Our Undead (12 page)

He snags her hair and pulls
down on it roughly. She would've let out a scream, but the whiplash
stifles it. In the blink of an eye, she finds herself in a
tug-of-war. Our zombie tries to pull her in closer so that he can
get a bite, and almost succeeds due to the element of surprise, but
in his current state, he is in no condition to overpower her.
There's no way he's going to be able to pull her over to him, but
now that he has her in his grip, he sure as hell isn't going to let
her go easy. The teenage girl pulls and tugs, but can't get free at
first, until she takes hold of our zombie's wrist for some
leverage. She clutches it tightly with both hands, and in one big
motion pulls the unrelenting wrist away from her hair and head,
throwing herself backward at the same time.

It's successful, but the
girl goes stumbling backward and accidentally lands too roughly on
her bad foot. She cries out in pain and drops to the floor, rather
than putting anymore weight on it. Out of breath and a bit shaken,
she looks up at our zombie. Sure, she had gotten out of his grip,
but he still hadn't let go. In his hand, he holds a decent chunk of
her hair. She sees it, and feels the top of her head for the bald
spot she knows has to have been created. When she finds it, she
exhales in exasperation.

LongBlondeHairedGirl:
(sighs)
Ass-
hole.

She gets up to her feet
while rubbing the sore spot on her head.

LongBlondeHairedGirl:
I guess you can't help yourself. You must be
pretty hungry.

His next growl is a
frustrated one. He was
so
close.

LongBlondeHairedGirl:
You must be hungrier than I am. Hungry for
braaaains, huh?

OurZombie:
Errrrraaaaawwggg!!!

LongBlondeHairedGirl:
Well, sorry bud, but you ate all the brains
around here.

OurZombie:
Mmmmrrrraaaauuuu!!

LongBlondeHairedGirl:
My brain?! No way. You had your chance at my
brain last night, and you messed it up. Like I said before, I may
have no hope left for this God forsaken world, but I'm damn sure
not helpless.

OurZombie:
Grrrrrrrrrr…

LongBlondeHairedGirl:
No, I don't have any brains for you…
but…

At that moment, an idea
pops into the girl's head, and she hobbles over to her duffel bag.
She takes out one of the large knives and looks it over. It's been
used before. She's seen it being used, but it's edge still looks
quite healthy.

Without looking back, she
heads for the front door, but before she leaves, she sees her
mother's soaking corpse lying beside the exit again. The sight
disgusts her so much, she decides to cover it up. She notices the
drapes hanging on the same window the carcass is sitting under, and
tries to pull them off with one hard tug, but fails. She tries
again, a big pull on the window drapes, but again, they don't come
down, so she must manually take each peg off of the rail that the
drape hangs on individually. When she finishes, she gets it down
and covers her mother's body, then picks up the knife and leaves
through the front door.

<><><>

Out amongst the trees, the
evening sun is in the sky. It's been a couple of hours now that she
has been in the wilderness, and we find the young one crouched,
hiding in a bush. She is out of breath and breathing deeply, but
each breath she takes is a silent one. Her face is sweaty and dirty
as she peers through the leaves of a bush, staring directly at
something with a penetrating focus.

Just beyond her sits a
brown forest rabbit. The little critter is completely unaware of
the no-longer-helpless girl hiding just behind it. Getting mentally
prepared, the girl mouths something to herself that looks
like,
"Come on, come on. This time. I got
you this time."
Then, as quickly as the
prey she is set out to catch, the desperate girl leaps out from
behind the bush and stabs downward with her large knife. A small
trickle of blood splashes up into her face, and she twists the
blade to finish the rabbit off.

By the time she returns to
the cabin, the sun is almost fully set. She enters through the
front door, and like clockwork our zombie starts up with the
growling and snarls.

LongBlondeHairedGirl:
Yea, yea, mommy's home.

She closes the door behind
her, and the dead rabbit in her hand is revealed.

LongBlondeHairedGirl:
And I brought you a little treat. Ya
see?

She holds the rabbit up by
the ears for him to see, then let's it hang by her side and walks
over to her duffel bag.

LongBlondeHairedGirl:
(whilst walking)
But before I give this to you, you have to do something for
me.

The big branch she had used
to break in the sickroom's window is laying beside her bag. She
picks it up.

LongBlondeHairedGirl:
You're going to have to
NOT
try to eat me
anymore.

He snarls at her viciously,
half-hearted.

LongBlondeHairedGirl:
Yeaaa, I know it's going to be hard for you, but
don't worry about that. I'm gonna train you.

She walks up to her
prisoner, rabbit in her left hand and big stick in her right, and
stops not just out of his reach this time, but a little further
back, putting her items on the floor. Then, she ties her hair up
into a bun.

LongBlondeHairedGirl:
You're gonna have to learn…

She picks her items back up
in their respective hands before finishing her
sentiment.

LongBlondeHairedGirl:
… who the boss is around here. Now… Let's
begin.

She leans her face within
the zombie's range, and he instinctively swings out to grab her.
She dodges it, and immediately gives him a swift blow across the
face with the big stick in her right hand. His head flings to the
right with the hit, but he isn't fazed long, and his attention is
drawn right back to the young girl. Next, she holds up the rabbit,
and puts
it
within the monster's reach. He swings for the rabbit as well,
but she doesn't let him have it. She merely pulls it away in time
so that he can't take it.

LongBlondeHairedGirl:
Cool, so you
are
into this stuff… Good. This
is what you'll eat from now on. Get it!?

