Zombies Devoured The World

I never thought I would go cross country to save a friend from death, but it has happened. The world now is full of the living dead and I have to save a friend to save myself. There is no cure for this except death. I am not going to let her die. I am not going to die myself. I swore to her that I would protect her or die trying. I love her.

I don’t know how it started except one morning and it was all over the news. It started in Pittsburgh and worked its way down the east coast of the U.S. and then across the country. It traveled north to Canada, south to Mexico and South America, and even to Europe, Asia, Africa, and Australia. It spread everywhere like a virus. I had closed the accordion metal shutters to the house and made sure I stocked up on food at the supermarket, made sure the fridge and the freezer were full of food.

The military tried to stop them; it didn’t work. The soldiers became infected after being bitten and started turning on each other.

There is an old quote from an old comic book, Watchmen, that says it all. It is from the best character, in my opinion, in the comic: Rorschach. The quote is “The world will look up and shout "save us" and I'll whisper.......no.” I will not save the world, only her. She is my world, I will protect only her. I will only save her.

I then made the phone call to see if she was OK. She told me her daughters were fine but her husband was dead. He was attacked by a horde of zombies the day before. He died honorable, gun in his hand, firing as much as possible. She was crying but happy I was safe. I told her to board up the windows, make sure she had food and weapons. I would be there soon. How soon, I wasn’t sure. I had to make a few stops on the way. I packed some weapons with me, guns, and swords, but I needed more.

I drove to the closest Wal-Mart store, which is in Royal Palm Beach, Florida. I went in there with a baseball bat, a chainsaw, and a shotgun for protection. I found a few of the zombie shit’s walking around. I smacked one in the head with the baseball bat. I am so glad it was made of metal. Did you know that the sound of metal against a zombie skull makes the funniest sound? I made it to the shotguns and rifles. I broke the case and took all the guns out of the cases and all the shells. I hate guns but now they are necessary.

I then hit the Florida Turnpike and headed north, north towards Orlando. Two and a half hours later and my first stop was Epcot Center, the Japan Pavilion where I took all the swords and knives at the store there. Funny that there were no zombies there, then again it is part of the happiest place on Earth or it was. I miss those days when I had been able to have fun. I also grabbed a Mickey for her to make her smile. My Navigator drove up to I-75 north to Atlanta. The highway was dead, literally nothing on the road except broken down cars, trucks, motorcycles, and other vehicles.

Occasionally you will see an animal on the road, but you don’t go near them. Most of them are zombified and you can chance the fate of turning into one just from one bite of zombie flesh, even if it’s cooked. Your best bet, stick to what you know is safe, find a supermarket where you can cut cold cuts. Since most of the supermarkets down here run on generators, you are lucky enough to still get food. Just make sure it’s fresh.

I made it to Atlanta without running into any zombies, not bad for someone who has nothing to lose except for the love of his life. That was twelve hours after I left Wellington, Florida which is about twenty minutes away from West Palm Beach. I have to say this you have to love finding a Wal-Mart that still has weapons. I took as much as I could empty out the shells from under the counter. That was good because the store was full of zombies. I would say I found thirty and went through a whole box of shotgun shells.

I picked up some water and some Monster Assault. I needed something to keep me awake. Monster is the only energy drink to do that for me. Red Bull tastes like ass juice and I don’t like Full Throttle.

I didn’t want to stay in Atlanta too long, I knew it wasn’t safe. I kept on driving north on I-75. I called her again while I was on the road to make sure she was safe. She said she was. I asked her how much she had left for shells. She said she had about three hundred of each. I was glad but still worried about her. I told her I was just getting onto I-285 heading west towards her, towards Arkansas.

It got cold outside. I pulled on my black leather trench coat. The leather straps to hold some of the swords on my back are now concealed under the trench. The thick leather cuff to protect my neck rubbed against my neck, making me sweat. I don’t take that off in fear of getting bitten on the neck. My arms and legs are covered as well in thick leather. I have two police vests covering my chest and my back. They are bulletproof which I am happy about. I’m not going to let any of those bastards put a hole in my stomach. Black leather steel-toed boots cover my feet. On my chest is the symbol of the man of steel, Superman in silver, on the back, the symbol of the Punisher. My trench coat is studded with metal spikes on the arms for protection. Black leather gloves with spikes cover my hands. Protective goggles sit on my head to protect my eyes and a portion of the leather cuff can fold up to cover my mouth and nose. I do not want to get infected and become one of those zombie bastards, no matter what and I won’t let her either.

I kept on driving and I made it to Birmingham, Alabama. I felt myself falling asleep. I will sleep when I get there or when I’m dead. I drank my first Monster. That will last me about thirteen hours give or take. I just know I have to keep on driving. I will only stop to urinate now and I know I will have to within an hour.

Outside of Birmingham I saw a horde of zombies roaming the suburbs and on US -78. Well, I wouldn’t say there were hundreds but I would say about twenty or thirty were eating the remains of people that were not turned to zombies. I didn’t want to have them damage my car. It pisses me off when those ugly bastards touch it. I got out of the car and cocked a shotgun. I took out ten of them before they realized what was going on. They started running at me. I discarded the shotgun and pulled out two thirty-eight caliber automatics. I emptied both cartridges and dropped them. I lowered the goggles and pulled the cover over my mouth and nose. Now the fun began. I pulled out the two katana swords on my back. I realized I should have used red instead of black. Then I could be Deadpool instead of Blade. There were ten of the bastards left. Biting at me, slime dripping out of their mouths, their stench making me want to vomit. I started slicing them. One of their heads flew up in the air and hit another between the eyes. The mouth of the disembodied head bit onto the nose of the one it landed on. Even when you decapitate one of them, they live for a good thirty seconds to one minute. The only way to kill them it to really cut the brain open but decapitation is more fun since only the head is the only surviving part of the body.

I finish slicing and dicing the zombies. I find a towel in an abandoned car and wipe my swords clean. I have a little ritual that I must clean my katana swords before returning them to their sheaths. It’s honorable it’s what I was taught to do. I then sterilize them with rubbing alcohol I don’t want any zombie blood on them. I then start a fire and place the blades into the fire. The fire cleanses the blades until they are red hot. I then let them cool for five minutes and then head back on my way.

I call her as I leave to tell her I haven’t forgotten about her. She asks me what happened and I give her the shortened version. By this time, I’m getting tired again. I crack open another Monster and drink it. I ask her if she had everything she needed packed, she said yes. I tell her I will be there soon. Before hanging up, I tell her I love her. She tells me the same thing.

Most of the ride is just broken cars on the road. I find another Wal-Mart and stop off there. I walk in, surprised that the doors are still working I was ready to bash them open with a bat or something fun. I still carry a weapon because I didn’t see a soul on the streets. Since Wal-Mart is such a big store I can hide if there are too many and take them out one at a time if I run into any. This time I was lucky, the store was empty. I gather my snacks and go into the cooking area. I grab a few more knives, butcher, carving and steak knives. My sensei always said you can never have enough weapons. I then go and get a few shotguns and rifles and then grab some ammo. Out of curiosity I go to the music section and I find a copy of Chuck Mangione’s Greatest Hits on CD. I grab it and walk out with the rest of the food and weapons.

I head back to the car and hear something run at me. I turn around to see a teenage boy running at me, blood flowing from his mouth, part of his face decaying, festering, and gangrene. I grab a knife from my belt and throw it at his head. He stops dead in his tracks and falls to his knees and then falls face down on the ground. I unlock my Navigator, get in, and drive away. I don’t want to attract any more zombies.

I open the CD and put it in. The first song that comes up is Feels So Good. It’s one of my favorite songs but it also makes me sad because I know Chuck is dead. I speed along out of Mississippi and into Tennessee towards Memphis. I get onto I-240 and I see it. Memphis was on fire, the whole city burning. I couldn’t believe my eyes. I-240 gave me a nice view of the burning city. Smoke rose up from the center. I wasn’t going to even think of getting off to investigate. Time was short and I had to get to her house. I took the I-55 exit towards Little Rock. I couldn’t wait to get into Arkansas.

You’re probably thinking I didn’t stop off for gas throughout this trip, I did. I just didn’t want to bore you with boring details. All the gas stations were abandoned, closed or just empty. There were no zombies where I stopped off at. I would just go into the stores, set the pump, and then pump the gas. Of course, I would keep an eye out for something, anything. I would see window curtains open and close but nothing else. I think there were some people who were still alive but they were just as scared to leave in case they were attacked by the zombies.

The ride to Little Rock was fairly uneventful. I drove, stopped off for gas, grabbed some snacks, and called her. It was long and boring when I was not on the phone with her. My MP3 player even became boring and I have over twenty thousand songs on it. It is another perk of the five finger discount from Wal-Mart since they are abandoned. As I got to Little Rock, there were a few straggler zombies on the highway. I didn’t stop to kill them I just drove over them with the car. I didn’t mind except for the fact I had to wash off the blood. I hate the smell of blood but I really hate the smell of zombie blood. At least it was three fewer zombies I had to worry about. As I left Little Rock, I noticed there was a small pillar of smoke rising out of the center. I didn’t look back and I didn’t want to tell her. I called her and told her I was outside of Little Rock.

