Rolling Apocalypse

The glass continued to crack as the mad men pounded on the glass separating the patio from the interior of Scallywags. For an elongated moment, the cluster of patrons and employees eyed each other with fear filled faces until the woman who had just lost her friend outside yelled, “We have to do something.”

Breaking their way in

“Yeah, but what?” the bartender said.

“Maybe we should just make a break for our cars through the front,” Will suggested.

“As long as you’ll cool with some of us not making it,” Jack said. “Who knows what’s out there? The cops could be moving in to help us. I would hate to have people die when this whole thing could be wrapped up in a few hours. We’re safer as a group where we can defend ourselves!”

Rollie spoke up. “But if they break through the glass this place won’t be too defendable.”

As if his words brought forth a curse, the first window shattered in a rain of jagged shards. Most of the women let out screams, but Jack was quick to act. Snatching up a table, he threw it at the pair of blood soaked freaks already lumbering into the bar. This toppled them over. Then, instead of fleeing, Jack attacked them with his chair leg.

Jack

He kept smashing one in the head until it final stopped moving, but the other had gained its feet, while behind it, a full dozen followed the first two into Scallywags.  

“Come on!” Will yelled. “He needs help.” Rollie’s boyfriend grabbed up a chair and rushed forward smashing the one approaching Jack’s back.

Watch your back

Rollie still possessed the chair leg Jack had given him and joined his lover near the carnage, but almost as soon as he had, he wished he hadn’t. Blood covered people of every age and size tumbled in at them. A woman, wearing a shirt full of pictures of fat tomatoes, growled as she came stumbling toward him.

Hitting a sick person went against everything he believed in. Will screamed something at him, be the words didn’t register. She drew in closer and he could smell the blood on her.

Then she clawed at him. He might have cried out and went to push her away, but, she had a hold of his shirt. It was the sight of two larger freaks moving in behind her that snapped him into action.

With another yell, he smashed forward with his makeshift club.

She acted like she hadn’t felt a thing.

The others were almost upon him.

With a louder shout, he put everything he had into the next blow. No one would have been more surprised than he, when she toppled to the ground with a dull moan.

Will grabbed him from behind. “Come on!”

Jack yelled to the bartender. “Take everyone backstage!”

An ear piercing scream tore at his ears and Rollie saw a madman had made it past them and grabbed one of the women. This helped convince the others to retreat up onto the stage.

The dying woman sadly aided them, for Rollie, Will, Jack, and Steve made it to the stage safely. For a moment the men took in the grizzly feast and only their loud gasping for air competed with the grizzly tearing of flesh below.

Feasting

Jack addressed them. “There are still a lot of supplies we could gather in case we need to lock ourselves into there for the long haul. I only see about ten on those fuckers and they’re all screwed up. I say we take them out and then grab some food and water. Who’s with me?’

Check in every Saturday for a new chapter in the Eternal Aftermath!

You can explore more of the Eternal Aftermath here!

Bouncers, Babes, and Breaking Glass

As soon as the four men had made it through the doorway, Sammy slammed the patio door shut. An audible click sounded over their panting and for a long moment they all eyed each other while they tried to catch their breath.

A wet slap jarred them back to reality when the man Rollie had fought pressed his bloody body against the door’s window.

“What the hell is going on?” Will demanded.

Jack looked up from where he sought to bind Diamond’s arm with a table napkin. “We’re in serious trouble. That’s what’s going on!”

Rollie only noted the woman he had helped rescue when she started talking. “My friend. He ate my friend. He ate HER!”

“I don’t have time for this,” Jack began, but when the other waitress rounded the corner, he said, “Raquel, take care of this woman.”

“Shouldn’t we make sure the front door is locked,” Will asked.

Strings of Raquel’s raven hair had already tumbled from her pony tail. “I already did when Sammy told me to.” She tried to comfort the woman, but she had broken into a high pitch keening.

“What about delivery doors?” Will asked.

Jack eyed Will who looked pretty determined despite his pink shirt and silly mohawk. A second later, he tossed Will a set of keys. “The bartender’s name it Andy, Get him to help you. Lock them up and then bring anyone in Scallywags back here.”

“Shouldn’t we just go home or something?” Sammy said.

Jack moved away from his moaning partner. “How many people do you have to back you up there? How secure is it? How much food do you have?”

“I…”

“At least we have food here.”

