Chapter Ten - Friends
Day 62,
Dear Fictitious Diary in my undead, spectral head, It has been Seven days since the slaughter of Walmart and we been walking slowly after the truck. Topp has been pretty much good to sticking to the "Follow the direction of where the Truck went" Plan but some how he got distracted like a kitten distracted by a fluffy mouse.
May I ask you theoretical question, If the world of living was wiped out, what would be zombies enemies?
Some people would say building decay from lack of maintenance and the weather elements coming in and crushing the undead when it collapses.
Time, others might say, zombies can't last forever.
Car alarms perhaps? Some trigger them off and draw every mobile zombie to it.
If you picked any of those, you are wrong, dead wrong, It's Wind.
Topp and three other zombies are currently standing under a tree staring at wonder at the wind chimes that are hanging from the tree from a typical suburban house. The zombies have been mesmerized by the wind chimes for two days now and the wind chimes are not showing they are going to give up on their audience. When gust of wind makes something move or make a noise, our undead friends will check it out.
The other zombies were pretty calm to chat with since they all accepted their death except Carlos, Who would go into a repetitive argument with Steve, which ironically happened right now.
"You killed me" Accused Carlos for the 17th time.
"No, I didn't, Steve" Sighed Steve.
"You turned into a zombie and you attacked me when I was a sleep on the sofa"growled Carlos as his aura rippled like a current in a puddle.
"Carlos, Tell me man, Can you control your body because I can't and I know YOU can't since all of us are like FLOATING ABOVE our bodies!" snapped Steve
"You could of, like" Carlos paused for a moment and then roared "Gave me a heads up!"
Steve paused for a second and then lowered his voice "Carlos, You are telling me that I should of told you that I am now dead and that I have no way of controlling my corpse, Including my mouth and tongue that I am about to eat you?"
Carlos paused for a moment in thought and then spoke in a plain matter of fact voice "Yes" which trigger both Carlos and Steve to started arguing.
I had enough of their bickering so I broke myself away from the other spirits and floated down into the ground. It's a trick I had learned when Topp was dragging me along the street like a favorite rag doll.
If I sink into the ground and then tilt my view upwards, I can block out the noise around me and stare at the sky but right now I just want to be left a lone and didn't want to look at any thing. It's the closest thing to closing my eyes or having "Me" Time from my corpse.
I floated deep through the yellow dying grass, into the earth. Here in the dark i felt slightly felt better until I my mind went back to wondering about my wife and then my coworkers and then finally back to the Walmart. After a few minutes it lead back to the garden center, then to Topp finding that dying survivor. I remember Topp walking through the trap that the survivors had made. It was filed with charcoal corpses that were lay on the floor, smoldering. I remember me dreading for some specter that had it's body burnt trying to connect with me and what words i would hear. I checked the bodies for faces or uniforms but their bodies were too burnt for me to tell.
When we were out side of the store, we walked around to the side of the building to the loading bay. When we turned the corner, I saw piles of zombies who had jumped off and was splattered on the pavement. I saw Mary who was one of them, Her zombie was still mobile with only a broken arm. She must of landed on one of the zombies. I didn't see any of my other coworkers until Topp was down the street when I looked back and saw Melissa Day standing on the top of the building, her corpse was staring at us, not moving.
"Brian, Are you ok hun?" a feminine voice broke my train of thought. It was Lee-anne Smith, a sixy five year old woman who had a motherly persona about her that made me felt like i was in the 3th grade. She told me she had died from the fever and when she a woke she fought she was going to heaven but remained her to prove to her lord she is a willing servant of god.So she tells me.
"Ah, I am fine Ms Smith, Just wanted some a lone time" I replied. "Hun, you are never alone when god is smiling down upon us from heaven" she said in a cheerful voice. "God is testing our faith and we must show it with a positive smile" She said in a matter of fact voice."Thanks?" I said unsure. "Well hon, I be with Carlos and Steve, don't be down here too long, ok?" i said yes and i felt her spirit letting go of mine. I felt relieved that she didn't preach to me about the bible again.
I floated up a little out of the ground some time later. I can see Carlos and Stevens spirits shaking wildly together. I looked at Topp who was still looking at the wind chimes as it play it's tune with the wind.
Topp has.. I am not sure the correct term but he has some how mended himself. When Topp was walking after the Truck, I noticed his bullet wounds had puss coming out and then solidified an hour later, that left a fleshy green mark, even his side had mended with the green stuff over and covered his ribs. He also even became more mobile and he even became to look more less decayed that he did before.
I think eating that human has caused him to some how heal himself. Since Melissa had told me back at the store that her corpse self shoulder did the same, it was badly damaged from the zombies biting her but it healed over after she ate and it became some what functional for the zombie to use.
I then remember some of the zombies on the road, they decayed so much they lay and mosquitoes used their body to breed. It became a bloated swarm of insects buzzing around them. I wonder if zombies don't feed, do they degrade to a type of fertilizer for insects. Speaking of insects, A fly landed on Topp's face and moved around. It stood directly on Topp's eye for a second then up his nose and then back out before flying off.
Finally the wind chime went quiet and slowly but surely we departed our ways. Topp walked back onto the road and then walked on into the sunset.
Sunday, August 11, 2013
Wednesday, August 7, 2013
Chapter Nine - Dinner and a stroll
Ever seen those funny youtube videos where you get some infant child walking a big dog like a golden retriever and the dog is dragging kid by the lead? This is happening to me right now but I am jumping a head of me again.
----
Topp didn't stare for too long as I originally thought, He stood there staring at the direction of the sound where the truck driving with it's music blasting until it faded. What remained was not silence except the sound of foul sound of flesh and bone hitting the road until it finally stopped. Topp suddenly reanimate to life, he turned smartly around and with each step, he walked back into the walmart.
The foul black smoke has caked the ceiling and made it difficult for me to see around me. I finally was forced me to float down until my head was at ground level where the smoke was less. After passing isles, I soon noticed a clearing near the Television isle, where the survivors had a built their life in the store for themselves. Tents were pitched with duct tape and near by there were pallets of water jugs, dry food and canned food.
It looked like they have been here for some time, Piles of clothes seem to be used was discarded as they got dirty. Empty candy wrappers were discarded randomly on the floor next to kids toys. I was going to look away until I had noticed four bodies laying near the tents. Topp stopped shuffling and turned his head slowly, He moaned softly as greenish gray drool began to run down. The smoked had cleared briefly and I found that they all had piles of bodies were not zombies but humans that were freshly killed. I heard a faint noise, it wasn't a zombies vocals since it the noise was coughing.
We both moved close to the source of the sound. We turned a corner to find a man who had himself propped against a pallet of water, he had his hand over his chest trying and his eyes were rolling. The main looked young, in his twenties and he looked like he didn't shave for a while with his wirey beard was every where.
He looked up and saw Topp, He squinted "John?" he crocked as blood ran out of his mouth. Topp walked slowly and raised his hands towards the man. "John, they killed Joel and Carl... i told.. you they would rebel.. John?" The man screamed as Topp dived at him and began the feast on the dying man. I watched in horror as the man screamed and then went quiet after trying to put up a fight with the remaining life.
-----
I tried to fight Topp as he walked up the road where the truck went. Pushing my self until i went in pain as I tried to pull Topp back. "Go back to the STORE YOU BASTARD!" I yell as I gave up and let the force pull me.
"I guess we are following the truck" I mutter.
