Our Undead (25 page)

Margaret:
What? It's just Abe.

Billy:
I
just.. *belch*.. I… *belch* wanna be..

And then the inevitable
happens. He tries to turn his head away from her, but can't do it
in time, so Margaret ends up having to deal with getting spewed on.
He manages to keep it off of her for the most part, and she tries
to move away as much as she can, but it's unavoidable, and a bit of
puke does get on her shirt and arm.

Margaret:
Oh! What the hell, man!

She shuffles out from under
the car and gets to her feet. The poor clarity of the tunnel causes
her to have to reach around for Abe, and she grabs him by his
shoulder, shaking off her shirt in utter disgust and wiping the
filth from her arm on to Abe's already tattered shirt. Billy
shuffles out almost right after her and begins
apologizing.

Billy:
I'm
so sorry, Margaret. I couldn't take it anymore. But… at least I
feel a little better now.

Margaret:
I'm glad… I'm glad you feel better, Billy. I, on the other
hand, feel worse. Much worse.

Billy shines the light on
her and sees the girl still shaking the vomit off of her shirt. Her
arm is stretched out holding on to Abe's shoulder, but Billy
focuses mainly on her torso. She grimaces when the light makes the
dark green liquid on her shirt completely clear to her.

Margaret:
Ugh, God. You even got some on my leg.
Gross.

Billy:
Aw,
come on. It's not that bad. I'm sure you've been covered in worse
things over the last few weeks.

Margaret:
Not bad.. Psh… You're lucky you didn't have to hide under
there, my undead friend. How sweet is it that you don't have to run
and hide from your own kind. I, myself, wouldn't mind being
somewhere far away from this little human right now. Why is it dark
green?!

She continues complaining
and talking to Billy indirectly through Abe, while the boy shines
the light on the different parts of her body that have been
fortunate enough to come in contact with his vomit. He does what he
can to help her get cleaned off without actually touching her and
gradually brings the light up from Margaret's feet to her hips and
torso, then to her chattering face. Next, he brings the light along
the length of the arm she has resting on Abe's shoulder to prop
herself up, while she continues talking to the zombie about how
upset she is. When the light reaches Abe's face, Margaret is
shocked to see that it isn't even Abe she's been complaining to,
just some left behind stray.

Margaret:
JEEZ…

She shoves the zombie, and
it goes stumbling away, bumping into one of the many surrounding
cars. Billy is quick to draw his savage pocketknife, and he quickly
puts an end to the walker, then shines the light on Margaret
again.

Margaret:
Where's Abe? Abe?!

A brief scan of the area
with his flashlight, and Billy discovers that Abe is standing two
or three cars ahead of them. Instead of squinting, his eyes become
wide as the light passes over them.

Margaret:
Abe, what the hell, man?

Billy:
Ugh... Okay, can we continue now?

Margaret:
Yea, yea… You could've said something, you undead jerk. Just
standing there... Psh.

They continue on their way,
but not before Margaret gets one more taunt in at the imprisoned
business zombie. She gives him a goodbye tap on the car window and
follows Billy. They get through the rest of the tunnel fairly
easily. There are a few zombies stuck inside and in between cars,
but they are able to avoid most of them. Margaret finds it a much
worse experience than the cornfield. At least they had the light
from the moon when they were outside. Now, she's sure it's
daylight, but they can't see a damn thing. She feels like they're
deep underground, with only a small light as a guide. And sure,
they have the light, but sometimes it seems like the darkness is so
thick that it overpowers the little battery operated light source.
It's a most horrifying experience, but relief springs through them
when they see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Margaret:
Oh, God! Thank you, God! Thank you. Thank
you.

The sky has turned from
reddish gold to almost completely red.

Billy:
The
sun is setting. We should find a place to settle for the
night.

Margaret:
Good, cause that's what you promised me. I can't go much
further, anyway. This ankle is going to pop… So much for taking it
easy… What the hell is that?!
Look!

She points off into the
not-so-far distance, and Billy follows her finger to witness what
looks to be a large department store. A once famous chain, seen all
over the country, now, looking broken down and
abandoned.

Margaret:
That isn't a mirage, right? I mean, this isn't a desert, so
that
can't
be a mirage, right?!

Billy:
No.
No, I don't think that's mirage... Shall we?

Margaret nods in
affirmation and before long the three of them are standing in front
of the large building. Because of its size, it didn't look like it
was that far away from the highway, but the walk there was enough
to exhaust the two fleshlings all over again. They both look beat,
but Billy still stands with the resilience of a soldier.

Billy:
Hey, listen. You and Abe stay out here for a minute. I'm
going inside to give this place a quick look over. It'll be faster
and probably safer if I just do this myself. I'll be back in a few
minutes, all right?

Margaret:
(huffs)
Be my guest… But be
careful. We'll be right here.

Billy:
Right.

Billy enters the store, and
Margaret takes a seat against the wall beside the door, sweating
and breathing deeply. She doesn't say a word, and neither does Abe.
A few minutes go by and Billy pokes his head outside. Margaret
tiredly looks over to him.

Margaret:
All clear?

Billy:
Now, it is.

Her weary muscles struggle
to get her to her feet, so Billy rushes over to assist.

Margaret:
Thanks. I'm good. I can walk. I'm just
exhausted.

Billy lets her walk and
goes to hold the door open for her, and for Abe. They head
inside.