After driving the two hundred sixty-eight miles, I finally made it to I-540 towards Fayetteville. I called her and told her I had made it that far. She told me I was about forty-seven miles away from her house. I told her not to worry, I would be there soon, and that I loved her. I knew then life wouldn’t be the same.

I made it to Fayetteville and headed towards her house. A lot of the buildings had boards on their windows others had broken windows and looked like they were looted. I didn’t like the feeling I was getting as I drove through the town. My instincts were correct. As I drove towards her house, I saw them there. There had to be about thirty of those bastards outside her house, banging on the door and windows. I was about thirty feet away from her driveway and I stopped the Navigator. I armed and armored myself. I got out of the car and headed towards the zombies with the MP3 player attached to the radio. I put on my playlist for fight songs and blasted the music.

**

My younger daughter asked me while we were waiting for him to come and rescue us what the noise was outside. I listened and then looked out the window that only had a small sliver that was not covered by wood. I could not believe my eyes he was out there with swords cutting up those creatures. He sliced and diced them faster than I ever saw him move before. He was like a machine, never stopping, never-ending. He is doing this all for me, I thought. He promised to protect me but I never thought he would go this far.

I watched him take out the first five zombies without a problem. More started walking towards him. He sliced into one’s head and the sword stuck. He tugged on it several times and it wouldn’t pull out of the head. He still had another sword in his hand but I saw he didn’t want to lose that one for some reason. It had a white almost ivory handle on it. He pulled a small sword off of his side and started using that. It had a black and gold handle. He used it mainly for defense and close hand to hand combat but he beheaded a lot of them or took their jaws off with one slice. I never felt safer than with him there at that time.

They came closer to him, drawing them away from the house. I couldn’t believe how much danger he put himself in for me. He didn’t care about himself, only about my safety and my children’s safety. As they surrounded him, I saw him drop his swords and pull something new out of his pocket. They were claws attached to a small metal bar. He closed his hands around them and started slicing and punching. He reminded me of Wolverine in the X-Men movies. He once told me he would die for me, was that what he was doing? Was he going to die for me?

He took down the last three zombies and ran to the door. I heard banging on the door and I opened it. It was then that I noticed what he was wearing. I smiled because I didn’t expect him to be dressed like that.

“Who are you,” asked Rissa my youngest daughter.

He looked at her without taking off the mask. “I'm the Doctor. I'm a Time Lord. I'm from the planet Gallifrey in the constellation of Kasterborous. I'm 903 years old, and I'm the man who's gonna save your lives and all six billion people on the planet below. You got a problem with that?” he said to her. He then took off the mask. “Just kidding, it’s me, Marc. Come with me if you want to live.”

I walked over to him he put his arms around me and kissed me passionately. “I love you Tina”, he said to me after we stopped kissing.

“I love you too Marc. You kept your promise, didn’t you?”

“It won’t be kept until I get you out of here. Is everyone packed?”

“Yes, we just need to get Bre and Mikey out of bed.”

“Are they OK? Were they bitten?”

“No, Bre just isn’t feeling well. Her staph infection is almost over. Where is the car?”

“I parked it about thirty feet away from the driveway. I will go get it.” He left the house to get the car. I couldn’t believe he was here. I would be safe, my girls would be safe, Mikey would be safe. I was with him and I knew we would be safe together. I heard his car start and come up the driveway. He stopped it outside the garage. I had placed everyone’s stuff in there so it would be easier to load up the car. He opened the back hatch and I saw the back seat was up for someone to sit in the third row. He thought of everything, like always. This is how I know he loves me.

I saw him sit down for a minute. “Are you tired baby?”

“Exhausted, I drove here without sleeping. I didn’t want to leave you alone for much longer. I couldn’t sleep without knowing you were safe.”

“Bring the car into the garage and sleep here tonight. You look like you need a good night’s sleep and a hot shower.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes, just get some sleep and we will leave as soon as you wake up.” I bring him into the house through the garage and we close the door. We go into my bedroom and I bring him into the bathroom. He turns on the shower and strips. He then goes into the shower and starts to clean off the sweat. The last time I saw him we were in Orlando, Florida, now he is in my house, taking a shower in my bathroom. How things change.

He left the bathroom with a towel wrapped around him and opened a book bag. I see him take out a pair of shorts and a t-shirt. I notice how much weight he lost since seeing him last. His arms had built up though from the sword fighting. I could tell.

“Could I have a pillow and a blanket? I’m going to sleep on the couch.”

“No, you're not Mister! You’re sleeping here with me.” He looked at me with a surprised look. I led him to the bed and we both lay down. He puts his arms around me holding me, kissing me, and telling me he loves me. I turned over and told him to get some sleep that he will need it for tomorrow. A few minutes later, he was in a dead sleep and I fell asleep in his arms knowing I was safe. I always feel safe in his arms.

The next morning, I woke up noticing he was not in the bed with me. I called out his name and he replied he was in the kitchen. He made a pot of coffee and was cooking breakfast for me and the girls. I knew he could cook now he showed me it was true. We had a large selection of pancakes, French toast, bacon, orange juice, and home fries. We ate as much as we could, he and I shared most of the bacon and we fought over some of it too. We both love bacon. He put one in his mouth but left enough out for me to share it with him. As I bit the bacon out of his mouth, our lips touched. I looked into his eyes and said, “I love you.” He smiled and responded with the same thing.

“I hope everyone had their fill, we have a long ride to Florida, especially where we are going,” he said. “Let’s get in the car and get going.”

We head towards the car and as we drive away, I look at the house where I used to live and think to myself, I will never see this home again. I look towards the direction of where we are going and think to myself that I am going to be safe with him. We speed out of Fayetteville and we don’t look back.

***

The night before we left her house, I dreamed we were driving south, past West Palm Beach, past Miami, south to the Florida Keys. I took her to the beach, somewhere safe. We took over a house on the beach, it was warm. We were alone, no one else was there. We made love in the sand. I woke up early and made her and her family breakfast. I had loaded her luggage into the car by the time they woke up.

As we left Fayetteville, she looked at me and smiled. She then reached over to me and held my hand. It felt amazing to touch her again. Bre, Rissa and Mikey fell asleep while I was driving. Tina and I talked off and on. I let her sleep most of the ride because she looked exhausted. I stopped off at a Wal-Mart just for gas and to slip in to get a couple of Monsters. I woke her up when I went inside just in case, we needed to make a quick getaway. I picked up some more rifles and shotguns, shells, and bullets. I also grabbed a pair of rollerblades for myself and everyone just for fun. I also grabbed batteries and walkie talkies as a precautionary measure in case we get separated.

I left and came back to the car. Tina looked at me like I was crazy with all the stuff I brought back. Then when she realized what I took, she understood. We loaded everything in the car and drove off quickly. The ride back was longer. We had to stop off so that we could use the bathroom. Sometimes we had to break into houses just to go.

We made it to Birmingham at about midnight. We found a nice big house in the suburbs that looked like there was no damage at all to it. It was a two-story house with a giant gate out front. We pushed open the gate and drove in slowly. The front yard was empty. No cars, no people, no zombies, nothing. We picked the lock and went in.

“Wow, the inside is bigger than the outside,” exclaimed Bre. I sat down on the foyer steps and started laughing hard. “What’s so funny?”

“You said the biggest running gag in Doctor Who.”

“What do you mean?”

“Every time someone new comes into the T.A.R.D.I.S., the joke is ‘It’s bigger on the inside!’. Before you ask, the T.A.R.D.I.S. is the blue police box/time machine/spaceship that the Doctor uses to go through time and space.”

“Oh,” she says and looks around some more. The staircase wasn’t a normal staircase but one of those double staircases. It went in a circle around the foyer. The first floor was huge. The family room had to be about thirty feet by thirty-five feet, a gourmet kitchen, a twenty-foot by twenty-foot dining room, and the living room had to be about twenty feet by fifteen feet. There was also a den and a library. The garage was a four-car garage. There were four cars in the garage. Nothing that would take all four of us, they were all sports cars. I didn’t mention it to anyone since I know where I am going.

I then explored the upstairs. The master bedroom was huge. It had to be forty feet by forty feet. There was a California King bed against the far wall. I walk into the master bathroom. I couldn’t believe my eyes. All white marble floors and walls. No tile anywhere. There was a double walk-in shower and his and her sinks. The toilet was in a water closet.

Tina and I undressed and took a shower. After the shower, we went to bed. That night we made passionate love in the huge bed. Our lovemaking lasted for hours. After climaxing, we fell asleep in each other’s arms after saying we loved each other.

When I woke up the next morning, Tina was still lying naked next to me. I kissed her gently on the neck and she turned over to kiss me on the lips. She looked well-rested and I knew I was.

“Good morning beautiful,” I said to her. She smiled and kissed me again. I placed my hand on hers and our fingers interlocked. I got up, used the bathroom, and took a nice hot shower. Tina got up and did the same while I dressed. We went to wake up the kids an hour later. Bre and Mikey found a room with a queen-sized bed. Tina went in to wake them up and I went to find Rissa. She was sleeping in a room at the far end of the hallway. It had a full-sized bed but not much. I walked in and shook her shoulder. She woke up.

“What the fuck do you want?”

“It’s time to get up. It's noon and we have a long drive.”