----
Topp didn't stare for too long as I originally thought, He stood there staring at the direction of the sound where the truck driving with it's music blasting until it faded. What remained was not silence except the sound of foul sound of flesh and bone hitting the road until it finally stopped. Topp suddenly reanimate to life, he turned smartly around and with each step, he walked back into the walmart.
The foul black smoke has caked the ceiling and made it difficult for me to see around me. I finally was forced me to float down until my head was at ground level where the smoke was less. After passing isles, I soon noticed a clearing near the Television isle, where the survivors had a built their life in the store for themselves. Tents were pitched with duct tape and near by there were pallets of water jugs, dry food and canned food.
It looked like they have been here for some time, Piles of clothes seem to be used was discarded as they got dirty. Empty candy wrappers were discarded randomly on the floor next to kids toys. I was going to look away until I had noticed four bodies laying near the tents. Topp stopped shuffling and turned his head slowly, He moaned softly as greenish gray drool began to run down. The smoked had cleared briefly and I found that they all had piles of bodies were not zombies but humans that were freshly killed. I heard a faint noise, it wasn't a zombies vocals since it the noise was coughing.
We both moved close to the source of the sound. We turned a corner to find a man who had himself propped against a pallet of water, he had his hand over his chest trying and his eyes were rolling. The main looked young, in his twenties and he looked like he didn't shave for a while with his wirey beard was every where.
He looked up and saw Topp, He squinted "John?" he crocked as blood ran out of his mouth. Topp walked slowly and raised his hands towards the man. "John, they killed Joel and Carl... i told.. you they would rebel.. John?" The man screamed as Topp dived at him and began the feast on the dying man. I watched in horror as the man screamed and then went quiet after trying to put up a fight with the remaining life.
-----
I tried to fight Topp as he walked up the road where the truck went. Pushing my self until i went in pain as I tried to pull Topp back. "Go back to the STORE YOU BASTARD!" I yell as I gave up and let the force pull me.
"I guess we are following the truck" I mutter.
Saturday, August 3, 2013
Chapter Eight - Feeding time.
The race.
The voice that boomed over my mind is fading down to a trickle, I could barely make out the word "Feed" before it was gone for good. I find myself floating in the middle of the room, staring directly at a small beam of light that is shining through the window. The windows are covered with news paper and tape, possible to either to stop people looking out or zombies looking in.
I spun in a circle slowly, taking in the room that I had awoken into. The room small with a pallet of fertilizer next to me and I can make out some neglected pot plants all stacked in the corner of the room. The floor was scattered with cigarette buts and news papers that had titles like "Who will win this weeks 30 million?" and "John Harper, Arrested for smuggling drugs" and "Local school will close due fire".
I notice a doorway that lead into the store was slowly pouring out gray greasy smoke. I watched the smoke dance a long the ceiling for a few seconds until I remember my anchor is missing. I glance around in a brief panic and then fly around the pallet until I found Topp laying on the floor facing up with his hand up, I then realize that there was light directly on Topp so i looked up to see the gaping hole above me.
Then every thing came back to me in a mass flood
----
Feed,
"Some one wake me up"
Move, living, FEED!
We poured into the store, bouncing off shelves that walled us in like a rats running through a maze. The voices didn’t care that we were heading into a trap, it just wanted to feed on fresh meat.
Hungry, feed,
The freshly converted Zombies had pushed through the herd and ran a head down the man made tunnel. Their bodies moved more fluid compared to the rest of us who are stiff from being decayed over time. As fast as they were, they were no match for planks of wood that had nails laying before them. With out a yelp, a scream or a single word, they toppled down to the floor with loud thack noise.
We are many, EAT!
The fallen zombies tried to get back up didn't succeed in time as rest of the horde had caught up and trampled over them with no concern for their fallen comrades. The next hurdle was shopping carts that were wielded together with metal spikes attached to them that blocked out path like a hurdle. Topp was in the middle of the wave so by the time had to climb, he suffered no injury over since the first zombies were pinned down into the spikes and became a blanket for the rest of the swarm who just climbed over them.
FASTER!
The whole time the voice was urging us on down the corridor to what ever waits for us. When Topp made it over, He had landed in a shallow pool liquid, the pool was held in by garbage bags and gaffer tape. We move down, splashing loudly and a few more zombies a head of Topp had fallen down by more spike traps. As we surge to the corner, the zombies in front of Topp was pushed into the spikes that were sticking out from the shelves. The spiked zombies tried to move out but tide was keeping them pinned. Topp was pinned in the corner between two undead and was unable to move.
HUMAN, FRESH, WE ARE HUNGRY!
I remember seeing multiple things at once, At the end of the racetrack stood a man in his late fifties, wearing a hunting jacket and smoking a cigarette and firing at the closest zombies with his hunting rifle. There were more noises of gun fire, I remember seeing group of humans standing from a window firing off their weapons also at the zombies that were a head of the wave.
FEED!
I am not sure how Topp saw them but what he did next was something that I now would not expect a drone of an unknown voice would do. Topp rebelled the order and decided to climb over the wall since every other zombie was compelled to charge at the lone human. Topp grabbed the spiked Zombies and slowly pulled himself to the top of the shelf and then finally pull him self over. He then fell to the floor and made a loud thud and then lay there for a few seconds as he hissed air out of him. He then half rose and half crawled towards the stairs that would lead to the office where the humans were. The humans above seem to be more focused on the zombies in the trap than the lone zombie crawling to their stair way.
I remember hearing a loud woosh as a fire ball flew into the air from the other side where the undead were charging at the human.
CLIMB!
The voice sounded angry and scared as he can hear the zombies burning and smacking their hands against the wall trying to climb it. Topp crawled towards to the stair well as flaming zombies now began to climb over the wall and hit the wall. Smoke filled the store making things hard for me to see. I did remember hearing a mans voice, maybe the old man who was at the end of the hall way yelling at them that sounded like"go to the top, go to the TOP, Move! MOVE!" with couching noises.
I couldn't feel the heat but I can see how bad the heat was, the shelves that walled the zombies in were beginning to melt slightly and then bend down with loud metallic grinding noise from the weight of zombies trying to climb over each other. In a matter of seconds the shelves capsized over and the zombies on top fell down and made loud meaty thud noises. Some zombies were walking a few steps but their bodies was too cooked for them to move and they collapsed onto the ground. The remaining unscathed zombies, a merge fifty of us, lurched towards the stair way door kicking or stepping over the remains of our fallen army.
UP!
The voice was weaker but it still fed us the message for us to obey.Topp got to his feet and merged into the tide of remaining zombies. we burst through the office door. The side of the room was filled with wooden and metal spikes and any one who walked would be pegged or having their bodies ripped. As we moved into the room zombies got pinned by the spikes, making the flow of undead go down to single file. after going up another three flights of stairs. We all stopped in a grid lock. I could hear zombies a head hitting something wooden while the rest tried to pull our selves up the stairs. Topp grabbed a zombie who had half of her face burnt off grabbed the bone and pull her back so he could move up a single step. The half burnt zombie fell backwards, pushing the zombies back for a second. The banging stopped when a loud explosion and light. Zombies in front fell backwards down the stairs like Dominoes.
RAISE! FEED!
A moment later we were climbing back on to our feet and continued back up the stairs. Some fatally injured zombies were were trampled over, making soft crunching noise. When we made it to the top of the stairs, The door was was blown wide open and smoke hung in the air with bodies of zombies scattered around.
EAT!
The voice was much weaker now but our zombies knew what to do now and that was charge and lunge. We exited to the roof top in pairs, Topp walked out as the zombie in front of him head exploded in a reddish green mist. The man in the hunter jacket yelled at the boy to climb down as he aimed the the rifle at the next zombies.
