No Zombie for a Neighbor - 2C

No Zombie for a Neighbor
Day Two
Part Three: A Desire for Rest

Al was a big man. I really did not fear for him when the zombie ran into the door, but for the door itself. It was not a heavy slab of wood, but only thin panels of material over a frame. Luckily, just as with the front of the store, the zombies did not know how to set their weight for maximum force. Those out front only pounded with no more force than shoppers hoping to enter to become the first to gain access to a big sale. The one in the room behind ran into the door like one who did not realize the barrier was present. Thus, while a good force did become applied, it was not one that either the door or Al could not handle.

I must also give myself credit for handling the situation. It did scare me, but I did not run, simply stand screaming, or do some other stupid act. The force upon the door did momentarily push Al back, so the one already attempting to pass probably could have entered. I however struck it My action helped prevent the situation from becoming bad.

One of the problems with being small was that I lost control of a situation rather quickly. I thus had to maintain my ground while accepting that I would probably have to give up certain things. I did have brothers, so found myself picked on rather often growing up. Dealing with them taught me some things. I learned others, and in becoming a woman I found that I did gain some power over men. I could not truly prevent them from having access to my body, but I could manage some limit to a situation. I found that while I had to look up to men and worry about their strengths, they would respond according to my will. Not all men thought the same, and having to compete with other women sometimes disrupted my plans. To retain control I learned that I could not back down to direct threats, which was the proper line of thought in dealing with zombies.

Al praised me upon realizing that the third zombie was now a corpse. I was proud of myself as well, but hearing his words did cause me to smile. Both of our positive expressions however dropped as the woman showed no appreciation of our success.

“Good, we can go now.”

I had not yet moved my step-stool, so the lady had to move around it and me with me speaking to her as she did. “Go where?”

“Home. I have children.”

I probably would have said the same thing Al did, but I registered the coldness of the words as he spoke. “Go ahead. I wish you well.”

I guess that the woman understood the tone as well, as she did stop to ask, “Where are you going?”

“In a way, home as well. Livonia does have a mother nearby, but mostly we are just attempting to establish some place of food and safety until this nightmare is over.”

The look on the woman’s face had me believing that she was going to make some racial remark, but she did not. “Well, I wish the two of you well, but I need to be there for my children.”

I had listened to the news broadcast the night before, so said, “They were in school.”

“What?”

“They were not at home when this happened, but at school.”

It took a moment for the lady to understand what I said, but then fear registered upon her face as she exclaimed, “Oh, my God.”

She rushed through the back of the building. Al followed, I guess to take on any additional zombies that might be present. There were none, but the three man-friends had locked the door to the back of the store. Al made certain to lock it back after the lady left.

He turned back from the door to say, “I guess that we are going to meet all types.”

I actually liked that statement from him. My face might not have shown it, but after hearing it I could only think about having sex with the man. Truthfully, the disarray around me caused me to instead sound as if I was rather displeased.

“We cannot simply leave the bodies there.”

“I wrapped the ones in the toy store in costumes, then placed them in the dumpster out back. I will probably use clothes here for the same purpose, although I am going to wait to assure things are quiet first.”

“We could both use a change of clothes.”

Al began lifting things, and he looked at the clothes as he did. “I don’t know if they have anything my size.”

He was not that big of a man, although I spoke to let him know that I thought positively about his size. “Well, I will need to undress, so we might as well have sex.”

“Okay.” I then saw a strange expression come to his face as he said, “Come here.”

“What?”

“I will undress you.”

Wondering if there was a kinky side to the man, I asked, “Why?”

“Because I don’t want you to think that this is just an act. I want you to know that I do indeed want you. I also want to feel that you are doing it willingly.”

I did move to him as I said, “Oh, I am willing enough.”

“I’m glad. Carol was always afraid of getting pregnant. We had plans for a life after college with her wanting a career besides becoming a mother.”

“I would rather be a young mother than an old mother. Having a child suckle a flabby boob just does not sound pleasing.”

We spoke some more as we did our thing. I learned that Al had started college enrolled in a pre-med curriculum, although had switched to only chemistry. Carol also enrolled in pre-med, and had pulled in the grades to continue. That caused Al to become the one needing to find a job to provide financial support. They both had parents that would support them for the first four years of college, although knew that they would need a life of their own afterwards. I really had no plans. My job at the coffee shop was not great, but it was enough for me to manage. I hoped to find a man, but no relationship so far had shown any sign of lasting. Al might be a white guy, but I liked what he said and enjoyed what he did.

Again there was no full bathroom in which to clean up. There were some beauty products, but nothing that I considered reflected my tastes. The woman and the zombies I killed were all white people, so I used what I found feeling that the scents would please Al.

By the time I was done, he had wrapped the zombies and dumped them behind the store. He mentioned seeing the walking dead, but only at a distance. We both commented on the woman possibly pulling the zombies from the immediate area.

I saw his eyes go up, which caused me to ask, “You planning on again using the roof?”

“Uh, yeah, but I also think it might rain.”

“That should have the zombies looking really bad in the morning.”

“It would be nice if it causes them to melt.”

We both turned with alarm upon hearing explosions. Neither of us had any idea what to do. I moved to Al simply because I had been able to trust him with my life so far. We however stood as idiots in the middle of the room unable to decide upon a place to hide or even if we should hide.

I had been waiting for the planes to come, but these explosions did not sound like bombs. Instead of one loud boom, the intensity of the sound came from I thought to be a multitude of explosions. They also did not sound close. Instead of the military finally taking action, I gained the idea that some fools had found some dynamite and used it for some plan.

Al identified what I stayed silent waiting to hear. “No one is cheering. I would bet that they did not even kill a hundred zombies.”

I mentioned my own desire. “Where is the military?”

“Oh, we don’t want them. We might not be downtown – downtown, but we are close enough to be in the blast of a nuke.”

Not the response that I expected, but I did consider the words to be true. That caused me to reconsider looking for hope from others. Just as others were using bombs, I felt that more powerful weapons could be an advantage. If anyone would have those, it would be the military, so I spoke again in favor of our soldiers.

“They have other weapons.”

“You don’t need special weapons to kill a zombie. Any good blow to the head works. The problem is that one mistake and you become a zombie. Also, there are more zombies out there than there are bullets.”

I remembered things that Greg had said. He had a gun, but he also had no more bullets for it. He also mentioned that the sound of the gun would attract zombies. I thus thought about those that had set off the explosions. They probably were not cheering because they were now being forced to fight for their lives. I listened for the sound of gunfire, but heard none. I guess that they had been reduced to fighting with crowbars. I thus worked to remember other things that might help.

Al could not find an exit to the roof. He thus moved to the refrigerator to see if any food was available. It was all salads with no sign of meat. He grumbled about the selection, but did not say anything caustic about vegetarians or about those who worked in this store. He simply piled up clothes that did not fit our size or choice of fashion to make a soft spot to lie down after eating some baby food spaghetti and a helping of salad.

We did not have sex, but he simply went to sleep. I guess that he was feeling stressed. I was as well, although thought of sex as a release. I might not have enjoyed it, but felt that I would have been less tense after going through the act.