The Zombie Apocalypse Aquarium

“I have an idea on where we can get some additional food sources,” Jared says. He’s been worrying today about our food situation, because the simple reality is we can’t go to the grocery store much longer before the food there will go bad.

What’s your idea?” I ask.

“I think we should visit the aquarium. I know we don’t want to do anymore road trips, but the simple fact is we need to additional sources of food that we can take care of, and also use.”

“I get that, but why the aquarium?”

“There’s fish there,” Jared says in a tone of voice that asks why I’m not seeing what he sees.

“Yes there’s fish there, but it’s not like we have a pond or an ocean we can plop them into. Some of those fish won’t survive in fresh water and even with the ones that will, we don’t exactly have a river or pond nearby.”

“I was actually thinking we could leave the fish where they are and just go the aquarium every few days and feed them, and also catch some,” Jared says with quiet dignity.

“Do you know what they need to eat?” I ask.

“I do, actually. I don’t know if you recall, but I had been reading up on and studying the different fish at the aquarium, for my big fishing trip.”

“I did forget that, actually, but now that you mention it, that was supposed to be happening soon, wasn’t it?”

“Not anymore,” Jared sighs.

“Yes, not anymore, but at least we can still put that knowledge of yours to work,” I practically say.

Jared nods and we get ready and head out to the car. I really don’t want to drive around in the zombie apocalypse, especially after dealing with the zombull, but sometimes you don’t get a choice. Jared is right that we need to think about additional sources of food.

We take a right out of the driveway and drive for about four miles and there’s the aquarium on the right. There are still cars parked in the parking lot, which makes me hope that perhaps there are people here. Then again we saw cars in town and the only people I saw there were the cannibal zombies.

I park the car in an available spot and then pull out a shotgun and a pistol. Jared has one of the semi-assault rifles and another pistol. We’re both loaded and as ready as we can be for whatever comes our way.

We walk to the front door of the aquarium and Jared casually nudges it open with his hand. We carefully walk inside and wait for a few moments, but there’s no pitter patter hungry zombie feet to greet us.

“Where do we go now?” I hiss at Jared.

“There’s a freshwater pond with fish in the center of the aquarium. Let’s go there first.”

We walk past a tank and for a moment I pause as I watch a couple of great white sharks gracefully swim in the water. They move effortlessly and in a way I envy them.

“What are we going to do with them?” I ask.

“We can’t eat them, but I’ll still feed them. There’s no reason for them to go hungry, if we can help it.”

We continue past the shark tank to double doors that lead to the freshwater pond, which is outside in a little courtyard. And that’s when we see what is another oddity. The freshwater pond is frozen. It’s the middle of the summer, but somehow that pond is frozen. Jared cries out and rushes to the pond. He starts stomping on the ice, but it’s thick.

“This isn’t good,” he moans.

“It’s weird, but why isn’t it good?”

“The fish are likely dead or if they aren’t they’re deep in the pond, in whatever water hasn’t frozen.”

“How do you think the pond got frozen? Its 85 degrees out.”

“I don’t know,” Jared frustratedly says.

“I can tell you,” another voice says. I jump, surprised to hear another voice that isn’t yelling for my flesh.

A woman, dressed in an aquarium uniform walks toward us. She’s got a gun pointed at us.

“What are you two doing here?”

“We came to fish,” Jared says. “And to feed the fish. We didn’t think there was anyone else that was still human.”

The woman chuckles uncomfortably and says, “There are still some people around. Some are even friendly. The rest are people trying to take what doesn’t belong to them. And of course there are the zombies. You’re here to fish, but the fish aren’t available for you. I’m going to ask you to leave, but I want you to know I have three other people with guns trained on you right now, and more nearby if I need them.”

“Miss, we don’t want any trouble,” Jared carefully says. “Would you be open to trading for the fish?”

“That’s an interesting question. What do you have to trade?”

“I could trade you some of our crops or seeds. You’ll want to have a well-rounded diet, just like we do, so you can stay healthy during the zombie apocalypse.”

“That’s an interesting point you make sir. We might be open to trading, but not here.”

“Jared, let’s just leave,” I say.

He ignores me and asks, “Then where?”

The woman gives us both a curt smile and says, “Tell me where your farm is and we’ll meet you there.”

“I don’t think we can do that miss,” Jared says. “I’m happy to meet you somewhere else, but it can’t be at our farm, any more than it can be here, it seems.”

The woman bares her teeth at us and raises her pistol to fire. I shoot my pistol and the bullet misses, but it causes the woman to flinch.

“Let’s get out of here!” Jared yells and we run back through the double doors leading to the shark tank.

“Get them!” the woman howls from behind us.

We run past the shark tank and we’re back in the lobby. There’s two men with guns and machetes waiting for us.

“You’re not going anywhere,” one of them tells us.

Jared’s response is to mow both men down with his semi-assault rifle, taking them out in a spray of bullets. We pun past their dying, twitching bodies and head into the parking lot.

The car seems untouched, which makes me feel relieved. I get in the car and start it up while Jared keeps us covered. He gets in once the car is running and I peel out of the parking lot. Behind us I hear yelling and then a gun shot, but the bullet doesn’t hit us.

“For a moment there, I thought you were going to invite that crazy woman to our home,” I pant.

“No way. They froze a fish pond and there’s no telling what else they would do. About the only good thing from that encounter is that we know other people survived. Too bad we had to fight them.”

“We’ll still probably have to fight them. They know we’re living nearby, and they’ll come looking for us, because they’re going to want our food, guns, and everything else we’ve got. Damn it, I really don’t think we should be fighting each other, when we could be fighting zombies.”

“I know, Sue. I really hoped they would be open to trading, but they were off kilter.”

“So what do you think we should do, to prepare for them?”

“First see if they follow us, and maybe misdirect them,” Jared says.

“Misdirect them to where?”

“The orchard that’s near us. They don’t know who we are, so they won’t know for certain which farm is ours. We can see if they follow us. If they do, the orchard is a good place to fight them that isn’t our land.”

“Good plan, Jared. You’ve been thinking about this one for a bit,” I say.

“Unfortunately. I figured we might eventually encounter other people, though I wasn’t entirely sure on that score. Situations like this make people go crazy and I figured it would be a good idea to plan for that eventuality.”

I look in the rearview window. I see a glint of light further down the road. They’re following us, alright.

To be Continued…

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