Another bullet was fired but it missed Topp's head by a mere inch but it hit the zombie square in the mouth. Topp charged with a ghastly moan of anger as the man suddenly panicked and then kept firing wildly into Topp's chest. Each shot didn't even faze Topp as he ran with his hands out stretched. The old man cursed when Topp was closed and smacked Topp on the side of the head with the butt of the rifle, causing Topp stagger back a couple of steps. The world changed as Topp fell backwards and then downwards until a plastic loud smash and a memory plexiglass fell around us and then there was the thud and then silence.
A few seconds later a large truck roared to life with then drove off with music blaring "Back In Black" and cheering from the survivors.
----
Topp began to stir, he got up slowly and then stared at the hole.
Shit i thought, It's the bathroom all over again.
The voice that boomed over my mind is fading down to a trickle, I could barely make out the word "Feed" before it was gone for good. I find myself floating in the middle of the room, staring directly at a small beam of light that is shining through the window. The windows are covered with news paper and tape, possible to either to stop people looking out or zombies looking in.
I spun in a circle slowly, taking in the room that I had awoken into. The room small with a pallet of fertilizer next to me and I can make out some neglected pot plants all stacked in the corner of the room. The floor was scattered with cigarette buts and news papers that had titles like "Who will win this weeks 30 million?" and "John Harper, Arrested for smuggling drugs" and "Local school will close due fire".
I notice a doorway that lead into the store was slowly pouring out gray greasy smoke. I watched the smoke dance a long the ceiling for a few seconds until I remember my anchor is missing. I glance around in a brief panic and then fly around the pallet until I found Topp laying on the floor facing up with his hand up, I then realize that there was light directly on Topp so i looked up to see the gaping hole above me.
Then every thing came back to me in a mass flood
----
Feed,
"Some one wake me up"
Move, living, FEED!
We poured into the store, bouncing off shelves that walled us in like a rats running through a maze. The voices didn’t care that we were heading into a trap, it just wanted to feed on fresh meat.
Hungry, feed,
The freshly converted Zombies had pushed through the herd and ran a head down the man made tunnel. Their bodies moved more fluid compared to the rest of us who are stiff from being decayed over time. As fast as they were, they were no match for planks of wood that had nails laying before them. With out a yelp, a scream or a single word, they toppled down to the floor with loud thack noise.
We are many, EAT!
The fallen zombies tried to get back up didn't succeed in time as rest of the horde had caught up and trampled over them with no concern for their fallen comrades. The next hurdle was shopping carts that were wielded together with metal spikes attached to them that blocked out path like a hurdle. Topp was in the middle of the wave so by the time had to climb, he suffered no injury over since the first zombies were pinned down into the spikes and became a blanket for the rest of the swarm who just climbed over them.
FASTER!
The whole time the voice was urging us on down the corridor to what ever waits for us. When Topp made it over, He had landed in a shallow pool liquid, the pool was held in by garbage bags and gaffer tape. We move down, splashing loudly and a few more zombies a head of Topp had fallen down by more spike traps. As we surge to the corner, the zombies in front of Topp was pushed into the spikes that were sticking out from the shelves. The spiked zombies tried to move out but tide was keeping them pinned. Topp was pinned in the corner between two undead and was unable to move.
HUMAN, FRESH, WE ARE HUNGRY!
I remember seeing multiple things at once, At the end of the racetrack stood a man in his late fifties, wearing a hunting jacket and smoking a cigarette and firing at the closest zombies with his hunting rifle. There were more noises of gun fire, I remember seeing group of humans standing from a window firing off their weapons also at the zombies that were a head of the wave.
FEED!
I am not sure how Topp saw them but what he did next was something that I now would not expect a drone of an unknown voice would do. Topp rebelled the order and decided to climb over the wall since every other zombie was compelled to charge at the lone human. Topp grabbed the spiked Zombies and slowly pulled himself to the top of the shelf and then finally pull him self over. He then fell to the floor and made a loud thud and then lay there for a few seconds as he hissed air out of him. He then half rose and half crawled towards the stairs that would lead to the office where the humans were. The humans above seem to be more focused on the zombies in the trap than the lone zombie crawling to their stair way.
I remember hearing a loud woosh as a fire ball flew into the air from the other side where the undead were charging at the human.
CLIMB!
The voice sounded angry and scared as he can hear the zombies burning and smacking their hands against the wall trying to climb it. Topp crawled towards to the stair well as flaming zombies now began to climb over the wall and hit the wall. Smoke filled the store making things hard for me to see. I did remember hearing a mans voice, maybe the old man who was at the end of the hall way yelling at them that sounded like"go to the top, go to the TOP, Move! MOVE!" with couching noises.
I couldn't feel the heat but I can see how bad the heat was, the shelves that walled the zombies in were beginning to melt slightly and then bend down with loud metallic grinding noise from the weight of zombies trying to climb over each other. In a matter of seconds the shelves capsized over and the zombies on top fell down and made loud meaty thud noises. Some zombies were walking a few steps but their bodies was too cooked for them to move and they collapsed onto the ground. The remaining unscathed zombies, a merge fifty of us, lurched towards the stair way door kicking or stepping over the remains of our fallen army.
UP!
The voice was weaker but it still fed us the message for us to obey.Topp got to his feet and merged into the tide of remaining zombies. we burst through the office door. The side of the room was filled with wooden and metal spikes and any one who walked would be pegged or having their bodies ripped. As we moved into the room zombies got pinned by the spikes, making the flow of undead go down to single file. after going up another three flights of stairs. We all stopped in a grid lock. I could hear zombies a head hitting something wooden while the rest tried to pull our selves up the stairs. Topp grabbed a zombie who had half of her face burnt off grabbed the bone and pull her back so he could move up a single step. The half burnt zombie fell backwards, pushing the zombies back for a second. The banging stopped when a loud explosion and light. Zombies in front fell backwards down the stairs like Dominoes.
RAISE! FEED!
A moment later we were climbing back on to our feet and continued back up the stairs. Some fatally injured zombies were were trampled over, making soft crunching noise. When we made it to the top of the stairs, The door was was blown wide open and smoke hung in the air with bodies of zombies scattered around.
EAT!
The voice was much weaker now but our zombies knew what to do now and that was charge and lunge. We exited to the roof top in pairs, Topp walked out as the zombie in front of him head exploded in a reddish green mist. The man in the hunter jacket yelled at the boy to climb down as he aimed the the rifle at the next zombies.
Another bullet was fired but it missed Topp's head by a mere inch but it hit the zombie square in the mouth. Topp charged with a ghastly moan of anger as the man suddenly panicked and then kept firing wildly into Topp's chest. Each shot didn't even faze Topp as he ran with his hands out stretched. The old man cursed when Topp was closed and smacked Topp on the side of the head with the butt of the rifle, causing Topp stagger back a couple of steps. The world changed as Topp fell backwards and then downwards until a plastic loud smash and a memory plexiglass fell around us and then there was the thud and then silence.
A few seconds later a large truck roared to life with then drove off with music blaring "Back In Black" and cheering from the survivors.
----
Topp began to stir, he got up slowly and then stared at the hole.
Shit i thought, It's the bathroom all over again.
Saturday, July 27, 2013
Chapter Seven - Chhhanges!
Day 45,
My life has some what improved from sheer loneliness to tolerable ever since I am able to talk to other spirits. We had a new addition to our store, Melissa Day. Melissa had lurched into the store one afternoon, She was not in her store uniform but a yellow dress that was mostly covered in fresh blood and mud from the rain outside. Her hair looked like a rats nest and you can tell her corpse has been out sun for a some time. Looking at her skin, she been dead for twelve days so far, not as crusty as Topp.
