The Adventures of Steve and Terry: The Zombie Chronicles (6 page)

“Ugh,” the man sighed. “That was
stupid.”

“Thanks stranger,” Julia said. The
man seemed to notice them for the first time.

“Huh?” he asked.

“The rescue man. Impressive.”

“What?” the man then looked from
the shattered window to the crushed creature under his motorcycle. His eyes
widened for a moment, but then he seemed to collect himself. “Oh, yeah, I
mean,” he coughed and then in a deeper voice said, “no problem.”

Julia and Wilcox looked at each
other and then back at the man. “You did do that on purpose, right?” Julia asked.

“Of course I did,” the man said
angrily. “You think I just accidentally fly through random windows to kill
creepy ass things? I was just—”

He cut off as two girly screams
filled the night. The two doors they had barred suddenly flew off of their
hinges, two slightly overweight, balding men crashing to the floor atop the
doors. They crawled over the doors, one holding a fire axe while the other
carried a pistol. The one with the axe got to his feet first, looking behind
him. As his friend got to his feet he seemed to notice the others.

“Oh, hey,” he said, tapping his
buddy on the shoulder. “We thought you were dead for sure.”

“No thanks to you assholes!” the
motorcyclist said angrily.

“Hey man!” the one with the pistol
said indignantly. “We thought you were a zombie, okay.”

“Riding a motorcycle, jackass?!”

“Well at least you’re alive,” the
one with the fire axe said.

“Barely. I crashed through a
friggin window, man!”

“Wait, wait a minute,” Julia said.
“I thought you went through the window on purpose?”

The man suddenly looked sheepish.
“Not . . . entirely. I was cruisin down the street on my bike when that jackass
took a shot at me. I swerved, hit the back of a tow truck and flew through the
window.”

Julia suddenly laughed. “Well, it
was very fortuitous.”

The man with the fire axe seemed
to finally see the large-breasted woman in the tight top. He smiled,
“Fortuitous indeed.”

The one with the pistol suddenly
slapped him across the back of the head. “Focus, moron.” He looked to the
others. “I’m Terry, this is Steve.”

“I’m Julia, that’s Wilcox.”

“I’m Eli.”

“Well, safety in numbers, right?”
Steve asked.

“Only if those numbers aren’t shooting
at you,” Eli said.

Steve stepped away from Terry and
pointed at the man. “He did the shooting dude. All’s I gots is this axe, man.”

Julia looked to Eli and his
plethora of weapons. “Surely you could spare a shooter.”

Eli looked like that was the last
thing he could do, but finally shrugged in defeat and pulled a pistol from a
holster and handed it to Steve.

“What about the shotgun?” Steve
said, pointing to one of the pistol-grip shotguns Eli had strapped across his
back.

“You might want to give it to
him,” Terry said. “He’s one horrible shot.”

Eli let out an angry breath, but
pulled free a shotgun and handed it to Steve.

“Ha ha,” Steve said, turning to
Terry and shaking his guns. “I got two guns, now, bitch. Who’s the man?”

The others all looked at each
other as if the man were crazy. “Well,” Julia said. “We should probably get
moving, since you guys smashed the doors keeping the dead out.”

“Not to mention the two creepy
pink things with big teeth,” Terry said, pointing.

All turned to see the two
creatures that had fled, now quietly advancing. “Yeah, let’s go!” Julia said
quickly.

They rushed out into the street.
“We need to find a car,” Wilcox said.

“Agreed,” Julia said.

The group made their way through
the streets, looking for a working vehicle. Steve and Terry were bringing up
the rear of the group. As they walked Steve tapped Terry on the shoulder.

“Dude, I think Julia was totally
checking me out.”

“You really are an idiot,” Terry
said, disgusted.

“I’m just sayin man.”

“She was not checking you out
stupid.”

“She convinced dickhead to give me
a gun,” Steve said, as if that were the same as roses.

“Moron,” Terry said angrily,
“we’re in the middle of a zombie effing apocalypse. Don’t you think it makes
sense if we all have guns?”

Steve suddenly smiled and held up
his guns. “Yeah, but I got
two
guns.”

“You’re an idiot,” Terry said,
shaking his head.

The group had walked for almost
half an hour before they found a truck that wasn’t smashed, burned, or
otherwise destroyed. As Wilcox tried to hotwire it, the rest of the group kept
a watch. Everyone jumped when a payphone next to them suddenly rang. They all
looked at each other, unsure what to do. Finally, Eli walked over and picked it
up.

“Hello?” He paused. “Really?
Where?” He paused again. “What do we have to do?” He waited again. “Got it.” He
hung up and turned to the group.

“Who was it?” Steve asked.

“Santa Claus,” Eli said.

“Really?!” Steve asked, his eyes
lighting up.

Terry looked at him. “Don’t be an
idiot.”

Steve suddenly looked crestfallen.
“Well, if zombies are real, why not Santa,” he said quietly.

They all shook their heads and
turned back to Eli. “It was a scientist, someone on the outside. He said there
is one last way out of the city, a helicopter will be atop the Elks’ building
at 0-300.”

“What’s the catch?” Julia asked.

“We need to find his daughter; she
was lost at the school she attends. And we need to hurry, because at 0-400 they
are going to destroy the city.”

“How?” Julia asked.

“Tactical nuclear weapon.”

“What yield?”

“Does that really matter?” Terry
asked.

“No,” Wilcox said. “No way!
There’s no way they would get away with that!”

“Easily explained as a meltdown at
the nuclear power plant,” Eli said.

“This is bullshit!” Wilcox said
angrily.

