Static Screams

“So…what’s up with you and Lila?”

Peter and Sawyer snickered while Cosmic looked up at me, her icy blue eyes complimenting the gray sky above her. The air was cold, biting deep into my bones. Even with the long johns that Scar and Darren scavenged, I felt my bones rattling against each other.

“I don’t know what you mean,” I muttered, rubbing the nape of my neck as it warmed from embarrassment. We were barely fifty yards from the door of the hotel, half a mile from our destination of Party City, and I was hopeful that this conversation wouldn’t last the duration of the trek.

“Puh-lease,” she scoffed. “Do we look like idiots to you?” She cast a glance over her shoulder at Sawyer and Peter, who had stopped in the road to poke at a dead bird with sticks. “Well…maybe don’t answer that.”

I laughed before whistling to catch their attention. “Hey, can y’all reserve your fascination with poking dead things for actual zombies?”

Sawyer chuckled while Peter mumbled under his breath. I smiled and shrugged at Cosmic as we continued walking, falling into silence. The wind whipped harshly around us, carrying the acrid smell of smoke from the heart of the city and dispersing it across the suburbs. Our footfalls on the sidewalk were whisper-quiet, and our heads were on pivots, eyes peeled for zoms or any other threat that could befall us.

“You’re not fucking, though?”

I rolled my eyes before staring intently through an alleyway as we passed. “No? Why are you even asking me this?” My eyes roamed over the shapes and outlines of buildings and trees. “Can’t you just read a book or something?”

“What the fuck else is there to do?” she muttered. “I’m tired of talking about zombies and New York and bombs.”

I couldn’t fault her for that, honestly. I was tired of talking about those things too. “Still, my sex life? There’s got to be better topics than that.”

“Holland, I’m going to die a seventeen-year-old virgin, just let me live vicariously through you!”

“Hey, there’s nothing wrong with that!” Sawyer said from behind. “I was a virgin until I was 22!”

A confused look crossed Peter’s face. “Didn’t you just turn 22?”

Cosmic and I burst out laughing; it echoed off the empty streets and up into the threatening sky. It felt good to laugh at something so…normal. As the four of us stood facing each other, and the laughter faded out, I felt almost happy. I hated to break the peaceful silence.

“We should probably keep going,” I finally said. “We’re gonna want to make this fast – looks like it’s gonna start snowing soon.”

Sawyer examined the sky while Peter stretched his arms over his head. Cosmic put her blonde hair into a messy bun and covered it with a beanie. We set off again, Cosmic by my side, with Peter and Sawyer behind us.

We walked for a moment, but Cosmic couldn’t let it go. “So…but…you’re not fucking her?”

“Jesus fucking Christ on a cracker,” I groaned. “No. I am not fucking her.”

“Why not?”

I could see the end of the strip mall where Party City was located. There were a few stragglers ambling around the corner of the building, but they didn’t spot us. I motioned for the others to get down (they knew to be quiet) and I crept forward quietly. There were only three of them, and it looked like they were shuffling aimlessly until—

“What are they doing?” Peter whispered, so quietly I thought it was the wind.

The three zombies were frozen in their tracks, standing so still they could have been carved from stone. All three of them had tilted their heads back to face the sky. They remained in that position for entirely too long – it could have only been moments, but it felt like a lifetime. One by one their heads lowered until they were looking straight ahead. I was terrified for a moment that they could see us, that they were looking right at us. Even if they were, it wouldn’t really have mattered. The one furthest away, behind the two others, emitted a screech from its throat before racing off down the alley away from us. The other two followed, their own howls echoing back at us as they ran away.

“What the actual fuck?” Peter hissed.

I shook my head. “I don’t know,” I whispered, “but I don’t want to be here if they come back.”

We hurried forward, rounding the corner of the strip mall. It was still and silent, eerily so. We passed a craft store and a hardware store before reaching the third store, Party City. It was the only store in the strip that seemed to withstand any rioting or looting before the end. Other than a fist-sized crack in the window next to the door, it was in perfect condition. I guess people don’t spend a lot of time planning birthday parties at the end of the world.

I leaned in, cupping my hands around the glass to see inside. “No shit,” I muttered. “It’s Zombie Elvis.”

