Your Friendly Neighborhood Zombie, Pt. 2: Dr. Pepper

The power was out again. I shuffled down the hall to the basement door and pushed it open. The stairs were still wet and I fell down them. I landed on the concrete floor with a sickening thump. I made sure nothing was broken, and pulled myself over to the door. I grabbed the mace (Don't ever leave without some weapon) and left the house. The sun blinded me, and I shielded my eyes with my arm. I hobbled down the street to Mr. Calvin's place.

Mr. Calvin, one of the oldest men around, supplied most of houses in the neighborhood. with power. He used work for a power company before the outbreak in Georgia, and had a stockpile of generators. All of the houses still occupied by survivors got power from them, and them some. Mr. Calvin didn't bother to turn off the generators sometimes. And occasionally the generators got jammed and some houses lost power. I knocked on his door and looked around for any zombies. There were none.

I heard the door open and turned. Mr. Calvin stood there with an angry look on his face. He had white hair; or, at least what hair was left was white. His muddy overalls that he always wore were beginning to tear at the left shoulder. He never left his house; he was too old to actually kill any zombies.

"What' you want, younglin'? He asked in a gruff voice.

"Er, Mr. Calvin," I was still nervous around him even though I was 24. He was like the old man who yelled at kids who got on his lawn. Now he yelled at zombies who got on his lawn. "The power's out again."

"Well, the generators are out back. Go fix it. Ya' know how, Jakey."

I hated when he called me that. I was glad that he didn't have a wife to call me that and bake cookies for me. And I didn't know how to fix, but I wasn't going to disrespect him. He scared the crap out of me.

I hopped over his fence that he had bolted shut. The generators were all connected by extension cords, which in turn ran outside and down the street to each house. I checked them all to make sure that one hadn't been turned off (I didn't know which one was connected to my house) but none of them were. I scratched my head, and felt a mosquito in my short black hair. I flicked it off and continued to try and figure out how to fix the generators. I kicked some of them.

Then one of them started making loud bang noises among the constant whirring. I walked over to it and tipped it over. It just kept making banging noises... I thought about it exploding. I was out of the yard in 4 seconds flat. Mr. Calvin was on his porch, rocking in his rocking chair and sipping tea. No zombies were near.

"What now, sonny?" He asked when I came nearer.

"One of the generators is broken or something... It keeps making a banging noise."

"Well, stay away from it. 'Might explode."

I hoped not, especially if that was the generator to my house.

"Why don't you go inside and get yer'self a drink, Jakey?"

"Er, ok." He was rarely nice to me. Might as well savor the moment.

I walked inside the glass door and looked around. Photos from some time long ago of Mr. Calvin as a boy were all around. He must of lived on a farm, judging by the cows almost always present behind him.

I found his kitchen and opened his fridge. There was 2 gallons of tea, and a jug of milk. I saw some Dr. Pepper bottles at the bottom and grabbed one. I personally didn't like tea or milk.

I let myself out the side door to avoid Mr. Calvin, though I did call out 'Thanks' to him. The mace swung heavily at my side, and the cold soda was good. I had skipped breakfast to come investigate why the power was out.

I got closer to my house and saw through the window that the lights were on. The generator to my house must have come back on. I still hoped it wasn't the noise-maker.

While I was looking, a root looping out of the ground caught foot and brought me down crashing. I looked at the mace as I fell, but there was no time to move it out of the way of my leg. I waited for the pain.

The spikes drove into my left leg. Mr. Calvin was hard of hearing and nobody else was outside yet, but I yelled for help anyway. I felt warm blood staining my jeans. I slowly dislodged the mace from my leg, which hurt like crazy. But I still couldn't stand up. Apart from ripping my leg open, the fall had sprained my ankle. My left leg was completely useless. I couldn't move it.

I laid there on the ground for half an hour, groaning with pain. I had tried to claw my way across the grass, but when my leg moved at all it was speared with pain. I had to wait for someone to find me.

Then I heard a moaning from somewhere to my right. I looked up and saw a zombie stumbling towards me.

I swore under my breath and looked around for the mace. It was covered in blood and laid about 6 feet away from me. Too far to reach.

The zombie was getting closer. I wriggled around, but I knew I was dead. The demon was right over me.

Suddenly, my instinct kicked in and I chunked the half-filled Dr. Pepper bottle at him. It squared him in the face and staggered back a bit. The bottle fell back to me and I threw it at him again. I nailed him in the face again and he almost fell over. The soda rolled back to me, and this time the zombie did fall. He laid there on the ground near me and moaned and wriggled.

I continued to lay there for about another hour until one of the men in the neighborhood saw me. He helped me into my house and went back to kill the zombie. I laid on my couch and patched my leg up. I wasn't going to be leaving the house for quite a while now. I hoped I didn't run out of food.