89.4 Zombie Radio

I got into my old, reliable Lincoln Continental and locked the doors. Everything seemed calm enough. The thought that its maybe a little too quiet immediately crossed my mind however. So I fired up the engine and turned the stereo up to a somewhat unhealthy volume. I quickly realized that I was a tad sick of the CD line up I currently had in. My Lincoln came with a six disc changer, which was ideal for a guy like me. If there was one thing I was proud of, it was my CD collection. Sure over half of them were burned CDs from the internet, but still, it was awesome. Show me someone who hasn't broken a copyright law in the past ten years. Its damn near impossible. If you ever had somebody tape Lost for you because you were gonna be working late, you broke one. Its okay, all is forgiven now.

What to listen to during the end of the world? That was the question. I felt the situation required something a little bit faster than the usual mix. After some deliberation, I decided upon some Glassjaw, Underoath, Deftones, The Fall of Troy, Rage Against the Machine, and for a change of pace, some Taking Back Sunday. I popped the cartridge back in and cranked the volume back up. I noticed some zombies started emerging soon after. At least now I'd be running them down with a soundtrack. I knew this wasn't going to be an easy ride. Then I remembered I didn't even have a plan yet. Where the hell was I gonna go? I needed to decide upon a plan.

I knew I was going to need to eat. So at some point I would need to visit some place that sold food. I figured that could wait for now though, after all I'd been living off two potatoes a day, I think I could hold out. I also was going to need some survival stuff. Weapons, guns mainly, sort of wishing I would have finally gave in on buying that Colt .45 my dad was always trying to pawn off on me. Probably was gonna need a compass too, my car had one built in but who knew when I was going to need to travel on foot. Also there was the issue of actually learning how to use a compass, but as they say, necessity is the greatest teacher. In other words I'd figure it out when the time came. Also figured I'd need some basic hiking stuff, backpack, sleeping bag, you know, that sort of thing. Where could I find all that at a one stop shop? "Duh." I said to myself. Doc's Sporting Goods, the place for all your camping, hunting, and fishing needs.

I knew this was going to be a hell of a ride. I strapped my seat belt on, which was a habit I'd always lived by, but now it really had a purpose. The roads were filled with the undead, or whatever we were calling these things. I'm not so sure if they were undead, nobody really clawed their way out of the grave or anything, they were just sick. I guess zombie covers all bases, so that's what I'd stick with for lack of a better term. This was not gonna be easy, especially for a man who didn't know his side streets too well. Just had to make it to Doc's somehow. For some reason I wondered if my cell phone worked. It surprisingly did, and still had service. Then I remembered the little navigation thing it had on it, I never used it because I always figured it pointless, and it cost money to use it. But something told me I wasn't going to have to worry about paying the bill this month. I flipped it on and started driving, Martha, which was the name I gave to the GPS voice, led me to my destination no matter how many detours I took due to impromptu zombie buffets.

I was midway through the third CD when I had finally arrived at the illustrious Doc's Sporting Goods. I'd never actually went in here before, because I was never really the outdoors type, but it was pretty decked out inside. I thanked God the automatic doors still worked, I'd never broken a store window before but I'd heard it wasn't as easy as you'd think. The lights were all off, it looked like they just closed one night and never reopened. Which then sparked the question, who unlocked the door? I suddenly got the feeling I wasn't alone. I didn't see any signs of forced entry, but I wasn't exactly paying the greatest attention either. I looked up at the department names. "Hunting Needs" glared like a beacon of hope in the far corner of the store. I took note of where everything else I was going to need was and started walking forward through the isles.

I turned a corner and was greeted by a shotgun blast that landed maybe two inches above my head. I yelled the loudest F bomb I'd ever yelled at this point in my life.

"Who are you? Are you one of them?" I heard from behind the shotgun barrel pointed at my face.

"Oh yea I'm a zombie, I've just maintained my intellect and am a vegetarian," I said back.

"Fuck you," She said back with a hint of laughter in her voice.

"So I take it you had the same idea as I did?" I asked her, hoping maybe she'd drop the gun.

"Guess so," she replied, finally letting the gun down. When I finally got a good look at her she was actually quite stunning. Black hair, dark make up, and tattoo sleeves. The type of girl you'd see at a death metal concert. The thing that caught my attention was her eyes though. Damn they were bright. The most radiant blue I'd ever seen. Some guys liked boobs, some guys liked asses, me I could look into a girls eyes all day, call me crazy.

"My name's Roxy," she said.

Roxy? That name sounded familiar. Where had I heard it before? Immediately the song "Roxanne" by the police popped into my head.