Rollie spoke up. “What are you talking about? Sammy’s right. If there was some sort of chemical spill nearby, we should get away from here before we end up like him.” Rollie pointed back at the man banging on the window, but took a step further into the restaurant when he saw that two more hulking forms had joined the madman out there.

“Do you know of any chemical plants around here?” Jack asked while wiping blood onto his jeans. “For all you know you could be heading into more of a mess than you’re leaving.”

“So what we’re going to get all post-apocalypse in here?” Rollie asked as the much bigger man stared him down.

Jack answer was to put his foot through the seat of a wooden chair.

Rollie jerked back and then flinched when Jack tossed him a club sized chair leg.

The bouncer said, “I heard what Sammy said about not being able to reach to police.”

“Yeah, I’ve been trying too,” Raquel said, “and it’s not working.” The women with her had started to calm down and listen to what the others said.

“That means it’s not just happening here,” Jack said. “I’m not telling anyone what to do, but,” he jerked a thumb toward the door, “I wouldn’t be in a big hurry to go back out there until we learn a lot more about what is going on.”

 

Will returned to the dining area with the bartender and five other people. Only one was female, a skinny mouse haired girl who clung to her big boyfriend’s arm. Her boyfriend spoke first. “I’m Steve and this is Zoe. We heard screaming. Now the front door is locked. What the hell is going on?”

“We’re trying to figure that out,” Jack said.

Then Rollie heard a cracking. His head jerked back toward the patio. “Look out! They are breaking through the glass!”

Check in every Saturday for a new chapter in the Eternal Aftermath!

You can explore more of the Eternal Aftermath here!

Zombie Apocalypse Day One

Rollie remained uncertain as the woman who’d been dragged onto the sidewalk burst into a high pitched scream, which competed with the giant bouncer who already missed bitefuls of his arm.

“What the hell’s going on?” Will yelled, as he tried to pull the man in the blood splattered suit away from Diamond.

At the door

The other bouncer, Jack, took a more direct path and smashed the man straight in the face with the heel of his boot. This knocked the psycho away from the bleeding black bouncer, but the man in the suit still wouldn’t stay down.

But Rollie became distracted by Sammy’s yells for help. While the three men stayed busy with the freak in the suit, this new madman had already all but killed the woman on the sidewalk. Her friend hit the prone man with a wooden chair, but it didn’t keep him from drawing another mouthful of flesh away from the screaming woman’s face. Rollie winced, but ran toward the conflict.

As he passed Sammy, he yelled, “What about the cops?”

“I can’t get through. The lines are busy!” She yelled.

“Isn’t that supposed to be impossible?” he said, but then had more immediate problems. The woman with the chair hadn’t been able to accomplish much other than get the flesh craving murderer’s attention and the blood soaked man, lurched to his feet and stumbled toward her. The woman let out a scream and fled.

With a moan, the killer’s eyes moved, locked onto Sammy, and he headed her way.

He’s coming for you

“Sammy, run. Lock the doors, but let us in when we’re ready, please.” She nodded and took off.

The murderer’s clumsy body had been slowed by climbing over the small wall that separated the courtyard from the street and Rollie wondered if some sort of drug could have fried their brains or maybe it was a chemical spill. Soon, however, such speculation got dismissed, for the man’s milky eyes locked onto Rollie’s and it headed his way.

“Son of a… Now what the hell am I going to do?”

Looking around for a weapon didn’t help much, but a few potted plants decorated the area and a large circular serving tray lay on the waitress bar. He picked up a large potted plant. “I hate to do this—oh screw it. You just ate a lady’s face.” The plant went flying, but Rollie had never been much of an athlete and it only clipped the guy’s shoulder. The second one landed in the center of the bastard’s chest and sent him sprawling, but he didn’t remain down long. With a groan, it came after him. Rollie could also hear more screams echoing in the strip mall past the restaurant and wondered how many people might be going mad.

Zombie Mailman

The crazed man rushed at him and Rollie had just enough time to pick up the serving tray and hold it before him like some sort of third rate shield. The man’s face was coated in blood and it glared and snapped at him over the tray. It fought against him with an insane fury. Rollie started to whimper as he was pushed back against the outer wall of Scallywags.

Suddenly the man was pulled away from him and flung over a table. Will looked over at him, “Quit fooling around.”

