Dancing Dead

It took Zacky almost a half an hour to get through the traffic jam of abandoned cars. He even had to nudge a few of them out of the way so they wouldn't have to go on foot. There were far too many people... err, zombies out there to do it safely.

It has been almost 3 hours now and they have passed a few more cars that have been abandoned on the side or the middle of the highway. Most of them with blood trails leading somewhere into the woods.

“We have another few hours until we hit the next town we were scheduled for, if things are just as fucked up there as it was back there what are we going to do?” Zacky asks, looking into the rear view mirror for a moment.

“I don't know man, try the radio again.” Matt sighs as he looks around the van, cuddling Liz on his lap. Johnny is asleep with his head on Nicole's lap. Nicole is asleep with her head on Jimmy's shoulder, with his arms protectively around her. Brian is wide awake holding a sleeping Isabelle.

Zacky tries the radio and they finally get something lower on the dial. It seems to be on repeat.

“The dead are rising from their graves. The whole country has been torn apart by these beings. This is a recording. I repeat; this is a recording. Those of us left have been urged to find our way to a shelter as soon as possible. These beings cannot be killed unless you shoot them in the head. I repeat, shoot them in the head. If you have been bitten, you are now infected and...” Zacky turns the radio off unable to listen anymore.

“I'd say we don't have a gig tomorrow, wouldn't you?” Brian is still in shock that it seemed the person on the radio was about to say for those bitten to kill themselves.

“At the next available stop we will check around a bit, if it has been abandoned we will just have to gather things to defend ourselves with and as much supplies as we can fit in here. Make our way to PCH and see how bad it is at home.” Matt is slowly processing the hard facts. They need to get home to check on their parents and siblings, and they need to make sure they can defend themselves.

'We should do what the radio said. Find shelter.' Isabelle signs. They are about 4 states away from California right now, it would take a few days to get back to town. She huffs when nobody pays attention.

When they reach the next town the smell of death is in the air. Nobody is roaming the streets, fires have seemingly sprouted almost everywhere and you could almost taste the smokey rotting flesh in the air. Zacky stopped at the first gas station he saw and looked at the guys sadly before speaking. “We are going to need to use some of our instruments as weapons until we find something better, hand me my guitar.” He holds out his arms. Izzy hands Zacky his precious guitar case with a morose expression. He removes the strings and smashes the guitar on the ground outside, keeping the neck. One by one they all have something to protect themselves with and exit the van to look around.

Nicole and Liz going with Izzy since it would be easier if she ran into trouble. They look around for any survivors while the guys look for weapons and any food that doesn't have to be cooked. They have broken off into two teams of two while Zacky stays behind and fills up the van. Lucky for him people left without turning the pumps off. He takes a few gas cans that were sitting at the side of the building and fills them up too, placing them in the back of the van. In favor of packing more supplies he removes the band equipment with a heavy sigh. Jimmy is not going to be a happy camper now that he had to leave his drums behind. When he's finished filling up the van, Zacky joins Brian and Johnny inside the gas station as they gather drinks and anything eatable that doesn't need to be heated.

Just as they are packing up the van they hear a noise and Matt screaming for the girls to run. They turn around only to see the three girls running from a couple zombies. Matt and Jimmy running behind them trying to catch up. The girls make it to the safety of the van just in time and the band descends upon the three rouge zombies with the necks of the guitars, stabbing them in their skulls. Jimmy accidentally broke the back window of the van with a sickening crack, stabbing the larger zombie between the eyes with a drumstick.

“Is everyone ok? Nobody was bitten where they?” Brian asks while taking Izzy into his arms, hugging her close as she cries.

“I'm not sure man, the girls were cornered when we got there, their weapons were on the ground. We set off a bottle rocket we found for a distraction.” Matt explains while hugging Liz tightly and then checking her over for any bite marks. Luckily she and Nicole don't have any. The girls did try to fight the zombies off but were obviously overpowered and frightened. When Matt and Jimmy had found them, they were holding the dead men at arms length trying to keep them away from getting bitten.

“We should check a couple houses for weapons, the gas station had a .9ml and a little ammo. If we are going to make it to Cali, we need more.” Brian shows them the gun he'd put on his belt.

'I was bitten.' Izzy quickly signs once Brian lets her go, everyone in the party gasps and the other two girls start to sob and nod. She showed the group her arm which had several bite marks on it and was starting to turn a pale green. It was quickly spreading up her arm and to the rest of her body. 'I don't want to be one of those things.' She signs again, looking at Brian who is choking on a sob of his own. Brian just nods and backs Izzy up to the side of the van, careful not to touch the part of his girlfriend that is infected. He pulls her in for a long kiss before telling her he loves her. Before she can even think, he pulls out the gun and shoots her in the head. He jumps back quickly, letting the body fall to the ground.

