89.4 Zombie Radio

Having a whole mall to myself was something I had always dreamed about as a kid, but now that I was an adult, I realized it wasn't all it was cracked up to be. It may have been different if things were still normal, but when cannibals are trying to hunt you down and eat you, suddenly that fifty inch plasma TV you always had your eye on doesn't quite matter as much. I knew I needed a few changes of clothes, and maybe a few other little things to entertain me. Mostly I was looking for stuff I could actually use outside of here. It seemed like I was the only one who had that philosophy however. Layla was stocking up on all the clothes she could get her hands on. She may be a genius, but she's still a girl when all is said and done. Lucas was living it up too. He managed to fill up a whole bag full of video games and another Playstation 3.

"Why do you need another one of those?" I asked him.

"In case the one in the bus breaks on me," he replied. "Its always nice to have a back up Bob."

I knew why Trevor had come along. He was following Layla around like a lost puppy, commenting on every outfit she picked out. I just pretended to be busy with my own shopping to care. Every word he said made me want to throw up. This wasn't the real person. This was a mask, a character he was playing, one that made him seem like the sweet, caring guy that every girl wants. I hated this act, I just hoped Layla could see through it in time before he broke her heart. She definitely didn't deserve that, and if I had anything to do with it, I wouldn't let it happen.

"Man, that guy is ridiculous," Lucas proclaimed.

"Its sickening isn't it?" I replied.

"Dude, he's following her around like he's her deformed shadow or something," Lucas said. I had to laugh. that was a very unique way of putting it.

"Yea, he's not what he appears to be, trust me on that," I told him.

"I know man, its all a big front. I've seen way too many guys do this shit to not see through it," he said. "Did he say or do anything in particular around you?"

"Well, he made a comment about how in a few days, she'd be wiping ejaculate off of her breasts. That's the nice way of putting it, if there is one," I replied.

"Wow, what a gentleman," said Lucas.

"My thoughts exactly," I answered. "Notice how every time she has her back turned his eyes are right on her ass?"

"He really couldn't be more obvious about it could he?" Lucas replied. "I'm surprised he hasn't looked back at us to try and get our approval yet." Just as Lucas said that, Trevor turned around and looked at us, pointing to her ass and mouthing some unknown obscenity.

"Spoke too soon," Lucas said. "Should we say something to her?"

"Fuck man, I don't know. I'm just gonna hope it all works itself out some how," I told him.

"Forgive me if I'm being a little too forward about this my friend, but I have to know, do you maybe have a little thing for her?" he asked. I had no idea how to respond, because honestly I didn't know. I'd be lying if I said I didn't feel something for her, it was just pinpointing what exactly that feeling was. That was the problem. Layla gave me a reason to live, that's all I knew. I'd take on a thousand muscle bound zombie super specimens with a toothpick for that girl, and I'll admit, I've never felt that way about anyone before.

"I don't know," I said. "Do me a favor man, and lets just change subjects."

"Cool, I'm sorry, I didn't mean anything by it. I was just curious," Lucas explained.

"I know, don't worry about it," I told him. Layla was making her way over just as we were finishing our conversation.

"Hey Bob, what do you think of this?" she asked holding up a plaid skirt. "Trevor says it would make me look too young." I really didn't know how to respond to this. I've never been good at giving my opinion on things like this. Put it this way, I'm the last person you want to ask, when you want to know if a dress makes your ass look fat.

"Well, isn't that a good thing?" I asked, just trying to sound as positive as I could. "I thought what girls wanted was to look younger."

` "Exactly, see Trevor, Bob gets it," Layla said. The funny thing was, I really didn't, but I guess I responded correctly. Me one, Trevor zero. We made our way to the next store, which wasn't quite as girlie as the last one we were in. In fact, it was about as manly as they come. It was a store filled with replica swords and medieval weaponry. I figured I might be able to find some things that were actually useful in here. I had a dream weapon in mind. I wanted a katana, but not just any katana. I wanted Japanese steal, and I preferably would except nothing less than a custom Masamune. Masamune was a master sword maker in Japan, and there were still generations of them making weapons. Well, there were before all this happened anyways.

I looked around for something to fill my weird samurai sword obsession, but nothing quite did the trick. There were a few katanas in the store, but nothing like what I was looking for. They were the kind that would snap at the end if you tried to chop a watermelon in half. I needed full tang, Japanese steel. I would settle for nothing less, until then, I could settle for the trusty little league bat. It was doing fine so far.

