89.4 Zombie Radio

We finally got out of the city and we all breathed a sigh of relief. I knew we weren't quite out of the woods yet, but the hard part was over now. Now we just had to find a place to stay before nightfall. I decided to check in on the radio station. There was still music playing. I took that as a good sign, he must have still been alive, that or he was dead and the play list was going to play on this station for a very long time. I'd check back tomorrow, hopefully I heard something from the guy. I didn't even know him and I worried about him. God damn I worry too much.

Layla was a quiet girl I was finding out. She hadn't said more than a couple sentences since we had picked her up. Roxy and I began another music discussion, this time about the intricacies of the Coheed and Cambria story line. I could only imagine what Layla was thinking during the whole thing. I put Layla in charge of finding a house we could crash at. They were all probably open to stay at, but I figured I'd give the poor girl something to do. I guess she was taking the opportunity to stay at the type of place she always dreamed of. Why not? Who knows what was going to happen? Might as well live it up while you can.

She finally saw a nice, little farm house just off the road. It was the type of house I imagine would have suited her, simple and quiet. We got out of the car, and Roxy and I once again got ready for battle.

"Same strategy as last time?" she asked.

"Why not?" I replied. So we walked up to the house back to back. I nearly forgot about Layla. What the hell was she going to do? So I tossed her my pistol and told her if it got bad, to just point and shoot at whatever moved. I think the gun was too intimidating for her though. She kept holding it away from her like it was some sort of tissue filled with snot. How she made it this far was sort of a miracle, guess it was because she's a damn fine sprinter.

We got up onto the porch and Roxy and I kicked in the door like a trained swat team. I didn't know we had it in us, but I'm learning a lot about myself here of late. I turned a corner and heard the immediate click of a shotgun being cocked.

"Don't take another fuckin' step boy!" someone said behind the darkness. "You one of them cock sucking pieces of shit? You don't answer I'll shoot you a new asshole boy!"

There were a few things I didn't like being called and one of them was boy. Sadly he had the drop on me, so I'd just have to take it for now.

"I'm human. We all are. There's no need to worry. We just need a place to stay for the night," I said, unsure of what the response would be. I know how these rednecks are, they don't like to be bothered.

"I suppose that'd be alright," He said back.

Finally he emerged from behind the shadows. He wasn't wearing a shirt which was slightly disturbing. He wasn't in great shape to say the least. His gut hung down past his pants and he had one of the worst cases of farmer's tan I'd ever seen.

"You can stay here tonight, but in the mornin' I want ya'll gone. Ya hear?" He asked.

"No problem sir," I answered.

"Why's that girl not got a shirt on?" He asked licking his lips in a creepy fashion.

"Long story," I replied. "Mind if we steal a shirt off you?" He kept staring right at Layla. I know she was hot, but Jesus, could you be a little less obvious? I started to get that bad feeling in my gut. The one I'd learned to listen to over the course of my life. He finally went and got Layla a shirt. It took him a little while, maybe because he couldn't find a shirt, or maybe he was just thinking a little too hard about her in his room. I didn't really want to know.

He showed us our rooms and we thanked him for letting us stay. I couldn't shake the feeling that we needed to leave, and soon. Something about that guy was off. I know a lot of harmless perverted rednecks where I'm from, but this guy had a vibe I can't explain. The girls felt it too, but we were all tired, so we decided to make the best of it. Roxy looked out the window and seen a small pile of bodies outside. It looked like a little family of zombies, maybe it was his former neighbors. There was a woman, a man, a little girl and a little boy. It was the perfect example of the all American family, all piled on top of one another. It was actually quite disturbing, but I knew I'd see way worse by the time it was all over.

It was late, and we needed to leave early, so we decided it was time to turn in. I honestly coudn't sleep. I tried, but my eyes just wouldn't close. Something just wasn't sitting well with me. It wasn't so much the zombies, not that they weren't far from my thoughts, it was that guy. Also the smell in this house was God awful. It smelled like someone had went and broke an egg in every room about a year ago and they just never bothered to clean it. I wondered if the girls were sleeping. I started thinking about where we were going to go in the morning. It started to put me asleep. Right when I felt myself drifting off, I heard the scream. It was Layla. That girl was so damn quiet, but when she screamed you could hear it for about a block.

I jumped up and grabbed the pistol that was laying next to my head. I stormed down the hall and planted myself right outside the door. If I went through all this for a bug or something I'd be pissed. I was just hoping she wasn't one of those kind of girls. Then I heard more muffled cries, like somebody was trying to hold their hand over her mouth. My fears were confirmed, damn I need to start listening to my gut more. It tends to be smarter than my head. I kicked the door in, and did my best to take in the scene. The sick bastard, was butt naked and working on pulling Layla's pants off. He heard me come in and whipped her in front of him, placing Layla between him and me, and holding a knife to her throat.

"Drop the knife motherfucker!" I yelled. At this point I wanted to be loud, I needed to wake Roxy up somehow, but so far I didn't hear anything from down the hall.

