Zombie Pink (12 page)

He was just about to change the channel again, when a more serious looking guy with a blonde ponytail informed everyone in the lounge that he had been doing some research on mosquitoes.

"Leave it on!" Gina cried. "I want to hear!"

Frank DeFazio sighed but left the TV on the IFC channel.

"No really...." the guy protested, when some of the other lounge mates on the show pretended to fall asleep, complete with fake snoring.

"I think you'll find this very interesting!" he insisted. "Okay, fact one. Mosquitoes cause about a million deaths a year."

"Wow," said Gina, listening intently.

"Fact two. Tampa Florida is the most
mosquitoey place in the country."

The formerly bored lounge mates looked a little more interested...except for Justin Bieber Hair, who still pretended he was sleeping.

"Fact three. Mosquitoes love pregnant women."

That made Justin Bieber Hair open his eyes and guffaw loudly.

"I'm speechless!" he cried.

"Something about the amount of carbon dioxide they put out..." the blonde ponytailed guy said
. "Fact four. I saved the best for last. Ready?"

Everyone stared at Mr. Blonde Ponytail waiting, including Gina.

"Fact four. Mosquitoes are more likely to bite you if you've been drinking bee
r!"

That fact caused loud guffawing and hand slamming on furniture, and even brought a slight smile to Gina's face despite the scary circumstances she found herself in.

"Do you think that's true?" Gina asked her parents.

"Absolutely not!
" Frank DeFazio replied, switching the TV back to Fox News. “There are far more mosquitoes in Alaska. The guy should get his facts right, at least.”

The news desk on the Fox News station was now mysteriously empty.

The beeping noise that accompanies a severe thunderstorm warning blared out of the TV, adding to the impending sense of doom. Then a monstrous thunderclap rocked the entire DeFazio household.

Only the crawl at the bottom of the screen was not addressing the weather. It was a vague warning
for everyone to stay indoors with their doors locked, along with suggesting that people board up all low-level windows and bring in pets.

"Do not answer the door for anyone, even if they are a neighbor," Gina read in the crawl, thinking of the guy down the street who was banging frantically on their front door just a few moments ago.

"Ridiculous!" Gina's Dad said again, with a snort.

"If it's so ridiculous, why didn't you let that guy in?" Gina asked her dad.

"BECAUSE THEY'RE ALL ACTING CRAZY, THAT'S WHY!" Gina's Dad exploded.

"Are the doors all locked?" Gina asked, her voice coming out like a squeaky croak.

She quickly checked herself for
mosquito bites.
That's when Gina saw the huge bite on her mother's upper arm. She didn't say anything about it, choosing instead to just stare at the monstrous red lump in horror.

"Gina! Stop this instant!" Mrs. DeFazio ordered, suddenly scratching the
huge mosquito bite as if she herself just noticed that it was there
. "This is
simply some kind of sick
hoax! Don't be so easily brainwashed. Mosquito bites and pink zombies. Honestly! It all sounds like a very poorly written story by a fourteen year old boy
. See? I have a mosquito bite. Does that make me a flesh eating zombie? Am I turning pink yet?"

"Don't forget, it could be a movie promotion," Gina's Dad added. "I admit, they went a little too far...I mean, every news channel? People will start taking this crap seriously. They'll be running around outside with guns, looking to kill anyone who resembles a quote unquote zombie...."

Right on cue, there was the distinctive clap of a gunshot outside.

Or was it thunder?

"This is going to make history!" Gina's Mom declared.

"WELL, THAT STILL MEANS WE SHOULD MAKE SURE ALL THE DOORS ARE LOCKED!" Gina screeched. "WHY ISN'T
THERE ANY ONE ON THAT NEWS CHANNEL? WHERE ARE THEY ALL?
"

The other news channel said there were no police around!
The rising panic in Gina's chest was making her feel like she was choking.

"Calm down," Gina's Mom soothed, still scratching the angry red
bite which seemed to be growing by the second. "The doors are all locked, and...."

Just then, a loud crash emanated from the DeFazio's kitchen
. The
family all stopped what they were doing mid-stream and froze.

CHAPTER TEN

"This is definitely going too far!" Mr. DeFazio growled. "Not in my house!"

Gina's father
stood up, exhibiting all the bravado he could muster. After all, he was the man of the house!

After that, t
he middle aged man with the fishing hat and the T-shirt that said KISS MY BASS stomped menacingly into the kitchen.

Gina felt like she was hyperventilating
.
She needed a paper bag to breath into, like they always show on TV. She
swallowed a lump the size of a biscuit in her throat.

Gina's mother
didn't say anything. She just sat there fingering her cross necklace with her eyes closed, mumbling to herself.

"I thought you said it was all fake!" Gina whispered accusingly.

J
ust then, Gina heard Mr. DeFazio scream the loudest, most blood curdling scream she
had ever heard.
Well actually, Gina had never heard her father scream at all before that moment.

Immediately, Mrs. DeFazio and Gina jumped off the couch and raced
towards the front door. Then they stopped. There was no noise coming from the kitchen any more. Just an eerie silence.

"Frank?" Mrs. DeFazio asked in a tiny voice.

Still nothing.

Gina and her mom looked at each other, neither one of them knowing what to do. Suddenly, there w
as another super loud clattering noise which sounded like a stack of pots crashing onto the floor
.

Then a man who bore a sickly magenta rash
appeared around the corner. He stared at Gina and her mom with strange
glowing white eyes and a weird little smile on his face.