“Shit, OK. Let me take a shower and get dressed.” I left the room and let her do what she needed. I was glad there was a bathroom in each bedroom, it made getting ready faster. I made a large pot of coffee for everyone which is funny since I don’t drink coffee. The one thing I hated about this trip was wearing that leather outfit but it was necessary for my protection and theirs. I strapped on the knives onto my legs and arms and carried the swords to the car. I pulled out some Tastee Cake Crumpets and brought them into the house for everyone to eat.

They all ate and we went back to the car. We started driving, not much happened for hours. Not until we made it right outside of Atlanta. I didn’t see them last time but now there had to be about thirty zombies on the road. I stopped the car and backed up a good one hundred feet so they could not see us. I got out of the car, strapped on my swords, and put my trench coat on. I was in full leather armor ready for action.

“I want you to get into the driver’s seat. When we get to about ten feet away, I want to you slam on the brakes, I will take care of the rest. I want everyone else to use the guns to take out the ones in front of the car. No one for any reason is to get out of the car until they are all on the ground not moving. Aim for the head or the neck, nowhere else.”

“No, you will be killed. What about your knee?” asked Tina. “Won’t you hurt it?”

“I’ll be fine, don’t worry about it,” I said as I climbed onto the roof of the Navigator. I felt the engine rev as she sped towards the zombie crowd. As the car stopped, I jumped off the roof right behind the zombie horde. I landed with both swords out and arms extended. It took the zombies a few seconds to realize that I was behind them because the noise of the car distracted them. I started swinging both swords before the first four zombies turned around. I felt like I was moving faster than lighting, not caring whether I was in danger or not, just to protect them.

I heard the guns fire as zombies fell down one by one. It helped the odds but still didn’t stop me from attacking them. I yelled out to the zombies to come to me and they saw me as their main prey. This made it easier for them to pick them off one by one easier. For every two that I chopped up, they took out four each. It came down to the last two which I decapitated without even thinking. Sword fighting was always a natural thing for me and I never felt like the swords were anything but an extension of my body. I made sure that all the fallen dead bodies were just dead and not the walking dead and then began to clean my weapons again.

****

I had never seen him clean his weapons before and I realized he was very anal-retentive about it. Sterilizing and then cauterizing them made it a lot safer just in case he accidentally cut himself he would be able to know he was safe from infection. I opened the window and made sure it was safe.

“Are you OK,” I asked. “Do you need help cleaning up?”

“I’m good,” he said. “I don’t need help cleaning up but if you want to get out of the car and walk around, you can. I’m not hurt.” He took off the arm armor and showed me his arms. I didn’t see any blood but I was more concerned for his knee. About six months earlier he had knee surgery and had his meniscus replaced. I wasn’t there for him but I should have been. He needed me and I couldn’t be there for him. He was always there for me, always and I knew he would be until the day he died. He has always been pushing the limit on things since the surgery, first not taking the painkillers, now risking his life to save me.

I walked over to him and put my arms around him. I kissed his neck. “You were amazing. I can’t believe you did that.”

“Thank you it was all for you, anything for you my love, anything and everything for you.”

I slapped him on the arm hard. I hurt my arm more than I hurt him at the time. “I never ever want you to risk your life for me like that ever again. I don’t care what promise you made to me, you are never to do anything that crazy again. Do you hear me? Never ever again are you to risk your life and do something that crazy ever again! You are not some comic book hero or mutant or The Doctor who can regenerate if your hurt or die, you need to take better care of yourself and you know it!”

He looked at me and smiled. “As you wish,” was all he said to me. I knew what that meant as well as he did. To me and to him it meant “I love you”. We walked back to the car and he placed the swords back into the back of the car along with the coat.

“That was awesome,” said Rissa. “How did you learn to do that?”

“Twelve years of karate and the urge to protect the one you love,” he said. He got into the driver’s seat and drove again. He didn’t say much on the ride, just drank his Monster. I could see he was upset over the fact he had to kill the way he did. He tried not to show it but I could tell. I can tell all of his facial expressions and I know him better than he knows himself just like he knows me better than I know myself at times. I wanted to just make him stop the car and just hold him. I wanted to kiss him, to tell him I loved him and never let him go but I let him drive. We made it to Florida around two A.M. I couldn’t believe it, I was in Florida again. He kept on driving until we made it to the south of Orlando. He got off of an exit and went west but I could not see where we were going because I was so tired. After about fifteen minutes of driving, he nudged me.

“Where are we,” I asked. I looked around and then I realized it. He had taken me to a place he had promised me since November. He took me to Disney World. It wasn’t the way I wanted to be there but we were there. He drove through the gates of the Magic Kingdom parking lot and went past it towards the Contemporary hotel. We actually drove past that and stopped where the buses should stop for the Magic Kingdom. We all got out of the car and followed him.

“Marc where are we going,” asked Mikey. “Why are we doing into the Magic Kingdom at this time of night?”

“Have you ever heard of the private suite in the castle?”

“No.”

“No.”

“No.”

“Yes,” I said.

“That is where we are going. We are going to spend the night in the Magic Kingdom and then some of the day as well.” We followed close to him through the entrance gate of the park. He opened the handicap entrance to the gate and walked right in and we followed. We stayed close together as we walked through the empty park. All he carried with him was a sword. He didn’t think we needed one but just in case he took one to be safe. We passed the candy store, passed all the other stores, and made it to the statue of Mickey in the middle of the square. Before us loomed the castle. The lights shone on it gently lighting up the towers. Marc stopped at the statue.

“Tomorrow you and I will come here alone. There is something I want to ask you privately. Can we come here after we wake up and get dressed?”

“Sure, we can.” He continued walking towards the castle to the left ramp. He opened up his bag and pulled out a flashlight. There he found a door that went into the right wall. We walked through the doorway and found an elevator there. He pushed the up arrow and the elevator opened. Inside the elevator it was amazing. There was a lush carpet with padded velvet walls and a brass railing. Bre pushed the button for the next level and the elevator went up.

The doors opened and we walked into the most beautiful living room ever. It was like walking into a palace. Well technically we were in a castle but it was like a dream come true. It was more than a hotel room it was a two-bedroom suite with a pullout couch. We explored the whole suite and I found the master bath to be amazing. The bathtub was able to fit not only me but if Marc wanted to join me, he could. He walked in and told me to strip. I did as he turned on the water for the bathtub and put some bubble bath in there. I waited until the water was hot enough and I got into the tub. The water felt great against my skin as I soaked in the tub. I saw him strip down and get into the shower and clean himself off.

That was the first time I saw his knee, really looked at it since the last time we were together. I saw the scar; it was small but white. I saw the rest of his knee then. It was a black and blue mark on his knee. He winced as he washed it. He didn’t limp but I know he damaged it when he jumped off the car.

“How did you get the bruise?”

“When I landed off the car I landed on the knee. I’m OK, nothing to worry about, it’s just a bruise. I can walk without pain, don’t worry.” He walked over to me and kissed me on the lips. I kissed him back and our kisses became passionate.

I pulled him closer to me and then whispered in his ear, “I will meet you in the bedroom in a few minutes.” He walked into the bedroom and got under the sheets. I finished my bath and dried myself off. I came in wearing a pair of pajama pants and a tank top. I climbed into bed next to him and kissed him. He kissed me back and wrapped his arms around me.

“I love you my one and only Arlea.”

“The One and Only.”

“You’re my one and only.” I smiled and kissed him again. I turned over and he wrapped his arms around me. I could feel his body close to mine as we fell asleep in each other’s arms. I couldn’t remember my dream but I slept soundly. I didn’t move the whole night and I felt safe in his arms.

The next morning, I woke up in his arms. I turned over and kissed him on his lips. His eyes opened and smiled. “Good morning baby,” he said to me. “I love you. How did you sleep?”

“Great, I hadn’t slept like that since November.”

“I know. You are so beautiful.” He then kissed me and I kissed him back.

“No, I’m not but I’m not going to argue with you.” He continued to kiss me and moved down my neck. He started to kiss my chest and took my shirt off of me. I removed my pajama bottoms and he removed his shorts. We made love for about two hours, our bodies as one. It felt like an eternity since we had the last time and I didn’t want it to stop but I knew we had to. We showered and got dressed. We let the kids sleep and we took the elevator down to the ground floor. We walked down the ramp but we did not go directly to the statue.

“I want to walk around the park first before we do what I want to do. I want to make sure this place is safe. I doubt it isn’t but I don’t want to risk it. Which way do you want to go, Tomorrowland or Adventureland?”

“Let’s go to Tomorrowland.” We walked towards Tomorrowland and I noticed there is nothing there. The whole park so far has been evacuated. We held hands as we walked but we didn’t say a word. I knew what he was thinking and I knew he knew what I was thinking. I knew he was scared but he wouldn’t show it. I was scared to but I think he was more scared for me than he was for himself. He had risked so much for me in his life and I know he always will, even now. We went right into Mickey’s Toontown Fair, still empty, nothing there but some small trash in the trashcans and souvenirs. I smiled when I saw that nothing was there. We left Toontown Fair and made it back to the main walkway. We then headed towards Fantasyland. Still, there was nothing there but souvenirs.

Marc walked over to a stand and picked up a Mickey. He walked over to me and handed it to me. “I promised you a Mickey, I never forgot it. I will never forget to give you anything ever and I never break a promise and I never will to you my love.” I smiled and carried it with me. Our fingers linked as we walked under the archway towards Liberty Square. The whole area was empty but we still walked close enough to the Haunted Mansion to make sure nothing was hiding there. He knew the park better than I did so he walked actually into the ride, not through the front door. “This is the handicap entrance I just want to make sure nothing is hiding in this area.”