“Tell me about it,” Steve said
with a laugh. Everyone looked at him as if he were crazy. “Well I’m—I’m just
sayin, nuclear bombs and nuclear meltdowns are nothing alike.” They all just
continued to look at him. “Well the plutonium is completely different,” he continued,
as if it were obvious. “The plutonium in a bomb is weapons grade, designed to
create the destruction we see with such bombs, but the stuff in a nuclear
reactor isn’t the right grade, it doesn’t go boom with a bright flash, it just
spews radiation into the air, that’s about it.”

“Huh?” Julia asked.

“A nuclear meltdown looks nothing
like a nuclear bomb! Haven’t you heard of Chernobyl?”

“Regardless,” Eli said. “They’re
gonna nuke the city.”

“Still won’t look like an
accident,” Steve said under his breath.

“So we gotta get to that school,”
Wilcox said.

“I would say so,” Eli said.

Wilcox got the truck started and
they piled in. They made their way through the ruined city towards the
elementary school. They didn’t see as many zombies on the outskirts of town
where the school was. They reached the school to find it eerily quiet.

“We should split up,” Wilcox said.

“I get Julia!” Steve said quickly.

“
I’ll
go with Julia,”
Wilcox said. “Tweedledee and Tweedledum, you two together. Eli, you cool
alone?”

“Yeah man,” Eli said.

“Good, we’ll meet up in the
cafeteria, you find the girl keep her safe, she’s our meal ticket.”

The group entered the school.
Wilcox and Julia took the top floor, Eli took the ground floor, and Steve and
Terry were given the basement.

“Oh, come on man!” Steve said
angrily. “The effin basement?!”

“What’s the matter?” Julia asked.

“It’s dark and scary down there,”
Steve said quietly.

“Well, good thing you’re so tough
and brave,” Julia said, batting her eyelashes at him.

Steve suddenly smiled like an
idiot. “Okay,” he said squaring his shoulders.

As Steve and Terry made their way
to the basement, Steve still had the stupid smile on his face. “Told you she
likes me,” he said to Terry.

“Dude, she totally played you.”

“Julia wouldn’t do that,” Steve
said.

“How do you know? We don’t know
anything about her.”

“Beautiful people aren’t like
that, they’re nice.”

Terry just shook his head in
disgust.

“You wouldn’t understand, you’re
not one of us,” Steve said.

“Us?
Us
? You’re not one of
the beautiful people.”

“Dude! I’m way more attractive
than you.”

“How many times do we have to go
over this?” Terry asked angrily. “
I’m
the attractive one, you’re the
ugly one.”

“Oh, whatever man. If anything—”
Steve suddenly stopped. “Did you hear that?”

“Yeah,” Terry said, eyes wide in
fear. “It sounded like the pitter-patter of little feet.”

“Oh man,” Steve said, trembling.
They turned around to see a small child standing there, head down. No more than
three feet tall, she was wearing a school girl uniform. “Hello little girl,”
Steve said, his voice trembling. The girl raised her head to reveal a dead,
mutilated face. Steve screamed like a girl. “Zombie child!” he screamed.

Steve opened up with his pistol,
hitting the floor, the wall, and the ceiling. Finally, Terry leveled his gun
and shot the girl in the head.

“There,” he said. “Problem
solved.”

They turned back around to come
face to face with a hallway full of the undead children. “Zombie children!”
Steve screamed. They opened up with their guns as they ran back the way they
had come.

Julia, Wilcox, and Eli stood in
the cafeteria, waiting for Steve and Terry. They had a small girl with them, no
more than eight or nine; she was Amy, their ticket out of here. Suddenly they
heard gunshots.

“Do you think they ran into
trouble?” Julia asked.

“They
are
trouble,” Eli
said.

The two men burst through the
doors into the cafeteria, shooting behind them. They spun and Steve screamed,
“zombie child!” before firing. The group hit the floor.

“Whoa, whoa,” Wilcox said. “Hold
your fire, it’s just us.” They cautiously got to their feet. “We found the
girl, Amy, she’s right—”

They all turned to see Amy lying
on the floor in a puddle of blood, a bullet hole right between her eyes.

“You moron!” Eli roared. “She was
our one ticket out of here!”

“Now?” Terry asked in disbelief.
“Now you’re a good shot?!”

Steve looked sheepish for a
moment. “That was a good shot, though,” he said proudly.

“You idiot!” Julia said.

Julia, Wilcox, and Eli pushed past
the two overweight men and left the school. “Maybe we can still get on that
helicopter,” Wilcox said.

“No way,” Eli said.

“It’s worth a shot,” Julia said.

“We’re down,” Terry said.

The others shook their heads and
climbed into the truck. Steve and Terry started to open the doors, but they
were locked. “Hey, uh, guys?” Steve said. “The doors, the doors are locked. You
think you could—” the truck peeled out and sped off down the road. “Well that
sucks.”

Terry just looked at Steve and
shook his head. “Idiot.”

“We still have time,” Julia said
as the three of them sped down the road. “We can get to the building, fight,
bribe, force; somehow we’re getting on that chopper.”

When they reached the Elks’
building, they shot out the front glass and made their way to the roof. There
they found the promised chopper, along with a contingent of soldiers and a man
in an electric wheel chair. A massive muscled creature they had never seen
stood off to the side of the soldiers. The creature stood at least seven feet
tall and had to weigh in excess of four hundred pounds. Its face was horribly
scared and its lipless mouth was open in a snarl.

“What is this?” Eli asked.

“The end,” a man in an expensive
suit said, stepping off the loading ramp of the helicopter. “Now we see who is
stronger.”

“What the hell are you talking
about?” Julia asked.

“You two,” the man said, motioning
between Eli and the creature. “The two beings that mutated the disease that
otherwise turns you into the living dead. You’re like brothers, down two
divergent paths. Now we see who is the stronger.”

“No way!” Eli said.

“Do you have my daughter?” the man
in the wheelchair suddenly asked.