Margaret:
You've got blood on your arrows.

Billy:
Yea, there were some walkers in here. I got to have a little
target practice. No humans though.

Margaret:
(sarcastically)
Aw,
shucks.

The three of them enter the
department store. There are no lights on on the inside. The only
source comes from the large windows that blanket most of the
store's front. It gives the front area of the store and the
checkout lanes a pleasant shimmer, but the rays fade and die about
three quarters of the way up the product aisles. Margaret is in awe
of her surroundings and can hardly hear Billy explaining his
escapades of how he cleared out the store. A zombie he sniped here,
a zombie he sniped there.

Margaret:
You forgot one…

They stop in the store's
large main front aisle, and with one hand, Margaret yanks an arrow
out the skull of a dead zombie. Not once does she take her eyes off
of all of the material possessions that lay on the shelves in front
of her. These are things that she never thought she would see
again. She holds the arrow out, and Billy takes it.

Billy:
Oh..

As they walk down one
aisle, she gets an even greater perspective of what the store has
to offer. Billy had already run through them, but he never really
got to stop and take it all in. Before long, he too, becomes
entranced. Currently, they are walking down one of the food aisles,
and it is, for the most part, fully stocked with cereals, granola
bars, rice crispy treats, Twinkies and any kind of snack the trio
can think to have.

Margaret:
I think I'm gonna cry…

Billy:
Go
ahead. This is
pretty amazing. We should
consider ourselves extremely lucky.

Margaret:
Oh, my God... Spaghettios!!!

She takes off as fast as
she can, jogging with a glaring limp and comes to an awkward,
staggered stop at the back end of the aisle. When she gets there,
she cries out in jubilation. Billy and Abe catch up with her and
see that the shelf in front of her is fully stocked with
Spaghettios, but not just the original flavor. They have the
meatball flavor
AND
sliced franks. Margaret looks at Billy, and he is amazed to
see that tears have actually welled up in her eyes.

Margaret:
(sniffs)
Feast?

And then she witnesses
something that she has never seen before, the smallest smile on
Billy Tell's lips.

Billy:
Feast.

<><><>

Less than twenty minutes
later, Margaret and Billy are sitting in the back of Aisle 17, a
self constructed space just for them near the back left corner of
the store. They sit comfortably in beanbag chairs, surrounded by
boxes, and eating all the food they can handle, with all of the
equipment they need to eat it comfortably. They had found a
microwave in the home appliance section and a surplus of forks,
spoons and bowls. Margaret is currently face deep in a bowl of
Spaghettios and meatballs.

Margaret:
Oo know, ayi fawt dat cole paghettios werr gud eenuf buh,
vihs is juss heben.

Billy can hardly understand
her through the absurd mouth full of meat, sauce and pasta, but he
thinks he gets the idea. He agrees with her while chowing down on
some Pizza Bagels, his own favorite from his past life.

Margaret:
(swallows)
We seriously hit a
gold mind here. We can literally survive here for months.. maybe
even years, if we have to.

Billy:
Not
if we continue to eat like this.

Margaret:
Of course! We'll have to ration everything, but when we do,
we'll be able to stay here, hopefully until this whole thing blows
over.

Billy:
Don't be so delusional. You really think this thing is just
gonna blow over?

Margaret:
I
did
say 'hopefully'. Don't be rude. All I'm saying is that we can
stay here for a while.

Billy:
I
guess…

Margaret:
Why do I have the feeling that you're not as excited about
this as I am? You must understand what a rare gift this
is.

Billy:
Yes, I do, but… I still want to go to
Hollywood.

Margaret:
(scoffs)
Screw Hollywood. We're
in the Garden of Eden right now. We're surrounded by sustenance,
and you want to take a chance travelling all the way to
Hollywood?!

Billy:
This place may be your idea of Utopia, Margaret, but it's not
mine. You can stay if you want, but I'm still going to
California.

Margaret:
Ugh, but why? We have everything we need here. All we have to
do is reinforce the openings, blockade those windows for defensive
support, and we'll be fine.

Billy:
I'm
still going to California.

Margaret:
Billy, don't be stupid. Only an idiot would choose to go back
out there, and just leave all of this behind.

Billy:
Well then, I guess I'm an idiot.

The boy pops the last piece
of Pizza Bagel into his mouth, gets up and walks away. Margaret
looks at Abe and sighs.

Margaret:
It appears I have offended.

When Margaret finds Billy,
he is in the hunting section looking through the shattered display
case at a bunch of large knives. It had been messed pretty bad,
Billy expects, by people who were most likely looking for weapons,
but there is still a good amount and variety leftover. He slides
his fingers along the edge and tip of a serious looking bowie knife
as Margaret and Abe come to a stand at his side.

Margaret:
Hey guy,.. I'm sorry… I just… This is a great place isn't
it?

Billy:
It
is…

Margaret:
… What's so important in California?

Billy:
I
don't know… I've just always wanted to go there. I mean, I've been
there a few times with my foster parents on business, but it was
always touch and go. They refused to stay there because they said
it had nothing to offer me. It was just a place full of rats,
sharks and a bunch of 'crazies', they'd say. I'm not an actor, and
I never wanted to be one, but I've always been crazy… or at least…
to others I'm crazy. What better place for me to be than Hollywood?
I'm not going to be held back anymore.