Zombie Invasion Chapter 8

Chapter 8- A New Friend

Carefully, I tilted the frying pan, putting the spoon in front of the hamburger bits to ensure they don't fall out into the bowl that I was draining the fat into. I plopped the pan back on the stove.

"Burger's ready." I said to Kaitlin, looking over my shoulder at her as she cut pieces of celery with one of three butter knives that the zombies left us.

"'Kay, just a second." She answered, finishing off the last stalk of celery before walking over to me and putting the bits into the pan, "I can't say that looks appetizing." She mumbled as she walked over to the sink. I looked down at the very dark crumbled pieces of meat.

"Yeah, but we can't risk getting sick." I stirred the food around, "better burnt food than botulism!"

We had been trapped in the school for a total of six days now, and during that time, our fridge began to go caput. It was getting louder, and increasingly warmer, and just this morning, it finally ceased its struggle and went out with a big 'CLUNK!' In a panic, Kaitlin and I decided to cook up as much of the food that was stored in there that still had as good a quality you could get from a dying fridge. But hey, you can just cut off the bad parts right?

A loud thud suddenly sounded from the sink, and I caught Kaitlin leaping back out of the corner of my eye. I went back to my cooking.

"Oh don't worry about that." I said plainly, "The faucet does that when you switch from cold to hot water. Just turn it off and back on again- it'll start flowing."

"Yeesh!" Kaitlin said in wary shock, approaching the sink, "Why did we have to cook in the kitchen with the demon sink?"

"Because this is the one I cook in. Good old Green kitchen!" I said proudly, shutting off the burner and moving the pan over two bowls placed on the counter. I spooned out our meal, put the pan back on the stove, and went to the table with our food, Kaitlin in tow.

"No onions, no garlic, no pepper." Kaitlin said in disappointment, torturing a piece of celery with her spoon.

"I know, but at least we have salt!" I said, trying to say something good about our dish.

"Eh." Kaitlin mumbled, just to provoke me.

"Oh, right, because you're an O'Brian, and your family won't settle for anything without garlic." I joked, and Kaitlin chuckled.

"Hey, you said they had juice here, right?" she asked, and nodded and got up.

"What kind would you like?" I went into the kitchen and grabbed a pitcher, "I think we have orange and grape and maybe fruit punch." I walked over to the pantry and stopped dead in my tracks at the notion of a strange presence. Slowly, I turned my head to the door, and there, I saw it. That gross, deformed face of a zombie, staring at me through the window in our door from the hallway. I felt stuck to the ground. I felt like that hare that's caught in a reticle, staying still out of instinct. Maybe he can't see me… Should I run… can I just move away slowly?

"What is it?" Kaitlin's voice echoed beyond my terrified thoughts. I peered hopelessly into the eye of the zombie, the other one missing from its skull. Drool streamed out of its crooked mouth as it gnawed at the air before it, looking at me with a yearning gaze. I jumped as its boney hand smashed up against the window, and it began to moan loudly. At that point, I ran.

"Get Paul!" I shouted as I ran into the Blue kitchen, "And hide!" I reached for the handle of the cabinet that was under the sink, but before I could open it, I heard a huge bang, and stopped to see that the door was gaping open. Without another thought, I drove myself into the cabinet, trying to get in there fast enough that the monster didn't see me. That plan went down the drain when I felt a hand grip my ankle and begin to pull. I let out a terrified shriek, one that matched in volume the din of the very pleased zombie. I squirmed and toiled, and tried to get a grip on something, but my hands just squeaked as they were dragged across the wooden surface of the cabinet floor.

The hand on my ankle let go, and I felt two grab onto my shirt from the back. It continued to pull me from the cabinet, and soon, I was lying on the floor below the towering zombie. I curled up into a tight ball, and swatted and kicked at the zombie as it tried to get on top of me. Its mouth, open like a black hole, brown teeth standing in its wet, red flash, was ready to bite down on me. With a loud outburst, the zombie grabbed my face and pushed it back, revealing my neck. I spat and cursed at it, and tried to overpower its surprisingly strong grip, but the only thing that kept it from biting me was me moving as much as I could.

In the fight, my hand had smacked against the handle of one of the low, large drawers and somehow, I managed to collect my thoughts in the struggle and open the door, grab whatever the heck was in it, and pound the zombie in the temple with a loud pwang! It crashed to the floor, but not before smashing into the cabinets, and it began to convulse. Scared, I clamoured to my feet, and stood over the zombie, weapon poised like a baseball bat. For a second, the only sound was my heavy breathing, and the rushing of blood in my head, and when I heard a little sound behind me, I instantly spun around and swung my weapon, and just caught a glimpse of golden hair duck out of the way. My eyes widened as Kaitlin popped up into view, her hands (one of which was clutching Paul) up innocently in the air, her very own eyes popping out of her head.

"Sorry!" I breathed, relaxing a bit.

"I'm good, I'm good…" Kaitlin clarified, mostly to herself. I watched as her eyes flicked to something behind me, "I see you got him." I turned around looked at the body of the zombie that was still twitching a bit.