“Guess the rumors weren’t true then,” Cosmic said. “Elvis really is dead.”

I chuckled before stepping back to look at the door. “How do y’all wanna do this?”

Before anyone answered, Cosmic was bent in front of the door, pulling a bobby pin from her hair and a pocketknife from her jeans. “I got this,” she said with confidence, as she began to pick the lock.

“Oh, so you’re a degenerate too, then?” Peter laughed, leaning to look over her shoulder. “Try jiggling that a little to the left there…”

With a quiet click, Cosmic grinned at me while putting her knife back in her pocket. “Guys, it’s time to rock out with our cocks out.” She pulled the door open slowly, taking the lead.

“She’s kind of cool, isn’t she?” Sawyer asked us, before following behind her. Peter trailed behind him, and I brought up the rear. I closed the door behind us, twisting the lock back into place. Just in case.

Zombie Elvis stood at the end of an aisle, his white costume stained with gore and his cheap wig sitting sideways on his head. I crept up behind him, not wanting to alert him to my presence. The closer I got, the more overwhelming the stench of death was. I thought I’d be used to this by now, but the sickly sweet scent of rotten meat paired with the metallic stench of blood still made my stomach churn.

I pulled the boot knife from my boot and swiftly stabbed it into the back of Zombie Elvis’ head. He dropped to the floor with a sickening splat, and I wrestled the knife from his skull before wiping it on my jeans. “Let’s clear the store.”

The party store was relatively small, about the same size as a Walgreens, with the bonus of having the same mirrors high up on the walls around the perimeter of the store. “Thank you, Loss Prevention,” I muttered to myself. “No surprises.”

Cosmic and Peter started with the innermost aisles while Sawyer and I started on the outside. I would meet Cosmic in the middle, Sawyer would meet Peter, then we’d go scout out the back together.

The aisles were clear and clean, aside from the corpse of Zombie Elvis. I checked every nook and cranny, consistently glancing back up at the mirrors to check on the others, just in case.

“I think we’re clear,” Cosmic said as I rounded the corner into her aisle.

“Looks that way,” I nodded. We joined Peter and Sawyer, then walked together to the door with a sign posted reading “Employees Only”.

Cosmic reached for the handle to pull the door open, but I stuck my arm out to stop her. “Wait a sec,” I whispered. I leaned forward and pressed my ear to the door. It was quiet, but just in case…

I rapped on the door with my knuckles and waited a moment before pressing my ear to the door again. I heard the unmistakable groan and rolled my eyes.

“Can I get this one?” Cosmic asked, the machete she had strapped to her belt loop already unsheathed.

I glanced at Peter who shrugged at me, while Sawyer was preoccupied with a set of fairy wings on the wall. “Sure,” I said. “But let me check to make sure that’s the only one first, okay?”

She rolled her eyes but nodded, positioning herself in a defensive stance as I cracked the door to peek inside. My eyes were first drawn to the light shining through the ladder hatch in the roof. I followed it down, eyes tracing over the shelves lining the walls full of backstock product. I turned my head the other direction, noticing the three tables and multiple chairs pushed against the back left corner. There were cabinets, two fridges, a drink machine, and a vending machine, plus a television mounted to the wall.

The indicator light on the television was blinking. Was there power here?

I spotted the fleshbag to my right, laying right in front of a floor polisher. His legs were bent at all the wrong angles.

“What the hell happened to him?” Cosmic spoke. Her face was in a grimace, and her eyes shone disappointment. She wanted to prove herself, I thought, and this opponent wasn’t exactly a challenge.

“If I had to bet,” I began as I walked closer to the zombie, “I would say he was probably trying to escape to the roof but turned before he got the chance.” I followed the trail of old blood back to the ladder and looked up. “That’s about a 25-foot drop. You hit the ground at the wrong angle, you’ll end up fucked up.”

“It’s gnarly,” Peter said. “So there ya go, Cosmic, he’s all yours.”

“Thanks,” she wrinkled her nose up in disgust. She walked up to his head, sheathed her machete, and stomped on his head with her boot. After three or four stomps, the zombie was still and she had a small, satisfied smile on her face.

“You’re fuckin’ sick,” I stared at her.