"Fuck you!" He yelled back. "I'll cut this stupid cunt ear to ear! Don't think I won't!" I didn't know what to do. Never in a million years would I have thought I'd be in a situation like this. I was supposed to be dead today. "How did they handle this in the movies?" I thought. Usually the guy was a bad ass, who never missed. I was not quite up to that level of bad assness. In fact, I wasn't even close, but I was gonna have to do something. "Just keep him talking" I thought to myself.

"Why are you doing this?" I asked. "Just let us leave, and we won't bother you or tell anyone about this. There's no need for all this."

"It isn't that easy boy. I can't let any of you leave now," He said back.

I wondered then if he really knew how bad it was outside. He didn't seem like the type to watch the news. The family that attacked him was probably his only encounter. Maybe if I tried to explain the situation he'd reconsider.

"Look man, the world as we know it, is pretty much fucked. Nobody's ever going to know about this. I swear to God," I said, pleading for Layla's life.

"The fuck am I s'posed to believe you? You're fuckin' stupid boy!" He yelled back. "Come on Roxy! Where the fuck are you? I need you now more than ever!" I kept thinking. Of all the people I needed help from, it had to be the one who could sleep through a Slayer concert.

I knew I wasn't going to get back up on this, I was just gonna have to risk it. I didn't want to, but I couldn't live with myself if I didn't try something. I was hoping that where I was aiming was his head. I was pretty sure it was. There was only about three inches of it showing, but I was guessing if I hit it, he would go down. He started to move on me, he began to get up. Luckily as he did he exposed a good portion of his head. I adjusted my aim accordingly. He started to say something, but I interrupted him with a bullet to the forehead. It wasn't quite dead center, but it got the job done. He dropped the knife and went down. Layla screamed again as she looked at the bastard's cold dead eyes. Then she ran to me and wrapped her arms around me, squeezing what life I had left out.

She thanked me about a hundred times through the tears. Poor girl, if it wasn't zombies trying to kill her, it was disgusting rednecks trying to rape her. I held her as long as she needed, which was a while. I understood, never been through an attempted rape before, but I'm guessing it was traumatizing. Finally she was done, and she let me breathe again. I decided to go and wake Roxy up and get the hell out of here. I knew the threat was gone, but that didn't matter to me. There was no way I was staying here tonight. Roxy nearly shot me when I woke her up. I'd try to avoid having to do that in the future. Couldn't blame her for being on edge though, especially not after what had happened.

I filled Roxy in on what had happened. She apologized for not waking up. We all three decided to look around and see if there was anything we could use in the house. I couldn't find much. A few tools I decided might be useful, in case I had to learn how to fix an automobile on the fly. I looked in the garage, but there was nothing. What self respecting redneck didn't own a full set of tools? He had to have a few nice guns too and maybe some ammo. At this point we really couldn't have enough of that. I remembered the shot I took at the bastard and I remembered my zombie noise theory. Maybe we should just get out of here before anything decided to show up. Then I thought, hell, that shot didn't even wake up Roxy, and we're miles away from anything right now. I think we had time.

Roxy was busy going through his food. There wasn't much there, Roxy was disappointed. She was pissed he didn't even have any slim jims. I think she had a small obsession with those. Layla went through the dresser in the one room. She found some clothes that fit her, finally. It seemed as though that creep had given birth to kids at some point, a boy and a girl. I knew because there were pictures of them, and a woman I assume was his wife, all over the house. I felt sorry for the girl, God only knows what she went through. I decided to keep looking for his stash in the basement. As soon as I opened the door the smell that was all over the house attacked my senses. I gagged, which was saying something. I could handle a lot of gross things, but this was disgusting. Clearly I had found the source of the odor that plagued the place.

I started walking down. I was actually nervous. I called for Roxy and Layla to come with me. They reluctantly agreed, and we started our descent into the stench. It was too dark to see anything so I started fumbling around looking for a light. Finally I found it and flipped it on. A part of me wished I never had. The light revealed the naked corpse of a young woman. Most of her was decayed at this point. Her legs spread like some blow up sex doll. Layla immediately ran back up the stairs, gagging. Roxy and I stayed and had a look around. There were a lot of tools down here, sharp tools. The type a freak would use to torture a girl he'd trapped in his basement. On the ground in front of the corpse, lied a whip. I picked it up and tried cracking it. I'd never had the chance to do that before.

Roxy stumbled upon a photo album labeled "Good Times." We were both way too afraid to open it, but I was more and more glad this son of a bitch was dead. That's about the time Roxy opened up the freezer. As soon as she did, a hand with a wedding ring on it fell out. He had a full freezer full of nothing but human meat. There were packs labeled with names of organs. Even Roxy gagged at that point. My guess was he was living off of these people, sick cannibalistic bastard. We both decided we'd had enough. So we went back up the stairs. Layla was already outside, shaking, and refusing to go back in. Roxy hugged her and assured her it was alright now. We spent the rest of the night in the car. They slept and I stayed awake, shotgun by my side. Today was by far, the most interesting day I'd ever had, and to think, I was supposed to be dead.