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“I’m more of a ‘no rust build-up’ man, myself.”
“Don’t be a dick, that shit’ll--”
Veronica was interrupted by a screech of car tires and a crash outside that made both of them jump. They stared at each other for one split second, then rushed to the bay window.
A blue pickup with a splatter of blood across the front was wrapped around a neighbor’s mailbox. Two ragged men pounded on the driver’s side door as the driver struggled against the airbags. Eventually, one of the flailing men managed to get the door open, and the young man in the truck was dragged screaming onto the pavement.
His cries were silenced when one of his assailants bit clean through his neck. Blood sprayed the sidewalk as he collapsed, and the attackers descended upon his corpse, ripping away chunks of flesh with their bare hands and devouring them.
JD’s audible gagging brought Veronica back to the present. “What the everloving hell did we just witness?!”
A voice shouted from upstairs. “Who the fuck?!”
Right. This was Heather’s house. “Uh, hi, Heather, it’s Veronica. I came to apologize for last night, but I think I’m gonna put that on hold.”
Heather’s furious footsteps pounded down the stairs and across the hardwood floor. “So you come into my house when I’m hungover and start yelling at eight in the goddamn--”
Heather’s words died in her throat as she surveyed the carnage outside. Wide-eyed and pale, she turned to face JD and Veronica. “Double-check all the locks and then meet me upstairs. I get the feeling today is a blue jeans day.”
Well, at least Heather was taking this seriously.
----
“So we agree we’re in Dawn of the Dead right now, yeah?”
Heather grimaced and nodded at Veronica. She turned to JD. “I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I hope you have actual bullets for that gun.”
JD chuckled ruefully. “Even if I had it with me, I’ve got maybe ten rounds. We’re gonna have to go the ‘baseball bats and tire-irons’ route for now.”
Veronica watched as a growing crowd of zombies wobbled mindlessly in the street. “I say we hop the fence back to my house as stealthily as possible, pile into my car, and get the fuck out of Dodge.”
“What’s wrong with Heather’s car? It’s right there.”
“Hers is on the street, mine is in the garage. Which would you rather try getting into? Also Heather’s car only fits five people. Mine can fit a bigger zombie team.”
Heather glared and wrung her hands. “So we’re treating this whole situation like it’s a video game. Awesome. Cool. Good to know that’s how we’re approaching this.” She laughed nervously, which Veronica found only slightly less unnerving than the zombies.
“Well,” Veronica declared, “unless someone has a better idea, I’m going. You can follow me or not.”
JD and Heather looked at each other dubiously. JD sighed. “Alright, I guess we’re doing this.”
---
Veronica stared at the line of cars that faded into the distance along the packed highway. From the back seats came various sighs and curses.
Their team had tripled in size. Heather and Heather had been huddled together on Heather McNamara’s roof following a sleepover, Betty Finn was holed up on her own roof with a crowbar, they had come across (of all people) Ms. Fleming with a bloody baseball bat, and Veronica had grudgingly agreed to pick up Kurt and Ram - who were gleefully clubbing zombies with shovels when they happened to drive past them - after Chandler pointed out that the team could use more muscle.
“Damn it, there’s no way we’re getting out of town. We need to find a place to hunker down until whoever is at the front of that line calls the army or something.” Veronica made a violent u-turn over the median and sped down the road leading back into Sherwood.
Betty quietly suggested, “...What about Rudy’s?”
McNamara scoffed. “No way. Hardware stores have supplies, but we need to find someplace with food.”
“If you’d ever set foot in a hardware store your life,” Veronica said, “you’d know Rudy’s is perfect. Their main customer base is made up of farmers and ranchers, so there are bulk bags of things like nuts and dried fruit and jerky.”
“Dude,” Kurt said with glee, “we could get chainsaws and mow down zombies like legends.”
Duke shrugged as much as she could in the packed backseat. “I say we go for it. Board up the windows, bar the doors, we’d basically have a fortress.”
Veronica nodded resolutely. “Alright then. Rudy’s, here we come.”
-----
Somehow, somehow, they managed to fight their way into Rudy’s. Bloody crowbars and croquet mallets clattered to the floor as they rushed to barricade the doors. When they were satisfied that they were safe for the moment, Kurt and Ram made a beeline for the power tools. Veronica decided to check the cashier’s desk for a panic button. It was worth a shot, at least.
She yelped and nearly fell over when she noticed a person huddled under the desk.
“Martha Dunnstock? What are you doing here?”