We walked in quietly and saw nothing. We walked towards the exit of the ride, nothing. We both assumed the park would be empty still and so far, our assumption was right. Frontierland was just as empty as was Adventureland. We ended up right by the Mickey Mouse statue so we walked over to it slowly, still hand in hand.

*****

I led her to the Mickey statue slowly. I looked into her eyes and smiled, she smiled back. “I love your smile, my Beloved.”

“Thank you, you are too much Marc, do you know that? You are too much and too good to me.”

“I am who I am and nothing more. Sometimes there are things and people worth risking your life for and you are one of those people. Please sit down.” She sat down and looked at me with her eyes bright and wide. I got down on one knee and pulled a small box out of my pocket and opened it. Her eyes became wider as the diamond ring came out. It was a platinum band with a five karat diamond on it with one half karat diamond baguettes surrounding it.

“Tina, I have loved you since the moment we spoke on the phone. You have been my best friend, my lover, my heart, my soul, you are everything to me. I would die for you, I would kill for you, and I would protect you until I died. I would sacrifice everything for you and I always will. I will risk my life for you always. You mean more to me than my own life and I will be there for you all the time my beloved. Will you be my wife? If not legally but spiritually.”

“Marc, my Marc, I will be your wife. I love you more than anything. My answer is yes, yes, yes. A thousand times, my answer is yes.” She leaned over and kissed me. I returned the kiss. “Let’s not tell the girls just yet, I want them to see the ring and then we will tell them.”

We decided to walk down Main Street USA and look through the stores. Everything was left open. We grabbed some t-shirts and other clothes so that we could have more to wear. I grabbed a few of the ties I liked and she grabbed a few things she liked as well. I asked her if she wanted to go to the candy store and she laughed saying I was such a kid at heart. We walked over there and I emptied the cherry, lemon, and tangerine jellybeans into several bags. I then took all the gummy coke bottles and a bag of gummy worms and bears. Then I took all the red rope licorice and we went back to the castle apartment. “You are going to be sugar high, aren’t you?”

“Nah, I don’t eat candy all the time.” We took the elevator up and brought everything we took into the master bedroom. Tina placed the Mickey on the bed.

“Marc I’m going to get you a Minnie so my Mickey won’t be lonely.”

“I wouldn’t want it any other way,” I said laughing. We kissed and went to check on the kids. They were still sleeping and we didn’t bother them. “We have the whole park to ourselves, my lady, what would you like to do?”

“Let’s go and drive the go-carts.”

“OK, sounds like a plan, but I have an idea. Let’s drink some beer while we are driving and have some fun with it.”

“Woot!”

We took the elevator back down and went to the restaurant close to the go-carts. We went inside and opened a refrigerator and took out a few beers. The place smelled a little like fast food but we ignored it. We removed all of the carts off of the track except for the two we wanted to drive. We started them up since they had all been off and started driving around. Each lap we made, we got a beer to drink. By the fifth lap. I was really buzzed. I don’t know about Tina but she seemed to have been driving normally. By the tenth, I was driving on the rail that kept the go-karts on the track. I stopped driving by then and she kept going.

We both left about an hour later, staggering from the beer. We were laughing and kissing each other. We walked towards Fantasyland and stopped off at the Dumbo ride. I turned it on and let her get on the ride. Someone had to run the ride while the other rode it. I was never a fan of that ride so I let her have some fun on it. About ten minutes later Tina got off and we walked towards the Carousel. Tina got on and I started the ride. I let it run on slow so I could get on it as well. We rode on it for five minutes until we both got tired of it. I jumped off and turned off the ride. As it slowed down to stop, she stayed on her horse until the ride stopped. I walked over to her, took her hand, and helped her off.

“This is so much fun. Where do you want to go next?”

“Tina, I don’t care as long as I am with you. Would you like to go on the Haunted Mansion?”

She smiled and said, “Sure, after that we can go to Splash Mountain or the Rocky Mountain?”

“As you wish,” was all I said. We walked over to the exit of the Haunted Mansion and I started the ride. We rode through the curtain and the ride started. We rode it about six times before getting bored with the ride so we turned it off. We started heading towards Splash Mountain when I decided to do something special with her. Instead of going to the ride, we made a detour to the rafts to Tom Sawyer’s Island. We took a raft to the island and I brought her to the caves. We were completely alone on that island. Right by where it said, “Tom Loves Becky” I wrote, “Marc Loves Tina”. She smiled at me and then kissed me. I kissed her back and the kisses became more passionate. I removed her shirt and she removed mine. Then we removed our pants and we made love right there in the caves. We were loud and rough. We didn’t consider ourselves engaged at the time but right then and there married. No laws to conduct us as married or engaged or not married since those laws went out the window when the government fell.

We left the island and realized that the walkie talkie was chirping. I didn’t think of turning up the volume because we thought the kids would sleep the day away. Tina picked up the walkie-talkie and spoke into it. “Hello,” she said.

“Mom, where are you?” asked Bre on the other side.

“We are on the island by Splash Mountain in the middle of that lake by the back of the park.”

“Oh, OK. I thought something happened to you guys. Your room was empty and we got scared. We thought something happened to you two.”

“Well something did happen but it wasn’t bad. I will tell you later. Meet us by Splash Mountain.” We got dressed and left the island as the kids made their way to Splash Mountain. We were standing there holding each other when they finally came up to the ride. We walked over to the beginning of the ride and I turned it on. I had been on the ride a million times so I let them go on it as I ran the controls. About five minutes later they all came back soaked because they rode in the front seats. They were all laughing.

“I want to go again,” said Rissa.

“Anyone else want to go again?”

Mikey and Bre both decided to ride again while Tina stayed with me. “Thank you for the Disney vacation. I know it isn’t what you wanted to really do with us in Disney but this will stay in my memory for the rest of my life. We aren’t staying her much longer are we?”

“No, we aren’t. I thought we could stay here one more night and then make it to my house tomorrow. Then we go further south, to the islands where we would be safer. Well, except if there is a hurricane, then we would have to evacuate for a brief time but I figure we could get to Miami or Fort Lauderdale if we stay in Marathon Island or one of the northern Key Islands. Do you want chicken or hamburger for dinner? We have all these nice fast-food restaurants to choose from.”

The kids got off the ride and we all walked over to the closest fast-food restaurant in the park which was actually in Frontierland. I made five hamburgers on the grill and cooked up some french-fries as well. We ate, we laughed, and we joked around. It felt like we were a real family. It was while we were eating that Bre noticed the ring on Tina’s finger. She nudged Mikey and Rissa and they both stared at her finger.

“Mom, is that what I think it is?”

******

It was then that I realized that they were talking about the ring Marc gave me. Rissa grabbed my hand and pulled it closer to her so she could take a good look at it. “It’s beautiful, I never saw one so big this close before. This must have cost you a fortune.”

“It would have if this situation didn’t happen,” Marc said.

“When did you?”

“This afternoon,” I said. “While you three were sleeping he proposed to me and I said yes. As of now, I am his wife. Well actually as of this afternoon I am his wife but you know what I meant.” I laughed and he laughed. We kissed and shared a french-fry.

After we cleaned up from dinner Marc had a crazy idea. “Let’s go on a jungle cruise!” We went to the Jungle Cruise ride and got on it. It was kind of creepy at night without the park really running but we finished the ride and left the dock to head back to the castle. He told the kids we were leaving the park the next day and we would be in West Palm Beach that afternoon. If they wanted anything to grab it before we left but to make sure they didn’t overload the car. They ran to the stores and we walked behind them slowly.

“I still owe you a Minnie Mouse baby. Let’s go get you one.”

He smiled at me and said only three words, “As you wish.” I love it when he says that. We went into one of the stores and I picked up a twelve-inch Minnie, the same size as the Mickey he got me and we left. He took me back to the room and we showered and cleaned ourselves off. We got dressed and sat in the living room waiting for the kids to come back. I had told them not to be out too late since we were leaving the next day.

They came back with an armload of things. Plush toys, clothes, bags, everything you could think of. Marc laughed, “I hope we can fit all this on the car. Especially since there are a few things I wanna snag before we go.”

“We will make it fit. Besides, we didn’t pack too much in the suitcases before we left since we packed mainly summer clothes.”

“OK, just making sure.”

We left the living room and went to sleep. Well, technically we went to bed. We had to make love in our bed. This time it was slow and passionate. I didn’t want it to stop and neither did he. We did everything, in every position possible. He allowed it to be long and tender and we came together long and hard. I looked into his eyes when we finished and said, “I love you, my husband.”

“I love you too my wife,” he said and I turned over to be close to him in his arms. We fell asleep with his right hand over mine.

That night I actually dreamed. I dreamed we were together but things were different. We were on a beach but something was different. He was different. He was angry, not at me, not at the kids but at someone or something else. I could tell by the look on his face and the look of his eyes. He was staring out into the water. He had scratches on his face, his arms, and his legs. He didn’t have the black and blue mark on his knee but the scar was there. I woke up sweating, looked behind me, and saw him still asleep. He seemed to be dreaming as well and he looked scared. I saw a tear slide out of his closed eye and he continued to sleep.

