89.4 Zombie Radio

It would have been a quiet bus ride had it not been for Kwame. Kwame was the type of guy who didn't speak in complete sentences, he spoke in complete paragraphs. You could try all you wanted to interrupt him, but he'd just speak louder than you did. It was basically a futile effort. I could see Roxy was getting rather annoyed with him. I, on the other hand found him entertaining. I usually loved the times when I could shut up and not have to say anything. I always loved talkers, there was less awkwardness around them I always thought. I always felt that way because I never really had much to say, so when you're around somebody who always has something to say, it fills in the blanks pretty well.

We drove around the country looking for a place to hide out for the night. I didn't want to get to know these new people. So I kept to myself mostly. The others talked and got to know each other a bit. I just didn't want to feel even more guilty when I left them tonight. It was going to be hard enough as it was. I didn't want to leave Layla or Roxy, but I knew it would be for the best. They would live on forever in my brain and never die. That's how I wanted to keep it. With me around, something bad would happen to one of them, it always did. I knew even if I wasn't around, something bad could happen, but I wouldn't know about it, and ignorance is bliss as they say.

The new girl kept complaining about being tired. Riley was her name I remembered. Lucas, the new guy, told her to take a nap and when she woke up, we'd be there. Then she complained about how she couldn't sleep in buses, and how she was getting car sick. Her list of complaints kept growing and I could tell Lucas had given up trying to calm her. I couldn't blame him. I hated people like her. The ones who did nothing but complained and only thought of themselves. She fit that type to a tee.

"You know what we need to do? We need to get a bunch of stuff to make this bus a zombie killing machine. That's what they did in Dawn of the Dead," said Lucas. I remembered that movie, and we had a brief conversation about how we could pull that off. It helped pass the time.

It was starting to get dark, and Layla had fallen asleep on my shoulder. Poor girl, she had as bad of luck as I had. I knew these guys could take care of her though. I felt Lucas had my nerdy insight and Kwame could probably best me physically no problem. With them combined it was more than enough to take care of the girls. I could leave and feel fine about it, but no matter how much I told myself that, I was getting more nervous by the minute. We finally settled on a vacant little house out in the country. There was a little pond out front and a garage separate from the house. I just hoped when we got in, there wasn't another cannibalistic, rapist inside. Zombies I could handle.

We crept inside, and started checking the rooms. I went inside the bathroom and started looking around. It looked clear, so I turned my back and started to head out. That's when I heard a scratching noise coming from behind me. Before I could turn around I heard the scream and it was right on top of me. He tackled me so hard it knocked the wind out of me. "Shit," I thought to myself, all that and I get killed because my dumb ass forgot to check the shower. It kept yelling in my face, blood dripping from its mouth. I did my best to hold it off by the throat, which was getting harder and harder due to lack of oxygen. I heard someone run up from down the hall followed by a shotgun blast. It was Roxy, and just in time.

"Thanks dude, I thought that was the end right there," I said trying to catch my breath.

"I got your back man, as long as you got mine," she said.

"Always," I replied, knowing it was somewhat of a lie. After we cleared the house, we all rested in the living room. It didn't take long before Riley started to complain that she was bored.

"Well, we could have an orgy," Lucas joked.

That made everyone laugh, everyone but Riley. She just turned around in disgust of the comment. No sense of humor it seemed either. Wow, I really did not like this girl. We all kind of sat in the awkward silence trying to think of something to do. That's when Roxy came up with a plan for entertainment.

"Well since we're all here, why not get to know each other a bit?" she said. It was the best idea yet, and everyone seemed to agree. I feigned interest in the idea. I really didn't want to know anything about these people. It would only make leaving them harder. We all gathered a little closer, and Roxy started it all off by telling her story.

"Well, before all this happened, I was bartending at a little place called Sixes. It was the type of place that had crappy rock bands and the more extreme crowds. It was really just a job for me, one of the few I could actually stand. I was basically piss poor and living off of fucking slim jims and potato chips. Pretty much the shit they gave out at the bar. Luckily, I always kind of liked that shit. Anyway, the day shit went down, I went over to my mom's place for lunch. She invited me the day before, and I remember her sounding like hell over the phone. I got there and everything was okay for a little bit, my step dad was in too bad of shape to fuck with me, which was a good thing. So me and my mom sat in the kitchen and talked for a little bit. I could tell something was bothering her, but she kept saying there was nothing wrong."

