Flash Fiction: No Refuge

The house is quiet now.  I stand in the hallway coming back from the bedrooms.  The walls are covered with family photos from happier days.  A frame with a half dozen photos grabs my attention.  Camping in the mountains.  The time we rode the ferry.  High school graduation.  The canoe trip.  I pull it off the wall, rip off the cardboard back, and take a photo of me, my mom, my dad, and my brother standing in front of a long forgotten restaurant.  The old photo fits in my fanny pack behind the extra boxes of ammunition.  I make my way back to the remnants of the front door.  My eye catches a flash of purple, yellow, and black, as a skink scrambles under the deacon's bench in the front foyer.  It doesn't have to worry.  The cat is long gone. 

I step out and glance at the tattered flag hanging limply from the flag pole in the overgrown front yard.  Little lizards dash for cover as they see me.  They find hiding places everywhere.  But, not me.  The old family home isn't the refuge it once was.  There is no refuge.  There is no stopping.  The neighbors from down the street are dead but still nosy.  They see me and start to shuffle my way.  It's time to go.

Limerick: Dude with a Big Gun

There once was a dude with a big gun,
that really limited how fast he could run,
when everyone fled,
his ammo was lead,
and now he roams and rots in the sun!

Photo by Raymond Depardon Beirut 1978,
CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

Zombie Complex: Inspired by Real Places

Zombie Complex is set in a fictional apartment complex that is inspired by a real one.  It's a complex that my wife and I have lived in on and off for far too many years.  When we had a dog, I walked every square inch of this place and even into many of the surrounding wooded areas.  I know where the possums are, where the racoons hide, and I'm familiar with at least three generations of stray cats in the area.  In real life, the inspiration dog behind Dale was quite a character and we miss him every day.  Nothing gets you familiar with the topography of a place like walking a dog every day and every night.

The real life inspiration dog behind Dale

When I write of cooking smells, bugs, and residents who can't park, that's my truth.  It's a truth that my wife and I lived for a long time as residents of this complex and several other apartment communities.  Even the weirdest neighbors draw a little inspiration from real neighbors that I have had over the years.  If there is a stretch, it's probably in the strength of the gates.  In real life, they break or get sabotaged all the time.

An aerial photo of the inspiration apartments doesn't reveal much.  If you read Zombie Complex, you may recognize some of the features.  I just hope that I was able to breath life into the place and threaten it with death by a thousand zombies.  When I look at the photo, I can immediately pick out the gates, the garbage area. the mailbox hut, the pool, and the vegetable garden.  It's easy for me to distinguish between the little bungalows and the big buildings.  I can also imagine where many of the key battles in my novel take place.  For me, the complex is a place where heroes live and die and it makes the location much more meaningful to me.  

An aerial view (from Google Maps) of the inspiration apartment complex behind Zombie Complex

I hope you enjoy getting familiar with my world and I appreciate everyone who has joined our fight for survival.  I hope that the authenticity of the place and its population shines through in my pages.

Zombie Dribble: To Make Sure

Someone or something is moving on the other side of the fence.  With the sun setting and gloomy skies, I can't tell if it is one of the living or the dead.  If they return, I can use my rifle to make sure.  I just hate to waste a bullet. 

A Savage 110 Snipers Rifle - photo by FrankWilliams, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Zombie Cinquain Poem: Tree to Tree

Leaves crunch

Twigs snap and crack

from tree to tree I run

to escape the moaning ones and

live on

Zombie Limerick: The Man from Mumbai

There once was a man from Mumbai 
who was a bits and bytes kind of guy
 while he submitted his code
 the dead came into his abode 
and transformed him into a Zombai !!!

A Train Near Mumbai - The original uploader was Nikkul at English Wikipedia., CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

Zombie Flash Fiction: The Little Bugout Truck

With a knapsack full of peanut butter, I rounded the corner and ran down the alley behind the grocery store.  I looked over my shoulder to glance back at the horde on my heels.  That was enough of a distraction for me to get my feet mixed up and send me tumbling.  But, in this world, you can't stay down.  I was up in an instant and I hopped, limped, and otherwise made my way back to my little yellow truck.  I climbed in and looked over to see the dead clawing at my windows.  It's always an inconvenient time to dig your keys out of your deepest pocket.

The dead were drooling on my windshield as I finally started the truck.  As it started up with one turn of the key, I smiled and reflected on my little truck.  I  always thought I'd want a really big four-wheel-drive truck with a winch and brush bars just in case the world came to an end.  Now that the world has actually come to the end, I'm glad I have a simple and reliable little vehicle  that sips fuel, cranks every time, and is incredibly reliable.

I put my little truck into drive, accelerated to thirty, and slammed on the brakes.  It was fun to see the dead roll off the hood and down the road.  Escape was simply matter of making a quick turn and hitting the gas.  I left the dead behind me in the rearview mirror.  

When I'm surrounded by a horde, I can't have car trouble.  You can't just call AAA for a jumpstart or a tow.

Photo by:  Ildar Sagdejev (Specious), CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons