I Am Zombie Bait

Chapter 6

Stealth was never my strong suit, despite my small size, or rather height. I'm loud, I make large movements, and I'm a little bit weird. So quiet wasn't exactly a word used to describe me. Yet stealth was what I was trying to channel as I opened cabinet after cabinet. I was in one of the few apartments the fire escape gave me access to. Why? Because in the past three days all I've had to eat was a bag of pretzels. And not even a big bag of pretzels. It was a snack size. A tiny, 100 hundred calorie, only has 12 fudging pretzels in it package! I've had burps with more sustenance! And I'd already eaten half it! All in all, I felt like I was starving. I didn't want to say I was actually starving because that was now a very real possibility. It would be happening to me very soon unless I got some food. So here I was sneaking around the apartment trying to find anything close to food.

The reason I was sneaking around was in the bedroom. Shocker, it was zombies. I didn't know how many, but the sound of their moans was unmistakable. I knew there was more than one at the very least. I'd try to count how many but the door to the bedroom was closed. Which worked well for me. What didn't work for me was that the blizzard had passed when I woke up that morning. Which meant that the inside of this apartment was quieter than an awkward funeral. Any sound I made echoed in my ears and made me worried the zoms would be bursting out of the door to get me. This is the stuff nightmares are made of. And ulcers.

I quietly began to open drawers pulling them as slow as I could. I did not want to screw up here. Every other apartment I'd looked into had zoms milling about their living room dining room combinations. This was the only place I could get into where they weren't already walking around. I used my mini crowbar to get the window open, which wasn't as quiet as I would have liked, but the zoms weren't coming out to make a snack out of me, so it worked.

I held in a cry of joy when I opened one of the cabinets. Canned fruit. So chalk full of preservatives that it would last until the end of time. Or at least until I ate it. I grabbed the cans in my arms and made my way back to the window. This is where I messed up. The previous owners of this apartment had apparently been a fan of cans. They had empty ones stacked up all over the room. As I moved to leave, my elbow bumped one such stake on the counter. Down to the floor they fell with a loud series of clanks. I stood frozen for a second, hoping that it hadn't been as loud as I thought. Nope. The zombies screamed and started banging on the bedroom door. As if to add insult to injury, I heard banging on the front door too. Time to go. I rushed to the window, giving up completely on stealth. I had to get out and get the window closed before they saw me or they'd be following me out onto the fire escape. Then I'd be in real trouble. I grabbed the bottom of the window and jerked it up before stepping out. I slammed it closed and ducked out of sight. Not a second later, I heard doors burst open and zoms rush into the room. I held my breath as I waited to see if I was in the clear or if undead hands would smash their way through the glass and grab me.

After a minute, I leaned back against the wall letting out a breath. I was in the clear, or as close as I was gonna get. Now to eat. Except my arms were empty. Where was the fruit? I glanced inside the room and saw a bunch of cans littering the floor, including the ones full of fruit. Well that was just perfect. Yup, starvation was a definite possibility.

I made my way back down to where I'd left my tent. I looked down and yes, the zoms were still there. I wasn't sure, but I thought there was probably more of them. Wouldn't be a surprise. I counted 16 of them. I had my own personal horde, how nice. Okay, times were getting desperate. And I wasn't just saying that. I was beginning to have major stomach pains. I had to figure out how to take care of those zoms down there.

Although, if I did starve to death up here I could leave some note behind saying I was here or something. On the off chance that some day, someone actually got to my tent. I suppose I could try to end it quicker. Maybe let the zoms have me. Then again, being chewed to death didn't sound like much fun. I suppose I could jump off the roof. End it that way. That had been the first place I looked. Tons of zoms up there. It was honestly ridiculous. What the heck was up with zombies and roofs?