones and me for confirmation. We nodded.

  “I’ll watch him. If he turns I will take care of him myself.”

  Charley nodded and cautiously sat down. He sat more to the end than to the center, keeping his sight on both the zombies waiting on us and the potential zombie he knew Thompson to be. I cautiously sat down next to Thompson and met Charley’s gaze. Thompson had information we needed. This is what I told myself. I was not protecting the man, I was protecting the information.

  Brittany sat down by Jones. I was glad she did, I wasn’t sure if I wanted her next to me. She opened her pack and handed a towel to Jones. After whispering something in his ear, Jones got up and came to me. He tore the towel in half and gave me a piece of it. “I’ll watch him, go clean up.”

  “Is that an order?”

  “You better believe it.”

  “Don’t trust, Charley. He isn’t one of us.”

  “I don’t trust anyone, not even you.”

  The gook on his face half covered his mischievous grin. For once, I didn’t laugh or argue. I shot another glance at Charley and then I got up. I waited for Jones to take my spot and then I reached into my bag for my soap. At the edge of the deck, away from the ever howling zombies, I knelt down. Those few zombies who entered the water had somehow gotten to land and stood, drenched and howling with the others.

  I leaned over and washed my hands. For the briefest of moments, I imagined a zombie beneath me, reaching up to grab me and pull me beneath the murky water. I really hate all the scary movies I watched. They weren’t doing me any favors. I carefully washed my hands with the soap and got all traces of zombie off them. I dried my hands on the towel, then dipped it into the water. Making lather with my soap, I washed my face and then rinsed it.

  If I were talking to Brittany, I would have suggested we go into the water together. We could have undressed, I’m sure the boys would have been well-mannered and turned their heads while we washed and changed. I could use new clothes. I looked at the drying blood on my clothes; my earlier swim washed a lot of the blood off them. I decided the rest wouldn’t be a problem and I would wait until we made it to Camp Brandt. I could wait that long, it would only be until tonight or
tomorrow at the latest.

  So, I washed my face and hands and called it a day. Before getting up, I took off my boots and washed them. The water that flowed out of them shocked me. The whole time on the floating deck, I never imagined I had water in my boots. I didn’t feel the water or hear it sloshing around.

  My last task was to wash my towel and let it dry before putting it away. Odds are we were going to be here awhile, so it would have time to dry. I finished and went back to relieve Jones. I shot a glance at Brittany and didn’t feel one ounce better about her betrayal. She needed to suffer and learn her lesson. You don’t betray friends. We are family and she has no clue who this guy is.

  “I’m back. Go ahead and get cleaned up.”

  “All right.”

  Jones rose and went to Brittany. I sat down with my back to both and resumed my hostile gaze at Charley. I wished he would try something. My knife was beside me and he was closer than the zombies.

  I heard a splash behind me and figured it was Brittany jumping into the water. I would have turned to see, but I didn’t want to take my eye off Charley or give her the satisfaction. She was braver than me and not as modest either. Brittany was something special, she most likely took off all her clothes and jumped in butt naked. It might have been for shock value, but I wouldn’t turn to validate it. I was winning my battle with Charley—his head lowered, he fiddled with his fingers.

  Thompson opened his eyes, giving me hope. “Thompson?”

  “Missing me?” his wry smile was back, along with his voice.

  The others were busy so if we were quiet, we could carry on a conversation. I knew he had information and if I were going to protect him, he was going to give me something for my trouble. “I need your help.”

  Thompson changed from adversary to gloating asshole in seconds. “What’s in it for me, Zee Zee?”

  “Don’t call me that?” I said it so fast there was no stopping it. I needed a new tactic and thought of the accident. “Are you hurt?”

  Thompson laughed softly. He knew what I was doing. “It’s not my biggest problem right now, Zee —”

  In a flash, my knife was in my hand and in his face, an inch from his nose. His eyes turned inward to see the tip. No more words escaped his lips. I smiled, put the knife away, and winked. He knew I meant business, my point was made, though I felt bad about the move. Life lessons and training, each hardened me.

  I had no time for his games. I decided to lay my cards on the table and pray for mercy. “We are surrounded and you are the only one who can help us. Help me, please.”