What can I say about Melissa Day? She is 3 years younger than me, I'm 31, you do the math. She is a stick figure of girl who is a little shorter than me. She wears these geeky black glasses that look like that TV show Doctor Who wears but she a massive fan of the Television show, Star Gate. She such a fan that every year she would dresses up as one of the costumes during Halloween and she is a regular in comicon. We get a long very well since is very witty and is very fun to be with especially when I was just a full time sales specialist.
Before I go any further I do want to mention that we never did any thing, never kissed, never hugged, never hanged out outside of work, never had lunch together, we never sent each other texts, we never added each other as facebook friends etc. We just talked a lot during work when the days were very slow, which was often.
We did in talk about us once, just once. She talked about a fellow comicon male friend. She was telling me all the star wars customes he wore and how he is very clingy but they never clicked, Then she said that he is very jealous of any guy that talked to her and the other week, he had seen me and her once laughing about something. I replied "You told him I am married and we just friends right?" she paused that felt like a long time and then said "yes, I did and he got weird about it". And that was that.
Our silly conversations never changed until I was promoted to a store manager role. It became a Manager and employee relationship but right now things changed and I wanted to talk to Melissa.
It took two days before Topp was close enough for me to be able to touch her aura and let me communicate to her. She was like the rest of us, confused, lonely and horrified all at once. I did find from the others that she did talk to Jen and the Cashier and had calm down some. Is it bad for me to say I was happy to see her walk in? her being dead and not her being a live, safe from all of this? Yes but I didn't wish this on her.
I moved my ghost hand and touched part of the fumes of Mary that flickered around wildly. I spoke in a very calm voice, trying to control my volume of my voice "Hello, Melissa". She replied "oH, My GOd, BriAN?". I was able to only talk to her for three minutes before Melissa lurched off to the restrooms. She was still upset but more shocked how Topp jaw was busted and my ribs sticking out but she slowly warmed up to me as we talked.
The next day was the best day of my un-life, A mouse had appeared in the store. I noticed it running under the DVD racks and Topp instantly turned around and lurched after it. After ten minutes of my corpse trying to grab the mouse, it ran into the woman's rest room that was partially left open. Melissa was in there sitting on the stalls, like it was a chair when the mouse ran past Melissa's corpse feet. I told Melissa what was going on and before I knew it. Melissa's corpse and Topp was trying to grab the poor mouse. The mouse was able to hide in one of the locked stalls where a dead customer lay on the ground, making it difficult for the two zombies to grab the mouse. I was able to grab Melissa and after a brief conversation, We float through the wall into the the janitors closet so we didn't have to hear our zombies hunt. It was an hour before Topp had departed, it seemed Melissa's Zombie got the mouse since fresh blood on her lips as she walked off.
During the hunt we talked a lot, we pretended it was like the old days, joking around talking about nonsense then the spell broke and we told each other what happened and how we died. We talked about our fears and if we knew what was going on, she asked if we are in hell. I told her I don't know.
Melissa went quiet and said "I killed a man". I floated a little closer "No you didn't, you don't have any control over the thing. You are anchored to your corpse like the rest of us. Melissa continued "he was like 13 and he cried the whole time". I paused imagining what happened, the thing I dreaded Topp was going to do. I tried to change the path of the conversation "It's ok, you are here now, with Jennifer, me, even good old friendly Patch who give people candy and made wooden toys". She chuckled but it didn't break her spell. "Day was walking down the road, I saw him trying to sneak behind Day a few cars back, he was very quiet. When I saw him I wondered if was a live but i saw his tears and knew he had been running for a while now. Then Day just spun around and ran after him, the boy screamed and yelled and ran and threw a rock at me but he fell over and Day got him. She ate him alive. The screams..."
She went quiet a few minutes, I couldn't think of a response or what to say. This is when I felt the tug of Topp pulling me away leaving Melissa zombie to sit back down on her favorite toliet.I felt extreamly guilt and regret on my selfishness.
Days past and talking to other people is a pain in the undead ass. Imagine being tied down in a car and you are talking to some one on the cell/mobile phone and a guy was holding that phone. You have no control on how long you can talk to talk to someone before that guy holding the phone pulls it away from your ear.
It was day 51 when something changed, every zombie in the store heard the noise. It was AC/DC music blaring from across the street. We lurched out of my store towards the song I never heard of.
A bunch of people were on top of the walmart building, playing music drinking booze and dancing. There were a total of ten living survivors and what i could figure out they all had weapons. I can see a woman putting boxes on the ledge and was pulling out bottles with fabric and wa...blerrrcaa
Hundreds of voices enter my thoughts, I felt pulled different directions as I hear screams, yells as my undead merged into the crowd. I couldn't see from all the fumes off the bodies but before I knew what was going on my mind was lost.
We all watched in hunger wanting the meat,
"Help me!", "John, John are you here?"
we want to feast on their warm bodies,
"God why have you forsaken us?"
we are one,
"Any one can hear me?"
we are hungry we must feed,
"no, I am not dead, it's a mistake!"
we must feed.
"i want my daddy"
We must get inside,
"SOME ONE HELP US!"
we are m...
My mind reeled back as flames shot around us, then explosions. I suddenly realize that i can think again. Some how the flames had broken our connections. I turn around to see a bottom smashed on a zombie that was only a few feet away from Topp. The flaming zombie didn't even seem to be unfazed as it tried to push through the crowd to the door. The other zombies that were next to him burn as well but not as badly.
I can hear cheering from above but before I knew what was going on I was once again sucked back into the hive mind.
PUSH!
"I'M ON FIRE! HELP!"
PUSH!
"Some Body do something!"
PUSH!
"STOP IT, STOP, STOOOP!" "I CAN'T SEE"
PUSH!
The door finally caves in as hundreds of zombies finally pushed through the glass door. We poured in like it was black Friday into the store. There was a bunch of shopping cards stacked as a defensive wall.
Climb,
We all climbed over it, like salmon trying to go up stream. Some of the zombies got trampled over. We all filled the registers, we scattered across the store. looking for our pray only to find that the shelves were changed to build barriers. We did not care, we are hungry, we must feed!
My life has some what improved from sheer loneliness to tolerable ever since I am able to talk to other spirits. We had a new addition to our store, Melissa Day. Melissa had lurched into the store one afternoon, She was not in her store uniform but a yellow dress that was mostly covered in fresh blood and mud from the rain outside. Her hair looked like a rats nest and you can tell her corpse has been out sun for a some time. Looking at her skin, she been dead for twelve days so far, not as crusty as Topp.
What can I say about Melissa Day? She is 3 years younger than me, I'm 31, you do the math. She is a stick figure of girl who is a little shorter than me. She wears these geeky black glasses that look like that TV show Doctor Who wears but she a massive fan of the Television show, Star Gate. She such a fan that every year she would dresses up as one of the costumes during Halloween and she is a regular in comicon. We get a long very well since is very witty and is very fun to be with especially when I was just a full time sales specialist.
Before I go any further I do want to mention that we never did any thing, never kissed, never hugged, never hanged out outside of work, never had lunch together, we never sent each other texts, we never added each other as facebook friends etc. We just talked a lot during work when the days were very slow, which was often.
We did in talk about us once, just once. She talked about a fellow comicon male friend. She was telling me all the star wars customes he wore and how he is very clingy but they never clicked, Then she said that he is very jealous of any guy that talked to her and the other week, he had seen me and her once laughing about something. I replied "You told him I am married and we just friends right?" she paused that felt like a long time and then said "yes, I did and he got weird about it". And that was that.