She shrugged and stuck her tongue out at me. “What else am I supposed to do for fun?” She smoothed her shirt out and wiped her boot on the shirt of the zom before ambling over to the corner where the tables were.

“The light on the tv is on?” she spoke, but it sounded more like a question.

“Yeah, I noticed that a minute ago.” I walked around her to the tv on the wall, looking for the power button. When I found it, I pushed it, and held my breath. After a long moment, it came to life, with the DVD menu screen for Love, Actually.

“No fuckin’ shit,” I muttered, turning to face Peter. He turned to look at the light switch on the wall next to the door.

“Well…what the hell,” he shrugged before flipping the switch.

The lights overhead buzzed to life. It was almost harder for me to believe that than it was to believe the tv turned on. “How?”

“Solar power!” Cosmic called from up the ladder. “There are panels up here. I don’t exactly know how solar power works but I’m fairly sure all you need is…ya know…the sun?”

“If I remember correctly,” Sawyer mulled, “Solar panels basically collect energy from the sun, send half of it to use as power at that moment, and then store half of it for later or at night.”

“Well…that’s great,” I stated as Cosmic climbed back down the ladder. “How many places in New York use solar power?”

“Do I look like Wikipedia to you?” Sawyer shot back.

“To be fair, Sawyer, it’s hard to take you seriously with the neon green fairy wings you have strapped to your back,” Peter laughed.

“These are for Nat,” he said defensively, “I’m just trying to make sure they’ll be a good fit for her.”

I rolled my eyes and reached into my back pocket for the bright pink notebook Lila gave me. I flipped a few pages until I found the list I was looking for: Party Supplies for the End of the World!! I desperately wanted to search through those cabinets, raid the vending machine, so I gave Cosmic the notebook and sent her and Sawyer back out into the storefront.

“Check this out,” Peter pointed at a flyer on the fridge. “They did a ‘stock the breakroom’ right before shit hit the fan.”

I opened the cabinets to my right. “Dude. I think we’ve hit the motherlode.” Chips, cookies, soup cups, Chef Boyardee, snack cakes, crackers, and any other snack we could think of lined the shelves in front of us.

“Holy shit,” he nodded as he pulled the freezer open. “They have hot pockets!”

“Uh, guys?” Cosmic called from the door. “We might have a problem.”

“What’s wrong?” I rushed to her with Peter on my heels. “Is Sawyer okay?”

“Yeah, sorry,” she shook her head. “We’re safe, but, uh, you’re gonna wanna take a look at this.”

We followed behind her to the front of the store, where Sawyer stared out the window with a shadow cast over his face.

“What’s the problem?” I stood by him before following his gaze. “Oh…” Snow was falling, whipping around in circles as the wind howled. It was falling quickly and piling up even quicker. “Oh, fuck.”

“What do we do now?” Peter asked.

I shook my head. “Dude…I don’t know.” I leaned my forehead against the cold glass, cursing under my breath. “It’s falling too fast, we’re not going to make it back in this.” I shook my head before turning back to the others.

“What about the others?” Sawyer demanded. “Scar’s group? Everyone back at the hotel?”

I rubbed my face in my hands before sighing. “The group at the hotel will be fine. They have food, water, and they’re safe and warm. Scar’s group…” I trailed off, looking for the words.

“They’ll be fine,” Peter said, nodding. “Knowing Scar, they’re probably back at the hotel now too.”

I nodded in agreement. “If anything, they’re going to be worried about us, but I think they know we’re smart enough not to travel in this.” I looked back outside forlornly, hoping that they wouldn’t try to come find us in this either.

I turned back around to face the others, and they watched my expectantly. Oh. I was the leader of this group for now. This was my call. I wasn’t going to let any of us die from hypothermia after coming this far.

I clapped my hands together. “Okay guys, let’s get ready to hunker down for the night. Peter, if you find a thermostat, turn the heat on? Cosmic, go check out whatever is in the freezer. At least we’ll have a hot meal, if nothing else. Sawyer, help me barricade the door, just in case.”

The three scattered to finish the tasks they’d been given. I said a silent prayer for Scarlett’s group, that they made it back in time. I wasn’t too optimistic – they had much farther to go with much more to carry – but I wasn’t going to let my friends know that. They didn’t need to worry any more than they already were.