Saturday 23 February 2013

299: I Walked with a Zombie

“So, you been here before?”  I looked across at the guy beside me.  He didn’t reply, possibly didn’t even hear me.  I tried again.  “I said, have you been here before?  It’s my first time.”  Still nothing from him.  His dedication to character was impressive.  He even managed a throaty moan and swivelled his head towards me a little.

I wondered if I shouldn’t be speaking at all, perhaps only moaning and groaning too.  That was what everyone else was doing.  Some were really loud and shrieking.  They didn’t sound very realistic to me.  This guy with his vague sounds were much more what I’d imagine one would be like.

Mostly people had come in groups and very few of us were alone.  That was what made me head for this guy really, sort of pairing up for the walk.  Johnny was coming with me but at the last minute he couldn’t make it.  Something got him on the way apparently and by then I was already at the startline.  So I thought, why not go on anyway.  Maybe I’d meet a sexy lady zombie or maybe just a sufficiently drunk lady zombie.  But all the lady zombies were with buff zombies and their mates zombies, so I got to attach myself to a method-acting zombie.

I thought I’d have one more go before I shuffled off in search of someone else.  “Good costume mate.”  And it was too.  Most people had just ripped their shirts and jeans, powdered up their faces and streaked ketchup liberally across all of it.  This guy had dried blood and dirty nails and even some of those fake wounds stuck on him.  The one across his neck looks like a deep bite, almost down to the bone.  He must have been before to be this good.

He began to groan again and raised one hand to point at a group of girls ahead of us.  “Yeah mate, very nice,” I said.  Did he really think girls like that would go for guys like us?  As he started towards them with the most determination I’d seen in him all afternoon I decided I’d had enough.  “I’m going to shoot mate,” I said patting his shoulder, and cut out of the crowd across towards the station.

I looked back just before I turned the corner.  He’d caught those girls up and was starting to nuzzle into the neck of one of them.  “Good luck to him,” I thought and wiped my sticky red hand on the leg of my jeans as I left them all to it.


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