“Fooling around…” he stuttered. “I was trying-”

“Just come on!” Jack shouted. “Whatever the hell they are, there seems to be more.” Jack helped his wounded co-worker, while his other hands fumbled for his keys.

Looking back over his shoulder, Rollie saw two things. The first was the man in the suit, who no longer moved. His blood froze and he hoped that Will hadn’t helped kill someone. But the second was what appeared to be another three figures stumbling and moaning like the man before him who had already regained his footing.

Wet Zombie

“Come on, buddy,” Will said, guiding him toward the door into Scallywags, “I know you have a big heart, but I think these people just want to eat it.”

Jack was still fumbling for his keys when Sammy opened the door. A moment later the four men had rushed inside.

Check in every Saturday for a new chapter in the Eternal Aftermath!

You can explore more of the Eternal Aftermath here!

Insane

Rolling Trouble

An older woman glared at Rollie as she passed the outdoor seating at Scallywags. He was used to such things when he went out with his boyfriend. It probably didn’t help that Will wore a bright pink shirt and had his hair spiked up in some sort of slacker Mohawk.

Skallywags

“You see how she looked at me?” Will joked. “You know she was mad because she wanted some.”

Will

“I think she looked like she wanted was a super big pair of channel-locks to pull that bug out of her-”

“You want something else, Rollie?” Sammy asked. He’d known Sammy for a while and she always made sure he had anything he needed whenever he had enough money to treat himself to a trip to his favorite place.

 

“You want another round?” he asked.

“Maybe, but I might want to shift gears.”

Sammy tried to smile, but he could tell she was beat. “What’re you in the mood for? Wine or maybe a mixed drink?”

Will looked over at him with a wicked grin.  “Let’s do some shots.”

“It’s not even five yet,” Rollie laughed, “I think-”

A shout interrupted him. “What the,” Sammy said.

Will had already bolted up from his chair. “It’s that old lady. Some dude is grabbing her.”

Rollie’s gut reaction would be to say, ‘screw her,’ but he knew his knight in shining armor wouldn’t let it go. He finished his beer, because with the way these things tended to go, he might not get a chance later.

Turning, he saw a man in a business suit grabbing and pulling at the woman who had scowled at them. 

“Leave me alone,” she cried.

Then, after a savage pull, the man leaned forward and bit her neck. Rollie just stared for a moment, but when his mouth came away with a huge bloody piece of her neck, his pint glass slid out from between his fingers and shattered on the floor.

Bloody Business Suit

He still starred, but Will had already sprinted toward the fight. Rollie had barely left the courtyard by the time Will had reached the man’s side and pushed him hard enough to knock the guy off his feet. 

But the woman had lost her footing as well and lay on the pavement moaning. Rollie figured Will could handle himself, so he ran to help the woman. She didn’t look good. His gut told him she wouldn’t be making it. He applied direct pressure anyway and screamed toward Sammy. “Call 911!”

His eyes looked toward Will again and he saw that the man he fought refused to stay down. Will pushed him away again and again, but no matter how much abuse he took, the man kept coming. Rollie almost lost his lunch when the man opened his flesh filled mouth and growled.

Two bouncers showed up. One’s name was Jack, but the big black guy was new to him. Jack stopped by Will side and drew him back. “Let Diamond handle this.”

The man, Diamond, crashed into the red mouthed man and slammed him against a brick wall, but Rollie looked back toward Sammy because she was screaming.

First Zombie

Rollie saw that a man had leaned over into the courtyard and had attacked a pair of women and one was being pulled onto the pavement by her hair. But as soon as he looked that way, his attention was drawn back to the men, for Diamond shrill scream now competed with the others. Rollie looked on in horror as the suited man went in and took a second bite out of his arm.

To be continued next Saturday.

You can discover where Rollie entered the Eternal Aftermath Here!

They are coming to get you Rollie

A Shameless Plug or Jack Primus faces the Eternal Aftermath, and with the help of Skinjumpers, fights Dalsala Den

Collapsing Shack Arizona: This week, in a hope to increase book sales, I have taken it upon myself to interview America’s newest hero as he takes on his most difficult challenge yet.

When I caught up to him, Jack Primus put down his brain splattered sledge hammer just long enough to say, “I hope you’re all getting a kick out of this. I have to face the villains from not just my world, but three others as well; just to help Michael D. Griffiths make some books sales. It might sound good for the author, but being forced to fight cyberpunk undead Xemmoni that come from an evil filled planet of high magic really sucks when you are on this side of the pages.”

