Apocalypse Life/Issue 35

Preview
“Just go for the head. Smash it as hard as you can.”

A man with short, dark hair and and a medium complexion taps the top of his forehead. The casual business attire he wore was a bit dirtied, from all the days he’s worn it.

A walker, the only walker, stands a small distance to his left. Its eyes were on a dark-skinned woman, a rusty, medium-sized shovel on her hands.

The man exchanges a few looks between her and the walker, before tapping his forehead again. “C’mon,” he says, clapping his hands to speed her up. “Before it gets too close.”

The woman gives him a few fretful looks and holds her shovel steady. That… that thing… what if it just throws the shovel off her hands? What if it just lunges at her and bites her?

The man gives her an inquisitive look at first, but upon notcing her look to be almost comical, he changes his expression to a smirk. He picked out this walker just for her. Its flesh is all decayed, at least one and a half of its eyes are missing… it was practically blind, and it moved very, very slowly. It was harmless. And yet, she isn’t even aware of that.

She just continues to stand there, in a near-tremble, her stance not faltering.

“Shannon!” someone shouts distantly, from behind her. It came from an elderly woman, silver hair salon-styled to the length of her neck, her hands cupped over her mouth. She was leaning against a thick, gray surface, with a wide garage door right next to her. “C’mon! Been standing here for hours and that thing’s still alive!”

The woman named Shannon tightly grips her shovel, and holds it up a little bit higher. She turns her head away, and closes her eyes.

“Shannon! Don’t take your eyes off of it!” the man yells. Shannon opens her eyes and shoots her head toward him, her expression a mix of distress and annoyance. The man nearly chuckles, but he manages to hold it off by covering his mouth.

“What?!” Shannon impatiently shouts; before she can scold him for his look of ridicule, she faces the walker yet again and goes back to where she started.

That mucky, ugly mess isn’t even making an effort to get closer to her. What does she have to do to finish this God-forsaken lesson? Be the one to approach it first? Just looking at the thing is a vehement task on its own.

“Shannon…” The man folds his arms and looks left and right. “How do you expect to get anything done if you don’t move from that spot?”

Yep. He really wants her to approach it. She contemplates it a bit. “If it finishes this damned lesson,” she tells herself. And yet that thing is just so… disgusting, repulsive. She’s seen enough of them in the past month, but for her to actually kill one? Out of the question.

She exchanges a few more glances between the man, and the walker. They could be twin brothers for all she cares…

She relaxes her stance. The man’s expression drops.

“Paul…” She shakes her head, and looks at his disappointed expression. She briefly looks at the shovel in her hands “I don’t think today’s the day.”

Shannon throws it at him, and the man named Paul catches it with ease. He pauses, looking at Shannon, then he shifts to the walker. A low-volume “Boooo!” could be heard from the background. It was obvious it came from the old woman.

Paul drags himself toward the walker, a bit disappointed. To think, she was finally going to kill her first walker today. Conquer her fear. He picked that particular one out for her. But nope. This isn’t the day. He sighs, then plants the shovel onto the walker’s forehead, causing it to fall. He then nonchalantly shoves the shovel directly onto its head, splitting it in half.

He turns to look at Shannon, who was watching him from a distance, hand covering her mouth. He walks toward her.

“Shannon…” He puts his arm around her shoulder, and together, they walk away. “This is like… the umpteenth day. If not today then… when?”

“I… don’t know. Just not today.” She shrugs, and tears off to meet the elderly woman.

“Sorry Ellen,” she tells her. “I know you were expecting a show.”

The woman named Ellen just smiles at her. “Hey, least you tried. You didn’t really do jack-shit, but... you tried.” Shannon gives her a somewhat unsure look, while Ellen just smirks at her, a bit reassuringly.

Ellen turns to look toward Paul, who were watching the two women. “Sorry, Paul!” she says.

Paul waves it off, and half-heartedly smiles. “It’s fine.” He watched as the two walk away, vanishing into the non-visible side of the building. There goes another day with no progress. He sighs one more time, and gets ready to dispose of the corpse by walking toward it. He had to drag it all the way to the pile, which pretty much wasn't in this area.

“If not today…” He looks at the shovel in his hand, and spins it around a few times. “Then when?”