The Zombie Apocalypse Pond

“I think we should check the aquarium and see if the zombies have left,” Jared says.

I look at him sharply and say, “Are you kidding me? Have you already forgotten what happened yesterday? We nearly got killed by the horde we led into the aquarium, to take out those marauders.”

“I know, but the zombies at the aquarium are probably gone now and if we’re lucky they’ve left the fish behind. I’d hate to see those fish go to waste.”

“You’re always thinking with your stomach,” I grumble.

“Got to eat. Don’t do that and you can’t think. Besides we’ve got to plan for some diversity in our diets.”

“We’ve got plenty of diversity right here, Jared! You’re going to get us killed!”

“Honey, I appreciate the food we’ve got, but it won’t last forever. If we catch some fish, we can put them in the pond near us, and they’ll become another source of food for us to eat.”

He’s got a point. I wish he didn’t have that point, because it means we’re about to go on another misadventure, but in the zombie apocalypse you can’t rely upon such things as grocery stores, because they go out the window when zombies start attacking.

I sigh and say, “Alright Jared, I’ll get the car started and we’ll scope the aquarium out. If there’s even a hint of zombies though, we’re out of there.”

Jared whoops and goes to get the guns, while I go get the car warmed up. He’s like a little kid at a candy shop. Let’s just hope this candy shop doesn’t have any surprises.

We get into the car and I’m initially tense, expecting the zombie horde to jump out and swamp us, but as I continue driving nothing happens. I loosen my shoulders a bit and take a deep breath. Maybe the zombies are gone. Maybe we can get the fish we need and go back to our home.

We reach the aquarium parking lot and I look around anxiously. There’s no zombie horde waiting to attack us. There’s no marauders either, but that’s no surprise. They’re probably dead or have become zombies. Either way they’re gone.

I park the car and look over at Jared.

“I’m staying here and keeping the car running. You go and scout the place. If you see zombies, run for it and hope that I stick around long enough to pick you up. If I see them hot on your heels, you might be running all the way home. Are we clear?”

Jared soberly looks at me, and says, “Yes ma’am.”

I nod and then he gets out of the car and grabs a shotgun from the back seat. He casually loads up it and then walks toward the aquarium, keeping a careful eye out. I look around but don’t see any movement. I want to relax, but the fact is that you can’t relax when you’re dealing with a zombie apocalypse. Even at home, I find it hard to relax. There’s nowhere that’s safe anymore.

Jared goes into the aquarium and I wait. The time seems to go by slowly. What is taking him so long? Did he encounter zombies? Is he a zombie now or lunch?

He finally comes out and I breathe a sigh of relief. He waves at me and I turn off the car, and get out, carefully looking around, but nope, there’s no zombies.

“You didn’t see anything?” I ask as I walk toward Jared.

Jared shrugs and nonchantly says, “Corpses and I made sure they were corpses. I don’t think those marauders had a chance to become zombies. But the zombies are gone. So let’s get in to the pond that’s in the middle. It should be thawed out, I imagine and we can get some of the fish.”

“Yea, let’s do this and get out of here. This place is creeping me out.”

We walk into the aquarium. It looks like a storm has blown through here. I see a couple of corpses or really more like the torn up remains of the dead marauders. They look like a pack of dogs went through them and tore them apart. A horde of zombies is just like that and I feel sick, imagining teeth tearing at my skin, hands ripping limbs apart. That’s not the way I want to go.

“Jared,” I hoarsely say, “if it ever comes down to it, I want you to shoot me before zombies can eat me.”

“Uhh yeah, Sue, I will,” Jared quietly says and then pats me on the shoulder.

We arrive in the middle of the aquarium. There’s the pond of water, thawed out now and in its depths I can see fish swimming around.

“So, uh, how are we going to catch these fish? You didn’t bring a fishing rod, and neither did I.”

“They got nets here we can use to capture them and we can put them into tanks of water and take them with us. I spotted a cart with some tanks, so I’ll bring it over and we can get busy.”

“Sounds good, hon,” I absently reply.

Jared goes over to the cart, while I stand by the pond, looking in the water. I figure we’ll have to wade in there, unless we’re really lucky and that makes me uneasy. What if a zombie pops out and attacks us while we’re in the water?

I look over at Jared. He’s got two tanks on the cart and he’s grabbing a third one.

“How many of those do you think we need? Just put that last one on and let’s get out of here!”

“You could help,” Jared points out.

“I’m helping by guarding the pond and you,” I retort.

Jared grunts in response and drives the cart over carefully. Then he throws me a net.

“Now you can help me catch some fish.”

“Alright, let’s do this and get out of here before the zombies come back.”

I push my net into the water and scoop, but the fish swim away quickly before I can capture them.

“Dammit!”