Jack With an Axe

When I pointed out that selling more copies might mean he would get to be in more books, Jack said, “Hell, I’m already in a few books, loads of artwork, and a weekly blog, but what good does it do me? Oooo I get to get beat up more often.”

When the swarms of zombies that surrounded him grew closer, he thrust an axe into my hands and said, “I’m not even from a world of zombies. I hate zombies, they remind me of my first girlfriend. But now I’m stuck fighting them just to help promote my author’s Zombie Apocalypse series, Eternal Aftermath. Does he care that I’m not even in that series…? No!”

Zombie March

After we cut down enough zombies to give ourselves some breathing room for a moment, I asked him about the allies that he fought side by side with. “These Skinjumpers are the only silver lining to this whole mess, but these high tech cloned heroes brought their own cyber powered villains with them. Do you know how much it blows hitting some guy with a sledge hammer who you think is just a normal dude, but then find out he’s made of solid metal. My fingers are still numb from the last impact. And if you’ve never been hit by a laser, let me tell you something, IT REALLY SUCKS! I almost rather be bit by a zombie. Yeah, if it wasn’t for that whole plague thing. By the way, looks like you were bit. Sorry fella, but I guess I’ll be your last interview.”

I was starting to fell a little light headed, but managed to spit out a question about Dalsala Den. “Yeah, that high level magic using a-hole is the worst of the lot. I thought I had things bad on my world. Shit, I’d rather fight Vile Darken than that guy. I had a group of cops here helping me, but he turned half on them into solid ice and the other half became… crawdads. He says he wants to take over this planet. Well line up scum bag. I wish there was some way I could just let them fight against each other… and… kill… themselves… off. Hey, let’s light that trash on fire and use the smokescreen to go grab ourselves a few ales.”

Even though I was starting to bleed from my eye sockets, I agreed as long as the first round and the cheese steaks were on him.

Get started on some of my Fiction Here!

Get more Comedy Here!

The Climax of Mar's Eternal Aftermath... Three students, Hordes of Zombies, and a Rapist.

“Get them,” Pritch yelled as Mar and Cindy dashed into the back room of the house. Mar saw a door leading outside and just kept running. Reaching it, she quickly scrambled to open the lock.

Lenny appeared behind them and grabbed a handful of Cindy’s hair and she tumbled back onto the floor screaming.

While Lenny continued to wrestle with Cindy, Pritch regarded her, while holding the bat that was already coated with at least three people’s blood. “Where do you think you’re going, Chippee? You want to run back into the arms of the hungry dead?”

Brain Splattered Mar

“Better them than yours,” she yelled as she flung the door open. She noticed three things at once as soon as she could see into the place’s back yard. First was a good sized truck already filled with supplies, second was the place had no fence, third was the three zombies stumbled down the alley, but had turned their attentions to her.

Should she risk it—but how could she leave her friend to be abused by these villains? Her hesitation cost her and Pritch grabbed her by the arm and tossed her across the floor.

He was just closing the door when Allen tackled him from behind. They fell into the open doorway.

Mar watched in horror as the three zombies drew near. 

Mar’s Eternal Aftermath

Uncertain as to what to do first, she hurried to her feet. Lenny punched Cindy in the gut hard enough to leave her quivering on the floor. He would be on Mar soon. Her eyes sped over the room. A pile of items that hadn’t been loaded leaned against the wall and right on the top was a rusty red toolbox. She grabbed this up over her head and brought it crashing down on Lenny’s.

He gasped once and then collapsed like a pile of wet laundry.

Looking back, she saw that Pritch had wrestled the wounded Allen onto his feet and taunted the freshman. “You want out so bad. Come on, you freaks. Want a snack?” His back was to her and he pushed Allen out before him, between him and the zombies.

Mar went to hit Pritch in the back of the head, but he proved too tall and she only hit his shoulder. Still he cried out in pain and loosened his grip on Allen enough for the man to get away.

Allen tumbled to the ground just feet away from the lead zombie as Pritch turned toward her. Behind them, she heard the sounds of the front windows being broken through.

Without thinking, she threw the tool box at Pritch. He raised his arm, but cried out again. “You fucking bitch!” he yelled. “I’m going to rape you three times a day for this!”