"Yeah. Sure did." I switched my weapon from one hand to the other, paused in realization that I had no idea what it actually was, then looked down at it. A frying pan. A green frying pan with a silver handle. I turned it over in my hands, and grinned at it. What a fine destroying device.

"A new friend?" Kaitlin asked, looking at the frying pan too.

"Sydney." I said simply, "That suits her well doesn't it? Him well, her…?"

"I think it's a he." Kaitlin whispered in clarification.

"A guy named Sydney?"

"Sydney Crosby." Kaitlin said in that sort of, 'isn't that obvious?' way. Suddenly, the zombie flopped around and bashed the cabinets, and the two of us screamed in shock. There was a moment of hesitation, waiting for the zombie to move again, before we began to speak again.

"We have to get rid of that thing." Kaitlin said with a shaky voice.

"I don't suppose it would be smart of us to move it." I said in displeasure, "And what if zombies are like bees, and they release pheromones when they die that makes the whole hive come to the body! Or what if they release some sort of gas that the disease is in, and its air borne and all we have to do is breathe it in!"

"Michelle, calm down. We've survived this long, so don't you think we might be immune to the Virus?" that made me think.

"Er, yeah, actually. That makes sense." I scratched the back of my head in embarrassment. Kaitlin pushed passed me and crouched by the zombie. It began to convulse, as it obviously wanted to bite Kaitlin, but she raised Paul into the air and smacked the zombie in the head when it tried to grab her knee. Because of the impact, the zombie's remaining eye popped out of its head, optic nerve trailing behind and Kaitlin and I both flew backwards in shock.

"Uh! That. Is. Just….. wrong!" I whined, looking down at the zombie apprehensively. It had started to move again, and at that point I wondered if zombies could feel pain. In desperation, the zombie managed to roll on its stomach, and groan in frustration, with its right leg flopping around like a fish on land. How many more blows to the head can this thing take before it's completely immobile? Seeing this as a problem, I turned to Kaitlin.

"We have to break its neck." I concluded. She looked at me, then the zombie, then at me again, and she agreed.

"How?" she brought up the next problem, "I'm a little unsure about going near that thing again."

"How hard can it be?" I said casually, trying to sound confident, "I mean, all we have to do is get our hands around its face and twist until, we… hear a…crack." The thought made me suddenly feel sensitive around my neck area, "Yeah we're screwed." A sudden shriek from the zombie made us jump again, and Kaitlin, having had enough of the darn thing, smashed it in the head once again. Even that didn't make it stop.

"GOD! We have to plough the thing over with a car!" she tossed her hands up in exasperation. I gazed at the zombie while I tried to think up a plan, watching as it slowly managed to turn its head up to face us. My eye brows knitted in concern.

"How does it know where we are standing?" I asked in worriment. Kaitlin switched from me and the zombie back and forth.

"Well it can hear us can't it?" she answered my question, only to bring up another one.

"Shh…" I hissed, slowly walking closer towards the Red kitchen with Kaitlin following me just as quietly. We waited and watched for quite some time as the zombie tried to move itself towards us, and I felt my stomach flip as it tried to lunge at me, but failed miserably.

"Okay, stay here." I told Kaitlin, and I slowly, quietly moved towards the Silver kitchen. To my shock, the zombie followed me, with a tremendous struggle.

"See Kaitlin!? They're attracted to me!" I said as I walked back to where she was standing. Kaitlin looked back at me with a hint of understanding, but she still looked apprehensive about the whole idea.

"Okay, but why?" she asked. I already knew the answer, for those long nights for the last few days where it was impossible to sleep where the perfect breeding grounds for theories and thoughts.

"Remember in grade 9 when we were doing basketball in gym, and we would dribble the ball for a bit and shock people?" a grin slipped up Kaitlin's face.

"Yeah, that was fun." She reminisced.

"And when I shocked you guys, it was really big. You could see the little blue bolt sometimes!" –Kaitlin began to nod- "Well, some people are more conductive of electricity than others. So my theory is, is that I'm more conductive of electricity than you, so the zombie is attracted to me." –Kaitlin opened her mouth to say something but I knew that she was going to ask how this was related to zombies- "The brain used electricity to send signals, right? So I'm sure the virus wants their host to be an electricity highway. That way it's easier for the virus to communicate with the body, and thus, a better zombie."

"That actually makes sense." Kaitlin said quickly after taking a second to absorb my theory. I smiled, for I was proud of my first, real life hypothesis. Not one you'd do in a science lab, but a real life scenario. Well, depends if you count a zombie invasion as a real life scenario.

A sudden moan brought our gazes to our dying friend. I cringed at the mass of rotting flesh as it squirmed around helplessly.

"I kind of feel sorry for it." I grumbled. Kaitlin frowned and titled her head.

"Yeah. We should put it out of its misery." Her tone suddenly changed, "Then again, it did try to kill you."

"That's true." I sighed, "I say we keep it for experiments."

"That is such a Michelle thing to say." Kaitlin chuckled.