Tommy's First Friend | Z Nation

Chapter 7 : Camaraderie

Disclaimer: All the characters are fictional and I own none of them, I'm that poor.

"Seventy-six, seventy-seven and seventy-eight."

Two months have passed since I've met Tommy and he developed a recent obsession with killing zs. He'd sometimes wake me up in the night, begging if we could go to the city so he could kill some of them. When I asked him about it, he explained that he agreed with what I said before and that it was fun. So fun that he announced that he would kill ten thousand zombies before he died. At least he still had goals in life, so I left it alone.

The frequent trips to the city weren't so bad either. I got to practice using the slingshot, our supplies increased every time we'd make a trip to the city and there was always something fun we end up discovering.

Like today, we decided to go to the park just because he'd never seen one. Lo' and behold his lady luck was working at maximum efficiency because there was a carnival set up too. Albeit, an abandoned and torn up one, but hey at least he got to see one.

The immediate shift in his facial expression, from childlike joy to abstract horror when he spotted the clown zombies making its way out of the carnival tent, made me laugh so hard one of them almost got close enough to bite me. It got shot by Tommy, who sat perched on one of the ticket booths. How he got there so fast, I would never know.

"Come on Tommy, there's two more coming my way, give it your maximum effort!"

Two shots to the head before he said, "Stop saying that, It's dumb."

"Saying what?" I yelled back. I'm pretty sure I was attracting the zs left, right, front and center from how loud I was.

"Maximum! Don't say maximum for everything." He got down from the booth and stood in front of me with his arms crossed.

"But it's funny? And do you seriously not get the reference?"

He shook his head and I felt great pity for him. For someone to not have watched one of the greatest cinematic films out there was just a tragedy. I slung my arm across his shoulder and dragged him to one of the game booths. "It's going to be all right Tommy, someday when this whole apocalypse business dies down, I'll make you watch them all."

He shrugged his shoulders and I handed him some darts. We competed on who got to pop the most balloons stuck to the wall. I won because before he got a chance to use his last dart, I screamed clowns and he let the dart loose, hitting one of the stuff toys in the eye. Poor Winnie the Pooh turned into a cyclops.

He was too proud to say I cheated so he challenged me to another booth game and another and another. We spent the whole afternoon playing like kids and it was so much fun I almost missed the telltale sounds of someone coughing. I looked at Tommy, asking him if he heard that.

"Heard what?" he replied back. Then I heard it again and I started running to where I heard the sound. Tommy followed me, looking perplexed but staying quiet.

I saw portable toilets lined up in a row and I knocked on each one before I heard a whimper come out of one of them. I looked at Tommy and I signalled him to get ready as I asked, "Hello, is anyone in here?"

It was silent for a while before I heard a muffled sound of someone asking, "Who's there?"

"Not zs?" Tommy said. I heard whoever was inside trying to stifle a laugh and I patted Tommy's back for a job well done.

The locked clicked and out came the head of a guy with blonde hair and brown eyes—a perfect poster picture of a man you'd find in commercials. He looked like a model for Calvin Klein. "Hey, you good there buddy?"