Zombie Drabble #72 “Four Stars”

Once he found a master key on what was left of the manager, he started going room to room. Most were in disarray. Some were still occupied. Those doors he shut as quickly and quietly as possible, before the zombies could wake completely from dormancy.

207 was empty, bed made, clean. If only the shower and toilet still worked…

He propped a chair against the door handle, just in case. His shotgun slept on one queen bed while he took the other. In an emergency he could climb down from the balcony, escape on foot, come back for the car.

SF Drabble #44 “We’ll Leave The Light On”

The front desk was unattended when he came down early  for the continental breakfast. The kitchenette was occupied only by stale bagels and instant coffee. They would have been poison to his system, even had they been fresh.

Some hotels wouldn’t even take aliens. It hadn’t been long enough for governments to pass anti-discrimination laws. It would be longer still before they did: how your average hotel would be able to convert rooms for any species that might conceivably walk through the door was anyone’s guess.

The bed had been comfortable enough, if the wrong shape. Humans are so tall.

Fantasy Drabble #20 “Okavango Juicing”

For a few weeks a year, the water flows down out of the hills and onto this dusty plain where Ker patiently awaits it. The dust covers his skin and hair, the flies dance around his head, but he pays these things no attention. Just before him, underground is the root, and when the water comes…

He will have to defend it when it sprouts, from being eaten or trampled. It will grow quickly, furiously, using as much water as it can. When it flowers, Ker will pluck and eat the bloom.

He will be immortal, invincible, for another year.

SF Drabble #43 “Outpatient Procedure”

It was the brightest room he had ever been in, and all the lights were focused on Roberto. He tried to control his nerves as he lay on the table. He’d read all the pamphlets and signed all the forms.

“All right, just relax. This won’t take a minute.” The doctor was clearly very casual about the whole thing. He was smiling and chatting with the nurses as he loaded the alien nanobots into the frighteningly large syringe. No anesthesia had been given: it would slow their travel through his bloodstream.

An hour from now his cancer would be gone.

Zombie Drabble #71 “Action Hero”

His time on that Sci Fi original series had been well worth it, even though the pay was miniscule. Firearms training for actors can be cursory or intensive, and theirs had been intensive. Plus, he’d learned some actual science: how to make explosives from household items, how to distill drinking water, stuff like that. Stuff that turns out to be very useful come the zombie apocalypse.

The weird thing is, the show he’d been on had nothing to do with zombies: it was a gritty post-nuclear drama kind of deal. But after all, one apocalypse is just like any other.

Zombie Drabble #70 “Listen”

The crackle and hiss of fire being squelched by rain. The patter of that rain on the metal roof of a backyard shed. The idling engine of a lawnmower choking and dying as it runs out of gas.

A far off scream. Sirens: police, fire, even civil defense. Sporadic gunfire. Bullets smacking into wood. Sliding glass doors shattering. Running feet slapping on wet pavement.

For a while, nothing but the sound of his own labored breathing and blood rushing past his eardrums.

Moaning. Hands pounding weakly on a door. The squeak of rusty hinges bending.

A grown man quietly sobbing.

Zombie Drabble #69 “Time Capsule”

Mrs. Wells has a routine. It is time tested and Good Housekeeping approved. Her apartment is immaculate. It has a faint but unmistakable scent of grandmother. Much of the day is spent dusting, tidying, making sure everything is just so. Later, she will prepare a brisket.

She will not go collect the paper, for there is none. She will not make any phone calls, because there is no one to call. The television’s blank channels will go unwatched. She will definitely not go to the window and open the blinds, as the zombies on the street below might see her.