He continues to try and get
the rabbit away from her until she returns it to her
side.

LongBlondeHairedGirl:
You'll get it… eventually.

Again, she leans her face
into our zombie's vicinity and again, she dodges him when he swipes
for her, following with another swift blow across the face. And
then, she puts the rabbit up once more. She dangles it in front of
our zombie's face, and moves it away before he can grab it. She
rewards him by not giving him a good smack.

LongBlondeHairedGirl:
Yea… Soon enough you'll get it.

She continues the process
for hours until she realizes that the sun has completely left the
sky. She doesn't realize right away because her eyes have been
automatically adjusting themselves to the dimming light, but the
inside of the cabin has become almost pitch black. The only light
is that of the moon, coming in from the front window. She puts her
face into our zombie's range one last time for the night. Again,
the zombie tries to grab her and again, the girl has to give him a
strong wallop with the stick. She sighs, tired, and frankly, a
little pissed off.

LongBlondeHairedGirl:
(sighs)
That's
enough for today.

Exhausted, she limps back
to her bag and takes out her blankets. She uses one as a pillow and
covers herself with the other. Before she lays her head down, she
looks back over to her trainee. He can hardly be seen through the
thick darkness

LongBlondeHairedGirl:
You've made absolutely no progress… but I'll
learn you. You better believe it. I'll learn you.

With that she rests her head down on her makeshift pillow and
drifts off to sleep. She lies with her body turned away from our
zombie, who growls and mouths off, without rest until
daylight.

WHAT'S IN A NAME?

The next morning, the young
girl with long blond hair is up and looking perkier than usual. She
sits meditation style by her duffel bag on top of one of the
blankets, eating one of her cans of Spaghettios with a fork while
watching our zombie, who is still fighting the good fight with his
jagged enemy of timber. If it wasn't clear enough before, it's
certainly obvious now that his energy is depleting.

LongBlondeHairedGirl:
(mouth full)
Mmmmm.. my God, I love Spaghettios. They might just be the
only good thing left in this world. You like Spaghettios?
Ooor…
did
you like Spaghettios?… Of course, you
must
have. Who couldn't love
this stuff!?

He moves back and forth in
the door at half-life while the girl continues eating.

LongBlondeHairedGirl:
Who are you anyway? How did you end up here? My
family and I had been here for days until you showed and messed it
all up… and there isn't anything around here for miles… except the
sewers… but there's no way you could've come from
there.

He responds, but in words
she can't understand.

LongBlondeHairedGirl:
Hmph, not talking huh? I'll just beat it out of
you later.

She takes another fork full
of Spaghettios and slurps some sauce up from the can into her mouth
to compensate for what the fork can't hold. She continues speaking
with her mouth full.

LongBlondeHairedGirl:
My name is Margaret…
(swallows food)
… Margaret
Sinclair. I huh, won't bother ask your name… But… maybe I should
give you one?

The zombie continues to
reach as Margaret takes another fork full of Spaghettios and a swig
of sauce.

Margaret:
Mmm! I think I know what I'm gonna call you. When I was a
little girl, about four or five, I had the cutest, tiniest little
Golden Retriever I'd ever seen. Ugh, seriously. It was disgusting
how cute this puppy was.

She swallows her food and
begins the regalement of her story.

<><><>

"
Mom told dad and I that one of her co-worker's dogs had a
litter of puppies, and she brought them to work that day to show
off and give away. I had always wanted a pet, and mom couldn't
resist the little guy when she saw him, so she "just
haaaaad
to bring him
home". Dad was a little apprehensive at first, but when mom put him
down and that little guy ran into my hands, dad saw how happy I
was, and he couldn't say no. I knew we could keep it for sure when
he asked me what I wanted to name it.

"I knew exactly what I
wanted to name it. Around the same time, I was obsessed with a
character on one of my favorite TV shows named Abe, a clown with
good intentions who always seemed to get himself into trouble, so
that
had
to be
it.
"Abe!"
I told
them. And from that moment on, we were pretty much inseparable.
That was, up until about four days later.

"One afternoon, Abe and I
were playing in the front yard. I was trying to teach him how to
fetch. He was still a small guy, couldn't even bite down on a
tennis ball yet, so I was using one of those super bouncy balls.
Not small enough for him to swallow and choke on, but not too big
that he couldn't get a good hold of it. It was fine, because it
couldn't bounce anywhere on the grass.

"He was kind of like you,
wasn't catching on to the idea very quickly. Every time I threw the
ball out and told him to fetch it, he'd just run over to it and
start gnawing on it and batting it around. I kept trying, but he
would never bring it back to me, and I would always have to get up
and bring it back myself. Abe would just follow me around,
frolicking around my heels, all happy-go-lucky like he didn't even
care to learn. It shouldn't have, but it was really starting to
annoy me, and on the next, "FETCH!", the anger I was feeling put a
little too much energy into my throw. I accidentally threw the ball
too far, and it landed on the sidewalk, bounced into the street and
came to a rest on the lawn of the house opposite ours. Not knowing
any better, little Abe went off running for it, and when he tried
to run across the street…"

<><><>

Margaret:
… he got hit by a car.
(takes in
a fork full)
I was devastated. I cried
for hours.
(swallows)
I remember my parents desperately trying to calm
me down, but it was no use.
(chuckles
thoughtfully)
Mom was even telling me
that she could just ask the lady from work for another puppy… but I
didn't want one… After seeing what the car did to Abe,.. to his
body… I couldn't risk losing another pet, and I've never had
another one since then.