We went inside and searched around, but didn’t find any zombies. We found a good supply of canned goods and a few boxes of something that might have been hot dogs at one point, but neither of us was brave enough to guess. I found some candy bars that hadn’t expired yet and Tommy and I both enjoyed a Three Musketeers each.
With his mouth full, Tommy remarked, “You know, before I had a real sweet tooth, but now it’s been so long since I’ve had chocolate, this seems almost too sweet to eat.”
I nodded. “Me too, but I notice neither one of us stopped from eating the whole thing.”
Tommy smiled a chocolatey grin at me then turned serious. I put the box of candy down and brought up my carbine. I had heard it, too. Something was moving in the back room and it sounded like it was headed our way.
I moved to the door of the restaurant seating area and peeked in. I couldn’t see much because of the lack of light, so I waved Tommy over and he held open the door while I looked around with my flashlight. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary.
But then I saw movement. One of the chairs shifted slightly. Then another, closer this time. Then another, even closer. It was as if there was a ghost slowly making its way across the room.
For a wild second I thought about invisible zombies, but then laughed at myself for being so stupid. But something was making those chairs move and it was headed our way. I could see a large black opening which might have been the kitchen and there seemed to be some sort of light in there, but I wasn’t about to go charging in until I knew what was coming at me.
Tommy looked at me and I waved him over. I pointed the flashlight at the chairs and sure enough, one of them shifted very close to us. Tommy jumped and brought up his rifle, flicking on the weapon light and aiming it at the ground. I could understand his reasoning. If it wasn’t above, it was below.
Looking down, a pair of red eyes flashed out of the dark at us and Tommy nearly fired when I said, “Hold it.” I bent down and held out my hand and a skinny little black cat scampered out of the darkness and started rubbing its head on my hand, purring loudly in the silence.
“Hey, little buddy. Where the hell did you come from?” I stroked the little cat’s back, feeling its ribs and thin frame. I had no idea how it got in here or how it managed to survive, but it had to have come from a home recently, since it didn’t seem feral. If it had been, it would have bolted when we opened the door.
Tommy relaxed and moved to the kitchen doorway, scanning the area with his rifle before going in. He came back out holding his hand by his nose and coughing.
“There’s a door open in the back, which explains how this little guy got in. There’s a ton of dead meat in there, so the smell is horrible.” Tommy coughed. “But there’s some stuff that we might be able to salvage, although it all seems to be in huge cans.”
“We’ll see what we can take. We can always trade it if we need to.” I went back through the door and went over to the pool access area. We stepped out and looked around, taking in the multitude of water slides, wave pools, wading pools and a big lazy river. The water had turned green with algae and smelled rather badly, but it would have been fun in its day.
We also saw the seven zombies that had come around the building and had managed to cut off our escape back to the RV. I imagine they had come from the subdivision across the way, since there were no other homes around here. They had apparently come through the public access gate and upon seeing us standing there sightseeing like fools, decided an evening snack was in order.
This put us in a bind, since we didn’t want to fire any shots this close to night. The sound would attract every single ghoul from the surrounding area and I had every reason to believe there would be plenty. So we had to take these guys out ourselves and do it without firing a shot. Damn.
I looked around and spotted a possible solution. Retreating quickly, I bumped Tommy on the arm to get his attention to follow me. Tommy was taking a few practice swings with his favorite melee weapon, a length of duct-tape wrapped iron pipe, with fittings attached to the end that made it look like a medieval mace. It crushed skulls without bursting them open, so the wounds were cleaner, but just as devastating.
I moved over to the small bridge that crossed the lazy river. It was about ten feet wide, not ideal, but it would have to do in keeping us from getting surrounded. There was a fence that blocked off access to the river, which helped a little. Tommy followed quickly and as I turned to make a stand, I noticed our little furry friend had beat a hasty retreat to some concealing shrubbery. I slung my carbine across my back and took out my pickaxe. It still smelled of kerosene.
The first of the zombies came lurching at us, stumbling slightly as it encountered the rise in the walkway. It was a man about my age, with a bald head that had tears all along the back. His head was down, but I could see him looking at us from beneath heavy eyebrows. As he took another step, Tommy moved in and swung at it’s head, knocking it to the side and over the fence. The zombie hit the brackish water and disappeared beneath the surface.
“Nice one. You been working out?” I asked as I readied for the next one.
“Yeah, a little,” Tommy replied. “I figured you and Charlie shouldn’t have all the fun.”
I took an overhand swing at the next one, burying the point of my pick into the top of a smallish woman’s head, arching her eyebrows and killing her with a surprised look on her dead face. I shook out my weapon then grabbed her by the arm and leg, heaving her at the mass of undead charging us. The woman’s body collided with three of the others, causing them to stumble and fall. The remaining two walked around and came at Tommy at once, causing a tactical dilemma. I swung at the same time he did and we managed to slam the zombie’s heads together like a couple of overripe coconuts. They went down in a heap and we stooped quickly to move them into the path of the remaining three who had gotten up from the one I had tossed earlier.
The first one, a middle aged guy who was missing a lot of flesh from around his eyes, came stumbling along and actually managed to get a hand on my shirt. I shoved the pickaxe into his mouth and heaved him into the fence, flipping him over and into the water. Thankfully he let go as he fell. The next one was on top of me before I could get a good swing in and I had to block his attack with the handle of my pick. He snapped and snarled at me, grabbing at my arms and trying to pull me in for a chew. I twisted, lifting him off his feet and slammed him into the fence. I could hear his vertebrae snap on impact and he fell to the ground on useless legs.
I moved forward and killed it with a strike to the head, leaving him hanging on the fence. Tommy was finishing off his attacker with a blow to the neck
I took a minute to catch my breath and Tommy did the same.
“You know, its not that I’m out of shape.,” he started.
“I know.” I finished for him. “The end of the adrenaline rush really sets you down.” We heaved like a couple of aging boilers and when we recovered we hustled back around the building. The sun was setting quickly and I really didn’t need to spend the night out here. A small shadow detached itself from a bush and scampered over to us as we stopped to check around the side of the building.
“Well, hello, Skinny. Nice of you to lend a hand back there,” I said to the cat that had rejoined us who was now rubbing himself on my legs.
“Cat probably has fleas and worse,” said Tommy as the cat rubbed against his legs as well. He did reach down to scratch between the cat’s shoulder blades.
“Coast is clear…wait. Damn.” We were fifty yards from the RV and a stupid zombie was stumbling around like it was looking for the bathroom. It figured to be a teenager, by appearances. I was just about to rush it when the cat ran out from cover, stopped and meowed at the zombie. The Z spun around and locked onto the cat, which then proceeded to stay just out of reach by scampering forward every time the teen reached for it. The cat kept this up, leading the zombie away from us and into the construction zone. I had to know, so I silently followed and bless me if the little cat didn’t lead that dumb zombie into a construction hole. The cat climbed out easy as you please, but the zombie was in for good.