Day 325 - Untitled Zombie Story Chapter 1.6 - (1,019 words)

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UNTITLED ZOMBIE STORY

By Wayne Webb

Chapter 1.6

“We could just leave them here to what… die? Fade away maybe? Do they do that or do they need assistance?” Derek was musing out loud to his brother.

Neither man felt a huge threat like they had in the past; it was a stunning transformation in the last few hours. This time the day before they had been hiding out on a rooftop and wondering how long before the undead ever moved on, if they had to risk a run for it and how they could get away.

Now less than a day later they stood feet away from the undead bodies, animatedly jostling each other for position but minus all aggression and violence. This was acceptably undead, as if they were reanimated as purposeless machines, milling about not evil or good, just in existence.

James took the opportunity to remind Derek of their differing opinions. “If we hadn’t been so quick to dismiss him we could have asked Ben.”

“Jesus James, give it a rest?” Derek was reacting a unfairly, James had mentioned the rift between them over the new people they met only the once.

James had no sympathy for him, as if Derek could honestly stake a claim to the aggrieved party in this situation? “Touchy much? Maybe you’ll not be such a hard ass next time? After all it’s not just you that has to live with the consequences.”

“Dick.” Derek didn’t want to argue the point; he still did not trust any one he just met who magically appeared with all the solutions to their problems like that. When they wanted to end and argument quickly they just resorted to insults, trading them back and forth like currency in a delicate dance of equity and dominance displays.

“We can make noise again? Do you reckon music will wind them up in this state?” James was ignoring the insult and not wanting to draw Derek into the devolved state where they would argue, then name call and finally fight it out.

He had grown up, even a little now.

“We could try setting fire to them now? They don’t want to go anywhere now and it’s a good test. They are in the middle of a square with, little to no risk of spreading the fire.  If they stay where they are?”

“Perfect.” Derek was happy to be finally doing something and even if meant wasting some of their resources on these meat puppets. He pulled his gun and walked to a nearby zombie and placed the gun at this head, pulling the trigger quickly, cleanly and leaping back out of the way, eating for the kidnapper’s call.

The brain exploded in a flash and a loud bang, taking out the side of the zombies head and letting the body now disconnected from the driver, taking a dive to the pavement.

The greying goop that sprayed outwards and on to the other zombies in the group made no visible effect on the rest f the assembled zombies. They kept walking and shuffling, tripping and stumbling to a non-existent beat they all heard in their heads.

The undead nearest the fallen corpse, the now inanimate one, just lay there in the way of anyone who walked past, which is all of them now. Some climbed over and some stepped on his body, but no one slowed down or attempted to signal for help in anyway.

The grey mess on the ground smelled rank and foul. They decided to go for  the fire option to see it burning clean the dead and dying animal machines that congregated near their new base. 

“You want to do the honors?” Derek was offering he position of first kill to his bother, to extend an olive brake to calm the storm crisis in the family.

“Thanks, you know it all depends on wind and light and if this thing even works?”

“Stop making excuses before you’ve even started, bitch!” Derek snapped playfully.

They spread the accelerant in a circle around the zombies, and then James was feeling a bit braver again, and so he doused the inner levels with petrol too, waling among them and presenting no threat to himself at all.

Derek stayed on the sidelines and he had the matches.

“Come on that should be enough right?” Derek waited until James was clear and lit a match. He stood with it for a while; contemplating the fate he had made for himself.

Then the fire was burning and burning bright, it light up the after noon cloud hiding the sun, but burning none the less. The fire leapt from zombie to zombie and within minutes the whole square was ablaze, the rotting flesh of the zombies was catching, burning and fueling the fire. The intensity of the flame was greater than expected and it burned fast and strong. There was no smell of cooking meat or roasting flesh like you would expect. Instead there was a sharp and sickly bite in the air, like when plastic was being burned down.

They moved away from the burning mob of bodies, the hundred or more human torches stayed in the range of the spike. Whatever signal it was that made it through to the undead, it could not have just been hearing, they were burning away the skin and flesh and still not moving, when the insides had cooked and decayed enough from the flame then the white bone skeletons fell to the ground in piles of un-cohesive bone. Nothing to hold them together, joints were burned away and obliterated by the flames.

They stayed where they were until the loose collection of bones and remaindered internal organs, now just lumps of black charcoal and stark in contrast to the flayed and exposed cleaned bones, fell victim to gravity’s will. The brothers looking on the whole time, staying close as they could bear without succumbing to the heat and the smell.

Then it was all over and the smoldering and licking flames were cleaning up the remainder of parts, but not one of them was moving or animated in anyway.