Eve

Chapter 4

The dorky survivor steps out from behind the ice cream hut, stumbles on the trashcan and falls to the ground. He raises his unloaded pistol. "Step back!"

"Guess we're not the only ones looking for food." Aberzombie smiles, releasing my arm. He takes a step towards the kid.

"Step back, I'm serious!" the kid yells, pulling himself backwards, still on the floor, gun still pointed.

"You can drop the pistol, dude, I can see it's got no magazine."

The douche zombies close in around him. The boy points the gun like an idiot back and forth at them.

"He's fat, he'll last a couple of days."

"Not with you around, fat boy."

"Oh, me?  Was I the one who ate that lawyer all by myself when no one was watching last night? Was I the one who -"

"Silence!" Aberzombie yells. In front of him, the kid's looking all kinds of 'I'm-screwed'. "Hold him."

Aberzombie's two man entourage pins the boy to the floor. He struggles to set free, but the zombies are stronger.

"I'll try to make this painless," Aberzombie says, crouching towards the boy's neck. "But I can't promise any -"

BAM.

Aberzombie falls down over the boy, unconscious. I grab the trash can again and raise it. "Leave him alone!"

His sidekicks exchange looks. I step forward. "I'm serious."

The one on the left charges for my trashcan. I step back. He charges again. I step back again.

It's clumsy, being a zombie.

The other one joins in, and, before I can react, they both grab the can, pulling it away. I try to fight back, but they're stronger. The metal slips from my fingers. They drop the can to the ground.

"All right, let's be rational," I say, trying for a smile. "Why don't you wake your friend up and get him home? Leave the boy."

"You knocked Tommy out!"

"Really? His name's Tommy?"

"Yeah, why?"

"No reason."

The zombies limp towards me. I limp back until my back hits a wall.

"Maybe we can eat her too," one of them says, as they corner me.

"You think so?"

"Bad idea," I say. "Zombies don't eat zombies."

"Yeah, but why not? Maybe we could."

Behind them, I try not to call attention to the fact that the non-infected boy is up on his feet. He grabs a piece of half cinderblock from the floor just by the hut and takes small, silent steps towards the zombies.

"I don't know," I say, trying to keep their attention on me. "Don't you think zombie meat would be kind of gross?"

A feet away from me, the zombies pause, looking at each other.

"I mean, she does have a point."

"We stink too, can't taste good."

"Exactly!" I smile.

"All right, so let's just kill her."

"Sounds good."

"That wasn't really the point I was trying to -"