We woke up the next morning to the sun shining into the room. We both took showers and got dressed. He took the packages to the car while I went to get the kids up. He came back about forty-five minutes later and asked if we were all ready. Rissa had just finished getting dressed and we walked with him to the car. It was then that I noticed the pictures in the car.

“Did you take those?” I asked.

“Yeah, I thought they would look nice in our new house.”

“OK, well I hope you didn’t take too much.”

“No, just a few expensive pieces. There is nothing to worry about at all honey.”

We all got into the car and drove towards the Florida Turnpike. We stopped off at a gas station which was right across the street from a Wal-Mart. We got gas and then he asked if anyone wanted anything from Wal-Mart before we left.

We drove across the street and walked into Wal-Mart. He carried his sword with him but I noticed that the place was empty. “OK everyone, only food, just food, please,” was all he said. We went and got snacks for the ride to West Palm Beach. We put the food in the car and we headed south towards Miami.

The two and a half hour trip to West Palm Beach went quickly. Even stopping off at the rest stops to go to the bathroom we went by very quickly. It was early afternoon when we made it to the complex in which he lived. He took us through the main gate. It was like nothing I had ever seen before in Arkansas. There was a bridge between two lakes to the main gate. Since there was no guard at the gate and the bars were up, we just drove in. He made a right and followed the road past several villages. He went through the Stop sign intersection since the complex was empty. He passed two more sections and then villages and made a right into the one called Shaughnessy. He followed the road around and made a right close to the end of the street.

We made it finally to his house. He pulled the car into the garage and closed it. His house wasn’t small but it wasn’t large. There was a sunk-in family room and living room and a raised dining room and kitchen. There was a bedroom that he turned into an office on the first floor. The second floor had three bedrooms and two bathrooms. Marc and I took the master bedroom. Bre and Mikey took the larger of the smaller bedrooms which had a queen size bed in there and Rissa took the smaller bedroom which had a full-sized bed in it.

I heard the generator going and now I understood why he wasn’t worried about the food in his refrigerator going bad. The shutters were sealed tight which I understand since he was scared that the zombies would break into the house or squatters would break in. I was glad they were metal shutters and not plywood. They were accordion shutters which mean they could open and close without having to take them off. He even had the second floor shuttered in case someone had a ladder and tried to break in.

He opened the downstairs back shutters and I saw the lake view he had. It was beautiful. He had tropical plants in the back as well as an orange tree. He also had a big plant in the front of the lake which he called a Traveler’s Palm. He told me of the story in which travelers would cut the branches off to drink the water from inside the stems. The lake view stretched for what seemed like miles but I knew it was only a mile each way.

We all got settled into his house and Marc began to cook. He brought out some chicken. “Would chicken be OK for dinner everyone?”

“Yeah, it’s fine,” I said.

He pulled out chicken, some salt, pepper, spinach, and mozzarella cheese. He washed the chicken, salted, and peppered the chicken, and placed it in a frying pan. Then he opened a can of sliced tomatoes and drained it in the sink. He added the tomatoes, a cup of wine and let everything simmer for a bit. Finally, he added the spinach and then the cheese. While he was cooking the chicken, he placed a pot on the stove and cooked some spaghetti. He had a CD of Dean Martin playing on the radio he had in the kitchen and I knew he was in an Italian food kind of mood. He was humming and dancing sort of to the music and he was smiling.

When the food was done, he called everyone down and we ate in the dining room. When everyone came down, the table was set with candles, a bottle of wine, and dinner on the table. We all sat down and he smiled. “Tutti OK, mangia,” was all he said.

Rissa looked at him and said, “What does that mean?”

“It’s Italian for, ‘OK everyone, eat up.”

We all laughed. Marc was always saying something to me in French and now he was using Italian just to be silly.

“That is the only real sentence I know in Italian. I took three years of French and lived in an all Italian neighborhood but when I watch The Godfather movies, I don’t understand Italian at all except when you talk about food. So come on, let’s eat.”

Dinner went well. The food was delicious. We drank wine, laughed and ate until all the food was gone.

*******

“I'm sorry I didn’t make dessert tonight. Normally I would make something like an apple cake but well I don’t know how good the apples are in the supermarkets,” I said. “I do make a really good apple cake and a really good marble cake. Well, I could whip up a quick one.”

They all laughed at the joke. I then got up to clean the dishes and Tina came over to help me. I rinsed them off and she placed them in the dishwasher. It didn’t take too long for us to finish the dishes. I then asked her if she wanted to watch a movie, she said sure. I asked her what she wanted to watch since I have a lot of movies on DVD. She went up to the room Rissa was sleeping in and picked out Dune. She never saw it and I had told her about it several times how good it was.

I turned on the big screen TV in the family room and popped the DVD in the DVD player. We snuggled up on the couch and watched the movie. I put in the extended side of the original movie so we sat there for a good four hours. At the end of the movie all she could say was, “That is the weirdest movie I’ve ever seen.” I laughed and we went to bed.

That night we didn’t make love. We just held each other all night long. I needed to just hold her in my arms and feel her close to me. Yes, I did want to make love to her but I think we both needed to just hold each other. She fell asleep and I stayed up for a bit to watch her sleep. She was so beautiful laying there, dreaming. Even without makeup, she was beautiful, like Aphrodite, simply perfect in every way. I fell asleep finally after an hour but I don’t remember if I dreamed anything.

I woke up the next morning before she did. I let her sleep in and made breakfast. I made pancakes from a mix, homemade home fries, beef fries since my mother never allowed bacon in the house and I made fresh-squeezed orange juice from the orange tree in the back. Everyone woke up to the smell of the food cooking and came downstairs. I had everything ready fifteen minutes later and we ate breakfast.

“Marc, what are we going to do today?”

“I’m not sure, do you want to use the community pool? It’s huge.”

“Sure,” said Mikey.

We drove to the clubhouse and walked right into the pool area. Since the community was gone we had the pool all to ourselves. I was so glad they never had the brains to turn off the gas to heat the pool or the hot tubs. We swam most of the day or sat in the hot tub. By the end of the day, we were tired and hungry. We went back to the house and we had hamburgers and hotdogs. We sat on the back porch listening to music and watching the sunset.

We played the days away for two more weeks. We went to the beach, the casinos everywhere that I knew were empty and zombie-free. I never thought it was as funny as going into the casino and taking all the money out of the cashier sections and using it at the slot machines. We played poker and blackjack at the tables with each other we drank in the casinos at the bars and even took t-shirts from the Hard Rock Café.

The last day of the two weeks of fun and games is when I sat them all down to discuss the future. “We need a plan. We only have enough propane for another three weeks. We have two choices. Steal more propane from a propane truck or go south to the keys and start a new life there. What do you think we should do?”

“I vote south.”

“Steal a propane truck,” said Rissa.

“South.”

“South.”

“OK, I see we have three for south and one for stealing a propane truck. OK, here is the thing. If we steal a propane truck, we have to shut down the generator and risk filling the tank wrong. Also, we have to find the propane truck which could take us into zombie territory. We could only use non-projectile weapons against them in the propane areas if not all would be lost including us.”

“I guess we go south then. Where to?”

“I say we go to Marathon Island, it’s far enough away from the zombies but close enough if a hurricane hits, we can still evacuate to the mainland. We can prepare and leave in a few days. I know the Wal-Mart here is zombie-free I took care of them before coming up to rescue you guys. We can get things there if we need to. I already have it planned out how to get down there. We go south on the turnpike until we hit Marathon Island. It should take about six hours if we don’t stop.”

They all nodded and sat there for a few minutes. I got up and went to the laundry room to start on my laundry. Tina came in and brought her laundry too. “Do you want me to do your laundry too Mrs. Miller?” She smiled and nodded. “Is everything OK?”

“Yes, it is, I’m just scared. This move to the Keys is not something I expected.”

“I know but it’s the only way we could get away from the zombies. There were fewer people who lived in the Keys than on the mainland in Florida. I think most of the Key zombies either died off from hunger or moved up to Miami. You and I are going to need to go to West Palm Beach for something.”

“What,” she asked concerned.

“I want a new car. I think we are going to need a Hummer. They are bigger and safer, plus they can go four-wheel drive and drive over things easier than the Navigator. I’m going to miss it, it was the car I picked you up at the airport in. It does have sentimental value but I think the Hummer will do much better. Plus, I don’t want the Navigator crapping out on us because it does have over fifty thousand miles on it.”

She looked at me with tears in her eyes. “You have done everything to protect me, to keep me safe and I have done nothing for you. I abandoned you when you needed me and yet you still came out to save me. You are the bravest man I’ve ever met crazy but brave.”

I looked into her beautiful hazel eyes and smiled. “Sometimes you have someone worth dying for. You are worth dying for. Let’s go get the Hummer. You can pick out the color and the interior. There is a place about ten minutes away before we get to downtown. It’s by where I call the ‘Ghetto Mall’.”

“Should I ask?”

“No, you shouldn’t.” We left a note for the kids that we would be back and went to get the Hummer. We broke into the Hummer dealership on Okeechobee Blvd. and checked out the Hummers. Tina picked out a red H2 with a beige interior. We went and looked for the keys. After about forty-five minutes of looking, we found them and that is when we heard the dragging of feet. Tina was carrying a double-barreled shotgun with shells in her pocket. The shotgun was loaded and we were both glad it was only one zombie but still, we both panicked for a moment before she shot the woman.

