OUTBREAK (A collection of Zombie Stories) |#Wattys2016|

OUTBREAK (#7)

The RV continued its lonely descent down the debris-strewn highway, with no sounds except for those of ambient nature and the low hum of its engine. After going a few meters however, the RV stopped near a couple of Zombies that had shambled onto the road, one of them dragging feet of entrails behind it. The RV's doors opened and Frank got out, hitting the ground at a run with a knife in hand. He ran to the zombie of Jirair, cleaving off its neck at the point Caramel had machete'd him. Frank then moved to Zombified Chris, whom he killed with a swift stab through the eye-hole of his hockey-mask. Frank then moved to the decapitated head of Zombie Jirair and removed its mask.

"Whew!" Whistled Frank as he got a look at the face beneath the hockey-mask and the cloth mask underneath it.
Chris had been telling the truth about their faces. Frank looked in horror at the red mass of flesh that was supposed to be a person's face. Its skin had been sloppily chopped, and it seemed that some meat and muscle had also been carved out in the face-cutting process. The eyelids were gone too, and the corners of the eyes were streaked with red. As Frank observed the head more, he saw that the face-cutting operation had been taken to its logical conclusion, as the skin of the scalp was missing too, and so was any hair. Frank kicked the still biting head over and found that the head was devoid of any skin whatsoever.

"Sick #$&@-s." Frank swore and he proceeded to stamp the head into a pulp with his foot. Once he was satisfied, he spat on the bloody mass that used to be a person's head, and walked back into the RV, closing the door. The RV drove on into the night as though nothing had happened.

OUTBREAK PART#7:

A PLACE TO WAIT OUT THIS RAIN

Frank lay on the top bunk bed and stared at the ceiling, trying and failing desperately to get even a wink of sleep. The movement of the ben underneath him signaled that Caramel was still awake too. Frank felt devastated for her. After all that had happened to her family, and the true fiasco that had been her adoption of Xavier, for her to see her son butchered like cattle before her very eyes...

Frank felt a sob build up in his throat, but he forced himself to swallow it. He looked to the head of the RV, where George was driving. Colin was sleeping on the floor as per their shift of using the beds, while George and Allen would take shifts driving for the night. Frank looked at the seat next to the driver's seat, where he knew Allen was sitting. His injured back and nose had been freshly dressed by Colin and he had volunteered to stay up in shifts to drive the RV, as his back pained him too much to get a wink of sleep. Frank knew he was justified in this. He doubted he would be able to sleep if he had been slashed across the back with a machete. Then again he doubted anyone would get any sleep tonight.

"I'm sorry for what happened tonight." Said Frank in a low voice, pouring all the emotions he was feeling into that one sentence. He heard Caramel say from the lower bed, "I....It's okay... You were right Frank... My boy wasn't made for this world. Maybe if I had realized that..."

"Caramel, please." Frank said, "Don't blame yourself."

"I'm the only one to blame." Sobbed Caramel, "I was too over-protective of him. Never allowed him to learn to use a weapon, never let him carry one. I tried to create a bubble for him where nothing could harm him, and that was the very thing that harmed him in the end..." Frank stayed silent, and Caramel continued, "Have you heard of the story of Baldur from Norse mythology?"

"Can't say I have." Frank said, deciding to humor her by listening, "Well." Caramel began, "Baldur was a son of Odin, loved by everyone. One time he began to get some ominous dreams about his death, and that drove his mother, Frigg into a true tizzy. She decided to get oaths out of everything in the bloody cosmos to never hurt her son, Baldur. After this, all the gods got into a bit of fun, chucking shit at Baldur. Rocks, sticks, maybe even actual shit. Hey it's a thing in the cosmos that can hurt someone. Everyone was laughing as these things bounced harmlessly off of Baldur. But then Loki, the god of mischief found a loophole in mistletoe, a plant so small and inconspicuous, Frigg hadn't extracted an oath from it. He gave it to a blind god Hodor."