“You’ll never speak to a woman like that again!” Allen shouted as he rolled into Pritch’s legs from behind.

Wet Zombie

Pritch’s knees buckled and he fell back over Allen. He struggled up and raised his fist to punch the prone man, but the front zombie grabbed him by the shirt and pulled him away. Pritch struggled, but then the second and third zombie had him. He tried to grab at Allen, but Mercy smacked at his fingers with a fallen wrench.

Allen struggled to his feet with Mar’s help. “We need to-”

He began to say, but Cindy yelled, “Go!” while tossing him a set of keys. Mar saw that her friend was right, for the front of the house had already begun to flood with zombies.

While the three from the alley feasted on Pritch, the three students ran to the truck and started it up.

Allen looked over at Mar and she said, “Let’s get the hell out of here.”

His bruised face managed a smile before the truck raced away from Pritch’s fading screams.

Check in every Saturday for the beginning of a new chapter in the Eternal Aftermath!

You can explore more of the Eternal Aftermath here!

Walkers

Three Girls and a Madman

Cindy clung to her and sobbed while Mar tried to wrap her head around what was happening to them. These three men had just murdered Dave before her eyes and for all she knew Allen’s unconscious form could be next. And these three old dirty hicks wanted to kidnap Mar, Cindy, and Jenny and take them out to some run down shack in the woods just so they can do the nasty with them for as long as possible while the world went to hell.

And she had thought the zombies were bad.

“So what is our game plan now?” The man named Sully asked.

Pritch rested the barbwire covered bat over his shoulder. “Well, I was thinking we should wait until these idiots kill each other off, but now that we have these chippies, I’m in the mood to get this party started.”

“Why can’t you just let us go?’ Cindy pleaded. “Our families will be worried sick about us.”

Mar in Tatters

“Screw your families,” Pritch said with a mean sounding laugh. “Most likely they are all already dead. Do you know what’s happening out there? The boonies will be the only safe place left. You should be getting on your knees thanking us, if we hadn’t found you you’d all be dead by now.”

“I like the idea of them thanking us on their knees,” Lenny said with a sick smile.

“Shutup and get all our gear ready to be loaded into the truck. Sully get our guns together and make sure we grab every can of food we got here.”

Lenny moved into another room, but Sully stayed and asked, “what about this guy?”

“I was thinking maybe we could use his as bait. It might keep the zombies off our back while we load the truck or something.”

“You’re sick,” Cindy cried as tears rolled down her young face.

Cindy Loses it

“And you’re cute. I like your fire. Maybe I’ll keep you for myself.”

Cindy cringed against her, but Mar racked her brain searching for a way to get them out of this before they ended up lost in some ‘Hills Have Eyes’ situation. Allen appeared to be hurt bad and Jenny hadn’t moved since the car crash. She worried about her friend. She looked pale and Mar couldn’t even see her breathing.

Not sure what else to do, she said, “I think my friend Jenny might need medical attention in a bad way.”

Pritch laughed again. “Haven’t you heard a word I said?”

Sully smiled. “Looks like we got some real bimbos on our hands, huh.” A chuckle escaped from his lips. “Just the way I like them.”

Pritch spoke again and glared down at her as he did so. “A hospital has gotta be the worst place in the world to go. Where do you think these first zombies would have been taken? I’m sure every hospital out there has become an epicenter for death. We wouldn’t be able to get within a mile of one and if we could, any doctor we could find would just be trying to bite your face off.”

Mar wasn’t sure how to answer that and just took a step back and Cindy was quick to follow her.

Sully leaned down over Jenny. “Uh, Pritch, I hate to say this, but I think she might be right. This chick doesn’t look so good and that sucks because she’s the hottest one.”

“Well if she doesn’t get better than one of you is screwed. I’ll be taking big mouth over here and that will leave you two to fight over Goth girl if-”

Sully didn’t even scream when Jenny suddenly sat up and grabbed a handful of his hair. “What the hell? Girly, if you know what’s good for you, you’ll—what? Ahhhh!”

Pritch shouted with the rest of them when Jenny leaned in and took a bite out of Sully’s cheek.

Jenny is Hungry

“Son of a bitch!” Sully yelled and then slapped Jenny across the face. The force of the blow proved enough to knock the big chunk of flesh from her bloody lips. She looked like she couldn’t have cared less and latched her teeth onto Sully shoulder. Sully screamed again and pushed her away. Jenny didn’t get a mouthful of the man this time, but she did bite hard enough to draw blood.