The first shot hit her right knee and the lower leg flew off. I winced. Then she did the shot to the head to make sure the woman wasn’t going to get up. Blood and grey matter flew all over the floor. I got slightly sick to my stomach. Even though I killed off hundreds of zombies in the past few weeks, the sight of blood still makes me sick to my stomach. Odd but true.

We ran to the new car after emptying everything we needed to from the Navigator and sped out of the parking lot of the dealership. We made it back to my house in record time. The kids didn’t ask what happened but got a big kick out of the Hummer. It was stacked with metal steps, satellite radio (which was kind of not useable now), an mp3 player adapter, CD player, DVD player for the back, adjustable front seats, and heated/air-conditioned front and back seats. There was enough room in the back to bring more things so we wrote a list of what we could bring before going to Wal-Mart.

We drove over to Wal-Mart that evening. Tina, the girls, and Mikey all brought shotguns just in case I missed one of the zombies. I walked in with a baseball bat and a sword. We grabbed anything food-wise that did not need refrigeration and almost every drink possible. We had a car full of nuts, chips, pretzels, canned goods, soda, water, tea, beer, wine, and water. We left enough room for clothes, toothpaste, toothbrushes, soap, shampoo, shaving cream, razors, and a few other toiletries and personal products needed which we also took from the store. We came back to the house and got ready to pack up the car and leave. We went to sleep that night, ready to leave the next morning.

Tina and I just held each other that night again. We wanted to make love but we decided if we are going to be driving for hours, we should try to get some sleep. I fell asleep around midnight listening to her breathe next to me. I’m not sure if she fell asleep but she didn’t move when I kissed her neck and she didn’t respond when I told her I loved her.

********

I woke up the next morning with Marc holding me. I was surprised to see him sleeping since he was usually up before me. He must have been really tired or he would have gotten up by now. I went to the bathroom and showered. Then I went downstairs after kissing him gently on the lips and started cooking breakfast. Marc came downstairs after a shower and saw me cooking.

“Hey there beautiful, you didn’t have to cook breakfast, I would have. Why didn’t you wake me?”

“I saw you sleeping and I didn’t want to wake you. You looked so tired, I let you sleep.” He kissed me on the neck.

“I love you,” he whispered in my ear. “You are so beautiful and don’t you argue with me on that.” I smiled, turned my head, and kissed him on the lips. I went upstairs to wake up the kids while he finished making the eggs, pancakes, and home fries.

The kids came down and we ate breakfast together. Marc cleaned up and put the trash out. He knew there wasn’t any chance of garbage pickup but it was a force of habit. We got into the Hummer and drove towards the turnpike.

“OK, here is the plan. We are going to avoid the major cities by taking the turnpike south and then head west on I-595 to I-75 south. From I-75 south we will follow that and head south towards Marathon Island. Once we get there, we will be fine I think. We just have to make it to the south tip of Florida by two.” We all nodded. “If I get tired, Tina you drive. Just follow the signs to Key West. The directions should be easy from there.”

We drove south and stopped off at the first rest stop. I don’t know the area but Marc told me it was southwest of Pompano Beach. We stopped off to just use the rest stop just in case so there wouldn’t be an emergency in a bad area. The road looked like it had been worked on for some a while and there was still a lot of construction equipment on the side of the road. We drove for a little longer and I saw the sign for the Fort Lauderdale International Airport. He took that exit and headed west towards I-75. I had never been this far south before.

The off-ramp to I-75 south was high and he sped down just for the fun of it. Since there was no one else on the road he sped down the highway. We stopped off at the first exit on I-75 and he filled up on gas. The tank had to be a forty-gallon tank but the price of gas didn’t matter anymore because there was no one there to pay for it. He walked into the gas station store and activated the pump. He filled up the tank while we stood watch to make sure nothing came out.

When he finished pumping the gas, he sprayed some on the ground and allowed the pump to run on the ground. I didn’t understand why until I saw what was coming out of the store. It was a man and a woman both missing parts of their bodies. The man had to be about five foot seven inches and the woman was about five foot four inches. He was missing his jaw while she was missing her left shoulder. They were both limping and walking very slowly towards us. We had enough time to get into the car and drive away but I saw Marc had a plan.

Marc sprayed the ground some more and drove the car to a good distance. He then took a match and dropped it on the ground. The flame burned and moved towards the pump. The pump caught on fire as he drove away quickly. He drove through bushes and over the sidewalk. It was as soon as we got close to the highway that the gas station exploded like a bomb. Fire and smoke blew up in the air and we kept on driving.

I remember a story he told me of the time he accidentally set a campsite on fire when he was in high school. I smiled as he drove and put my hand on his. We continued driving south until we saw the sign for Key West. We followed the sign and kept on going.

We passed city after city until we saw the blue water and the white sandy beaches. The highway ended and we were on US 1. We followed US 1 straight down until we came to the first bridge which took us to Key Largo. We kept on going until we reached Islamorada. It was there that we saw them.

Right in the middle of the city, there had to be hundreds of them. Walking around, standing there, and eating the flesh of the people who didn’t turn into zombies. Marc sped the car up and tried to plow through the crowd of zombies but they crowded the car. He backed up and knocked many down but still couldn’t get through. He put the car in four-wheel drive and was able to climb over them but they kept on coming. He gunned it down US 1 but there were more.

He looked at me and I looked at him. I knew what he wanted to do. He was already wearing his leather outfit since he figured something would happen. Bre handed him his coat and swords and I placed the mask on his face. The zombies crowded the car. He and I switched seats and he looked at me again.

“Tina, whatever happens, please promise me you won’t stop.”

“What about us?”

“I will find you. I promise you; I will find you. I love you and remember, everything I have is yours.” He kissed me on my lips and was ready to go.

“Marc, to the moon and stars and beyond,” was all I could say. He smiled and put the mask fully on his face. I saw him attach his earphones to his ears and place the iPod in a place where it would be safe. He opened the sunroof and climbed out. He jumped behind the crowd of zombies and the last thing I saw was him swinging his swords back and forth and the zombies crowding him.

I made it to the next bridge and that is when I saw him running after us. Then the bridge exploded behind us and everything went black.

*********

“That is everything that happened?”

“Yes, that is everything. The bridge blew up and I woke up here.”

“You were found in the water about a mile in the water.”

“What?”

The man in the white lab coat took Marc’s vitals and then took some blood. “Yes, they found you about a mile away from Islamorada. You were pretty banged up. You’ve been unconscious for a week and a half.”

“Where are Tina and the kids?”

“I don’t know. There is more than just this base on the island.”

“Where am I? Who are you? What is this place?”

“We are in an underground bunker on Key West. This is a secret military base. Those zombies did a number on you. I don’t know how you survived for so long. I’m Doctor Maxwell I’m the head doctor here. You were quarantined for two days because we thought you were going to turn into a zombie. You had a nice bite on your arm but for some reason, you didn’t turn. We have been doing tests and it seems that you are immune to the disease that caused the zombie issue.”

“What do you mean there is another base here on the island? Who is in charge of that base?”

“There is a Cuban base on the other side of the island. This Tina and the kids never came into this base. I would have had to examine them.”

“Am I healthy enough to get out of here?”

Doctor Maxwell looked at Marc and then at the camera. He walked over to the intercom and spoke into it. The door opened and a man in a uniform came in. Doctor Maxwell saluted to him and the man walked over to Marc.

“I’m General Ross, U.S. Military. Mr. Miller, we have kept you here since we found you. Tests have been done and you are negative for the Z-Virus as we call it now. We also monitored you coming across the bridges of US 1 towards Key West. You put up quite a fight against the zombies before the bridge blew.”

“General Ross, where are my wife and her kids?”

“I’m sorry Mr. Miller, the Cubans captured them. We couldn’t stop them plus rescue you. We will do everything to get them back.”

Marc looked at the general, looked at the door, and then back to the general. “No, I will get them back myself. Where are my things?”

“I’m sorry Mr. Miller they are at the bottom of the ocean.”

“Shit! My clothes?”

“Don’t worry Mr. Miller, we have them and we improved on them. No more leather, Kevlar only. The mask has glass over the eyes and a mesh area under the Kevlar for you to breathe better through your mouth and nose. Now for weapons, we can provide you with whatever you want, guns, knives, explosives, swords, or all four.”

“Knives and swords only, I don’t like guns. I will also take a few explosives. Where is the Cuban base?”

The general pulled out a map and pointed. “We are on the east end if the island, they are on the west end. We can’t transport you there fully but we can take you halfway. What do you plan on doing, sneaking in and getting them out?”

“No, I plan on using the front door. I’m going to walk up to the front door, knock on it, ask them to let my wife and kids go and if they don’t, there will be hell to pay. Let me see what you have.”

“Get dressed first and then meet me outside this room.” Marc got dressed and felt the lightness and coolness of the Kevlar. It didn’t have the smell of the leather and Marc did not feel lightheaded from the smell either. He tried on the mask and then took it off. The fit was perfect but wasn’t sure why. He put on the Kevlar boots and walked out of the room. He kept the mask off and noticed that his hair was shorter than before. He realized they cut his hair for the mask.