At least she won't be one of them.

The girls rush Brian and gather him into a tight hug when they see he is about to do the same to himself. They tell him over and over again that they love him and need him and Izzy wouldn't have wanted him to do that to himself. It takes about five minutes after that fiasco for the girls to toss Izzy's things out of the van , put her blanket over her body and keep moving. It may seem heartless, but nobody could stomach keeping her things. Brian is seated between Liz and Nicole in the back while Jimmy drove the van. Jimmy had taken over for Brian since it would have been his turn. They decide to stop at a few of the houses looking for weapons of any kind on the way out of town. They find a few shotguns, a rifle, and several handguns to use that someone left behind with ammo. Brian, Nicole and Liz stayed in the van while the others went looking. They didn't feel he was up to going.

When they get back on the highway the two girls are cuddling Brian still, while Matt is trying to sleep with his head resting on Liz's lap and Zacky tries to do the same on Nicole's. Poor Johnny is asleep against the back door. Under the window they have yet to repair. Nobody is talking because they can't find the words to say.

Around midnight the van decides to die, they know it isn't the gas and the engine refuses to turn over. As a result they pack up as much food and water as they can carry into their backpacks with as much ammo as they can handle. Putting their guns on their belts or around their shoulders, ready for WW3 if need be.

The group begin their trek walking through the woods since the roads are no longer a safe place without a vehicle. Almost immediately they stumble upon a horde of zombies.

“RUN!” Jimmy screams at the girls. Drawing their weapons, the girls make a run for it. Shooting what they can as they make their way to safety, climbing up a large oak several meters away while the guys follow. They manage to escape unscathed, shooting and stabbing their way through the horde.

“Jesus Christ. Jesus T. H. Christ. There were at least 13 of those fuckers.” Brian attempts to catch his breath leaning against a tree a few yards away from the massacre. Drenched in blood that isn't his own just like the others. Brian hastily removes his shirt and throws it into the bushes in anger. Grabbing his jacket from the pack he was carrying, he angrily puts it on before plopping down to the grass.

“We will just have to be more careful going forward.” Matt adds as he coaxes the girls down from their perch. He and Zacky check the girls to make sure they weren't bitten once again.

The guys quietly had an understanding with one another to keep the girls safe at all costs. When they were gearing up earlier they quickly agreed when the girls were out of ear shot. When they don't find a scratch on them, they both take their girls in their arms and kiss them soundly.

“Everybody ok?” Johnny asks while removing his blood soaked shirt, replacing it with the hoodie he kept on top of his backpack.

“Yeah dude, everyone seems fine.” Matt sighs before changing out of his own blood stained shirt. Jimmy and Zacky following suit. “Babe, you might want to change out of that shirt, you've got red on you.” He nudges his girlfriend. Both Liz and Nicole groan when they look down at their tank tops noting all the the blood that had transferred onto them from their boyfriend's shirts. They give each other a nod and remove their tank tops without a second thought. They toss them into the bushes and open their backpacks to find another shirt to wear which leaves the guys wide eyed and perplexed. They each grab a black tank top and quickly put it on. Neither girl has ever been that open before. Matt and Zacky give the guys nearly deadly looks, as if to say 'If you don't stop looking, I'm going to kill you.'

“Johnny put your tongue back in your motherfucking mouth before I rip it out.” Zacky nearly growls smacking him upside his head. Poor Johnny whines when he bites his tongue.

“Short Shit, that's what you get.” Matt chuckles.

“Babe I think we should set up camp soon. Walking in the dark isn't going to do any of us good.” Nicole pouts at Zacky who brings it up to Matt. Matt, through no thought of his own, had been declared leader of the group.

“Ok lets find a good patch of ground to set up camp. Someone needs to start a fire and we need to find something to eat other than that shit we've been eating.” Matt nods as he wraps an arm around Liz's neck leading her away.

Matt decides to set up camp in a thick patch of trees and bushes trying to be discrete just a few meters away from the large oak that the girls climbed. The ground is fairly flat without much grass. Matt, Liz and Nicole put down blankets in a circle and build a small fire in the middle. The others are off in a group looking for something edible.

A snake slithered up to Nicole as she was adding a few small branches to the fire. It sits up and hisses at her as she stands stock still trying not to cry watching it. Before she can blink Liz picks it up quickly, holding the head firmly and the middle.