Our silly conversations never changed until I was promoted to a store manager role. It became a Manager and employee relationship but right now things changed and I wanted to talk to Melissa.
It took two days before Topp was close enough for me to be able to touch her aura and let me communicate to her. She was like the rest of us, confused, lonely and horrified all at once. I did find from the others that she did talk to Jen and the Cashier and had calm down some. Is it bad for me to say I was happy to see her walk in? her being dead and not her being a live, safe from all of this? Yes but I didn't wish this on her.
I moved my ghost hand and touched part of the fumes of Mary that flickered around wildly. I spoke in a very calm voice, trying to control my volume of my voice "Hello, Melissa". She replied "oH, My GOd, BriAN?". I was able to only talk to her for three minutes before Melissa lurched off to the restrooms. She was still upset but more shocked how Topp jaw was busted and my ribs sticking out but she slowly warmed up to me as we talked.
The next day was the best day of my un-life, A mouse had appeared in the store. I noticed it running under the DVD racks and Topp instantly turned around and lurched after it. After ten minutes of my corpse trying to grab the mouse, it ran into the woman's rest room that was partially left open. Melissa was in there sitting on the stalls, like it was a chair when the mouse ran past Melissa's corpse feet. I told Melissa what was going on and before I knew it. Melissa's corpse and Topp was trying to grab the poor mouse. The mouse was able to hide in one of the locked stalls where a dead customer lay on the ground, making it difficult for the two zombies to grab the mouse. I was able to grab Melissa and after a brief conversation, We float through the wall into the the janitors closet so we didn't have to hear our zombies hunt. It was an hour before Topp had departed, it seemed Melissa's Zombie got the mouse since fresh blood on her lips as she walked off.
During the hunt we talked a lot, we pretended it was like the old days, joking around talking about nonsense then the spell broke and we told each other what happened and how we died. We talked about our fears and if we knew what was going on, she asked if we are in hell. I told her I don't know.
Melissa went quiet and said "I killed a man". I floated a little closer "No you didn't, you don't have any control over the thing. You are anchored to your corpse like the rest of us. Melissa continued "he was like 13 and he cried the whole time". I paused imagining what happened, the thing I dreaded Topp was going to do. I tried to change the path of the conversation "It's ok, you are here now, with Jennifer, me, even good old friendly Patch who give people candy and made wooden toys". She chuckled but it didn't break her spell. "Day was walking down the road, I saw him trying to sneak behind Day a few cars back, he was very quiet. When I saw him I wondered if was a live but i saw his tears and knew he had been running for a while now. Then Day just spun around and ran after him, the boy screamed and yelled and ran and threw a rock at me but he fell over and Day got him. She ate him alive. The screams..."
She went quiet a few minutes, I couldn't think of a response or what to say. This is when I felt the tug of Topp pulling me away leaving Melissa zombie to sit back down on her favorite toliet.I felt extreamly guilt and regret on my selfishness.
Days past and talking to other people is a pain in the undead ass. Imagine being tied down in a car and you are talking to some one on the cell/mobile phone and a guy was holding that phone. You have no control on how long you can talk to talk to someone before that guy holding the phone pulls it away from your ear.
It was day 51 when something changed, every zombie in the store heard the noise. It was AC/DC music blaring from across the street. We lurched out of my store towards the song I never heard of.
A bunch of people were on top of the walmart building, playing music drinking booze and dancing. There were a total of ten living survivors and what i could figure out they all had weapons. I can see a woman putting boxes on the ledge and was pulling out bottles with fabric and wa...blerrrcaa
Hundreds of voices enter my thoughts, I felt pulled different directions as I hear screams, yells as my undead merged into the crowd. I couldn't see from all the fumes off the bodies but before I knew what was going on my mind was lost.
We all watched in hunger wanting the meat,
"Help me!", "John, John are you here?"
we want to feast on their warm bodies,
"God why have you forsaken us?"
we are one,
"Any one can hear me?"
we are hungry we must feed,
"no, I am not dead, it's a mistake!"
we must feed.
"i want my daddy"
We must get inside,
"SOME ONE HELP US!"
we are m...
My mind reeled back as flames shot around us, then explosions. I suddenly realize that i can think again. Some how the flames had broken our connections. I turn around to see a bottom smashed on a zombie that was only a few feet away from Topp. The flaming zombie didn't even seem to be unfazed as it tried to push through the crowd to the door. The other zombies that were next to him burn as well but not as badly.
I can hear cheering from above but before I knew what was going on I was once again sucked back into the hive mind.
PUSH!
"I'M ON FIRE! HELP!"
PUSH!
"Some Body do something!"
PUSH!
"STOP IT, STOP, STOOOP!" "I CAN'T SEE"
PUSH!
The door finally caves in as hundreds of zombies finally pushed through the glass door. We poured in like it was black Friday into the store. There was a bunch of shopping cards stacked as a defensive wall.
Climb,
We all climbed over it, like salmon trying to go up stream. Some of the zombies got trampled over. We all filled the registers, we scattered across the store. looking for our pray only to find that the shelves were changed to build barriers. We did not care, we are hungry, we must feed!
Chapter 6, the report
Here we are, Just two guys hanging at my desk at work. Both dead and not
getting paid for it either, One sitting physically on my chair staring
over my half written report of Richard Longston and the other, myself,
is hovering around invisible near by.
At 6:00pm-ish to daylight, Topp walked into the warehouse, go up the stairs and then sits down and just stares at the report on my desk. He has been doing this routine for a few days now. One night when the moon light illuminated the room enough from the window, I watched Topp's eyes out of curiosity to see if his eyes are they are moving, like he was reading the report or something I don't know to be honest but he just stares at the report with his cloudy brown eyes, not blinking even once.
The report I was working on was about Richard. Richard had sold an expensive gaming laptop to an elderly customer who, in honest truth, didn't need it since all she was going to use it for was to go online to check her email once a month. She brought the laptop back the next day and told Richard that "It hurts my hands when I hold it", Which her being 85 years old and having to carry a bulky laptop that weighs over eight pounds can be a hassle for her. Richard being an little dip**** chimed in with "That's what she said" straight after the elderly woman made that comment. I had to spend the next two hours getting belittled by Richard's customer and I had to apologize constantly through the whole thing knowing I can not fire that little turd for it.
If you are a little more curious on why Richard was being written up and not terminated, It's very hard to get fired at my company, unless you are stealing from the customer or the company or fail to show up to work for a whole shift.
In order to get fired for being rude or being a jerk or sexual harassment, you verbal warning on the sales floor for a minute by your direct supervisor, then 5 minute verbal warning from your supervisor, then another 5 minute verbal warning by a manager, then a 15 minute verbal warning from the General manager, then a very stern email from the supervisor, then an informal write up from the manager, then a write up from the supervisor, then a write up from the manager, then you get a write up from the store General manager, then you get ANOTHER write up from the store general manager, then things get serious, the District manager comes and writes you up and then if you still acting up, you are terminated.
Sounds crazy huh? Well what if I tell you (In my best Morpheus impersonation) that the whole thing erases after 3 months. So by time it takes to terminate an employee they are back in the clear, which is Richard Longston's case.
I floated back to looking over my railing to see if any one comes back into the warehouse, which no one does, not even the undead inventory employee Carl, who seem to some what trapped in one of our display cabinets and seem happy to try not to escape.