Marc walked out of the room and met General Ross standing there in the hallway. “This way, please. Oh, and by the way, how did you learn to fight like that? You don’t fight like someone from the military, especially with the sword fighting.”

“I took karate from the time I was five until I was seventeen. I never stopped practicing my sword fighting.”

“And the knee surgery, how did that happen?”

“I got hurt moving comic book boxes and tore my meniscus.”

“And who is The Doctor? You kept on calling his name out along with a woman named Tina.”

“The Doctor is my hero, have you ever seen the show Doctor Who?”

“Ah, yes, and Tina?”

“Tina is my wife, now let me see these weapons so I can save her.” They entered a large room full of guns, knives, swords, and explosives. Marc went right over to the katana swords first. He picked up one with a black handle and tested the weight. He pulled the sword out of the sheath and looked at the blade. It was a nice silver blade he swung it in the air. It made a nice swishing sound. He looked to see if there was a second one. He found it and tested it. Then he picked up two boot knives and a few throwing knives. “I wish you guys had the claws that I had. Those were a lot of fun.” He then found arm blades that flicked out if he moved his wrists the right way. He also picked up some C-4 packages and 5 grenades. They instructed him on how to use them.

“You do know this is dangerous. You could die trying to get them back.”

“Sometimes there are people worth dying for, she is one of them.” Marc got the weapons he wanted and prepared to leave. “Oh, one more thing, I want a black leather trench coat.”

“It’s ninety-five degrees outside, why do you want a black leather trench?”

“It makes me feel safe OK?” They gave him what he asked for. “Now take me as far as you can, I will walk the rest of the way and if there are any zombies on the way there, I will take them out my way.”

They got into an army truck and drove out of the underground base. They traveled along the main road to the middle of the island. “This is the half-way point. You have to go about six more miles and you will find their base. As far as we can tell, there are no zombies here but you never know. If you can find a vehicle, I guess you can use it. Good luck and be careful.”

Marc looked around and started walking west. He walked at a normal pace until he saw a motorcycle. It was at a Honda dealership and he liked it. He checked the label and it was a Honda Interceptor with a 782cc liquid-cooled 90-degree V-4 engine. The color was black. He broke into the dealer room and took the keys after a ten-minute search. He started the vehicle and continued to head west. About a tenth of a mile away from the Cuban base he stopped the bike and walked the rest of the way.

It was then that he saw the barricade in the middle of the road. Cars blocked the street and a thirty-foot fence with barbed wire and mounted guns. The posts were empty. Marc slowly walked up the barricade.

***********

“Look that is all I know. I told you everything. What else do you want me to say,” screamed Tina to the man in the green uniform.

“I want to know who sent you,” he said with an accent. His English was perfect but he had an accent you could cut with a knife. Tina was tied to a chair and she had tears coming out of her hazel eyes.

“I told you, my husband and I were trying to escape the zombies, we didn’t know anything about any of this. Where am I? Who are you? Where is my husband?”

“We are on Key West; I am General Chavez and your husband is dead. He was killed when we blew up the bridge. You were leading the zombies to the lower keys again after they started heading north. It was our last hope. Our American counterparts refused to do it so we decided to. He died saving your lives, you should be honored. He was a true hero.”

“No, he isn’t dead, he can’t be dead. I know him, he can’t die like that, he promised me he would come to me.”

“Oh, believe me, he is dead. Now tell me the story again!”

“I’ve told you the same fucking story six times and it hasn’t changed. How many more times am I going to tell you?”

“Until you tell me the truth.”

“I am telling you the truth. There is nothing else t-” the door opened and a man came in and whispered something in the general’s ear.

“You are in luck, there is a man at the front door claiming to be your husband and is demanding your release or else. I would like to see the ‘or else’ that he is going to do.”

“Marc is at the front door? Please, General, let him in. Please, you don’t want to see him angry you don’t know what he is capable of doing for me. He would kill for me and die for my rescue. Please release me and my children to him. He’s seen enough death for a while.”

General Chavez laughed. “The only problem is,” he said pulling out his gun, “is that we have a lot of guns and he just has some swords. He isn’t a superhero he is a man and he can die just like anyone else.”

“He’s more than just a man he is the man I love and the man who would do anything for me. He is my superhero.”

“Well, then you will see your superhero die, for you!” The general picked up his hand radio and spoke into it in Spanish. ¡Déjelo entrar y luego mátelo! Quiero su cabeza. (Let him in and then kill him! I want his head.)”

“You don’t know what you have done no one will survive if he is pissed.”

“We will have to see. Bring her back to her holding room with her kids.”

“Then he will see you in Hell,” yelled Tina as she was led back to her cell.

***********

The door opened and let Marc in after a fifteen-minute wait. He didn’t feel one hundred percent confident that they would let him take Tina and the kids back with him. As he walked in, he saw five guards standing in front of him holding submachine guns towards him. Oh shit, this is going to be fun, he thought. “Okay boys let’s not get testy here. I’m just here to get my wife and kids and leave.”

“¡La permanencia dónde usted es! (Stay where you are!),” said the guard in the front.

“I’m sorry, I don’t speak Spanish,” The guards cocked their guns, “but I do understand that.” He pulled a throwing knife out of his boot and threw it as he dove behind a desk and they open fire. It hit a guard right in the head. The guard dropped the gun and it slid on the floor towards Marc. I hate guns, he thought as he looked at it, but I guess I will have to use it. He picked it up and fired it over the desk. The gunfire kept coming.

The bullets hit his arms but they didn’t damage his arms. There were no bullet holes and no wounds. Marc stood up and fired the gun. The bullets hit the Kevlar suit but no damage to Marc ever came. Marc pulled a katana out of his trench coat. The sword swung in the air and cut the gun barrels off.

The guards dropped the guns and started to pull out handheld automatics. Marc smiled under the mask. His swords flew in the air as they scrambled behind furniture. He cut off the head of one guard, an arm of another, and the leg of the third. There was one guard left cowering in a corner.

“Do you speak English?”

“Si, I mean yes.”

“Where are they?”

The guard shuddered. “Please don’t kill me.”

“I won’t if you tell me where they are. Where are they?”

“Two floors down.” Marc raised his sword. “You said you wouldn’t kill me.”

“I lied.” Marc stabbed him in the chest, the blade sunk deep into his heart and out the other side. He got into the elevator and the doors closed. The elevator only had three buttons so Marc pressed the lowest button and let the elevator go down. This is too easy, he thought. The elevator came to a stop and Marc pulled a grenade off of his belt.

As the doors opened, he threw it out as a spray of bullets flew in. Marc hit the close button and the doors closed as the grenade went off. Marc opened the door and the hallway was empty except for the smoke from the grenade. There were dead bodies strewn throughout the floor, blood on the walls, and the lights were out. Marc opened each door trying to find Tina and the kids. More guards came out of the elevator which must have gone up during his search. I can’t throw one in the elevator I guess I will have to fight.

“Tell me something, can you fight in the dark?” Marc unsheathed both swords and ran after the guards and the elevator doors closed shut and the darkness took over the hall. Bullets flew past his head and body as he ran through the hallway. The ten guards that were there went down easily from fear of a sword slicing at their heads. Marc heard the door open at the end of the hallway and saw a light.

“So, you are the infamous Marc your wife has told me so much about.” Marc turned, looked at General Chavez, and started to walk towards him. “I wouldn’t take one more step or your wife and kids will be shot.” The general pulled Tina out of the room holding a gun to her head. He pulled her body in front of him as a shield.

“Who are you? Let them go.”

“I am General Rodrigo Chavez and I want to know who sent you and your wife here?”

“No one did Asshole, now let them go!” Marc stepped forward. The gun cocked and was placed closer to Tina’s head.

“I wouldn’t do that. Now tell me, why were you leading the zombies back to the island?”

“I wasn’t, we were planning on going to Marathon. We knew nothing of your base here or even the American military base. What are you doing here?”

“We are hiding from the zombies and experimenting on them, just as your government is doing. Now that I have new test subjects, I will use you all to find the best way to kill the zombies. All of my experiments are one more level down. We have them in cells right below us and the only way down is through this door.”

Marc looked at him, his eyes ablaze. He had a new sense of anger. “I will not let you use my family or me for your sick experiments. Not now, not ever. You will never harm anyone again.”

The general laughed and pulled Tina through the door and down the steps. Marc ran after them. General Chavez locked a door at the bottom of the stairs baring Marc from getting through. He dragged Tina into a glass room and strapped her to a table. The whole time she screamed out Marc’s name, calling him to come for her. On the other side of the glass, there was a zombie clawing at the glass. Its face partially deformed but she could tell it was a teenage girl. It was not her daughter, she knew that it was too tall and too young.

Chavez left the glass room and locked it as Marc kicked down the door. “One more step amigo and I will release the zombie and kill your wife.”

“Let her go Chavez or I will kill you if you release that thing.”

“Then my friend, I will have to release it.” Chavez pushed a button and the glass slowly slid to the side. At the same time, Marc threw a knife at his head. The knife landed right in his chest and Chavez fell down but still alive. Marc walked over to him, grabbed the gun out of his hand, and fired it at the glass. It shattered and Marc ran through sword swinging. He cut the zombie girl’s legs off to slow it down. It crawled on the floor slowly towards them. He untied Tina from the table and carried her out of the room.

“Where are the kids?”