“Who wants to try some snake tonight?” She asks her stunned friends as the snake hisses in anger opening it's mouth showing large fangs. “I can't hold him all day now..” Liz sighs.

“I guess it would be better than what we've been eating.” Zacky shrugs knowing that it wouldn't be too bad of an idea since they've only had cold canned food or snack food lately.

Liz steps over to a large flat rock and thinks for a moment on how she is going to do this without being bitten. She decides to do a modified version of something she'd seen her dad do once before when a snake had been in the house and scared her mother. She quickly lets go of the snake's head and bashes it against the rock knocking it out, before taking out the hunting knife from the holster on her thigh and cutting off the head. She skins it and then removes the organs before putting it on a stick to roast.

“Holy shit. That was kind of hot.” Matt looks at her kind of funny.

“I might have grown up in Chicago Mattie, but I spent summers in Texas on my uncle's farm when I was little.” Liz saunters over, kissing him softly before walking over to the fire and setting it up for roasting the snake.

Shortly thereafter the others come back with a few mushrooms, berries, fresh water from the creek and surprisingly a rabbit. Liz looks at the mushrooms closely before deeming them ok to be eaten.

“Neener would you break out the bowls and things? I'll set up the pot for the mushrooms and the rabbit over the fire when the snake is finished.” Liz asks while taking the rabbit from Jimmy. She takes it over to the same rock from earlier, guts and skins it before cutting it up in pieces to put in the collapsible pot with the mushrooms and water.

While Nicole makes sure the snake doesn't burn after she gets the bowls and spoons out. Brian, Zacky, and Matt scout out the rest of the area leaving Johnny and Jimmy with the girls. Johnny had been complaining about his feet hurting and Jimmy was there to make sure the girls stayed safe.

When the snake is finished Nicole takes it off the fire and cuts it up into a couple servings worth, putting it into a plastic baggie for later since there is enough rabbit stew to feed everyone tonight.

“It should be ready in a little while if we can keep the fire up.” Liz smiles as she puts the collapsible pot onto the fire after building it up some more.

'I'm scared.' Liz signs to Nicole, glad that they had all learned for Izzy's benefit. They realized that they could still use ASL for communication when they needed to be silent. Johnny had fallen asleep on one of the blankets so everyone was trying to be quiet while they waited for the others to come back.

'I want to wake up from this nightmare.' Nicole signs back.

Jimmy is sitting there silently watching the girls, keeping a sharp lookout for intruders until the others return. The only light they have now is the fire since Matt took the flashlight to find their way back.

'Matt promised they would be an hour.' Liz signs with a worried expression after looking at her watch. It has been almost an hour and a half and the soup is ready.

“Johnny wake up, the soup is ready.” Nicole shakes the shorter man as he groans in protest. “Wake up so you can eat, Cry-Baby.”

“I hate you right now.” He growls while sitting up so Nicole slaps him upside the head. “Bitch!”

“Love you too, Asshat.” Nicole shoots back, handing him a bowl to go over to Liz and get some food. She takes another bowl over to Jimmy before taking her own over to Liz.

Liz dishes out their soup and they sit around the fire slowly eating, anxious for the others to return safely. Barely touching her dinner since she is too worried about the others.

“Why aren't the others back yet?” Johnny asks with a mouthful of rabbit.

“I don't fucking know. You'd know if you'd of gone with them.” Liz grumbles.

“Look, don't fucking bitch at me my ankle is fucking killing me. I fucking twisted it saving your asses earlier.” Johnny yells at her.

“Oh shut up already.” Jimmy growls. “You tripped because you had a loose shoelace, idiot. Don't worry ladies he's just mad because I picked him up by his belt loop.”

“Whatever. If they aren't back in another twenty, I'm going out there.” Liz is dead serious, putting her untouched soup back in the pot to keep it warm for the others.

“You have to at least eat a little of it, it isn't bad. Plus you are not going out there, you don't have a flashlight.” Nicole nudges her friend in the side.

“She's just pouting and trying to get everyone to feel sorry for her.” Johnny grumbles from his seat across the fire from the girls.

“Johnny shut up. Seriously.” Nicole snaps at him, making him recoil.

“Come on guys we can't start pissing each other off now, we need to stay united.” Jimmy sighs tiredly, putting his bowl by Liz's before lying down on his own blanket watching the stars with his hands behind his head.

After that they are silent for a while. The only things that can be heard are crickets and a few owls nearby.