---
I have had tried to experiment further with communicating with other fumes when Topp was making his rounds around the store. I had experimented with a cashier, Jenny. who stood loyally behind her register. Then one of the customers and then with the boy at the tablet displays again.
I soon had learned a few things. Calming the other specter is a must, other wise you have a hellish time trying to escape unless your corpse drags you away. When both fumes is calm and focus on making them selves visible, the visions become a mere background and you will able to talk on the same wave length. The best idea is if you are on a glass train with the TV playing in a background. The problem is if you get more than two people it makes it harder to focus and soon you all start dragged into each other and our fumes mingle until we are pulled away.
I also had learned if they are brain damaged, they have no fumes and can not be communicated with. I tried with Tom many times and no success. At first I thought he was ignoring me but this is Tom, the man who would talk to me every day. Tom wouldn't ignore me, especially if his corpse is following me around the store.
Able to talk to other specters almost makes this un-life worth living. Talking to each person I soon began to piece what happened with them.
-Jenny had called out to look after her boyfriend after he caught west black Nile virus that was spreading around from mosquitoes bites. The hospitable was maxed out and she stayed home. She told me she woke up one night and he was chewing on her thigh like a dog. she pushed him off and locked the door and called the police except it was an automated warning for people to head to the evacuation point. She rushed her car but then got jumped by two other zombies where they feasted her back. When a woke, she was watching her dead self in her underwear walking to work.
-Patch still being himself, no nonsense. Told me to go away and not tell me. I found out from Roy that he was attacked when he was in the bathroom in our store and died from a heart attack.
-Carl, came to work sick with the fever hide in the cage when the undead had walked into the store and attacking people. He said the fever got worse as he watched people running and screaming and pleading before he past out. That is all he remember.
-Joe, The boy at the Tablets. Told me his family car got into an accident near by and they were forced to flee to the safe zone. Except he got bitten on the ankle by a zombie crawling on the floor with no legs behind a car. He told me that his father looked back and then kept going. The boy said he climbed on top of a van for two days as zombies tried to grab and fest him before he died from the fever.
-Mary, Our newest store General Manager told me she was running the store when that every cell went off with a text that read that every person must head to the evac zone in middleton. She said a few minutes later a car crashed near by and a man cover in blood ran in the store screaming, before she knew it undead poured in, biting or eating the living. She said that her and 2 other employees locked themselves in the managers room. She said they were hoping help arrive, except one of them was bitten and turned during the night and attacked Mary who was a sleep near by. Mary said that uninfected employees opened the door and fled as she was being eaten a live.
The questions were the same when I spoke to them, Why did this happen, Is the hell or punishment, did I know if their loved ones are ok?
At 6:00pm-ish to daylight, Topp walked into the warehouse, go up the stairs and then sits down and just stares at the report on my desk. He has been doing this routine for a few days now. One night when the moon light illuminated the room enough from the window, I watched Topp's eyes out of curiosity to see if his eyes are they are moving, like he was reading the report or something I don't know to be honest but he just stares at the report with his cloudy brown eyes, not blinking even once.
The report I was working on was about Richard. Richard had sold an expensive gaming laptop to an elderly customer who, in honest truth, didn't need it since all she was going to use it for was to go online to check her email once a month. She brought the laptop back the next day and told Richard that "It hurts my hands when I hold it", Which her being 85 years old and having to carry a bulky laptop that weighs over eight pounds can be a hassle for her. Richard being an little dip**** chimed in with "That's what she said" straight after the elderly woman made that comment. I had to spend the next two hours getting belittled by Richard's customer and I had to apologize constantly through the whole thing knowing I can not fire that little turd for it.
If you are a little more curious on why Richard was being written up and not terminated, It's very hard to get fired at my company, unless you are stealing from the customer or the company or fail to show up to work for a whole shift.
In order to get fired for being rude or being a jerk or sexual harassment, you verbal warning on the sales floor for a minute by your direct supervisor, then 5 minute verbal warning from your supervisor, then another 5 minute verbal warning by a manager, then a 15 minute verbal warning from the General manager, then a very stern email from the supervisor, then an informal write up from the manager, then a write up from the supervisor, then a write up from the manager, then you get a write up from the store General manager, then you get ANOTHER write up from the store general manager, then things get serious, the District manager comes and writes you up and then if you still acting up, you are terminated.
Sounds crazy huh? Well what if I tell you (In my best Morpheus impersonation) that the whole thing erases after 3 months. So by time it takes to terminate an employee they are back in the clear, which is Richard Longston's case.
I floated back to looking over my railing to see if any one comes back into the warehouse, which no one does, not even the undead inventory employee Carl, who seem to some what trapped in one of our display cabinets and seem happy to try not to escape.
---
I have had tried to experiment further with communicating with other fumes when Topp was making his rounds around the store. I had experimented with a cashier, Jenny. who stood loyally behind her register. Then one of the customers and then with the boy at the tablet displays again.
I soon had learned a few things. Calming the other specter is a must, other wise you have a hellish time trying to escape unless your corpse drags you away. When both fumes is calm and focus on making them selves visible, the visions become a mere background and you will able to talk on the same wave length. The best idea is if you are on a glass train with the TV playing in a background. The problem is if you get more than two people it makes it harder to focus and soon you all start dragged into each other and our fumes mingle until we are pulled away.
I also had learned if they are brain damaged, they have no fumes and can not be communicated with. I tried with Tom many times and no success. At first I thought he was ignoring me but this is Tom, the man who would talk to me every day. Tom wouldn't ignore me, especially if his corpse is following me around the store.
Able to talk to other specters almost makes this un-life worth living. Talking to each person I soon began to piece what happened with them.
-Jenny had called out to look after her boyfriend after he caught west black Nile virus that was spreading around from mosquitoes bites. The hospitable was maxed out and she stayed home. She told me she woke up one night and he was chewing on her thigh like a dog. she pushed him off and locked the door and called the police except it was an automated warning for people to head to the evacuation point. She rushed her car but then got jumped by two other zombies where they feasted her back. When a woke, she was watching her dead self in her underwear walking to work.
-Patch still being himself, no nonsense. Told me to go away and not tell me. I found out from Roy that he was attacked when he was in the bathroom in our store and died from a heart attack.
-Carl, came to work sick with the fever hide in the cage when the undead had walked into the store and attacking people. He said the fever got worse as he watched people running and screaming and pleading before he past out. That is all he remember.
-Joe, The boy at the Tablets. Told me his family car got into an accident near by and they were forced to flee to the safe zone. Except he got bitten on the ankle by a zombie crawling on the floor with no legs behind a car. He told me that his father looked back and then kept going. The boy said he climbed on top of a van for two days as zombies tried to grab and fest him before he died from the fever.
-Mary, Our newest store General Manager told me she was running the store when that every cell went off with a text that read that every person must head to the evac zone in middleton. She said a few minutes later a car crashed near by and a man cover in blood ran in the store screaming, before she knew it undead poured in, biting or eating the living. She said that her and 2 other employees locked themselves in the managers room. She said they were hoping help arrive, except one of them was bitten and turned during the night and attacked Mary who was a sleep near by. Mary said that uninfected employees opened the door and fled as she was being eaten a live.
The questions were the same when I spoke to them, Why did this happen, Is the hell or punishment, did I know if their loved ones are ok?
Chapter five, Shopping
Day 35
My corpse stumbled around the store, walking past the living dead of former customers and employees with only light coming from the front of the store to help me see. I shambled past a mauled corpse of who i believe was Jose Evens, who worked in the car electronics department. At first I felt sad and then I was envy that he was dead and not trapped in his reanimated corpse like myself. It's hard to recognize Jose face since it was eaten off but i could see his name badge that is caked in blood that covered most the companies logo leaving "Electronics" barely visible.