Sully pushed her down again and hurried onto his feet while holding his ravaged cheek.

Jenny moved to stand up as well, but Pritch didn’t afford her the opportunity. The bat came down on her head and this was enough to knock her back to the floor. When she kept moving, he hit her again and again. Meaty whacks had Cindy crying again. It was a horrible sight and Pritch didn’t stop his attack until Jenny’s once beautiful face had become an awful bloody smear.

Sully was saying, “Thanks man,” as Lenny rushed back into the room.

“What happened?” Lenny asked.

“Never mind that,” Pritch said. “Dude you were bit, I’m sorry but you’re going to become one of them.”

“Wait how can you be sure? It might not be like the movies, man!”

Pritch had already made up his mind for the bat lashed out again and took his friend in the face. Sully only got one scream out before a second blow sent him tumbling to the floor. The scene repeated itself as Pritch continued to hammer Sully’s skull until their wasn’t much of a head left and his brains joined Jenny’s in a thick soap that spread across the floor.

Lifting his bat so that it dripped strings blood onto the gory floor, he said, “Guess we figured out the dude to chick ratio again.”

They all jumped when a bloody hand slapped against the outer window. This hand was joined by another and yet another.

“Oh damn,” Lenny said. “The screams must have drawn them here.”

Behind the men, Mar saw Allen twitch, but couldn’t be sure if this might mean he was coming too or he was about to join the hungry dead. Either way, she hoped these bastards wouldn’t notice until he could kill one of them. So, before they had a chance to notice, she feinted panic and yelled, “We have to get out of here,” then she grabbed Cindy’s hand and ran into the room Lenny had just exited.

Check in every Saturday for the next chapter in the Eternal Aftermath!

You can explore more of the Eternal Aftermath here!

Eternal Aftermath

Three Villains and a Murder

Dave led the way into the dark house. Mar and Cindy quickly followed. Allen, who still carried Jenny’s unconscious body, came in last. As soon as the tall teen had entered, the door was slammed shut behind him. Mar turned just in time to see a man standing behind the door smash Allen in the back of the head with a club of some kind.

Allen groaned for a moment, but then he and Jenny both toppled to the floor.

Mad man behind the door

Cindy gasped in horror, as Dave rushed toward the attacker, which Mar could see welded a bat with several loops of barbwire wrapped around its business end. But before Dave could get within ten feet of the bat welder, two men leapt out of a side room and tackled him. Dave fought like a wildman, but before Mar could even think about how she might be able to help, he’d been pinned to the floor.

“Man, I think this kid broke my nose,” one of the men said. Mar could see they looked older and had to be at least twice her age.

“Shut the hell up, Lenny,” The other man wrestling with Dave yelled. His head was clean shaven and reflected the dim triangle of light that bled into the room. Looking up to the man near the door he said, “We don’t need a guy do we, Pritch?”

His face stayed cloaked in shadows, but a deep voice boomed out, “Nope, I don’t think any of us swing that way.”

“Then if you will do the honors…”

“Sure thing, Sully,” he said before bringing his bat up over his head and then slamming it down on Dave’s skull like an executioner’s axe.

Dave didn’t even have time to shout. His body when into a seizure as blood poured out of the open wound on his forehead.

The seizure didn’t last long and Cindy sobbed as she threw herself into Mar’s arms. “He isn’t dead is he?”

Mar couldn’t bring herself to answer. Instead she said, “What do you want with us?”

Mar’s Eternal Aftermath Begins

Pritch stepped in closer. She could see he had a brutal face. Years of drinking left the man looking bloated, like his skin could barely contain his stretching bulk. “What do you think we’re doing, sweet thing? It probably shouldn’t take a rocket scientist to figure it out. Even a little bimbo like you should be able to see that his is a good thing.”

“What do you mean?” her lips trembled as she tried to force her words out.

“Well any fool can see we got the end of the world on our hands. Me and my buddies have a hunting cabin in the woods north of Catalina. We had planned to wait until all the idiots kill themselves off and then head up there, but when Sully saw you three hotties heading by it seemed like a gift too perfect to refuse.”

Sully chuckled. “Yep, three of us and three of you.”

“What do you mean?” Cindy stammered. “You can’t take us away. I need to get to my family and see if they’re alright.”

