Episode 13: Better Luck

Jennifer swung the van around the last curve, onto Todd’s street. She had been swerving the entire time to take out any zombies that happened to be on Colfax. Todd had given up count around twenty-three. That was less than a mile away from the Burger King.

They hadn’t had any meaningful conversation since they had reached good terms. This would have been awkward in many situations, but compared to the entire situation, it was actually rather tame. In fact, it felt like the perfect thing to be happening then and there. So, they were both relatively happy with the arrangement. And they no longer hated each other.

Part way through the ride, Todd had unbuckled and went into the back of her van. She glanced back for a moment; he was only looking around, seeing what she had.

As it turned out, she had very little. A fair number of blankets, an empty picnic basket, and a strange small, black box. Todd looked at it, but couldn’t see how it could possibly open, or could possibly do anything. He assumed it was just one of those strange things that all vans have in their backs, just because every van has one in the back. He returned to his seat and re-buckled. He had then pointed all the turns to get to his house; he felt strangely happy with that arrangement.

They finally pulled up in front of his house, doors locked in the van. The street was plastered with the walking dead. Todd looked out the window. The door was wide open, the lawn torn up, and the good car gone.

"Well," he muttered with no particular emotion. He looked to Jennifer.

She smiled meekly at him. "You wanna go in?"

He shrugged. "I suppose we might as well."

* * *

Waldo, with his impeccable, if terrifying, driving skills, stopped the car right in front of Elli’s house.

The ride had been uneventful, up until they had reached Elli’s neighborhood. Even then it was uneventful, if disconcerting. The whole area was littered with overturned barbecues, tumbling hamburger buns, and fallen meat.

At least, they hoped that it was meat. It was definitely uncooked.

There were no zombies about, none of the shambling dead visible. Neither of them was apt to admit this, but that fact was a bit more disconcerting than if there had been something shambling around.

Waldo looked at Elli. "There’s no telling what’s inside."

"I know. But, hey, maybe I’ll get lucky?"

Waldo nodded. The two of them came out of the car at the same time. Waldo walked over to Elli, and the two of them walked towards the door. It was slightly ajar, but no light was coming from the house. In fact, now that he thought of it, Waldo couldn’t see any light coming from the entire neighborhood.

He stopped part way up the walk, right next to an overturned metal barbecue. Rain drizzled on him, clanging against the barbecue, as he bent down and grabbed one of the legs, and put his foot on the body. He tugged for a moment, Elli watching, and managed to pull the leg off. He tossed it to Elli and began to work on a second leg.

"What’s this for?" Elli asked, catching the leg nervously, almost letting it slip out of his hands.

"Best weapon I can see around. We might need them."

"Oh, yeah, right…"

Waldo managed to pull off the other one. He then began to advance towards the door again.

* * *

Todd and Jennifer had no idea what to do; they had a whole yard to cross before they could get to Todd’s front door. The closest things to weapons that they could see were a snow-shovel and a broom, both just before the door, on the stoop.

To illustrate this point, Todd said "I have no idea what to do."

"We could try dashing up there and grabbing the shovel and broom," Jennifer suggested.

"But there’s the whole yard there; and the zombies are bound to notice us eventually."

"Exactly; they’re bound to notice us eventually."

"What?"

"If we run now, we can get weapons before they notice us. If we wait, they’ll gather around the van until they starve us out."

"Hm. Good point. But, wait we could just…"

"Oh! Drive up!"

"Yeah."

"Well, that was a pretty obvious solution."

"I’ll say."

"You ready?"

Todd nodded and smiled. Jennifer started the van back up, and charged it up to the lawn. She threw it into reverse and spun around, backing up to the stoop. The two of them piled into the back, opened the doors, and ran up to the stoop. They spun around and grabbed the snow shovel and the broom. Todd dropped the broom quickly, and lifted up something that had been hidden by the bush.

"Lawn aerator," he grinned. Jennifer looked out across the van through the haze of the rain.

They had caught the attention of some of the zombies.

* * *

Waldo removed his barbecue leg from the head of the zombie that lay at his feet. Elli looked disgusted, but a bit relieved.

"They weren’t my family," he said, lifting his weapon from the ground, where it lay in a pool of cauterized blood. "But they were my neighbors…"

Waldo wiped the weak metal clean on the curtains sitting behind him.

The second that they had entered the house, three zombies had descended upon them. Waldo had smashed in the skull of one of them, showing amazing reflexes. Elli had stumbled around for a moment, but managed to take a swipe at one of them. The makeshift club had snapped, but it still made the zombie stumble. Elli jammed what was left in his hand into the skull and pulled it out quickly. He had dropped it just as Waldo had killed the third of the assailants.