I shambled past an elderly employee named "Patch" who sat at the appliance answer center with a permanent scowl on his face as he watched the other zombies moved past him. As if daring them to ask him for help with questions on a purchase on an appliance, just like he did when he was a live, except the bits of his face falling off.
I examined Patch's body since a turned over cart was giving Topp a hard time to let him past. Patch had bite marks on his neck, arm and he also was missing an ear. I imagined how died, Most likely he died sitting on that chair, refusing to give that chair up for any one.
By now you may be wondering what is my company name, Sadly it is called "Best Circuit Electronics", A small retail chain about 59 stores on the west coast. Each store varied in products, Most the stores are the same size and have the same products like mine, others are small tiny stores that sold cell phones. Then we had this unique trend store. Yeah that store got closed twice once after Nintendo Virtual Boy was released and then again when Zune came out.
Best Circuit Electronics was meant to be a joke. Our founder, Ted Anderson found the company in the middle 1990's. Ted was not a technology freak, heck his current main income was a company that made the plastic pieces that attached to peoples shoe laces. Ted Anderson's ancestor had invented and patterned it and became very rich when other companies stole the pattern for their sneakers
Ted was the type of guy who thought a radio had the same material as a nuclear bomb and once hired the actor Richard Dean Anderson, who played in the popular series MacGyver, to build one with 13 radios. That is the type of guy, I met Ted once. He walked in and threw quarters are customers by the hand fulls and then passed out in the General Managers officer for the rest of the day before being dragged gently by his body guards to his limo.
There are rumors on why Ted had decided to create and own a electronic retail store, one was all his friends were teasing him that he wasn't a CEO of his own electronic retail stores, the other rumor was that he was using the electronics company as way to launder money and the other was he was terrible poker player and wanted to get back at his Electronic Retail CEO poker buddies by stealing parts of the names of his buddies companies.
Our mascot, Terrible Terry, Is a Silkworm, dressed in a uniform with the motto "Eat That!". For many years we had customers showing up to our store thinking it was a restaurant.
We were doing terrible with terrible budget cuts, terrible ideas and oxymoron acronyms. We almost about to close until Ted Anderson had died from a freak skiing accident in the shower. His son took over and we did decent and was able to keep a float for all these years and out lasting Circuit City and Ultimate Electronics.
During my explanation, Topp had shuffled past the new release movies, stepped inside a torso of a dead body of an unknown customer that is rotting on the floor and then Topp finally stopped almost two inches away from a young freshly converted zombie, who was staring at the latest Tablet device on display. I noticed the fumes floating off the young zombie so I floated closer to the zombie, I was in a deep trance as I watched the flumes move as if alive, I raised my spectre hand to touch it but i briefly paused as i saw for a second a face formed for a second. I watched for a few more seconds marvelling the fumes as if i was a firebug watching the fire dance. Then I heard my counter part bag to turn around slowly, I quickly focused on my hand until I saw the outlines and touched the fumes.
"Help? Dad? Mom? Some one? Jessy? GOD?" the voice echo around me, it was a young boy, scared and he was terrified. I tried to pull back and i began to shout "let go" but it hold me firmly making me drawn into the fumes. The voice heard me shout and it talked fast and frantic "Hello? Hello? Is someone there, My name is Joe, Do you know what is going on, Am i dead? Can you help me? Is MY parents ok? " I could not reply as i was fighting the tug, Suddenly a burst of pictures and sounds of some one else view appeared in my vision but in a gray scale, a jumble of voices and pictures of tv shows, a girls skirt in a class room, driving a car picking up a backpack, smoking a cigarette. It was so over whelming until i felt my specter body being dragged away.
The voices died and so did the visions as i was being pulled down the isle. I spun around and saw Topp mindlessly walking to the front of the stores to the cashiers. For the first time, I was thankful that my corpse saved me.
My corpse stumbled around the store, walking past the living dead of former customers and employees with only light coming from the front of the store to help me see. I shambled past a mauled corpse of who i believe was Jose Evens, who worked in the car electronics department. At first I felt sad and then I was envy that he was dead and not trapped in his reanimated corpse like myself. It's hard to recognize Jose face since it was eaten off but i could see his name badge that is caked in blood that covered most the companies logo leaving "Electronics" barely visible.
I shambled past an elderly employee named "Patch" who sat at the appliance answer center with a permanent scowl on his face as he watched the other zombies moved past him. As if daring them to ask him for help with questions on a purchase on an appliance, just like he did when he was a live, except the bits of his face falling off.
I examined Patch's body since a turned over cart was giving Topp a hard time to let him past. Patch had bite marks on his neck, arm and he also was missing an ear. I imagined how died, Most likely he died sitting on that chair, refusing to give that chair up for any one.
By now you may be wondering what is my company name, Sadly it is called "Best Circuit Electronics", A small retail chain about 59 stores on the west coast. Each store varied in products, Most the stores are the same size and have the same products like mine, others are small tiny stores that sold cell phones. Then we had this unique trend store. Yeah that store got closed twice once after Nintendo Virtual Boy was released and then again when Zune came out.
Best Circuit Electronics was meant to be a joke. Our founder, Ted Anderson found the company in the middle 1990's. Ted was not a technology freak, heck his current main income was a company that made the plastic pieces that attached to peoples shoe laces. Ted Anderson's ancestor had invented and patterned it and became very rich when other companies stole the pattern for their sneakers
Ted was the type of guy who thought a radio had the same material as a nuclear bomb and once hired the actor Richard Dean Anderson, who played in the popular series MacGyver, to build one with 13 radios. That is the type of guy, I met Ted once. He walked in and threw quarters are customers by the hand fulls and then passed out in the General Managers officer for the rest of the day before being dragged gently by his body guards to his limo.
There are rumors on why Ted had decided to create and own a electronic retail store, one was all his friends were teasing him that he wasn't a CEO of his own electronic retail stores, the other rumor was that he was using the electronics company as way to launder money and the other was he was terrible poker player and wanted to get back at his Electronic Retail CEO poker buddies by stealing parts of the names of his buddies companies.
Our mascot, Terrible Terry, Is a Silkworm, dressed in a uniform with the motto "Eat That!". For many years we had customers showing up to our store thinking it was a restaurant.
We were doing terrible with terrible budget cuts, terrible ideas and oxymoron acronyms. We almost about to close until Ted Anderson had died from a freak skiing accident in the shower. His son took over and we did decent and was able to keep a float for all these years and out lasting Circuit City and Ultimate Electronics.
During my explanation, Topp had shuffled past the new release movies, stepped inside a torso of a dead body of an unknown customer that is rotting on the floor and then Topp finally stopped almost two inches away from a young freshly converted zombie, who was staring at the latest Tablet device on display. I noticed the fumes floating off the young zombie so I floated closer to the zombie, I was in a deep trance as I watched the flumes move as if alive, I raised my spectre hand to touch it but i briefly paused as i saw for a second a face formed for a second. I watched for a few more seconds marvelling the fumes as if i was a firebug watching the fire dance. Then I heard my counter part bag to turn around slowly, I quickly focused on my hand until I saw the outlines and touched the fumes.