“In the contrary, little one,” Pritch said. “At this point I think we can do whatever we want.”

Villain with a bat

Check in every Saturday for the next chapter in the Eternal Aftermath!

You can explore more of the Eternal Aftermath here!

They Never Sleep

Three Zombies and a Doorway

The shortest of the college students lead the way as the group ran through alleys and avoided the bigger streets. The sounds of screaming echoed from every direction, but seemed to be worse from behind them, so they kept going. Mar and Cindy tried to stay in the middle of the men, who were really barely more than boys and she figured they were probably freshmen.

The shorter guy led them on. Sometimes he moved so fast they almost lost sight of him. A few times, he would discover an area blocked and hurry to retreat and take them through a safer way. The tallest one tried to keep up with the little guy and big beer belly boy, but ended up dropping back closer to where Mar jogged. “Hi, my name is Allen. Speedy Gonzales up there is Dave. The other tall guy’s John and we have Bogart guarding the rear.”

Mar wasn’t sure how to react. Part of her would have been happy getting attention from a tall, strong college student, but proved hard to be happy about anything when the world was ending. “I’m Mar, this is Cindy, and you are er… carrying Jenny.”

Allen tried to smile, but with strings of blood covering his face, it just looked scary. “Looks like we found ourselves in the middle of the apocalypse, huh?”

“Yeah,” Bogart began from behind him, but then screamed like a small girl, when two zombies stumbled out of the alley at him. One grabbed his hair while the second barreled into them, knocking all three onto the ground. Dave and John were quite a distance ahead of them, but turned around and began to sprint their way. It took Allen a few seconds to lower Jenny to the ground, before he could do anything. Cindy only screamed.

As he rushed forward, Allen yelled, “Watch over your friend and try to get her to stop screaming. It could attract more.”

But as soon as the statement left his lips, it became irrelevant, for poor Bogart screamed like the damned when the zombies began to pull huge chucks of flesh off his body. Allen let out a string of curses and drove forward with what looked like a World War II bayonet. He stabbed it thorough one of the attacker’s eyes and it went limp. He kicked the second one off and Dave finished it with a heavy pipe he had found some where. He must have smashed it a dozen times, before he finally stopped.

John leaned over his friend, but already his life leaked out of him.

“Look out, more are coming,” Cindy whimpered.

Closing the circle

Looking back the way they had come, Mar saw that it was true. Scores of these walking dead lumbered at them from every direction. Gone were the hordes of college students and their small group seemed to be the only normal people left.

Mar looked back at the scene unfolding before her. John still leaned over Bogart trying to stop the bleeding from his face and neck. “Come on buddy, stay with me.”

“You might want to get away from him,” Mar said slowly.

“What do you know?” John said, with anger rising in his voice. “We could still save him.”

“Maybe you can’t and-”

But it was too late. Bogart’s eyes had gone glassy and with a savage jerk he leaned forward and tore into John’s throat with his teeth. He came away with a chuck a flesh big enough to clog a drain and wolfed it down with wet slurps.

They wanted to do something, but the rest of the evil horde was drawing too near.

“We gotta go!” Dave yelled.

Once again, Allen threw Jenny over his shoulder and the group set off. They had made it around the corner when a voice yelled to them. “This way. In here!”

Allen and Mar shared a look, but then he said, “What choice do we have? We need to get off the streets.”

“Hurry before they round the corner and see where we went,” Dave hissed.

Allen nodded and the group rushed toward the opened door.

Check in every Saturday for the next chapter in the Eternal Aftermath!

You can explore more of the Eternal Aftermath here!

Zombie Blood Face

Three Tires and a Broken Axle

This serial starts 10/25/13

If anything the roads of Tucson looked worse off than her school. Multiple car pile ups had already occurred or happened right in front of their eyes. Mad man, and the people running from them, sprinted across the street going in every direction.

“This is like a video game from Hell,” Vance yelled as he swerved around a shirtless man with a chest painted with blood.

He cased an older woman and Mar cringed when the older woman’s scream let them all know she had been caught. “Where are we going?” She cried out. “Don’t drive near campus, it might be worse around there.”

But it was too late. Vance had taken Sixth Street, which cuts just south of the University of Arizona. Students were rushing south across the street in droves. In some cases they were a hundred thick. Most sprinted like normal people, but often, in their midst, screams echoed between the tall buildings as a few of the bloody ones would enter their crowds.