Elli tossed away what he had lifted. He went over to the piano and snapped one of the legs off of the bench; it was old and flimsy, so it was easy to do. They advanced from the front room into the dining room.

* * *

"Damn!" Jennifer screamed. She slammed and locked the front door. Todd ran to do the same to the back.

An old man was standing there, watching the flickering images on the television. Todd rose his weapon to drive into the thing’s head. It slowly turned and hobbled towards him.

"Mrow?" A voice inquired from just behind Todd. He ignored it and dashed forward, slamming the aerator forward. He pulled it back, and there was a gaping hole in his neighbor’s forehead. Todd yelped and ran back to Jennifer.

"Oh, god," he whimpered, dropping the aerator and falling against her.

She stood tall, and helped him stay up in his faint. She held his head as he sobbed on her shoulder.

* * *

"Son-
We waited above as long as we could, but there were too many of them. So we went down to the shelter. With any blessing, we should still be there and you should get this note. You know how to get in.
We love you, God Bless,
Jeremaiah and Ethel"

The note was pretty clear. Elli’s parents were still waiting for him. Waldo hoped that the same went for himself.

They had found the note on the counter in the kitchen; Elli’s father (whose hand it was written in) had been smart enough to find a glow in the dark marker to write the note. The house was still plunged in utter darkness, and during their search, Waldo and Elli had failed to find a way to get it working.

Luckily, there had been no more trouble in the house since they had exterminated the neighbors. The two of them, after Elli had regained his wits, had begun searching the house. They had quickly determined that a number of the clothes in the house were no longer in the house; the dressers were ripped apart and what was left strewn about the floor. It was the messiest the house had been in ages, especially considering the corpses in the front hall.

They reached the kitchen after perhaps half an hour; the glow in the dark note caught their eyes nearly instantly, but not before the scent from the fridge caught their noses. Many people have heard a jarring noise, but not many had smelt such a jarring smell. It was rotting milk, rotting eggs, and a strange cross-breeze coming from outside. They didn’t want to think about the cross-breeze, but it wasn’t as bad as the smell from the fridge. The two collided to create a synergetic smell, an application of synergy that most people don’t think about.

The two had quickly grabbed the note and left the room, heading to the family room-unfouled by stench or corpse-and read the note. Elli stood up promptly and headed for the corner.

"So you know where your family is?" Waldo asked, standing up and following him.

"They’re down here," Elli smiled. He pulled a picture off the wall, which was broken behind. He reached in and did something that Waldo couldn’t see; Elli knew the exact sequence of levers to throw and buttons to push. He backed off and replaced the picture. He kneeled down where the carpet had been ripped, and finished removing it. He turned some strange knobs set into the ground, then grabbed a handle and tugged. Waldo watched all this in astonishment, and stepped back as the door rose open in Elli’s hand.

"Elli, is that you?" his father’s voice called out from below.

"Yeah, dad, it’s me!"

"Oh, thank god! We were worried! Come on down, and shut the door!"

"Just a minute!" Elli turned to Waldo. "You’re welcome to come if you want."

Waldo shook his head. "I have to check on my family. And make sure that Todd’s okay." Elli nodded.

"I’ll be staying here, of course."

"I understand."

"Good luck!"

"Same to you!" Waldo turned and quickly advanced out of the house, returning to his car. Elli smiled and descended into the cellar, and pulled the trapdoor shut behind him. Everything snapped back into the place where it had been before.

Waldo drove off, into the east.

* * *

Todd had regained his composure. Almost, anyway. He was now sitting on the couch, breathing calmly and trying to work up the sanity to go read the note on the counter.

Jennifer had held him for a couple of minutes, just standing there at the locked door. He had sobbed, wetting her shoulder, leaving a dark stain on her green tee-shirt. She pulled him close to quiet him, wanting him to stop, but sweetly. He couldn’t help but notice that she was soft, yet stayed firm.

After a few minutes of this, She had pushed him away, gently, and led him, gently, to a chair, where she sat him down. She kissed his forehead tenderly and told him to wait for a few minutes. She went into the family room and turned on the light. She had to shut her eyes at the sight of the body. But she very quickly collected herself and grabbed it by the arms and dragged it towards the door. She unlocked and opened the door and tossed him out, then shut and locked it. She returned to Todd, then noticed his weapon, with the brain fragments still in it, oozing blood slowly. She lifted it up and did the same with it as she had done with the body. The rain instantly began to wash away the ooze.

He hadn’t even liked his neighbor very much; he had been a republican old man who cared too much about his yard. But he had still been a nice guy, and a human.

