Tight Spot [√]

Step 2

The Essential Guide to Surviving a Zombie Apocalypse

Step 2 - Don’t get bitten, avoid contact with their blood or other bodily fluids and run or hide when you see one coming.

The light woke me.  The door was ajar and Tank was no were to be seen. 

I panicked.  I grabbed my backpack and wrenched it open to find the book still inside.  Releasing my relief in a long exhale, I laughed.  I should have known that Tank wouldn’t be the type to go back on his word and steal the book leaving me here.

I flipped to page two.

I re-read Step2 several times.

They were kidding right?

No!  This was a serious document! It had to be.

There must be some cryptic meaning behind the words.  Maybe I just didn’t understand it.  Maybe I just wasn’t reading it right.  Maybe there was some sort of code within the words. 

Damn, I wasn’t very good at code breaking and somehow I doubted that Tank was either. 

On the page underneath step2 was a list of things you should pick up on the way to your hiding spot. 

Water, preserved food, torch, spare batteries, radio, weapons (e.g. sledge hammer, axe, shotgun, chainsaw), and a change of underwear.

I rubbed my face with my hands and put the book back into my backpack.

This was our salvation.  It had taken almost a year of my life to find this? 

I tried to find the answers to this riddle on the roof of the meat locker.  No such luck.  But as my hands reached out on the concrete floor my fingers brushed against a piece of paper.  Maybe something had fallen out of the book? This might be the key to break the code.  I turned and reached for the scrap of paper.

I smiled in disappointment but also in relief, as I picked it up.

“MORENING,” it read all in capitals, “GON TO GET CLOETHS  - LUV TANK.”

I laughed at the various spelling attempts he had made and crossed out, before he settled on ‘cloeths’. 

I crawled out of the meat locker and lay on the floor in the backroom just inhaling the sweet smell of fresh air.  Next to the door was a large bottle of water, a bar of soap, and a small bag of dried fruit and nuts.  I practically inhaled the food.  It wasn’t enough but it tasted good.  The water was clean so I drank enough before I looked at the soap.  I was still naked and my skin was past filthy. Using as little water as possible I washed by body.  The soap smelt of jasmine and my skin tingled with gratitude.  My hands touched on my hair.  I couldn’t leave that.  I decided to be frivolous and I used the last of the water rinsing the soap suds from my hair.  I was pretty sure I moaned like one of the models on those shampoo commercials.

I was squeezing my hair out when I heard the pacing on the other side of the door to the shop space.

“Tank?”

“Yes Ma’am?” the pacing stopped.

“You wouldn’t happen to have a towel out there would you?”

“No ma’am.  But I you can use this,” a hand appeared holding a large clean shirt. “It’s a spare.  There’re clothes out here for you Ma’am.   I’ll turn my back.”

I pulled on the large Tank sized shirt and gingerly opened the door.  Tank had his back to me so I closed the door behind me.  He was dressed in a pair of jeans that hugged his ass in a way that should be illegal.  His t-shirt did nothing to hide his muscular back either.  My fingers itched to be dung into that back again.