"Bob," I managed to stutter back.

"Well, Bob, what are your plans for this evening?" she asked me with a grin. I laughed a little bit.

"Well I'm gonna try to find a nice quiet place and survive for the night," I said still laughing. She returned my laugh.

"Mind if I come with you?" she asked. I knew I should say no. I knew I should just go my own way. It'd benefit me and her both really. Eventually I'd just abandon her anyway. I knew that, but there's a weakness of mine, I can't ever say no. Especially not to a girl like this one. Hell, I can't say no to women in general. Like I said, I'm weak, at least I admit it. So I agreed to take her with me.

We agreed upon what we were going to need. I guess we both thought pretty alike. We both got brand new shotguns and a .45. I got two. I always wanted to roll with duel pistols like some sort of ridiculous John Woo action movie hero. I figured now was my chance to see if I could do it. We were busy getting every extra clip we could find when we heard the glass toward the front of the store crash. They were here, I knew they eventually would be, I was just hoping it wasn't while we were there. We jumped behind the gun counter and readied ourselves for a fight.

The one thing I was already thankful for was these zombies weren't very sneaky. You could hear them screaming and knocking stuff over, all the way at the front of the store. Slowly the noise got louder, and I could tell Roxy was getting a tad nervous. Obviously she wasn't the greatest shot or I'd be a dead man right now. Truth be told I knew I wasn't either. I'd shot a gun before, but it'd been so long I hoped I didn't forget the basics. I whispered some pointers to Roxy.

"Hold it tight against your shoulder, and line up the beads. Try to keep both eyes open."

"Shut the fuck up," She told me and as scared as I was, I had to laugh.

The first zombie popped it's head out from around the corner and I fired a shot. No big surprise when I missed though, like I said its been a while. More rushed in, knocking down the aisle in the scramble. "Good," I thought to myself, less cover. Roxy and I started firing away, she was right, my advice was pretty much bull shit. At this range it was just point and click. The bastards kept coming even with a few shots in them. I ran out of ammo first. I ducked down and tried to figure out how to reload the piece of shit. Then Roxy ran out, she dropped the shotgun and pulled out the .45. Smart girl, I quickly copied her, and pulled out both of mine. I shot at one with just one hand. I guess I didn't have the kind of grip I should have had, and the kick of the gun threw it to the ground. I clutched the other one with both hands and unloaded the rest of the clip into the remaining zombies. Roxy had already loaded another clip into her gun and continued firing until nothing was left moving.

"I think we need to get the fuck out of here," she said. I agreed, I wasn't quite one hundred percent sure about this, but I think the first shot at me brought them all. Who knows how many would show up after that little battle. We both worked fast and collected what we could. We knew we had enough guns to last us and all the useful little camping items we could fit in a backpack. The alarm went off as we left. After all that, it took us walking through the theft detectors to trigger it. When we got to the parking lot, a small debate started.

"I'll go get my bike," she said.

"A bike? Like motorcycle? You got here on one of those?" I asked.

"Fuck yea I did, best way to get around," she said confidently. I made the argument of how the hell were we supposed to carry all this stuff on a motorcycle. She knew I was right and yet she still argued, there must have been something about the bike.

"What if I just follow you?" she asked, reverting to that little girl voice that all women seem to have when they're trying to get their way. I couldn't let her do that, with my luck I'd watch her get blindsided by some zombie from my rear view mirror, and it'd be too late. I didn't so much care about myself, but her I'd hate to see something happen to. If anything I'd find someone to take care of her for me, and then it would be back to being by myself. I think that's why I avoid people, because I usually care too much about them, and it only leads to heartbreak. After some heated debate, she finally agreed to just take my car. On the walk back, I saw her wipe a tear from her eye. She must really love that bike. Honestly I would've loved to take it. Not much to hold on to but the person driving, and God knows I can't drive one. That might have been nice.

After my brief daydream, we got in the car and the radio came on, loud as ever. I was impressed when she didn't even wince, she just looked over as I turned it down and said, "Deftones, nice." I like this girl, she's the shit. Like the sister I never had. We pulled out of Doc's and Roxy started learning what she could about how to reload the shotgun. We definitely didn't need to have that problem again. It was easy once you got it, guess we're just not gun savvy. I looked over at the gas gauge, one hundred and thirty six miles to empty, it said. I love that feature on the Lincoln, you always knew exactly how far you could go before you were fucked. That amount would probably get us close to getting out of the city, but it was obvious, we were gonna have to make a pit stop.