ShowerKrogan

  I started banging on the door with both hands. I heard the gss break and her scream. I had boarded up the windows, but had the zombies somehow powered through that?

  “Hey! I’m here to help! Let me in,” I shouted and continued to hit the door so hard it was shaking.

  There was a soft click that signaled the deadbolt was unlocked, and I heard the doorknob rattle as the woman inside undid the lock on the doorknob. Honestly though, what was that lock going to stop that the deadbolt couldn’t?

  The door cracked open and I could see a single bronze-colored eye of the woman from the zombie attack peering at me.

  “Who are you?” She asked with a trembling voice.

  “The man from the drone, are you okay?” I said to her in my best reassuring voice I could muster, with adrenaline surging through me. It’s been an… exciting st few minutes. I didn’t hear any other movement inside, and I doubted she would stand by the door speaking to me if a zombie had broken through. “I’m going to get you out of here safely.”

  Becca: Sure. Just like all the other girls.

  Grayson: Shove it, robot.

  She inched the door open to let me in. The door creaked as if it were begging to be drenched in WD-40. Such a dirty door.

  “I’m not hurt, but I can’t say that I’m okay,” she said and scooted back to give me room. “You sound much less demonic in person.”

  “Thank… you? I guess? That comment makes me think I might need to check out the drone’s speaker,” I entered the apartment and looked her up and down fast enough to avoid being creepy but still able to check for any obvious injuries.

  She was thin, probably a bit malnourished, which is a common issue among survivors. Her hair was thick with curly locks, and an obsidian color with bronze highlights that matched her eyes. The look she gave me hinted that I was unsuccessful in not being creepy.

  Once I could see she was not hurt, I gave the apartment a quick look-over to check that nothing had changed since the st time I was here.

  The same ugly carpet sprawled across the entirety of the apartment; thankfully, some cheap tile was used for the kitchen and bathroom. Carpeted bathrooms should be illegal. Not that there was such a thing as legality at this point, with society having fallen and all that.

  The bedroom had an unmade king-size bed and a few ft pillows. I kept a change of clothes in the dresser, just in case. I wished I had some spare weapons stored here. I’ll need to make a note of that for ter.

  Grayson: Becca, remind me to stock this pce with some weapons.

  Becca: You know, Grayson, I feel you still don’t grasp my true capabilities. But fine, I will set up a reminder for next time to leave the facility. Maybe I will secure some advanced technological items for you to use for storing ideas and reminders.

  Grayson: That would actually be great, thank you for that!

  Becca: Adding sticky notes to the shopping list.

  I had no rebuttal. Clever girl.

  I noticed some… sensitive magazines were left open on the floor. They were already here when I cimed this apartment. I definitely didn’t bring them to the apartment from a gas station three blocks west after a scavenging trip on a rainy November evening.

  “I heard gss breaking when I knocked. What was that? I was worried a decayed got in somehow,” I said to her and tried to inconspicuously kick some of the more vulgar magazines under the bed. Their pages crinkled so loudly that I might as well have balled them up in my hands and thrown them at her. I had assumed they would be too stiff to crinkle at this point.

  Look, I’ve basically been on my own for six months in an apocalypse, don’t you judge me! Becca does that enough for everyone.

  “Your sudden knocking frightened me, and I dropped the mp I was holding. I wasn’t actually expecting you to show up and just knock on the door,” she said and walked over to the futon and picked up a piece of sky-blue gss as proof.

  That was a decently sized piece of broken gss; I might as well grab it since I have no other weapon. I probably wouldn’t cut myself.

  “Sorry about that, everything was happening fast. I’m Grayson, by the way,” I offered my hand for her to shake.

  She stared at it, and I could see her face tense up. She had been through it, but we all had at this point. Eventually, she rexed her face and grabbed my hand.

  “I’m Sadie,” she said.

  “Nice to meet you, Sadie. Well, as nice to meet you as it can be in our situation,” I said and started shifting through pieces of gss to search for another one I could use with the lowest chance of hurting myself.

  “Yeah. I appreciate you coming to help, but, um, not to be rude… but why? And what’s the pn?” She asked and watched me examine the gss shards with a skeptical stare.

  “Right. Well, I showed up in some specialized armor to kill all the zombies and have an easy you back to my secured facility. But it broke while I was out there. I barely made it inside,” I said and found a piece that felt solid enough to grip without risking it breaking further. I might only get one use out of it, but better than nothing.

  “Specialized armor?” Sadie asked.

  “Yeah, it’s why I'm dressed in this weird, almost skintight bodysuit. This is not a fashion statement; it works with the armor for better control. It’s a lot to expin. I’ll let Becca handle that when we’re back at base,” I expined and fshed a dazzling smile. Well, based on her expression, I’m guessing my smile isn’t as dazzling as I had thought. Holy confidence killer, Batman.

  “Yeah, okay, that sounds complicated. Who is Becca?” Sadie said.

  “The AI that lives in my brain,” I replied.

  “Right… of course,” Sadie started eyeing the windows of the apartment to see if any offered a quick way out.

  “Why don’t you let me carry your bag for you? That way you can focus on not getting bitten,” I said and reached out with the non-gss shard-holding hand.

  Sadie hugged her bag and gave it a strong squeeze, then turned her back to me.

  “No! You’re just going to take the bag and then kill me!” she said.

  “First off, if I were going to do that, then I would just kill you and take the bag,” I said, a little annoyed. I didn’t charge into a group of zombies just for a bag that, as far as I know, was filled with crap supplies. “Second, I didn’t bring any weapons.”