"Eaaaa...." he drooled leering at them; bloody spittle dribbling out of his mouth.

His limp greasy hair was caked with blood.
He took a step towards them, smiling with blood tinged teeth.

"RUN!" Gina shrieked. "IF THIS IS A PROMOTION FOR THAT SHOW, I'M SURE AS HELL NOT GOING TO WATCH"

Gina raced across the living room and out the front door, her heart pounding furiously underneath her frilly nightie. She had no shoes on, but that didn't matter. She raced outside, down across the lawn, avoiding the giant pool of blood that had gathered under the Maple tree. Then she stopped for a moment to survey her surroundings.

"Mom?" she suddenly asked, looking all around.

Gina's Mom
was nowhere to be seen. Then Gina heard her mother scream,
"GET A KNIFE, FRANK! GET A KNIFE! FRANK? FRAAAAANK!"

"This can't be happening!" Gina announced to the dark neighborhood.

Then she realized just how corny that line sounded.

Gina pinched herself again. Another loud clap of thunder crackled from above. The echoing boom of a rifle sounded from somewhere nearby
, which made her jump.

This
was definitely happening.
Whatever
this
was.

Where should she go?

W
here was safe?

Gina looked back at the house. No one was coming after her.

Where were her parents?

Why hadn't her mom followed her out the door?

Gina hoped her parents got out of the house okay,
but she wasn't brave enough to go back in and check. The house was ominously silent, offering up no clues
.

Who was that weird creepy person?

Why had he broken into their home?

Was he a robber?
A serial killer?

No. He had that virus with the pink rash that controls your brain
.
J
ust like they were talking about on the news.

"It's real!" Gina informed the dark street. "Yikes! Mosquitoes!"

Gina conducted a quick bug check
on her body. Whew. No mosquitoes.

And she wasn't pregnant and she hadn't been drinking any beer. Her dad would never let her drink beer, and of course she couldn't be pregnant if she never even had sex
!

Although, Gina had to admit, mosquitoes sure did seem
to like her. She often got a whole bunch of bites whenever she walked in the woods wearing super short skirts without any underwear
underneath
. Once she got the itchiest bite
right smack in the middle of her naked butt cheek...her biscuit....

"THE CAR!" Gina suddenly shouted.

However, a quick inspection of the Defazio's brand new Buick Enclave informed Gina that someone had let the air of out all the tires.

"That's weird," Gina commented.

Gina looked up and down Candlepin Avenue. There wasn't anyone else in sight at the moment
. Not knowing
quite what to do, she slowly headed up the dark street
hoping she would run into someone who could help.

Gina's goal was to make it over to her friend Cara's house. However, Cara lived
all the way on the other side of the Shady Oaks development, and Gina could not ascertain exactly where those gunshots were coming from.

And then there was the matter of the Nelson's scary Rottweiler...or possibly
, a stray Pit-bull. Gina was terrified of
big aggressive dogs
- or even big dogs that weren't aggressive. However, the Nelson's Rotty was terrifying; barking and running after people.

Gina
slowly inched down the street, her heart beating a mile a minute. The road felt weird on her bare feet. Gina hoped and prayed she wouldn't step on a rusty nail since she wasn't sure if her
tetanus shot vaccine was still good
.

She wished she could find a large stick to use as a barrier against attacking dogs...
or zombies?

This is Candlepin Avenue, not the woods,
Gina told herself.
I can see if anything's coming at me
.

Suddenly, Gina saw something...or rather,
someone
standing next to a large pine tree in the Mathewson's front yard.

She slowed down, not sure if she should go any further; squinting at the shadowy figure, while trying to figure out who it was.

It was definitely a woman...
was it Mrs. Mathewson
? No, Mrs. Mathewson had shoulder length
thick
curly hair. This woman appeared to have scraggly
shortish hair....unless Mrs. Mathewson got a horrible new hair-cut...

Holy shit!
Gina stopped short. It was the woman who had been in Gina's front yard
! T
he one who left the pool of blood (real blood; Gina was positive) underneath the big Maple tree.

As Gina’s eyes adjusted to the dim light, she saw that the woman's face and the side of her head were all ripped up and that
she was all bloody. The woman’s eyes were
glowing white orbs, just like that man’s eyes – the man who had broken into Gina's house.

The woman's blue cotton dress sported an ugly
pattern of grass stains, dirt, and blood.

Mimi spotted Gina standing there in the middle of Candlepin Avenue staring at her, wearing cute flowered shorts and a
frilly nighty.
Suddenly, Mimi's
long torn bloody face darkened into a mask of pure evil.

"Hi..." Gina called out
. "Are you okay?"

Mimi didn't answer. She began stumbling towards Gina.

"You were attacked!" Gina said, stating the obvious.

Mimi slowly and methodically lumbered towards Gina, resembling a rabid dog baring it’s teeth.

Something wasn't right. Gina sensed it.

She has that brain control virus,
Gina thought.
She can't understand a word I’m saying.
Oh, I wish I had a big stick!
I need to vamoose
! NOW!

Running on a huge surge of adrenaline, Gina sprinted around the side of the Mathewson’s house and made a B-line to the shed in their backyard
. She flung open the door
of the shed and slammed herself in.

There was no lock!

Gina pushed a wheelbarrow against the shed door. She heard thunder crash
ing overhead,
along with more gunshots in the distance.
She
felt a small modicum of safety in the dark little building.