Short Story 43: Barnett’s Tale…
I came upon a man who was stuck on the face of a cliff. He had Zombies trying to reach him from below and he had Zombies trying to reach him from above. If it was not so life threatening it would have been funny as all get out, but I am sure he would not have seen the humor in the situation. So I did not laugh…
I stood there and surmised the situation and then after clearing out the Zombies below him. I motioned for him to climb down. This caused the Zombies above him to freak out and they all one by one toppled over the edge and fell on their heads on the ground. Before they could get up I chopped their heads off and waited until the man got down…
He was very thankful and said his name was Barnett and I said no issues just tell me what you were doing the day the Zombies Virus struck. He said okay…
Hi my name is Barnett and here is my story,
I use to sell cars down in the valley at a place called, “Trust Me! Billy Bob’s Car Center…”
That there is Billy Bob right there in that pile. The one with no hair! You chopped his head off today. He has followed me from the day that the Zombie Virus hit and I just could not bring myself to kill him…
I know kinda hard to imagine, not killing a Zombie! The point is I can’t bring myself to killing any Zombies and so I just run and run and run. I have stayed out in the open when ever I can and just use my abilities to run…
Today was a day that I thought they would get me and I realized today as I realized a long time ago. I can not kill them. They were all my buddies at one time and people I knew. Why there is Mary, Sam, Billy, Joe and Maggie to name a few in that pile you created. They all worked with me at the dealership…
But enough of reminiscing and let me tell you about when the Virus struck our little valley…
I had wandered back to work late one evening and opened up the dealership at midnight to talk with a customer that only had late evenings to look at a car. Billy Bob let me do that and that was why I was number one salesman. I did what it took to sell a car…
I remember that car! It was a Mercedes, gull wing a 2012 model and bright candy apple red. It was a beauty and it would have set me up right nice as the richest salesman in the county. I had the deal signed and sealed and the man paid cash for the car…
I popped a bottle of champagne and the man (I can’t remember his name for the life of me!) and I sat and drank a toast to life. It was 4am according to the clock on the front showroom wall and I thought, “What a great world we live in and I am a rich boy now! I was dreaming about how Mary (Dead in the pile now! That Mary…)” would love to go help me spend that money and why she might even marry me now. You know she had turned me down three times. Said I was not rich enough. Why I have to tell you that Mary was a looker and she always caught my eye…
Sorry, I guess I need to quit reminiscing too much…
So where was I? Oh yes, I was sipping that champagne and feeling good about myself and I just could see the look on Billy Bob’s face when he saw the cash on the barrel head for that expensive car. Why he might even let me take the rest of the day off. But I wouldn’t because I had cars to sell…
I know I know get to the story…
Well all was good until the man who bought the car, started to gasp and he grabbed his throat. Then he fell over on the floor and when I got the nerve to check him, he was dead. Dead as a door nail…
I picked up the phone and tried to call the police and no one answered. That is when I was trying to figure out how to keep all that money and say the car was not sold at all. I mean the man is dead right? He can’t drive it and all that cash could be mine now. He can’t spend it, right?
That was stupid of me because as we all know know money is worthless, but being that I use to be ruled by the money god of greed, I was trying to figure out all what to do and never noticed that the man got back up off the ground and was standing staring at me. At least I never noticed until that awful moan started to escape his lips…
I turned and looked at the dead guy and since no one answered at 911, I hung up the phone and stared right back at the Zombie. Yes a Zombie, he even looked like a Zombie from those terrible movies that I always watched late at night…
He had fogged over eyes and bloody drool draining from his mouth and he moaned. Then he stepped toward me and shuffled just like a Zombie…
I stepped away from him and he kept shuffling toward me. So I ran and of course he could not run and I stayed away from him that way. He fell over chairs and desks and plants and before long, the place was a mess. I thought to myself that Billy Bob was going to be pissed off and I was trying to figure out how to explain all this. I don’t hardly think it is my fault that the guy became a Zombie while I was selling a car to him. In fact I was just doing my job…
Then something slammed against the front glass door of the dealership and I turned to look and since it was now daylight outside. I saw Billy Bob at the door…
Except Billy Bob was in worse shape than this guy in hear with me. He had an eye dangling from his eye socket and one arm was half eaten. But other than that he looked okay…
The guy trying to catch me moaned loud at the intrusion of another Zombie and Billy Bob the Zombie moaned even louder as he saw me and started to drool at the desire to east my brains…
Then from nowhere came the night janitor. I never knew where he had been hiding the whole time and I did not realize that he was even there. He come shuffling from nowhere and tried to grab me also. Just then the front door shattered as Billy Bob shuffled into the showroom and now I had three Zombies to deal with…
I ran up the stairs to Billy Bobs office. I knew it had a door leading outside and I knew he kept a few guns for protection. I unlocked the office and went in. I grabbed the gun and decided that I needed to kill those Zombies downstairs before they killed me. I tried and found that I could not pull the trigger and right then I knew I had to run and keep running. For I was too wimpy to kill a Zombie…
I went out the back door and decided to find Mary, for you see I was rich and it was obvious that Billy Bob would not need the money now. I just knew Mary would love me now and love me good…
I knocked on Mary’s door to her house and when no one answered, I started to worry. In fact with all the Zombies that I saw shuffling around and eating screaming people. I worried that this might not be a localized issue and that maybe this all was a serious issue that could have gotten out of hand. In fact I then kicked Mary’s door in and instead of love for being rich, I found a brain eating Zombie, who was eating the brains of her latest lover the previous night. I gathered that he would not come back from the dead and when she saw me. She wanted my brains also…
Then I ran and ran and ran…
I learned to run through stores and grab what I needed and run out as fast as I ran in. I learned to use a walking stick and I push Zombies away as I run. I learned to run up hills and down hills and around the hills. I learned to run between Zombies and away from Zombies. I am in good shape as I run everywhere and so far it has worked, well until you found me trapped between a rock and a hard place…
You see I ran and climbed up o that ledge I was on and thought I could just climb on up and get away. It worked before, but then somehow Zombies had climbed above me and I was trapped with Zombies below and Zombies above. Then you showed up as I was about to give up hope…
So that is my story about what happened when the Zombie Virus struck…
Barnett
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I left Barnett running away and I shook my head at the thought of helping him. He is not helping himself and really he is not living on anything but pure dumb luck. For deep inside him is a bad person and he is just running from himself and life. I found it interesting that he is so good at running that he is outrunning the virus somehow. For he has blue eyes and has not gotten the virus. That is strange and I am not sure why he has not gotten it, for blue eyes is definitely in the books to get it…
Maybe he has green eye genes and or maybe he is just that good at running. Even from the Zombie Virus…
Stryker…