And he had had to drive something into his skull. Someone that he knew.

The situation was hitting home. Quite literally. There were zombies actually hitting the house, trying to get in. They ignored the van generally, as it didn’t seem to be important; there was nothing living inside of it.

Jennifer returned to Todd again, and helped him up. He leaned against her, in an absolute funk. He was rather light, and whenever he touched her, it was extremely ginger; she attributed this to the shock that he was in. She helped him to the couch and let him lay down.

"There’s a note on your counter," she whispered into his ear, kneeling to be at his head. "You probably ought to read it." She brushed his hair out of his face and touched her lips to his forehead again. He smiled weakly and nodded. She left and began searching the house for anything to use. She stopped glancing out the windows quickly; it was too frightening.

Todd slowly sat up and collected himself. It had been at least ten minutes before he was back to himself. He could stand and smile properly. He glanced at the TV.

"… a great trouble has arisen over the world! Do not misestimate the powers at work here! Repent your sins, for the apocalypse is upon us!" a man holding a bible and a cross was screaming. It cut to a reporter’s head.

"That was the scene earlier tonight at an impromptu rally," she said calmly. "Reports worldwide are coming in of parallels to the living dead crisis. It seems that the entire planet is being affected by this. The cause is undetermined so far, and the government has yet to make an official statement. Several senators are confirmed dead, as are thousands of civilians. The president’s whereabouts are unknown. It is believed that the secretary of state has been trapped in the white house, now being assaulted by the walkers."

Todd shook his head. So it wasn’t just Denver-Aurora under attack; it was the entire planet. It was nothing but survival from here, was it?

He went into the kitchen and picked up the note, and read it to himself.

"Jimmy-
We were going to wait for you, but we were surrounded. We figured that you were either dead, or could take care of yourself with your friends. If you’re reading this, it’s the latter. So, everything in the house is yours if it hasn't been ransacked. The three of us are off. You know where we'll go. Join us if things aren't too great for you. Tell Schmedrick to watch out for the bees. Good luck. Don’t kill the whale, Dig it.

Your Padre and Mine"

Todd shrugged. He wouldn’t have waited for them, either. But he hoped they were okay; he also hoped that they would meet up again someday. His mind shot back to Mario. He wondered if he were alive. He hoped that he was alive, too. Mario had been a pretty good guy. Luckily, Todd did know where he could meet up with his family if they had made it, unlike Mario. They did like zombie movies, after all, and it was a classic. And then his mind drifted to Dawn and Zach. They were next to check on, as soon as they were done here. He was suffering a severe bout of worrying about everyone.

Todd walked out to the living room, where Jennifer was looking at the books left over.

"Was your dad a history buff?" She asked, glancing at him and lifting Oswald’s Tale from the bookshelf.

"Yeah. But I never understood most of it," he chuckled. She flipped open to a random page, and read a bit. She shook her head.

"We should probably get going soon," Todd smiled. "My family went on; Gotta survive if I ever wanna see ‘em again."

"Well, let’s pick up some supplies. The power’s still on here. You got anything good in the fridge?"

"You check on that. I’ll get blankets, and… I dunno, toilet paper or something." She walked into the kitchen, but before she could open up the refrigerator, what was under the TV caught her eye.

"Holy crap! Vinyl! Sweet!" She jumped over the counter, knocking a few candles over. She kneeled before the shelf full of records. "Oh, man, Tommy… Kinks… Oh, you got all the classics. And… Angel Witch? What the hell is that?" She started pulling large numbers of records out and piling them up.

Todd walked in, carrying a bundle of cozy looking blankets, and a couple pillows. "I thought you were looking for food?" he asked.

"Oh, yeah. Well, vinyls are more important."

"How are we going to get them around the zombie hordes?"

"We’ll figure that out when we get there."

"Well, I think this’ll be enough blankets. At least, for now. And wherever we end up, we oughta be able to loot some more."

"Or they’ll provide us with some."

The looked at each other and began to laugh. Anywhere that would have blankets to give would run out quickly, and they both knew that.

"I suppose we ought to find our own place, or something," Jennifer suggested.

"Yeah. We’ve got to find Dawn and Zach and Elli and Waldo first, though."

"Who says we have to find them?"

"What?"

"Nothing." An awkward moment passed. Steinbeck sprung up out of an impossible space, where no being should be able to fit or survive, yet all cats could. Her cry of "Meow!" startled the two of them out of the silence.

"Oh! Steinbeck!"

"Your cat’s name is Steinbeck?"

"Yes, yes it is. Can we take her?"

"I think that may be dangerous."

"But, what if she gets in trouble?"

"She survived for quite a while with the door open and a zombie in the house, don’t you think?"

