Chapter 4: Dance

I thought my luck finally ran out. I thought it was the end. Alick continued to stab away at the intruders, but they eventually restrained him holding him to the floor as they stripped away his weapons. Then they turned to me. With my hammer held and ready to swing, I stood atop a table as they crowded around me.

They weren't lunging at me or grabbing at my legs, and as I looked over at Alick, they weren't trying to eat him either. They were watching me. Their eyes still had enough life in them to know what was in their heads.

None of them were women.

They were looking up my skirt. The fucking perverts were getting off. While they were dazed, I quickly smashed one of their heads in before leaping from the table to make a break for one of the exits. They caught me before I got far.

"That wasn't very nice," said one of the undead heathens.

The crowd split in half as their leaders came down the aisle. While most of the zombies were in rags, their leader was well dressed in a fashion week suit fit for a mogul. They kept Alick and me restrained while the head honcho paraded around flaunting his authority.

"You can speak?" I said.

"Of course, I can speak," he answered.

"Does that mean you're not going to eat us?"

"I won't, but they might," he said.

He came closer and looked me over. He couldn't have been older than 21, and yet he had an army following his orders. The brat reached a hand out to touch my face, but I quickly turned away. His hand trailed down my neck grazing my skin just enough to make a shiver run down my spine. He tried to reach under my skirt, and I kicked him in his balls. He didn't feel it, but he took back his hand.

"What do you want with us?" I yelled as I continued to try to break free.

"Nothing but a good time," he said.

He snapped his fingers and pointed to the floor. Before I could take my next breath, his henchmen forced me to my knees.

"My name is Leon, what's your's beautiful?" He asked as he towered over me.

He snapped his fingers again to have a seat drawn. He sat in front of me with his legs open with an obvious implication.

"Look, kid, I'm not playing with zombie dick, so if that's where this is going, you can have your friends kill me now."

"You should be careful how you speak to me, or are you blind," the dead brat argued.

Alick was putting up a good fight. They had to use more of their men to keep him pinned. That was fewer men they had to hold me. Still, I wasn't very strong physically.

"Why aren't you and the boys club acting more undead?" I asked

"So now you're a curious broad? I think I asked you a question first," he said.

"My name is Faith," I answered as I searched for a way out.

"See, that wasn't so hard. And that's a beautiful name, by the way, it fits too. Faith, living in the apocalypse," he joked, and his boys laughed.

"Yea, I've heard all the jokes, but I asked you a question," I said.

"Come on. It's the end of the world. Me and the boys haven't seen fresh tail in ages. Least you could do is be a good guest in our city."

"Your city?" I asked

"Yes, our city. My city. You must really be blind. Haven't you noticed everyone else has cleared out from here to 7th street?"

"Not everyone," I said.

"You're right. A few gangs and stragglers are hanging around, but you don't seem like you're one of them, are you?"

"I asked you a question, Leon."

"Fine!" He exclaimed as if he were about to strike me.

He fixed the collar of his shirt and sat up.

"Some demon witch flew through the city, bringing any men she saw laying on the street back to life. Whatever magic she did couldn't bring back all of our motor skills and brain function. I'm the leader of our crew because I have the most brain function. We aren't real zombies. We can still eat brains and all that, but we don't have to," he explained.

"Then you're not monsters," I said with relief.

"Not unless we have to be," Leon answered.

"Then can we go?"

"Are you stupid? You're the first woman we've seen in forever. Even if I wanted to let you go, I'm sure that's the one order my boys wouldn't listen to."

"You can't keep us here!"

"You're right, we can't. Whatever the demon witch did to us only lets us move around at night," he confessed.

"So you'll let us go in the morning?"

"No. We'll keep you until Dawn, then we'll eat your partner and turn you into one of us so you'll have to stay," the brat answered.

I struggled to break free, but they held me in place.

"You said you didn't have to eat people," I argued.

"It still feels good to," he said with a laugh.

The night was long. Leon and his boys had all the "dude dro" energy of a frat house. They made me dance on the tables, stripping out of my clothes by the hour until I was clutching myself to keep my dignity. I'm sure the only thing that kept them from forcing themselves on me was the knowledge that they'd all have to fight each other for me.

And just like that, I had a plan.

If they were all a few brain cells short, then in theory, it shouldn't have been difficult to make them turn on one another.

With morning approaching, I was surprised to find they still hadn't eaten Alick yet. They were probably waiting so I wouldn't be upset. In my birthday suit, I danced and danced like a toy, but I kept my eyes focused on one man. One boy. I gave my attention to their leader, and I wasn't shy about it. I tossed him my bra before stepping down from the table to sit in his lap.

"You're all monsters," I said seductively.

"Relax, Faith, it's not so bad," he said as I leaned back.

I saw the unrest rising while he let his hands feel the goods. With a moan here, and a squeak there, I'm sure I put on quite the show.

"What's that? You want me now?" I lied to the room.

"What?" he mumbled, caught off guard.

"You want me all to yourself?" I voiced to the onlookers.

"Faith, I see what you're doing, and it won't work," he said.

"But won't it," I answered as my dance finally came to an end, and he noticed the room I wound up.

All I had to do was stand, and in a heartbeat's time, tables and chairs were being tossed.

I tried to step away, but Leon caught my wrist.

"Where do you think you're going!" He exclaimed while I covered myself as best I could with my remaining hand.

Before Leon could pull me back, he was knocked away by one of his minions. While they fought, I got dressed and found my hammer. Only a few zombies were keeping Alick restrained during the brawl when I found him.

"Are you going to let my partner go, or have your brains smashed?" I threatened in my best menacing voice.

They glanced at me and rolled their eyes before letting Alick go. I had to do a double-take, but I'm sure I knew why they were so disinterested. Gay zombies. I shouldn't have been surprised, but I was. 

"You save Alick?" My Russian mountain thanked me as he promptly slit the throats of the gay zombies who were kind enough to let him go.

There may have been something akin to a hate crime in that sudden turn, but we didn't have time to be politically correct.

"Yes, yes, now run," I said.

We left the building through a hole in the wall. Unsurprisingly, we were followed. Alick was able to cut down anyone who got too close, but something was making it difficult to get away. Zombies didn't need to breathe. Zombies didn't need to rest. Zombies could run forever, but we could not. No matter how many of them Alick took out, there more on the way. The sun was on its way, but with nowhere safe to hide out until its rise, we only had one place to go.

The Buy and Sell.

We hadn't found meat products for the store, but we couldn't chance our lives on getting caught anywhere else. Out of breath and on our last legs, Alick and I crossed the parking lot before finding the main entrance locked. We banged on the doors. I tried to break the glass with my hammer as zombies approached from the horizon.

"Let us in, God damn it, let us in," I yelled.

Shawn was on the other side of the door. Behind him stood our coworkers stagnant. They weren't going to help us. I turned around to watch as the monsters closed in. I swung at the air to keep them at bay, and just then, they fell.

All of them fell to the ground like the undead they were.

I stayed with my back to the entrance while Alick walked over to kick one of the lifeless bodies. He stabbed one in the head, and it did nothing. I took a breath. The sun was rising, and the doors opened behind me. The sudden sensation of air conditioning made me jump as Shawn stepped over the threshold. I watched him take in the sight of dead bodies. Maybe he felt sympathetic to the boys club. He turned around, and in the silence of morning, Shawn applauded us with his bone fingers making sharp clacking through the air.

"Job well done," he said.