“Get out of the way!” Vance yelled and then hit two young female students. They bounced off the hood of the SUV with startled cries.

“Dude!” Phil yelled. “Get on a fucking side road.”

“Screw that, we just need to get through this.”

But after Vance hit three more students, Phil grabbed at the wheel.

“Let go, you moron.”

“I’m not going to let you hit anyone else, you could be killing them!”

“Look out!” Cindy screamed.

Then Mar saw it too. A UPS truck had flipped onto its side and they headed straight for it. She had time to toss on her seatbelt and brace herself and then they collided. Vance had been going at least fifty and they hit hard.

Mar and Cindy had put on their seatbelts, but Jenny had forgotten to and went flying forward. Her head connected with Vance’s with a loud smack and they both went limp. Phil’s head bounced forward, right as the air bag smashed into him. A string of blood from somewhere made a diagonal line across Mar’s face.

A daze claimed her and for an indeterminable moment she watched the stream of yelling college students swarm pass.

Cindy voice grounded her and pulled her back to reality. “Mar are you okay? Jenny and Vance are hurt bad and Phil’s not waking up.”

“I’m okay,” she said, while wiping at her face. Her hand came back in a smear of red. “We need to get out of this car.”

Looking outside, she saw that the college students grew fewer and in their place more of the stumbling bloody figures could be seen. “We need to get out now.” She was surprised when he door opened as easily as it did and she rolled out and dropped onto all fours on the ground, just trying to catch her breath.

Cindy didn’t let her rest long. “Mary, my door won’t open. I’m stuck. Please help me!”

Mar made it to her feet right as a blood covered student in just his underwear stumbled at her. He grabbed a handful of her hair and she screamed when several strands were pulled out. She raced to the other side of the car. Cindy still fought with the door, while the other three high school students still balanced, unmoving, on a jumble of airbags.

Underwear boy growled and he moved for her again. Her eyes dazed left and right. They had crashed close to the front of a Greek Restaurant. Their sidewalk sign was held in place by a cinder block. Without thinking, she grabbed up the block and threw it into the freak chasing her. She wasn’t sure if her fury took over or if blind luck guided her hand, but the cinder block smashed underwear boy in the middle of the face and her went down hard and thankfully didn’t get back up.

Cindy still banged on her window.

Once she was sure underwear boy wasn’t moving. She grabbed up the broken cinder block and rushed back to Cindy’s window. “Get back. Cover your eyes.” Then, without looking to see if her friend had complied, she threw the cinder block at the window.

It shattered on the first try and sent small squares of glass raining down upon Cindy. Her friend didn’t care and rushed out of the window frame like the car was on fire.

Mar helped her best friend to her feet and then asked, “What about the others?”

“None of them are moving.”

She was distracted for a minute by the sight of seven sorority girls running back them. Waves of blonde followed their flight as did two stumbling figures. “Well we can’t just leave them here with the window broken out.” But even as these words left her mouth, Mar saw that the wild press of students was over and on the other side of the road nothing moved except dozens of the lumbering things. A few students fought here and there, but they were being dragged to the ground and torn apart.

“We need to get Jenny,” Mar said and leaned into the car and grabbed both of her friend’s ankles. She wasn’t strong enough. “Grab my waist and pull me.” She looked through the door she had left open and saw the few of them stumble into the street.

Cindy yelped and then pulled with impossible strength They got Jenny into the back seat and then with both of them working they got her to the ground outside of the car.

“How can we escape those while carrying her?” Cindy asked. “We have to go. We have to go now!”

“What about Phil?” Mar asked, but as she did, Vance’s eyes snapped open and be began to thrash against the air bags. He looked over at them and growled. Then, as if noticing Phil for the first time, he leaned sideways and took a huge bite out of Phil’s neck.

Both the girls screamed.

Then two big figures were upon them. Mar went to scream again, until she saw that it was three, no wait, four male college students.

“What are you standing here for?” A tall man with quite a good sized beer belly asked.

“Our friend is hurt,” Mar said, still in shock and cringing as Vance devoured his former best friend.

“This her?” the tallest one said, then without asked permission, he tossed Jenny over his back and yelled, “let’s go.”

“You heard the man,” the curly headed student said and as one the group began to jog to the south.

Check in every Saturday for the next chapter in the Eternal Aftermath!

You can explore more of the Eternal Aftermath here!