"Yeah, but…"

"She’ll be fine. And even if she won’t, she’s just a cat. She looks pretty old; and judging from her gut, she’s lived a full life." Jennifer stroked her and scritched her neck. Steinbeck purred, meowed, and fell over into her hand, attempting to retrieve stronger petting.

"Alright… We should go then." Todd stood up and opened up the bag of cat food next to her bowl, and tore it open. Steinbeck skittered over (she didn’t take the time to rise from her fallen position, yet was upright when she reached the food) and began to eat. He got down a large saucer and filled it with water and set it on the other side of the food bowl. He lifted the blankets and pillows; she stacked the records on top of the pile. Todd managed to maintain an easy balance, and Jennifer grabbed the book and her shovel, and looked out the peep-hole.

"Looks like we got lucky; none of them are on the stoop or in the van. But we’ll have to make a quick break for it." She dashed over to the sound system next to the bookshelf and grabbed a record player under her arms.

Todd looked at Steinbeck, who was no longer eating, but now looking expectantly up at him. "So long, kitty cat," he grinned, then caught his balance back; the turning of the head had almost made him lose all of it.

"Ready?" Jennifer asked.

"Completely," Todd whispered. "So long, home," he finished. "Hopefully you’ll help someone else, with your many stupid video games…"

Jennifer unlocked the door; they dashed out.

* * *

Waldo tore up the road; he had hit at least 90. On a city road. But there wasn’t anyone in the streets; presumably, he thought, everyone was either hiding or dead. Or already escaped.

He knew right where his parents were; they were at that party that they had almost gotten him to go to. But he had signed up for the baseball game just in time to not have to go to the party. But, he knew just where it was, because his parents had expected him to be leaving the stadium in time to get there for at least some festivities.

After he left Elli’s house, it only took him about ten minutes to get to the strange house. The rain hadn’t moved this far yet. When he was just a block away, he noticed that it was swarming with zombies. When he was half a block away, he noticed that it didn’t have any address. When he was on the threshold of the zombie swarm, he noticed that his father was posing on the roof. He grinned maliciously, and came to a halt, rolling down the window. He stuck his head out, and began to scream.

* * *

Elli smiled around at his family. It was good to be home.

All the other Mormons in the neighborhood were down here too; it looked like no one had been lost. And if they had, they had been the outcasts who no one remembered. He was very happy for this.

There was a teenager leaning against the wall a distance off. And then there wasn’t a teenager leaning against the wall. Everyone crowded around that point instantly, and it took a few seconds to notice that there was no wall anymore, and that the boy was on the ground, rubbing his head.

No one had ever seen that tunnel before.

* * *

"SCREW YOU DAD! IT’S OVER NOW! WE’RE ALL DEAD, AND I DON’T HAVE TO LISTEN TO YOU ANYMORE!"

Steve watched the red car drive away, full blast.

"Was that…?" Lucy started to ask.

"I think it was," Steve growled. "I guess he’s not coming to save us."

It started to rain.

* * *

Jennifer punched the engine, and they headed east. She pushed on the windshield wipers to clear away the droplets that had accumulated.

"Dawn’s house isn’t too far away."

"What should we do about Waldo?"

Conveniently, Jennifer's phone rang just then.

* * *

Waldo was gunning it, driving… Just driving. In fact, he didn’t realize it, but he was headed for Sylvie’s house. Which was conveniently located very near Dawn’s. But, this will turn out to be rather inconsequential in the long run. But it’s nice to know.

He slowed down the car and whipped out his phone. He dialed Jennifer’s number. After a couple rings, Todd’s voice came through.

"Todd? It’s Waldo. I don’t think I’ll be joining you."

"Why not?"

"I have my own things to do. If you need me, I’ll come, but… If you don’t, I’d prefer to do things on my own."

"Alright then," Todd whispered into the phone. "Good luck."

"Same to you," Waldo smiled a smile that you can hear over the phone. And he hung up.

He stopped in front of Sylvie’s house and grabbed his weapon.

* * *

Jennifer and Todd, leaving all their nice stuff in the car, ran into Dawn’s house. It hadn't begun to rain there, either.

"She never locks the door," Todd chuckled.

The neighborhood was still relatively zombie-free. But they ran anyway, just to be save. They shut the door behind them and, for the first time in many years, the door became locked.

The two of them looked around, for any sign of life. Then they noticed a small light that was on, just above the kitchen table. Todd dashed over and found a note.

"Todd-We went ahead below. Follow us. It’s in the backyard.
All four of them are still alive.
Guess what? We were wrong!
-Zach"

"What the hell?" Todd wondered aloud.




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