ZOMB-POCALYPSE

Chapter Four

The zombie turns on me with snapping teeth; the sound makes my blood run cold. Being this close to it, I can smell the overwhelming odor of rotting flesh. It makes bile rise up my throat and into my mouth. The apocalypse only started yesterday. How are these bodies so rotten already? The random thought flips through my mind as the zombie starts coming after me with those terrifyingly slow shuffling steps. I hastily retreat a bit to give myself more space. I bring the golf club down again and again. My arm aches with the strain. Every time I hit its skull the impact reverberates up my arm. I pound away again and again, blood spraying off my club and hitting me in the face, until I crack a hole in its skull. The club squishes down into the zombie's half-rotted brain. The zed staggers, misses a step, and falls squarely at my feet. It looks dead, but I jump back away from it—just in case.

With the numbers evened a bit, Ryan finishes putting down his zombie. He runs to me and holds me at arm's length as his eyes rake up and down my body, looking for bites. "Are you okay?" he asks. He sounds winded.

"Yeah," I say, before turning away from him and vomiting into the grass. His hand pats my back. It's comforting, even though I kind of wish he wasn't seeing this.

I turn back to him, and he uses a torn piece of his sleeve to wipe at the blood splattered across my forehead. Thankfully none of it got in my eyes or mouth.

"That was a really brave thing you did. You saved my life," Ryan says.

I look down at the ground to avoid the intensity in his eyes. "Just another day in the zomb-pocalypse," I mutter, blowing it off, but I know it was a huge deal. He would have been dead.

"We should probably get out of here," Megan says, coming up behind us.

"Yeah, the noise will have attracted more," Ryan agrees. He pulls me into a quick hug. "Thanks again," he murmurs before heading off towards the ratty old pick-up truck.

I turn to the other two girls, my eyes pleading with them. They are staring after him too.

"Ryan...?" Abby surprises us all by calling out first.

Ryan turns and looks back at us.

"If you don't have anywhere else to go, why don't you come with us?"

Ryan grins and grabs his duffel bag out of the back of the truck.

"I thought you'd never ask." He gives an exaggerated wipe of his brow, and the three of us burst out laughing. It isn't even that funny. I think we're all just strung out on too much adrenaline. We each grab a box of supplies out of the back of the truck and transfer them into the Suburban as fast as we can. The pickup looks like it's on its last leg, and we don't even consider trying to salvage it.

Megan climbs into the driver's seat without even bothering to ask, and Abby climbs into the passenger seat, leaving me and Ryan to take the back.

"I won't miss that place," Ryan chimes in as we leave the house and twenty stinking corpses behind in a cloud of dust. All three of us girls agree wholeheartedly.

After the first few miles, Abby pulls out the map and consults it for a minute with Megan.

"So are you really just driving around aimlessly, or do you have a plan?" Ryan asks.

I meet Megan's eye in the rear view mirror. After a minute of intense girl talk with our eyes, she nods.

"Abby has a remote cabin by a lake in Illinois. We're going to try and head there. It's pretty isolated."

All three pairs of our eyes are on Ryan while he digests this information, I guess to see if we are crazy or if our idea actually has merit.

"Sounds like as good a plan as any," Ryan endorses the idea.