“True Nature” –
Jane’s Addiction
I
knew what the day had in store before I even opened my eyes. The thunder gave it away. “Great.
Just great.”
I
tried to get some sleep during the night, but it didn’t work out very
well. I wasn’t able to get completely
away from civilization, but I had happened upon a little town that didn’t seem
to have many people. I decided that,
while there were better places to sleep than the dumpster behind a fast food restaurant
in an empty town, there were certainly worse places. So in I went.
I
knew that I was boxing myself in, but I figured it was worth the risk. I wasn’t traveling with anyone, and I wasn’t
out in the woods or anything, so I had to make do with what I could find. I wasn’t out in the open, so there was no
danger of a zombie stumbling across me in the middle of the night. And, since zombies were non-thinking
creatures, I wasn’t in any danger of having them open the lid and finding
me. If I had been surrounded in the
morning I would’ve been screwed, but that was a problem I would have to deal
with if it came up.
Still,
sleeping in a dumpster isn’t the best way to get sleep, and I was a bad sleeper
even on my best nights. So I woke up
tired and knowing that I would be traveling in the rain. But at least I wasn’t surrounded by
zombies. At least something was going my
way.
The
fast food restaurant was unlocked, but I didn’t see anyone. I cautiously made my way back to the bathroom
and washed myself off in the sink. I had
a change of clothes with me, so I threw off my dumpster clothes and put on some
fresh ones. I washed my clothes the best
I could, wrung them out, and put them in a trash bag, figuring I’d be able to
dry them on a tree at some point. I
grabbed another trash bag and fashioned a makeshift poncho for myself. It wouldn’t do much, but every little bit
helped.
Off
I went, into the day. The clouds were
dark, but still no rain. That was good.
I
decided to stick with smaller roads as much as I could. It would’ve been nice to avoid roads
altogether, but it didn’t seem feasible.
I was bound to get lost at some point.
I could always jump off a road for a little if I needed to, but I couldn’t
just abandon them completely.
I
was just getting out of the town when I heard something behind me. A groan.
I knew what that was. I was
tempted to just start running, but I stopped and turned. I did this for two reasons:
- I needed to see what I was up against. Was this just one zombie or a horde? I assumed that these would be standard
Romero zombies, but what if they weren’t?
What if they could run? The
sooner I found out, the better off I would be.
- After seeing hundreds of movies, I just wanted
to see what a real zombie looked like.
Did the movies get the look of them right?
I
realize that the second reason was a ridiculous reason to stick around, but I
couldn’t help it.
It
was just one zombie, about 100 yards away.
A teenager. Judging by his
attire, I would say he worked at a local movie theater. He appeared to be a standard Romero
zombie. Blank expression. Slow, shuffling walk. Low groan.
Since the outbreak hadn’t hit very long ago, there wasn’t much
decomposition. Still, I would say that
Romero pretty much nailed the look of these ghouls. “Good for him,” I said.
I
turned, put my headphones in, hit shuffle, and started running. The rain started coming down. Perry Farrell screamed, “Here we go!” I smiled and started running a little faster,
the guitars driving me forward. I would’ve sung along, but I never really
understood what he was saying.
“This is Love
(Feels Alright)” – Camera Obscura
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