AFTERLIFE :: Riverdale

VI: Zombies Ate My Neighbors!

Sitting in Pop Tate's Chocklit Shoppe was one of my favorite pastimes. Lounging in the red leather seats, shoveling burgers and fries in my mouth like I had never eaten anything as amazing, and moving my hands across my laptop's keyboard, it was the life. I didn't even have money, Pop just took care of me like I was his own son.

That was the thing about Riverdale. Even if you weren't their kid, you were always welcome in somebody's home. There was a small exception with the Blossom's versus the Cooper's, but other than, the unspoken rule applied. Even then, the relationship between Jason and Polly started off pretty okay. But, nowhere was it more prevalent than in Fred Andrews.

Fred took me in just like I was just Archie's long lost sibling. He let me stay nights when I wasn't sure if I could really go home, or even have a home. During the Jason Blossom investigation, I stayed with him until my father decided to rear his ugly head and take me back. Despite me being offered to be put in a foster family's home, Fred still felt it was his duty to keep me with him. It was a debt I've never been able to return because of his early demise. It kind of made me wish I never ignored his calls for me to come back that fateful morning.

Day three of the Riverdale microcosm apocalypse and tensions were dropped, surprisingly. I was enjoying the fresh fries that Joaquin had brought me(even with the fact that he didn't salt them enough), and Betty was running her mouth about how we'd come back in the future after we left and rebuild Riverdale from the ground up. It was a nice sentiment filled with detailed descriptions of new businesses and families springing up, including our own. Good to know she still adored me. Though she didn't state her kids as having my last name directly, I could put two and two together if she hoped we would be living with each other.

All of her fantasies came crashing down when the door to the shoppe burst open. I soon began to wonder why it wasn't boarded up or at least barricaded.

Betty and I stood with questioning expressions, abruptly being cut off from our imaginations. Veronica and Joaquin came out of the woodworks to lay their eyes on the new visitor.

Reggie Mantle stared me straight in the face, his eyes bloodshot, and his breathing frantic. His skin was veiny and pale, but he just looked like someone who had been doing deals with the South Side, not like one of the zombies on the outside. He had us all fooled.

"Dude, are you okay?" I asked, taking hesitant steps towards him. I kept my wood-cutting knife at bay for now. For the most part, I was just kind of worried for the both of us. "Do you need anything, man?"

No response was given, instead a series of inhuman grunts. Now, my knife was spinning in my hands and ready for use. There was something wrong with him, but he didn't look quite dead, so I that's why I didn't immediately jam the hook end of the tool into the jock's skull. That is, until he stole a look at Betty who was paralyzed with fear. When he pushed me aside to grab her, I tackled him to the ground, knife to his neck.

"What's the matter, man? Why're you acting so crazy?" I shouted to no avail. There was no way this idiot heard me.

The brute circle threw me onto the floor where I slid just under the jukebox, making it fall on top of me. Under the weight of the music machine, my struggles to get up must have pushed one of its buttons because I'm pretty sure I was done hallucinating, and even then, "I Wish" by Stevie Wonder wouldn't be my first choice. Nevertheless, I rolled out from under it, muffling all sound it produced as it smacked down with a bang.

While I was detained, Joaquin hopped over the bar and got onto Reggie's shoulders, driving him into the table. He was thrown off, and was sent flying back over the bar again. Veronica circled around the counter with her baseball bat and swung at Reggie's gut, knocking him onto his back with a thud. I could tell she was itching to get into the fight. Joaquin rose to his feet slowly, massaging his head, and made his way over to Veronica.