Zombie Drabble #358 “Drive”

Just getting to the house from where the car got blocked in was hard enough: he’d let himself get out of shape the past few years, and he was lucky his heart had stood up to the shock of zombies being real, to say nothing of the strain of running ten blocks.

That had been the easy part. With no vehicle and no weapons, getting across town to where Hope was holed up would be nearly impossible, at least until the cops or the National Guard got things under control. Hopefully she could hold out until then. Hopefully he could.

Zombie Drabble #357 “Brialmont”

We need to find a place with brick walls. Private schools, mansions, that sort of thing. Someplace with some interior walls that we can break up to plug the gaps in the main perimeter. Worst comes to worst we can make a run to a construction site and salvage what we need.

It had better be soon, though. They’re gonna start coming out of the cities any day now. The wind will shift and they’ll follow some trace scent in the air, and they’ll stream out from between the tall buildings like a flash flood. We’ve got to be ready.

Zombie Drabble #356 “Starving”

Somebody will come eventually. The cops or the army will get the upper hand, sweep through looking for survivors, I’ll hear them calling out and I’ll call out in return and it’ll be over.

There’ll be a camp with a high fence where they take survivors and give them a checkup and a change of clothes. It probably won’t be much fun, but it’ll only be for a while. Then there’ll be permanent settlements where we’ll set about rebuilding society, I’ll meet a nice girl and we’ll propagate the species. I hope she’s pretty.

I just have to be patient.

Zombie Drabble #355 “Daddy’s Girl”

I found Marjorie’s stuffed elephant lying in the driveway. Lunch was still on the table, the TV was on. There wasn’t any blood anywhere, so I have to assume they got out of the house alive.

The babysitter had the emergency contacts, so she might have gone to my parents’ place, or Jennifer’s. Or she might have gone to her own parents’ house: it’s only three blocks away, they could have made a run for it. I’ll try there first. If there’s no one there, I’ll try Jen’s.

Marjorie must be so sad without her elephant. She loves that thing.

Zombie Drabble #354 “Obstacles”

The old woman, Mrs. Ross; the kid in the hoodie with an arm off; the doughy man in the business suit: it was the same three, every day. The security door kept them out, but the closed garden gate kept them nearby, trapped, between her and the car and safety.

There had been six, but cops had shot three of them on the first day, in passing. Had they known she was there they might have shot them all, come in, rescued her, but she hadn’t been able to get the window open in time to call out for help.

Zombie Drabble #353 “Evacuation”

There was a roar of jets overhead, and then the sounds of explosions in the distance. It was a momentary punctuation to the near-constant chatter of small arms fire, ongoing since late Sunday.

“Hey, kids, look at the planes? See? Jet fighters!”

They were silent, having already seen too much to be distracted into adventure.

“They should be strapped in…”

“If we have to ditch the car, I want to be able to go fast.” The line of traffic ahead of them was slow, but moving. One of the kids managed to wave to a soldier sitting on a tank.

Zombie Drabble #352 “Auntie”

It’s odd: she doesn’t really look much different.

The ones outside, they’ve been partially eaten, or at least bitten. Many have gaping wounds from gunshots or from being hacked with gardening implements or whatever. I saw one with a full-sized shovel sticking out of its back. Just walking around with it sticking out of its back.

But Auntie just looks sort of like Auntie. She was always pale, and at her age she always had some trouble getting around. You can only really tell by the dry, vacant eyes. And she does tend to moan a bit more now.

Zombie Drabble #351 “Delivered”

The zombies were on Joe in seconds, and tore him apart. Rachel couldn’t even manage a scream.

She ran, stumbled, fell, struggled to her feet and ran some more, tripped, got up on her hands and knees just in time to vomit. There was a long moment where she was too busy to be scared, too sick and out of her head to wonder if they were behind her, reaching for her, about to clamp down with vise-like hands and jaws.

Later, she wouldn’t remember getting up and going on, or how she got safely to the middle school building.

Zombie Drabble #350 “Z101”

You couldn’t scare up a living soul, but the dead were everywhere. From the top of the station building I watched a sea of them sweep down the highway and drag one family after another out of their cars and rip them to chunks. We were still on the air then, before the power quit.

Later we traded the bottom floor for time, dropped the concrete stairs with sledgehammers and hard work. Knowles walked away, didn’t want to be ‘trapped’. Best morning drive time man I’ve ever worked with.

There’s six of us now, including Crazy Frank and the Weed.

Fantasy Drabble #282 “Interstate With A Vampire”

Alice lowered the window as she rolled to a stop. “Where are you headed?”

The girl couldn’t have been more than sixteen, rail-thin like a junkie or runaway, clearly dirty, hollow-eyed. “Anywhere. West?”

“I’m headed to Vegas…”

“Vegas works.”

“Hop in.” The door lock clacked loudly; the girl wasted no time slipping into the car. “I’m driving overnight. That ok?”

“Your car.” The girl stared ahead as the car pulled back onto the road. “Got no money for gas. But I’m no junkie, my blood’s good. Just don’t take too much.”

Alice grinned. “I think this will work out nicely.”

Fantasy Drabble #281 “Greed Is Good”

He tossed the powder over the line of candles and into the pentagram, and as every time, the demon appeared with no more disturbance than a slight smell of sulfur.

“Why have you summoned me, human?”

“Oh, great Skekrog, I have a request. I offer this, my sacrifice, as well as my supplication to—”

“Wait, aren’t you that Senator? You’ve got an open account, right? Don’t you already have wealth and power? Not to mention that nineteen year old at the Watergate?”

“It’s not enough! I—”

“Appalling. It’s going to cost you another soul. You have a firstborn?”

“What? Uh…”