"Help? Dad? Mom? Some one? Jessy? GOD?" the voice echo around me, it was a young boy, scared and he was terrified. I tried to pull back and i began to shout "let go" but it hold me firmly making me drawn into the fumes. The voice heard me shout and it talked fast and frantic "Hello? Hello? Is someone there, My name is Joe, Do you know what is going on, Am i dead? Can you help me? Is MY parents ok? " I could not reply as i was fighting the tug, Suddenly a burst of pictures and sounds of some one else view appeared in my vision but in a gray scale, a jumble of voices and pictures of tv shows, a girls skirt in a class room, driving a car picking up a backpack, smoking a cigarette. It was so over whelming until i felt my specter body being dragged away.
The voices died and so did the visions as i was being pulled down the isle. I spun around and saw Topp mindlessly walking to the front of the stores to the cashiers. For the first time, I was thankful that my corpse saved me.
Chapter Four, Do I get paid?
In my previous life, getting to work was no major deal for me.
The average time for me to arrive to work by car was about 25 minutes.
When my car broke down and I had borrowed my neighbors bicycle, it took me roughly 50 minutes to get to work.Once I had to walk to work, it had took me an hour and a half to get there.
Being undead, it took Todd two days to get to work. I personally didn't want to go to work, it is on the bottom of my list but here is my brain dead self, slowly shuffling to work like a man on a mission.
Being outside is a big plus compared to being trapped bathroom for couple of weeks. Here at least I can watch the world go by, unlike my bathroom where I spent my time singing, saying why me, talking Topp, and trying to move objects with my mind like that movie Ghost that my wife had made me watch once.
The things that I had seen along the way was a lot of empty buildings, a few up turned cars, some dried blood on the road. Nothing too exciting, oh, I did see a few birds fly over us, which made Topp stop to stare at them but then continued moving. I also saw a few zombies, One was staring inside a house window, one was ran over but was dragging it's upper torso along the road with it remaining arm in the same direction that Topp was also heading. The last one, was standing on top of a gas station with the same blank stare as Topp. It watched it as we shuffled past, I wondered how it managed to get on top for I never seen a ladder that could get you up there.
My concern during our journey was what would i do if Todd get's his hands on another human. Knowing I have no control over him and not able to warn any one makes an idol witness, Sure I could look away but i can't cover my ears. The thought of listening to screams of pain and pleas shiver me to my specter core and this was in my thoughts for the remaining time until I saw my store for a distance and then the large crowd all around the mall across the street.
As we got closer, I could hear the buzz of noises coming from the undead crowd. Disturbing noises like chattering teeth, moaning, foot steps but that didn't scare me, it was the fumes that were bouncing off each other like they were all covered in gasoline moving from body to body in the faint outline like myself. Thank fully, Todd didn't seem to be interested in joining the crowd and went to my store.
Todd moved to the entrance where I saw a familiar face standing at the door way. It was Tom, "The void" we use to called him, as in If you talk to him he suck you in, talking about his favourite tv shows like buffy the vampire slayer and battle star galatica, Not the new one, the old one because the old one was WAY better for some reason.
Tom is not a bad guy, he just a guy in his early 60s, his wife had died from breast cancer and he is on back disability and from my observations, he is very lonely and have no friends or relatives. He always wore his old navy hat and his gray smoking jacket and blue jeans. Every morning he would wait for the store to open, shop around and if he didn't find any thing interesting he would then follow a manager or supervisior around for 3 hours then go to the book store next door.
Tom looked different then I had seen him, a part from being a zombie and missing his navy hat, the side of his face looked chewed off and I can see part of his brain leaking from his opened skull. Tom ignored Todd and stared at the doors. I watched as Todd stood near the exit door that was left open and stood there, staring in.
I floated around Todd and Tom, studying the situation and until I noticed Tom's wrist watch and took a look. It was almost 10:00am, That is when the store opens for the day. Todd shuffled in and then Tom followed.
As I walked in the gloomy dark store I noticed a few other undead but they seem to be busy, either sitting on the chairs or walking through the movie isle. None seem to take interest. Tom loyally followed Todd down the race track (we call it a race track by the tile pattern the divides our departments apart) to the back of the warehouse.
Todd pushed the door open and Tom stopped at the door. I watched Tom stood there, watching us through the window. I swung my attention to Todd as the invisible rope dragged me on. Todd slowly walked up the stairs, turn around the corner and then sat heavily at my desk.
The average time for me to arrive to work by car was about 25 minutes.
When my car broke down and I had borrowed my neighbors bicycle, it took me roughly 50 minutes to get to work.Once I had to walk to work, it had took me an hour and a half to get there.
Being undead, it took Todd two days to get to work. I personally didn't want to go to work, it is on the bottom of my list but here is my brain dead self, slowly shuffling to work like a man on a mission.
Being outside is a big plus compared to being trapped bathroom for couple of weeks. Here at least I can watch the world go by, unlike my bathroom where I spent my time singing, saying why me, talking Topp, and trying to move objects with my mind like that movie Ghost that my wife had made me watch once.
The things that I had seen along the way was a lot of empty buildings, a few up turned cars, some dried blood on the road. Nothing too exciting, oh, I did see a few birds fly over us, which made Topp stop to stare at them but then continued moving. I also saw a few zombies, One was staring inside a house window, one was ran over but was dragging it's upper torso along the road with it remaining arm in the same direction that Topp was also heading. The last one, was standing on top of a gas station with the same blank stare as Topp. It watched it as we shuffled past, I wondered how it managed to get on top for I never seen a ladder that could get you up there.
My concern during our journey was what would i do if Todd get's his hands on another human. Knowing I have no control over him and not able to warn any one makes an idol witness, Sure I could look away but i can't cover my ears. The thought of listening to screams of pain and pleas shiver me to my specter core and this was in my thoughts for the remaining time until I saw my store for a distance and then the large crowd all around the mall across the street.
As we got closer, I could hear the buzz of noises coming from the undead crowd. Disturbing noises like chattering teeth, moaning, foot steps but that didn't scare me, it was the fumes that were bouncing off each other like they were all covered in gasoline moving from body to body in the faint outline like myself. Thank fully, Todd didn't seem to be interested in joining the crowd and went to my store.
Todd moved to the entrance where I saw a familiar face standing at the door way. It was Tom, "The void" we use to called him, as in If you talk to him he suck you in, talking about his favourite tv shows like buffy the vampire slayer and battle star galatica, Not the new one, the old one because the old one was WAY better for some reason.
Tom is not a bad guy, he just a guy in his early 60s, his wife had died from breast cancer and he is on back disability and from my observations, he is very lonely and have no friends or relatives. He always wore his old navy hat and his gray smoking jacket and blue jeans. Every morning he would wait for the store to open, shop around and if he didn't find any thing interesting he would then follow a manager or supervisior around for 3 hours then go to the book store next door.
Tom looked different then I had seen him, a part from being a zombie and missing his navy hat, the side of his face looked chewed off and I can see part of his brain leaking from his opened skull. Tom ignored Todd and stared at the doors. I watched as Todd stood near the exit door that was left open and stood there, staring in.
I floated around Todd and Tom, studying the situation and until I noticed Tom's wrist watch and took a look. It was almost 10:00am, That is when the store opens for the day. Todd shuffled in and then Tom followed.
As I walked in the gloomy dark store I noticed a few other undead but they seem to be busy, either sitting on the chairs or walking through the movie isle. None seem to take interest. Tom loyally followed Todd down the race track (we call it a race track by the tile pattern the divides our departments apart) to the back of the warehouse.
Todd pushed the door open and Tom stopped at the door. I watched Tom stood there, watching us through the window. I swung my attention to Todd as the invisible rope dragged me on. Todd slowly walked up the stairs, turn around the corner and then sat heavily at my desk.
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