"The timer for whatever she was cooking started going off, but instead of getting it, my mom just kind of keeled over the sink. I could hear her spitting blood into it, although at the time I wasn't quite sure what it was. I kept asking if she was okay and she didn't say anything back. I got about halfway to where she was, and that's when my step dad came running in and tackled me. I kept yelling for my mom to help me, I honestly thought he was trying to fucking rape me or something, but she just stayed where she was, throwing up into the sink. I held him off as best I could but he was strong as fuck. Lucky for me I kept a little pocket knife on the end of my keys. I got it out, and stabbed the fucker in the eye with it. That got him off of me, so I got to my feet as quick as I could. He was screaming as loud as anything I'd ever heard, that's when my mom turned around and came at me."

"She came running at me full speed, so without thinking I grabbed the pan that was on the stove and swung it at her. It knocked her back, and when I looked at her I could see the giant burn mark on the side of her face. Any normal person would have been getting their ass to a hospital, but she didn't even hesitate to run at me again. I didn't know what was going on so I just ran out of the house as quick as I could. When I got outside, I realized the whole world was fucked. So I hopped on my bike and headed on over to Doc's where I met Bob here, and the rest is history."

There was a few moments of silence after her story. I realized that was the first time I'd heard of someone actually witnessing somebody change. I couldn't help but sympathize with her either. It must have been incredibly hard on her to actually see her mom like that. Her step dad I was guessing she had a little resentment toward. I almost was willing to bet she was more than glad to have stabbed the bastard in the eye. I knew I should say something, but the words just weren't coming. I decided to bite my tongue. Roxy didn't even seemed phased by telling the story, she almost seemed like a weight had been lifted from her shoulders afterwords.

"Alright, I'll tell mine now," said Lucas. It was like a mini therapy session had started. We all remained quiet and Lucas told his tale.

"Mine's not really quite that exciting I guess. I was in my dorm, playing some X-Box and getting ready to go out with a few of my friends. We were supposed to have a LAN party over at one of their parents houses."

"Man, what the fuck is a LAN party?" Kwame interrupted.

"It stands for local area network, its where you hook a bunch of computers or X-Boxes together and play against each other on the same network," Lucas explained.

"Alright, what the fuck ever, keep going," Kwame said, maybe a bit frustrated he didn't quite get the explanation.

"Anyway, I noticed online was dead as hell. Which was unusual no matter what day it was. That's when I heard a scream from down the hall. I got up and looked outside. That's when this dude who was always fucking with me, came hauling ass at me. I closed my door as quick as I could. He was a dick, but he really never did anything physical to me yet. I tried to think back and see if there was something I would have done to piss him off. He got to my door and started pounding away on it. He wasn't so much knocking on my door, he was more like trying to punch through it."

After that I heard a few more people charge my door and start pounding on it. I didn't know what the hell I did, I thought maybe I was sleep walking and peeing in their cereal or something. I decided to just hop out the window of my dorm and take off. Luckily my room was on the first floor. I got outside and got chased by a few more people, who I managed to outrun. I made my way into the cafeteria and locked myself in a closet there. It took a little while before Kwame and Riley showed up together and cleared out what was there. That's pretty much the gist of what happened."

"Yea you'd a been fucked if we didn't get there, huh mothahfuckah?" Kwame asked laughing.

"Indeed sir. I would have been pretty screwed," Lucas answered.

"Who's up next?" Roxy asked.

"Fuck it, I got this," said Kwame. "I think mine covers old girl over there too. She was with me the whole time."

"Well shit, I woke up at like, mothah fuckin' noon and shit. Noticed wasn't nobody around which was fucked up because there was a hell of a party the night before. Usually I wake up next to some fly ass honey the next mornin'. That was a crazy ass party huh girl?"

"It was decent, I've been to better though. Your campus is kind of lame actually," Riley said in response.

"Bitch, fuck you! Anyway, I seen old girl over here and tried to holla' at her. She wasn't really feelin' me though, but I kept my game tight kept followin' old girl, spittin' game at her, you know how I do. We got outside and this mothahfuckah was steppin, so I was like hey mothahfuckah! Check yo' self! Dude kept steppin, and I bust that mothahfuckah in the face. Normally mothahfuckahs go down, but dude was a beast and kept comin'."