“I work here part-time,” Martha squeaked. “My manager went to check what was going on when the screaming started, but he hasn’t come back…”
Veronica tried not to think too hard about what likely became of said manager. “So you know where everything is in this store? And you have keys to it?”
“Yeah?”
Veronica grinned. “Let’s really get this place locked down.”
-----
Roof access, Veronica decided, was probably the best thing Martha’s inside knowledge of Rudy’s gave them; the vantage point allowed them to safely assess the situation even with boarded windows. With supplies at the ready, and a sturdy rope to pull up any survivors that might pass, the group settled in for the long haul.
Duke peered over the edge of the roof at the horde. “I don’t like how their numbers are increasing. Wish we could pick them off from a distance.”
“Maybe we could rig up a nail gun to have some range?” came Ram’s gleeful voice.
“Or,” Ms. Fleming suggested calmly, “we could just use bricks. There’s plenty of them, and they’re quieter than a gun. Just make sure to throw overhand so you can really put some force behind it.”
“How do you know this shit?” Chandler said with a disbelieving stare.
Fleming smiled. “Sweetie, hippies didn’t just advocate for peace, we fought for it tooth and nail. You really think I came away from the Vietnam protests without picking up some riot tactics?”
Chandler was silent for a moment. “Okay, that’s fair.”
-----
JD tossed another brick off the roof, and balked when took a closer look at his downed target. “Oh. Shit. Uh, Veronica, can I crash on your couch when this is all over? I’m pretty sure the zombie that I just brained was my old man.”
“You’re awfully nonchalant about killing your zombified dad!”
JD grimaced and shrugged at the same time before chucking another brick. “I mean, I can’t really say I liked the guy? I’ll hash it out with a therapist later.”
Veronica sputtered. “Okay, you do that.”
----
“Hash it out with a therapist” had, in fact, meant rambling semi-coherently at a very understanding Ms. Fleming two hours later when the full weight of losing his only living parent hit him and his composure finally broke.
----
The sun had begun its descent, and the situation hadn’t gotten any better. Betty worried at her lip as they gazed out at the horde. “There’s too many of them. I’m afraid they might start climbing over each other to get up here.”
“Well, then let’s go to them instead!” Kurt grinned at Chandler. “Ready to be impressed, babe?” He clapped her on the back too hard as he and Ram jumped down with their chainsaws and she stumbled off the roof.
The boys landed with surprising grace. Heather landed with a crunch. Her leg bent in a way that it definitely shouldn’t have and she barely swallowed a pained scream.
Fleming scrambled down after her. “Throw the rope down!” she yelled as Veronica followed her.
Laughter and the roar of engines assaulted their ears as the boys eagerly cut down their foes. For exactly ten seconds, until Ram’s chainsaw stalled and a zombie barreled into him. It distracted Kurt for a millisecond, enough time for another zombie to leap onto his back.
Veronica tried to ignore their screams as she and Fleming rigged up a harness to pull Chandler back up. But too soon the screams stopped, and the horde turned their attention to the living humans on the ground.
They slowly closed in, and Fleming smiled sadly at Veronica. “When this is all over, you get into an Ivy League school for me, okay?” Then she charged into the crowd, swinging wildly with her bat. “Get some, motherfuckers!”
Veronica moved in a daze as she helped get Heather back onto the roof and then clambered up after her. She turned back just in time to watch Fleming be swallowed up by the horde.
The sound of ripping flesh rang in her ears and she retched over the side of the building.
-----
Hours passed in tense near-silence in the shelter of the lumber aisle. Few words were exchanged, the only constant noise being Chandler’s pained breathing. They had braced her leg as best they could, but the painkillers from the first aid kit did next to nothing.
The percussive rattle of distant gunfire drew gasps from the whole group. Betty and JD sprinted to the nearest window and pried away one of the boards. Those who could still move rushed over in time to see a convoy of army trucks roll past. The zombies fell in rows as soldiers jumped from the vehicles and effortlessly mowed them down.
And just like that, it was over. They had survived. They didn’t know who else was alive, but they were, and that was enough for now.
-----
As Chandler was carried away on a stretcher with McNamara and Duke by her side, the remaining survivors huddled together under a space blanket waiting for word from their parents. Betty dozed against Martha and JD put his arm around Veronica’s shoulders.
She hummed in thought and nuzzled into JD’s neck. “So what do you think historians will call this whole mess in a few years?”
JD shrugged. “‘Z Day’ has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it?”
Veronica managed a smile as the sun rose. “Yeah. Yeah, it does.”