  If I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes, I never would have believed it. Thompson looked remorseful. He turned his head to the side and looked at the zombies surrounding us and then he turned back to me. “There is still a chance that you will make it out of here alive.”

  “Tell me.”

  “Do you know sign language?”

  “No.”

  “My mother was deaf. We developed our own language.” He held up his right hand. I didn’t see the point, but indulged him. He bent his thumb down, holding up four fingers on his right hand. “This means mercy or please, as in ‘please help me or show me mercy.’ Do you understand?”

  “Yes.”

  “Make the sign for me.”

  “Help us survive, Thompson. You owe us that, damn it.”

  “Make the sign.”

  “Fine!” I made the sign.

  “Good, very good. That will come in handy real soon. As for your dilemma, the zombies are dying. It is happening at a slower rate than expected. They will eventually die out, but not before killing every man, woman, and child they can get their hands on.

  “I’m glad you found the water, it is a good deterrent, either fresh or saltwater will help you. They decay faster in the water, especially saltwater and you obviously know they can’t swim, so keep track of water areas. Never go in water that you can stand in, it has to be deep.

  “The stronger zombies are right here in the country and isolated areas, because they infect people slower. In the cities, infection is rampant and everyone left is converted by now. That’s good for you. Those zombies will be older and slower with weak skulls. With them, you only have to punch them in the head and destroy them. The danger is the new zombies; their scratch is deadliest. You can tell them by their eyes. At first turning, there is a light-red ring at the outer edge of the eye. Overtime it travels inward to the center and the whole eye turns red. The new ones are strong and have some intelligence. For a time, they speak and direct the others. They are fast and take longer to take down. They are the ones that require several whacks to defeat.

  “But not for you, my angel. I will help you out and tell you a secret. Hit them in the back of the head, about an inch from the center, it’s the softest point.”

  “You could have told us that before.”

  “You wouldn’t have brought me with you if I did.”

  “Yes, we would have, we don’t leave our people behind.”

  “Is that right, Zee Zee?”

  “Don’t call me that.” I reached for my knife again.

  “I’m only teasing. I like you, I thought you knew that.”

  “I think I’m a little too old for you.”

  “You are so stupid.”

  “What?”

  “It was always you, Zora. I went to the bedroom to steal a look at you. I wanted to watch you sleep. You looked so beautiful.”

  I wanted to say something, but with his confession, I felt like the biggest jerk in the world. This man sat and told me his secrets and I couldn’t find the words, I couldn’t say anything.

  “Brittany is undeniably beautiful, but you, you outshine her by a mile. If I had to pick one of you to save and one to leave behind, I would save you.”

  “Stop.” I couldn’t take much more of his honesty. “Is there anything more you can tell me about them?”

  He smiled. “Don’t get bit. It’s a killer.” He laughed.

  “I’ll do my best.” My blushing hit me hard. I laughed to play it down.

  “Live, Zee Z—”

  I pointed at him and gave him a don’t-you-dare look.

  “Could you tell an old man the problem?”

  I looked at him, debating whether to bare my soul. I thought it wouldn’t matter, he would be dead soon. “ZZ stands for Zombie Zora. I hate it. Some of the guys in my squad think it’s funny, I don’t.”

  His eyes told me he wanted to speak, but he remained silent.

  “I have a problem that causes me to freeze for a few seconds. It’s a hesitation I can’t control. They think I become a glazed-out zombie and tease me. I don’t think it’s funny, not one bit.”

  “I’ll be the first to apologize to you. You are the bravest soldier I have ever met. Do me one favor, promise me you will live.” With saddened eyes, he looked at me and the look touched me to my core. I can’t explain it other than to say we connected. “I remember watching a TV program and this guy said, ‘Live every day as though it was your last, someday you’ll be right.’ Zora, these are our last days and before you die, I want you to live and experience what is around you. There is still beauty and passion. I see it when I look at you. I hope you can forgive an old man a foolish fantasy. I wanted to touch your soft skin while you slept. Run my hand through your hair. One last touch before I die.” With that, he closed his eyes again. I felt bad for every bad thought I had about this man. And with God as my witness, if he hadn’t fallen asleep, I would have granted him his wish.

  Chapter Thirteen