"Holy shit!" Lucas exclaimed. "This is mine! I am going to kick some serious ass with this bad boy!" I made my way over to him and saw that he had found a morning star. A morning star is basically comprised of a handle, and a weighted ball surrounded by spikes. It was a brutal medieval weapon to say the least, but brutal and medieval were two terms that fit this situation almost perfectly.

"You are going to hurt yourself with that Lucas! Put it back!" Layla scolded.

"I'm a big boy mom. I'll be fine, I promise," Lucas told her. "Watch this!" He swung the morning star down into one of the glass display cases holding knives. The weighted ball crashed through the top, and destroyed the case in one blow.

"Woo!" Lucas exclaimed. "Fucking awesome!"

"Well, when you get hurt, I don't want to hear about it. Whats wrong with these swords? I trust you with one of them better," Layla explained.

"No way, these swords are horrible," Lucas said. "I bet if you stabbed something with one, the handle would break off as you tried to pull it out of the person you just stabbed."

"A few of them are okay," I replied. "But most of these are really just for display purposes only."

"Oh... How do you know so much about this stuff anyways Bob?" Layla asked.

"My dad and I used to go to a lot of gun shows and stuff when I was a kid. It was kind of our thing. Eventually I kind of grew out of the whole guns and knives are cool phase, but I learned a lot of stuff. Never thought it'd be as handy as it is now," I told her.

"This place is a total geek zone," Trevor said. "I wouldn't be surprised if there was a whole back room where you could play Magic: the Gathering and Dungeons and Dragons in."

"Hey, fuck you man! Magic was the shit!" Lucas yelled.

"It was fucking stupid. Who the fuck played that anyways? Nothing but a bunch of..." Layla cut Trevor off in the middle of his rant.

"That will be enough boys," she told them. "We're leaving now anyways." She started to make her way toward the door, and Trevor stared Lucas down as he followed her out.

"Dude, fuck that guy," Lucas whispered to me. I could tell in his face he wasn't happy. The comment made me smile. Lucas and I were becoming fast friends, and it was quite apparent why. We were both huge nerds, and we both shared a mutual hatred for the same person.

"Magic is the shit," I told him. "I used to love that game in seventh grade."

"If we find some cards man, I'm gonna knock that asshole out and play a game with you right on his chest," Lucas said.

"Sounds like a plan," I replied.

I noticed the next store was the CD store, and I couldn't wait to go in. It was time to build the old collection back up again. I was sort of disappointed that I wasn't going to find some of my more obscure stuff, but I could get the essentials, and that made all the difference. It was sad to me that the record shops of old were going by the wayside. Everything was on the internet these days. Nobody actually left their house to get music anymore. I hated that about modern society, and for that, these people deserve to be zombies in my opinion.

"Oh, the CD store," Layla said. "You can get your CD's back in here can't you Bob?"

"That's the plan," I answered. "Hopefully these ones don't get thrown out the window like the last ones." Layla laughed at my comment.

"Yea, that would be nice I suppose. I never really listened to a whole lot of music before. You and Roxy are really into it though, aren't you?" she asked.

"It's always been a pretty important part of my life I guess," I explained. "Roxy's a little more hardcore than I am about it, but we definitely share a certain passion for music. What kind of music do you listen to?"

"Like I said, not a whole lot. I usually just turned the radio on and listened to whatever came on. When I was twelve, I was a big Spice Girls fan," she said laughing.

"The Spice Girls were true geniuses," I replied, laughing just as hard as she was. "Anything else in particular?"

"My dad was pretty big on old rock and roll. He was a big Led Zeppelin fan. Oh, and the Doors, he loved them too," she said. "I used to hear that stuff as a kid, and I liked it then. Whenever I hear that stuff these days it always reminds me of him."

I knew it was time to stop talking about it. I didn't want Layla to start crying or anything like that. I could tell by the look on her face, she was choking it back. She was close to her dad, and he was gone now. It might be good to avoid Led Zeppelin and the Doors for a while around her. I shot the lock off of the store, and we started to make our way inside.

"Well, if its the last thing I do Layla, I'm going to open your mind to something new," I told her. "You may not like all of what I listen to, but damn it, I'll find something you like." Layla laughed and smiled at me. Me two, Trevor zero.