Jared calmly dips his net in and lets it settle for a minute and then he quickly scoops it up and gets some fish in the process.

“You’ve got to relax Sue. They know when you’re anxious. If you relax, you’ll catch more fish.”

“I can’t relax when there could be zombies nearby. How can you relax?”

Jared considers that question for a moment and then answers me.

“I don’t have control over the zombies, Sue. I don’t have control over you or much of anything else. But I do have control over myself and how I respond to a situation. That’s the one thing I’ve got and I can either react or I can relax and take things as they come.”

“That sounds great and very new agey, Jared! Have you been listening to the Secret again?!” I sarcastically ask.

“No! I just think it isn’t that useful to worry about things you don’t have control over.”

“I get that we don’t have control over the zombies, but we certainly have control over the choices we’re making. We’re here because of your belly. You could have chosen to make a different choice, but we’re risking our lives because you want fresh fish!”

“You’ll thank me when we have some of that fish for dinner tonight.”

I shake my head and then slip the net in, dipping it into the water. It brushes against something and then suddenly it’s almost yanked from my hand. I catch myself and pull the net handle back. I yank and yank and the net won’t come back.

“Jared!”

“What the hell is happening?”

“I don’t know! Come help me.”

He drops his net and rushes over to me and grabs the handle and starts pulling on it.

“It must be caught on something!”

We both pull and then suddenly the net is yanked again and it flies out of our hands.

“If it’s caught on something, that something is pulling hard on it,” I huff out.

Suddenly the net rises up out of the water and along with it comes a zombie, but one unlike any we’ve seen before. Your typical cannibal zombie looks all skin and bones and although it moves fast, you can tell that the metabolism is through the roof. This zombie on the other hand is well muscled and looks like it could break either of us in half with one hand.

“What is it?” I ask in hushed tones.

“I don’t know but we better get out of here.”

“How could it stay in the water that long?”

“I don’t know and I don’t care, Sue!” Jared frantically replies. He’s pushed himself up, off the floor and he’s got a defiant look on his face. He grabs his pistol and shoots the super zombie, but the zombie doesn’t fall over like the other ones do. It’s made of sterner stuff and it seems to shrug the bullets off, like a duck sheds water from its feathers.

I push myself up and grab the shotgun I brought with me. I point it at the zombie and it casually reaches out and plucks the gun from my hands, grabbing the barrel before I can do anything. I shriek and turn around and run toward the entrance. It probably would chase after me, but Jared keeps firing at it, and that’s enough to draw its attention away from me. I feel guilty for a moment, and then relieved. Better him than me. He insisted on coming back to the aquarium and now he’s reaping the reward for his foolishness.

Jared yells and it spurs me on to run faster. I fly out the front doors of the aquarium, not bothering to look around. I could care less at this point what’s around me. I just want to get to the car and get out of here. It’s survival of the fittest and right now I’m hoping I’m fit enough to get out in time.

I reach the car and fumble for the door. I don’t bother locking the door anymore because there’s no one around to steal the car anyway. I scoot into the driver seat and jam the keys in ignition. The car roars into life and I put in reverse and back out of the parking spot.

“Sue, don’t leave me!” Jared yells.

He’s running out of the aquarium. For a moment, I’m tempted to just drive away. He’s causing me nothing but trouble lately, it seems, but I know that’s just the adrenaline talking. The fact is, I don’t want to try and survive the zombie apocalypse alone, even if my husband is a bonehead.

“Get in the damn car!”

Behind Jared comes that super zombie. I see a few fresh bloody holes, but it doesn’t look like the bullets have slowed it down much.

“Jump onto the roof and hang on for dear life,” I say.

Jared pumps his legs and arms and then jumps onto the car and I hit the gas. He’d better hope I don’t have to this the brakes or he’ll go flying.

“Suuuueeeee, don’t leave me,” Jared wails.

I ignore him and hit the gas pedal. The super zombie is walking toward us, but as soon as I hit the grass, it breaks into a run. I drive the car and do my best not to let my fear get the best of me. If this super zombie grabs our car, I’m done for, and so is Jared.

We slowly get a bit of distance from the super zombie. It follows us for a little bit and then abruptly stops and turns around, heading back to the aquarium. I keep driving for a few minutes just to be safe, with Jared holding on haphazardly to the car. Then I let my foot off the gas pedal and let the car coast for a bit, before slowing it down further with the brake. I bring it to stop and Jared slides off the roof, panting.

“Get in the car,” I say

“G-give me a mo-moment,” Jared huffs out.

“Get in the damn car, Jared, so we can go home. Oh and Jared, no more trips to the damn aquarium. You can just be happy we’ve got the food we have.”

Jared wearily opens the passenger door and collapses into seat.

“I hear you, Sue. I hear you.”

To be continued...

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