“Down the hall to the right. I think the middle door on the right side.” Marc tried to open the door that Tina told him. It was locked. It was a metal door. He kicked it and kicked it but only made a small dent in it. He could hear Bre, Rissa, and Mikey banging on the door to let them out.

“Can you guys hear me?”

“Yes,” they all said.

“Get away from the door, I’m gonna blow it.” Marc took a small piece of C-4 explosive and attached it to the door. He and Tina moved out of the way after lighting the fuse. The door blew open and they ran out of there. “Get in the elevator, I have one more thing do to.”

Marc ran down the stairs as they got into the elevator. He set more C-4 at the bottom of the step. While he was setting it, he saw the female zombie crawling towards Chavez. He walked over to a panel that said "release". He hit it and all the zombies in the room were released. He hit another button and all the doors to the glass rooms opened.

“You’re going to kill me by letting them eat me?”

“Yes, and then blow you all to Hell!” Marc walked to the door and set the timer for fifteen minutes. Enough time to go up the elevator and get out of the base. He didn’t look back as he locked the door and ran to the elevator. He could hear banging on the door and screaming as Chavez was being eaten and torn apart by the zombies. Tina and the kids were waiting in the elevator for him as he got in and the doors closed.

The elevator rode up and it felt like forever for them. As they waited, they looked at Marc in amazement. “Don’t worry, it’s me. I’m not sick, wasn’t bitten or anything but I have to do something once we get out of here.”

“How did you survive,” asked Rissa.

“When the bridge blew up, I was thrown I guess into the water and then rescued by the U.S. military or what’s left of it. Don’t worry nothing is wrong with me except I’m pissed. When this bucket stops, run!”

The elevator stopped at the top floor and they all got out running. As they did, the C-4 exploded. They were thrown to the ground as the building crumbled. “Is everyone OK?”

“Yes,” they said in unison but not too happy about the situation.

“We need to find some sort of transportation for you guys that are not blown up I have my own for now. I want you to go south and we will meet up when we are done.”

“No, not this time, I’m coming with you.”

“Tina, I can’t let you do this. I promised to protect you, always.”

“Marc, you are my husband, I am not going to let you do this alone.”

“Come here,” Marc led her to the side. “You don’t know what I’m going to do it’s dangerous you could get hurt.”

“You risked your life for me I can only repay the favor.”

“If you come with me and die, I risked my life for nothing. I don’t want you to get shot or killed. Think of the kids, they need you, I need you.”

“I’m not going to leave you.”

“If you come with me, you must listen to everything I tell you. No matter what, you do it. OK?”

“OK, I will.”

“Alright, here is the deal, you three find a car and drive south. When you get there, start one big fire about one hour after you get there so we can find you. Make sure there is a lot of smoke so it will be easy to find you. The more smoke, the better. We will be there as soon as we can.”

“Where are you two going?”

“We have some unfinished business to attend to.”

************

Marc and Tina headed back to the motorcycle that Marc abandoned a tenth of a mile away. He and Tina got on it and he started it. The engine roared as they sped towards the U.S. base. Images ran through his mind of what he wanted to do but he had to limit it because of Tina. He wasn’t going to allow her to be hurt.

They made it to the entrance to the underground garage. Marc rode the motorcycle down to the door that went into the base. He knocked on the door, no answer. He then tried it. The place was empty. Lights were on in rooms but there was no one there. Tina slowly followed him not knowing what was going on either. At the end of the hall, they saw an open door that led to steps going down. They followed the steps to the lower level. The lights on that floor were flickering on and off. It was as if the fluorescent lights were dying.

They heard moans coming from the doors that were in the hallway. Each door had a little door that concealed a window for observation attached. Marc opened the little door at the first door to his right. There he saw a man in a soldier uniform standing there. His face was decaying and he was groaning as if he was hungry. His walk was stiff until he saw Marc’s face and he ran to the little window biting as if he could get his face through the mesh bars on the other side of the door. Marc closed the door and kept walking. Each room had the same thing, soldiers, doctors, civilians in the rooms. No one had been able to escape it. The end of the hallway the door was open.

General Ross was sitting at his desk. “Mr. Miller, I see you have returned with your wife. Do you like our little experiments? We were trying to use your blood to see if we could find a cure for the z-virus. We had a little mishap though. Dr. Maxwell was killed and well I, I was bitten.” He pulled up his sleeve and showed the bite on his right arm. “I put the zombie out of his misery and I tried the antidote. Well, the vaccine didn’t heal me but increased the change. I am turning into one of them, quicker than expected but before I do, I’m going to release my zombie brethren and kill you and your wife before releasing them into the island to kill the rest of your family.”

“If you’re going to kill anyone, kill me. She has nothing to do with it. Tina, get behind me and slowly back out of the door.”

“Oh, I can’t let her get away. I’m going to make her a zombie as well. She can run, but she can’t hide from them. And as for you,” he picked up an automatic, “I’m going to kill you.”

Marc pulled both swords out of their sheaths. “You think you can really take me. I’ve killed already thirty live people some asshole who is turning into a zombie with a gun isn’t going to do much different.”

The general fired the gun three times. Marc quickly spun the swords like two helicopter blades. The bullets ricocheted off the blades and went into the walls.

“Very good Mr. Miller, I didn’t think you were that fast.”

“I’m just getting starting mother fucker.”

“Well, I guess I’m going to have to release the zombies before I kill you then.” He placed his hand on a button and the klaxons began ringing. Marc heard the doors open and the groans of the zombies heading towards the steps to the upstairs. Marc prayed to himself that Tina got out or was hiding in a safe place.

Marc threw a knife and it landed right into the hand the general used to press the button. The general screamed and tried to pull the knife out of his hand. Marc kicked him in the face and the general fell down, his hand ripping as he fell. The general screamed and got up. He fired the gun again. Marc dodged the shots and jumped onto the wall. He did a backflip and crossed his arms so that the swords would be on the opposite sides of his body. As he landed by the general, Marc uncrossed his arms and decapitated General Ross. The general’s head flew off and rolled onto the floor as the general’s body fell down on the desk. I guess he wasn’t so headstrong.

Marc ran out of the room and the hallway was empty. There were a few stragglers in the rooms but Marc killed them quickly with his swords. He ran up the stairs to the next level. There he saw a crowd of zombies banging on a door trying to break in. Marc stopped at the top of the stairs. He still had his swords unsheathed and went full force into the zombie horde of eight. He sliced the arms off of one zombie and the legs off of another.

It was then that the zombies realized Marc was in the room. They turned towards the live meat outside the door but were not ready for his assaults. He flicked his wrists and the spikes engaged themselves in his armbands. He punched at one zombie and then pulled his arm back decapitating it. He stabbed another in the head, it vomited green slime. He jumped back to make more room between himself and the zombies.

Four left, I can take them. Marc pulled a grenade out and stepped back further. He pulled the pin and dropped it on the floor. Two zombies walked over to it and one picked it up. The grenade blew up in the zombie’s hand destroying the two zombies and throwing their bodies and blood all over the hallway. The two remaining zombies were still coming towards him. Marc pulled another knife out and threw it at one. He missed it by an inch.

Shit, he thought. He used his swords and sliced the closer zombie into three pieces. It kept walking until the three parts fell off. The last zombie stood there growling at him. It was then that Marc realized it was Dr. Maxwell. He recognized the lab coat and saw the syringe in the zombie’s hand. “I’m sorry Doctor. I didn’t want it to come to this.”

He stood in an attack stance. He moved towards him, spun around, and split the Maxwell zombie straight down the middle. The zombie made one step and fell apart. Marc ran to the door that the zombies were clawing at and banged on it. The door opened slowly and Tina’s face peered out the door. Her eyes were red from crying.

“Are you OK? Did they hurt you?”

“No, they didn’t, they just scared me.”

“Let’s go, there won’t be anyone else to attack us.” They ran up the stairs to the garage and got on the bike. They sped outside and looked into the air to see if there was smoke. “How long were we in there?”

“I don’t know baby, it felt like forever. I don’t see the smoke it must not have been two hours then.”

“I think it was an hour we were in there for. Let’s head south and see if we can find them on the beach.” They drove down to the south coast of the island. It was then that they saw the smoke rise up. Tina pointed it out first. They found the kids sitting on the beach looking out towards the inland. Tina got off the bike first and ran over to them. Marc took off the mask and looked at his family and then walked over to them. He put his arms around his wife and kissed her. He then fell on the ground exhausted.

*************

Three days later Marc was standing on the beach looking towards the water. He was wearing a pair of swim trunks. He walked into the ocean and swam out and then back. He sat down on the sand and put some wood in an area for a fire. He was cut up from the explosion. Scars on his back, chest, arms and legs were still scabbed from only being eighteen days old. The look on his face was of happiness but he had sadness in his eyes. He killed people he did not wish to kill and destroyed zombies to protect the one he loved.

“How do you feel today honey?”

“Better my beloved.” They kissed and held each other close.

“Is there anything I can get you, something cold to drink?”

“Water would be fine, just water.” Tina walked towards the house they are living in now as Marc stood on the beach. His face was that of anger, his eyes had tears in them.

As she came out and saw Marc standing there on the beach, the sun setting, Tina thought, My dream, it happened.

She walked over to Marc with a glass of ice water and gave it to him. They never left the island and saw another zombie again.

The End