I grabbed a few CD books and one of the things to take security locks off of the albums. I then went to work building back up my collection. This was by far the biggest record shop I had ever visited. Almost everything I could have wanted was there. I did my best to separate everything by genre and artist, but after a little while, it got old and I just started throwing things wherever. I'm sure I'd have time to sort everything out later.

I was about halfway through filling up the second case, and I heard a loud voice from the front of the store. It was easy to recognize it as Jessie's voice. I often wondered if she knew how loud her voice carried sometimes. I had nothing but respect for it though, she was full of energy, and that was something I lacked overall. In fact, if she got quiet, I'd probably get worried about her. I knew her being in the store at the same time may lead to another squabble, but at the same time, I loved to argue. So I readied myself for a verbal war and acted like I didn't notice she was there.

"Dang it Bob! You weren't supposed to be here! I was trying to beat you here so I could break all your crappy CD's before you got here," she said. I laughed and looked up at her. She was smiling at me, holding two big shopping bags worth of clothes. This girl didn't play around when she went shopping, she had probably double what Layla had.

"Well, I'm hoping I picked some out that would actually be able to fly this time," I told her.

"You're an idiot Bob," she said.

"I'm well aware of that Jessie," I replied.

"Well, I'm gonna make my own CD collection, and that's what we're going to listen to on the bus, because I don't want to hear that junk," she proclaimed.

"Let's compromise," I said. "How about, we play one of mine, then one of yours, then one we can agree on?" Sound good?"

"No, because I still have to listen to your stupid music!" she said. I gave up arguing with her, it was clear I would never win. This girl was as stubborn as they come and believe it or not I admired that. I would just try and pick my battles with her from now on. I may not win them, but maybe if I got someone else on my side, I could at least reason with her on occasion. I think I'd try to get Roxy involved in the music thing later, maybe she could help me compromise, but for now I'd just let things go.

Jessie was busy doing the same thing I was, and had about two CD books filled with music. I was already finished, and decided to wait around until she was done. Nobody else had much business in the CD store other than me and her. They just stood around, watched, and occasionally gave a few suggestions as to what they wanted to hear. Trevor wanted Nelly, and a few other commercialized rappers that I absolutely despised. I'd much sooner listen to Fall Out Boy than that shit. I didn't hate hip hop at all, I just liked MC's who were actually good at rapping. Layla jokingly picked out a Spice Girls album, which I was more than obliged to tuck away in one of my cases.

"Why are you just standing around waiting for me to be done?" Jessie asked.

I stalled and was trying to think of an excuse for why I was still there. I knew why, its because I had a weird quirk about being the first one to leave somewhere. Its one of those weird thought processes I always had, but I knew there was no way of explaining that to someone. Not without some weird looks anyways. I had almost thought of something, when the power went out, and the entire mall went pitch black.

"What the fuck!?" Dean exclaimed. It was the same thing we were all thinking I believe. I remembered the whole thing about the timers. Maybe it was time for this place to close, that was the only explanation I could think of.

"Layla, what time is it?" I asked.

"Its only four. There's no way this place is closed yet," she replied, clearly thinking the same thing I was.

"This is creepy," Jessie said. Her words were shortly followed by some light tapping on the mall's intercom system, and a voice that I didn't recognize at all.

"Attention all shoppers," it said. "I'm watching you." The words were followed by about thirty seconds worth of maniacal laughter. The lights back on not too long afterwords.

"What was that all about? Is someone here? Is someone messing with us?" Dalton asked.

"Maybe it was just one of the others playing a joke," Lucas said.

"Well its a pretty fucked up joke!" Trevor shouted.

"Look, we're not gonna solve anything freaking out about it," I said. "Let's just take a minute and think. It probably came from the security room here. If he's watching us like he says he is, then that's the only explanation."

"Bob's right, let's head there and see what we can find," Layla added.

"I'm ready to go kick some bum," Jessie said. "Stupid creepy guy on the intercom! I'm not done shopping either! I'm not letting this idiot ruin this for me! Hang on to my bags Dean! I'm mad!" Jessie started to storm off into the mall. She got about halfway before she realized nobody was following her, and turned around.

"Well, aren't you guys coming?" she asked. We didn't waste any time in following her out the door. It was time to hunt down whoever this bastard was watching us. I'm not a man who likes to be watched.