  She turned halfway to examine me. I dropped the gss shard and held up both hands to show I had nothing.

  She pointed at the yellow liquid attached to my hip. “What’s that gun-looking thing then?”

  How did I want to phrase this? I wanted her to trust me, but I couldn’t go around telling everyone I met what we had created.

  “It’s a type of medicine we can inject if we get hurt and need to stop excessive bleeding for a short period of time. It’s not perfect, but it’s better than nothing in an emergency,” I said and tapped the injection gun at my side a few times. “I have nothing besides that.”

  Sadie scoffed at me and said, “What kind of idiot is running around outside without a weapon?”

  Becca: I like her.

  Grayson: Knock it off.

  Becca: Tell her I said, "Sick burn, queen."

  Grayson: Shut up, Becca! I can still find those magnets!

  I took a moment to swallow down the… polite response I had prepared for Sadie. We could mock each other ter. “I had the armor, not a lot of room to bring… look, it doesn’t matter. We need to go. The zombies are beating down the door. They have a few brainiac zombie things with them as well, and a horde showed up while I was out there. The apartment is secure enough, but the front door won’t hold forever against the sheer number of them.”

  “What’s a brainiac?” She asked and let her guard down to fully face me.

  “It’s a category name I’m trying out. We have those gross-looking zombies with decaying skin; I call them simply the 'decayed'. They’re slower and more cssic zombie movie style. Then there’s the cleaner-looking zombies that seem to be a lot faster, stronger, and, more importantly, smarter. So, brainiacs. Plus, DC can’t sue me now.” I’ve found a few different zombie types during my time monitoring the apocalypse. But this was not the time for my dissertation.

  “You’re kind of weird, aren’t you?” she said to me and smiled a little.

  Becca: Totally. He talks to himself, too.

  Grayson: That’s it. You’re grounded. We’re not watching anime tonight.

  Becca: Noooooooooo! DarthVaderNo.gif.

  “It’s probably the reason I’ve stayed alive this long. You ready to move?” I said to her and grabbed my gss shard off the floor.

  “Where are we going and how are we leaving?” She asked and unzipped the rge part of her bag. She pulled out a machete wrapped up in a sheet, used as a makeshift cover. She unraveled the sheet and let it fall to the floor, then swung her bag over her shoulder. I guess she was set on carrying it herself.

  “I’m staying in a secure facility about three miles away. It will be a bit of a run, but hopefully we won’t be followed and don’t need to run the entire way. It’s protected with a steel wall and has its own electricity and water,” I said.

  At the mention of electricity and water, her eyes lit up like a house that tried way too hard with Christmas lights. I could really see the bronze color in her eyes when they were that wide open; it was such a unique eye color. I wanted to ask about it, but that’s another thing that needed to wait.

  I continued on, “we’ll need to head out the same way we came in. At least we’ll be able to see if the alley is clear before climbing down the dder. It will be difficult, but we need to move slowly and remain as quiet as possible. If we’re lucky, the zombies will stay focused on the front of the apartment until we’re far enough away."

  “Is… is she…” Sadie struggled to form a sentence to ask about the other woman.

  “What is left of her is still there. Try not to look; it’s not a pretty sight. Zombies leave behind a gruesome-looking body when they eat. I’m sorry for your loss, and this sounds awful, but you need to forget about her until we’re safe. Survive the ‘now’, so you can mourn her ter,” I said and grimaced at my words. It’s not great in any situation to tell someone to forget their friend who was eaten by zombies in front of them, but she didn’t have a choice.

  Sadie nodded and wiped a tear from her eyes. “Thank you for letting me know.”

  She unleashed a powerful exhale and nodded at me to signal she was ready.

  “Stay close,” I said and led her out of the apartment.

  I climbed out of the window on the third floor to get a full view of the alley. I could hear zombies still shuffling around and banging against the door of the apartment building, but the alley was empty besides the zombies' earlier meal.

  “Before we get out there, tuck your hair into your shirt or something. Minimize what can be grabbed while we’re running,” I said to Sadie, who immediately complied, stuffing her hair into the back of her shirt. It was better than nothing. We’ll go over more zombie survival tips in orientation back at base.

  I went down the dder first, softly pcing each foot down before adding any weight. Sadie followed my lead, and we made it down to the top of the dumpster without alerting any of the zombies.

  We slid off the dumpster and I tiptoed my way to the edge of the building and peeked out. Thankfully, a chunk of the zombies had wandered off to search for a meal elsewhere, but a group of fifteen remained.

  They all looked like decayed versions of the zombies. Plus, the wedding dress zombie. She was leaning back with one foot against the wall by the front of the apartment. She seemed more bored than actively looking for someone to eat. I guessed the two brainiacs from before were still pounding away at the apartment door. Those two might be able to run us down, but with a head start we should be fine. The rest of the decayed would be too slow.

  I could feel Sadie pushing against my back as she tried to get a look around the corner too. We suddenly heard a growl from behind us. We both looked back to see the woman from before dragging herself across the ground toward us. That was a fast zombification! I had thought the zombies ate too much of her for her to come back as one of them.

  I felt Sadie stiffen as she watched her friend dragging her way across the ground, leaving a red trail on the concrete behind her.

  “No,” Sadie whispered to herself and put her free hand over her mouth.

  Then the new zombie snarled at her and sent Sadie into a panic. She screamed and tried to run, but collided into me and sent us both to the ground. We ended up sprawled out on the sidewalk with all the zombies that were waiting for us now locked onto their next meal.