Zombie Drabble #269 “Dawn Of The Dead”

She was shivering as she stood on the roof looking out over the mall’s mostly empty parking lot. She heard his breathing before he slipped his arms around her. “Morning.”

“Morning. How’s it look?”

“Not many today.” She leaned over the edge a bit, to look down. Five zombies stared back up at her.

“Fewer every day.”

“That girl’s in a bikini. How far is the beach from here?”

He looked down for himself. “Hundred and fifty miles. Maybe she was trying it on?”

“Maybe.”

“You’d look pretty good in that.”

Dawn laughed, and turned and kissed him. “Too cold!”

Zombie Drabble #268 “Marriage Is Hard Work”

She glared at him from across the room, months of festering resentment coming to a boil.

Eventually he noticed. “What?”

“Don’t play dumb.”

“Hey, remember when we promised we’d never play those stupid games? ‘You know what you did’ and the rest of that crap? Remember that?”

“Remember when you said we should board up the house and wait for the army? That we had plenty of canned food? Remember that? Hey, have you noticed that this is the last fucking can of beans? And have you noticed the complete and utter absence of the army? And take a bath.”

Zombie Drabble #267 “Grizzly”

I finally realized, why the fuck am I shaving? Who do I need to be clean-cut for now? Everybody that ever hated my whiskers is dead; so I let them come in.

Lot more gray than I was really prepared for.

It’s a year’s growth now. I don’t even trim it with scissors. I look like a real mountain man, survival type, which I suppose is appropriate considering the way I live. Considering that I’m alive at all. Hell, I am a survival type. What does it matter that I used to manage a video rental store? I’m a badass.

Zombie Drabble #266 “A Spent Force”

Rick Flores was the first to give up. Sometimes it’s hard to tell complete surrender from the thousand-yard stare, but with Rick it was obvious: when it was time to bug out he just didn’t seem in much of a hurry to get away anymore. At least twice I had to pull him along to safety.

At the bridge we didn’t notice he wasn’t with us until he was fifty yards behind and surrounded. I keep telling myself we couldn’t have rescued him, not really. He would have found another way out, tomorrow, the next day. It was just time.

Zombie Drabble #265 “Restraint”

We keep Elsie tied up all the time now. Some days are better than others. We only have to tape over her mouth on the worst days, when she does nothing but scream and try to bite us. On the good days you can talk to her, small talk, nothing major. Say anything about zombies and a good day quickly becomes a bad day.

I can see how watching your dead father eat your mother alive could drive a teenager out of her mind. I don’t blame her. It’s amazing we’re not all like she is after what we’ve seen.

Zombie Drabble #264 “Long Term”

I was too upset to get my head around it. I was in shock. I had been sick myself, and had only just recovered. Jenny and the kids probably got it from me.

When they died there was already no police, coroner, anything. Everyone too was busy heading for the hills or dying or both. I used the backhoe to dig the graves and cover them, and then started walking.

I didn’t consider them eventually waking up again as zombies. I didn’t think about them trapped under all that dirt, starving and immortal. Now it’s all I can think about.

Zombie Drabble #263 “Character Study”

James Vivian Reed, of Juniper Falls. Five foot seven, maybe five eight when he’s feeling tall. Ran the auto-body shop catty-corner to the firehouse. Grew up tough on account of the middle name, you know how it is. Some days he doesn’t go out at all, other days he goes out even if he doesn’t have anything in particular he’s looking for. Has taken to collecting skin magazines when he finds them, and frequents the library and the little bookstore; after all, reading passes time. Doesn’t really bother with the deaders anymore, though he’s lost weight from all the fast-walking.

Zombie Drabble #262 “Overpressure”

Coughing, he stopped to try to figure out which way to go. Everything was on fire. His ears were still ringing, but he could make out the sound of far-off screaming.

“How bad do you think the radiation is?” Sharon asked, grasping his sleeve desperately, insistently, hands shaking.

He didn’t answer. From out of the office building across the street emerged a human form, fully aflame from the knees up. It staggered a few steps, spun slowly around off-balance, and fell motionless, continuing to burn.

“Do you think that was a zombie?” He asked. “I hope that was a zombie.”

Zombie Drabble #261 “You Can’t Go Home Again”

He stood and stared.

The sliding door was open, but the glass was still intact. It was open wide enough that the snow had drifted in and was nearly a foot deep well into the family room. Somewhere underneath was the carpet where he had once lain watching cartoons.

The others told him not to come, that he would find nothing good, that he was stupid to leave the safety of the walls. It had taken a year just to get here from New Mexico.

There were no bodies there, or answers. He sat down on the couch and cried.

Zombie Drabble #260 “A Moment’s Peace”

“Where are we?”

They had walked out of the trees and were by the side of a two-lane road. He looked both ways, straining his eyes. “I don’t know. Maybe state road 42? It doesn’t look like the interstate…”

She knelt on the verge and pulled out their map. “Get out the binoculars and see if you can see a mile marker.”

“There’s no mile markers. And have you noticed?”

“No cars. It must have been blocked off.”

It was strangely serene: an empty stretch of road, a clear day, no zombies anywhere.

“Well. Follow the road?”

“Sure. Which way?”

Zombie Drabble #259 “Off Her Diet”

I don’t know what to say to sis about Mom and Dad. We waited as long as we could. By the time we left they were eight hours overdue. If that was the whole story, I would just tell her; but then we saw them the next day while we were walking Route 3.

We saw Mom first. She was covered in blood from her mouth all down her front. At first we though she was alone. Finally we found their car, and Dad was still in it. Most of his right arm was missing, and part of his thigh.

Zombie Drabble #258 “At The Wall”

There were two guys on a platform that overlooked the wall, rifles on their hips. “You can just turn right around and keep moving.”

“Listen, we have three guns, a bunch of ammo—”

“Got plenty of both. What we don’t have a lot of is food. You got any food?”

“Not really.”

“Then we’ve got no use for you. The girls can stay, though.”

Cass and Margie were waiting in the shadows behind the treeline. The dude must have had great eyesight.

“No thanks.”

“Good luck then. I’d avoid Ridgeville.”

“Why?”

He just shrugged and they disappeared from the platform.