The sun rises as the hoarde of zombies grows ever bigger below me. As more zombies gather, the sounds of their screaming attract more zombies. Falling would mean certain death, and I'm not sure if I could jump to safety. This is the most zombies I've ever seen these past ten days. Its almost like they've come out of no where. Whatever, thats not important. My only chance of escape is jumping, and although there's a huge chance that I die, whatever choice do I have? Its do or die now.
As I get ready to jump, I hear something. Something that rings throughout my ears; my soul even. I hear a southern man screaming:
"HAIL FLORIDAAAAA"
Suddenly, a pickup truck rockets down the street and runs over a fraction of the zombies below me.
"What The Hell???" I ponder aloud, clearly perplexed at what is happening.
While the zombies are still hyperfixated on me, the man shouts at me.
"Hop in big man!" He shouts, driving the truck into a position where I could jump onto it.
This is a much better situation than before, seeing as I actually have somewhere that isn't infested with zombies. I start to wonder what he really wants. If he's here to kidnap me or not. But I realize that it doesn't matter at the moment. I decide to take the stranger's help and hop into the open space in his pickup truck.
"Drive!" I shout at the man, urging him to go faster.
"Lets go baby!" He screams as the truck barrels down the road.
As the wind whips my face, I see all the zombies far behind us. Well, most of them. Two zombies are running after us, and are managing to keep up with the truck. They're gators. Zombie gators.
"HOW ARE THOSE GATORS SO FAST?!" I exclaim, half laughing half screaming in terror.
"I'll try to lose 'em bud!" He says, turning down a corner
I get thrown off balance, but they still follow. We turn down street corner after corner, but they still persist. Suddenly, the man pulls out some tnt, ignites it, and throws it at the gators. They explode, their leathery hides in little bits on a building. We drive away, and go to a different building to talk about what the hell is going on.
When we step out of the car, I look at him square in the eyes, clearly thankful. He is a white man, wearing a wife beater and shorts. He has sunglasses, but they're half way down, exposing the notch in his eyebrow. His hair is a chocolaty shade of brown, with his eyes an obsidian black.
More important than his looks though, is that he's human. A real one. Not one that's decaying and rotting. And he's a pretty stand up guy at that! One who's living and breathing like me. Just like me.
"I am: Zachariah bud lite daytona Ford f1 50 Dale Earnhardt jr Jr. But most people just call me Florida Man," he says, introducing himself in his southern accent.
I thank Florida Man profusely, eager to show him my gratefulness for his rescue. I tell him that I've been living in the woods, and he is clearly perplexed.
"In the woods...??? You a racoon?" He says, almost like he didn't think it was possible .
I wonder how he was able to survive this long.
"I got a thang for ya," he says, gesturing for me to extend my hand.
I do, and he places in it a makeshift grappling hook. I didn't even know you could make this, so he must be much more skilled than I am. We go outside, and he teaches me how to use it. He grapples to the top of a building, and instructs me to do so as well.
"This could be really useful; they've been getting faster!" I say, pulling myself to the top of the building.
I high five Florida Man, but then he asks me a question.
"Do ya have a place that you're stayin, I'm kinda between homes right now," He asks, making me realize that he's been surviving with no house to call his own.
I decide to lead him back to my home. I'm twice as likely to survive with the two of us. Plus, I do owe him for saving me back there. We practice grappling on the way back, and actually have a lot of fun doing it! I'm surprised that, in this apocalypse, I actually made a friend! We get chased by a few zombies and get a bit lost. The city is like a maze. Eventually though, we find the hill my house is on. Or... where it was... supposed to be. In it's place is a smoldering crater of Brimstone, fire, and rock.
"Did my house get hit BY A FUCKING METEOR??? WHAT THE FUCK???"
I don't know what kinda of bullshit went on for my house to get smited by Jorthulu himself, but it did. It did, and now I'm out of a home. And everything that was in my house... reduced to cinder.
"Damn, I didn't know you lived in Jacksonville Florida," Florida Man says.
I'm not sure if he's trying to lighten the mood or if he's serious. I'm not even sure that he knows.
"It-It's getting dark, we should find somewhere to hide out," I say, not fully believing what happened
I don't think I fully understand the words he says next.
"You wanna play it safe? Listen, you've been learnin' how to survive in this here apocalypse, but you haven't learned how to live. And thats what I'm here for baby."
He hands me a joint.
"Give that a shot."
At this point, I've lost everything I'd spent these past ten days on. What was one joint gonna do, make me wrestle an alligator? I decide to go against my better judgment and take a bite out of it.
I start coughing up blood
"Oh shit, is that blood? Don't think you're 'sposed to eat those," he says, worried while smoking one himself.
My vision starts to get all funny. I prepare for the long night ahead of me.
END OF CHAPTER
notes
That was a long one. Told you it would get interesting! I'm just glad I could do it. See you next day for something special ;3