"I could have fucked the mothahfuckah up, but old girl got scared and started runnin' and it came down to do I fuck this dude up? Or get my dick wet? Know what I'm sayin'? So I went after her, and she ran into another mothahfuckah. This dude was all grabbin on her and shit, so I kicked the fuck out of him. Another mothahfuckah came at me with this machete right here, and I fucked him up too and took his shit. Then me and old girl fucked shit up all the way to the cafeteria, where we found this mothahfuckah cryin' in the closet and shit.

"Whoa! I was not crying!" Lucas shouted.

"Chill mothahfuckah, I'm just fuckin' wit chu, but yea we found him and locked ourselves in that shit. Then ya'll showed up. That's it."

"Wow, that story wasn't hard to follow at all," Roxy said as sarcastically as possible.

"Shit, I thought I told that pretty well myself. I'm like mothahfuckin', Alfred Hitchcock or some shit," Kwame responded.

"The fact that you know who that is impresses me," Roxy said laughing. "Anyway who's left? We got Bob and Layla. Who's going first?"

Layla and I both looked at each other, neither one of us really wanted to tell our story, I could tell she didn't. I wasn't sure if I wanted to tell my story or not. I was hoping Layla went, so I had some time to fabricate some stuff, or at least figure out what parts I was going to leave out. Layla wasn't budging though, the more I looked into her eyes, the more I knew I was going to give in.

"Fuck it," I said. "I'll go next."

I told them about the cute girl down the hall, and how I bashed her brains in, along with the other two zombies. I knew my story wasn't that interesting and I wondered if they could tell I was leaving out a few details, like the whole about to kill myself thing. What I told was enough though, and it seemed to satisfy them. I just had to keep this all up for one more night, I'd be gone in the morning anyway. I needed to start thinking of a place to go, and how I'd leave without being detected. I'd probably just end up winging it, like I always did. That was sort of my trademark, if I had one. I improvised everything in life, from school projects to escaping cannibalistic zombie hordes. When the time came, I'd be ready. It was Layla's turn though now, and I was very curious as to what her story was. Either she was hiding something, or she was really just that shy. There were three new people that she wasn't quite familiar with, so that would make sense. It took her a little while, but she finally found the courage to start talking.

"I was on my way home from school to see my dad. He was the only family I had left since my mom died. I talked to him basically every night, about school and all the other stuff going on in my life. He always told me he'd never need another woman, as long as he had me. I loved my dad more than anything. He'd always been there for me, supporting me at every turn. It was the first time I would be home in a long time, and I couldn't wait to get there. On the way, I noticed a car turned over on the road, so I stopped to help them. To my surprise there was no one there. So I called the police, and got no answer. I got worried then, and called my dad, who picked up. I could tell there was something wrong right when he answered the phone. I could hear the screams in the background and the pounding sounds on the door. I asked him what was wrong, and he just kept telling me it was going to be all right, but I could tell by the tone in his voice that it wasn't going to be. It was that voice you use when you're trying to ease a child with cancer into their death. That sweet, but sad voice that we all have, but hate the fact that we do."

"Then I heard a big slam and some glass breaking on the other end. My dad shouted he loved me, at the top of his lungs. After that all I heard was him screaming in pain. I kept crying and pleading with him over the phone to tell me what was wrong. Then I heard a crunch and the call was gone. I floored it into the city. I had to know what had happened and see him one last time. I didn't make it seven blocks before I got stopped by a big horde of them in the middle of the street. I tried backing up, but I slammed into a parked car. I got out and started running." She stopped right there and started balling her eyes out. I knew there was more to her story, but I wasn't going to make her go on. I put my arm around her, and she sunk her face into my shoulder. I was never good at knowing what to say in situations like these, so I just tried to make her laugh.

"That's about the time we found you with no shirt on right?" I said. She laughed that laugh that you can only do in the middle of a good cry.

I couldn't help but feel sorry for her. I knew she was dreading telling that story. She knew what was going to happen, and she didn't want to remember any of it. Who would? That's the type of story that drives people into becoming alcoholics and prostitutes. We all had lost a lot, and we knew it. Some of us just didn't have to face it quite as head on as her and Roxy did. I knew my parents were gone, but I was going to leave them anyway. It didn't quite phase me as much. I knew the horrible realization of what we all left behind would hit us sooner or later. We'd all probably wake up in the middle of the night at some point with tears in our eyes, just hoping our crying didn't wake anybody else up. It was late and we all decided it was time to rest up for the morning. Leaving was going to be hard, but I wasn't going to let my tears keep somebody up when it all caught up to me.