89.4 Zombie Radio

"Good morning! How's everybody doing this fine morning? Me I'm doin' great, given its the end of the world and all. Had to fight off a few zombies and get myself some food for the next few days. If anyone's out there listening to this please I beg you to call the station. I want to hear from you! I want to know whats going on out in the world. I know you all have got some stories out there. We gotta come together and unify to beat this menace. So give me a call, the phone lines are still open. Until then, here's a little track from Gloria Gaynor, its called I Will Survive. I feel it fits this occasion."

I woke up to the DJ blaring on the radio. Not sure quite when I dozed off, but it was good to hear he was still alive. So far I wasn't the biggest fan of his musical taste, but it was just nice to hear his voice. Roxy and Layla were outside the car, I didn't know when they had woken up, but I could already tell they were anxious to leave this little section of hell. I couldn't blame them, we were all a little disturbed by what we had seen. We didn't waste too much time in getting the hell out of there. I started driving with no plan, and no destination in mind. I was just hoping an idea hit me during the drive. I had been down this road before, but never this far. I was getting kind of curious as to where it went. "What better time to find out than the end of the world," I thought to myself.

Roxy had me pull over at a gas station, this one must have closed up before shit hit the fan. The doors were all locked and there were no lights on. I broke the windows on the door with my trusty little league bat. Only took me one good swing to bust it out. I was proud of myself, the coach would have been proud too. We all took the opportunity to use the restroom and get our heads together. Layla and I went back to the car while Roxy stayed inside. This was the first time her and I were alone, and the silence was incredibly uncomfortable. I realize that when I'm uncomfortable it shows drastically in my body language. I can't help it, as much as I try to. I had to try and say something, spark some sort of conversation with her. I always thought I was quiet, but this girl never said a word. Of course between me and Roxy, it probably wasn't the easiest of tasks.

"So before all this shit went down, what did you do?" I finally worked up the nerve to ask. She hesitated a little bit before responding. I could tell she didn't like this kind of chit chat. It was a trait we both shared

"I was in school," She said. "I was studying to become a psychologist."

Psychology was one of those things I was always secretly interested in. I didn't get the chance to pick her brain more about it. Roxy was headed back to the car, armed with two cartons of cigarettes and a display case worth of slim jims.

"I didn't know you smoked," I asked her.

"Well I quit a week back, but fuck that, I'm stressed. I need a smoke," She replied. Layla and I both laughed. It was the first time I could recall her laughing. I took it as a good sign.

Back on the road again, and still no idea where I was going. The smoke from Roxy's cigarettes actually started to smell good to me. Sort of reminded me of home a little. Both of my parents had always smoked and I was the black sheep of the family because somehow I managed to avoid the habit. I wasn't sure how comfortable Layla was in the back seat. Roxy asked if she was bothering anybody, and I of course said "no, not at all." Layla didn't respond. I hoped I didn't just respond for her, I'd feel bad if I did. If she was uncomfortable she didn't show any signs of it, then again it could have just been she was so uncomfortable this entire time that I just took it as normal. I wasn't sure, so I tried to get her involved in the conversation again.

"So you were studying psychology in college Layla?" I asked.

"Yea," She whispered back.

"That's the shit," Said Roxy. "Can you like diagnose what's wrong with crazy people and shit like that? If so what's wrong with me and Bob?" Layla laughed, again, it was good to hear her do so.

"Yea I was pretty close to being finished, so I probably could do all that stuff," Layla said, this time with much more confidence in her voice. Thank God we finally broke the ice, it would have bothered me for her to never say anything.

"Well then do that shit dude! What's messed up in my head?" Asked Roxy excited. Layla had a look on her face, like she was deep in thought.

"I'm still making my analysis of both of you," She said.

"Lame," replied Roxy. It was nice that we were all starting to click a little bit.

We spent the next half hour of driving just talking about random subjects. Layla usually made me feel like an idiot, which was a quality I always loved in a person, don't ask me why. She seemed to know every detail and fact about everything we talked about. It was starting to freak me out, in a good way though. Roxy had the uncanny ability to make anyone around her feel less cool than they thought they were. Another quality I heavily admired. All in all I was held very much in check by these two women. I can't say I didn't like it though, in fact, I thought it was great. I started thinking to myself "Maybe I did die, maybe I killed myself and this is heaven." I pinched myself. Nope still alive, what version of heaven had zombies running rampant in it anyway? I'll answer that question for you, mine would.

It was about another few miles down the road when Roxy thought it would be a good idea to show Layla the basics of gun safety. I wasn't sure if Roxy would be the best teacher or not, but I felt somebody needed to show the girl something. It was only a matter of time before we were going to have defend ourselves from an attack. I could see we were approaching something in the distance. I wasn't quite sure what it was, but a nervous feeling crept into my gut. I was trying to avoid civilization at all cost, but I knew that was next to impossible. I was just about to say something to the girls and that's when I heard the shotgun blast. Somehow Layla had pulled the trigger and destroyed the windshield on the driver's side of the car. I don't remember much after that, I hit the brakes as quick as I could, I remembered praying to God that I didn't hit anything, and then impact.

I wasn't sure how long I was out for. Could have been two hours, could have been two seconds, I didn't know. I barely knew where I was at. The girls were surprisingly okay. They didn't seem like anything had happened to them. Both of them were frantic and standing over me, constantly asking me if I was okay. No matter how many times I said I was fine, it wasn't enough. I looked back at the Lincoln. I guess that thing in the distance was the wreckage of a car. The Lincoln wasn't totaled, but we needed a lot more than a set of rusty socket wrenches to fix it, that was for sure. I did my best to get up. I was pretty sure I had a concussion, and there was a throbbing pain in my leg. I didn't think it was broken, but whatever it was, it hurt. I finally managed to get up, and Layla started apologizing. I told her I wasn't mad at all, and I wasn't lying. I thought by now I would be the one to do something completely dumb and nearly kill us all. This journey wasn't over yet though, and I still had plenty of time to do just that. At least I hoped I had plenty of time.

I calmed everyone down finally and told them we need to think. Roxy had already dragged the backpacks out of the wreckage. We were going to have to hike it from here on out. "Great time to have a bum leg," I thought to myself. I walked around and did my best to shake off the pain. It wasn't really working. I was going to have to get over it, no time to be the weak link now. Layla said she knew where we were, which was good, because I had no clue. Apparently we were close to her school, it was just up the road. I started to think about it, and came to the conclusion that this was going to be a fight up ahead. That school was probably crawling with the bastards, I had half a mind to just go around it on foot, but the other half of my brain was throbbing in agony. In other words, I wasn't quite thinking straight at the time. So we set off down the road toward the campus, hoping for the best and expecting the worst.