And This Too: A Modern Fable (2 page)

             
Imogene scurried from the scene and down a flight of stairs, before she found herself in the girls’ locker room. Her heart pounded in her throat as she listened to the faint sound of her peers’ blood curdling cries. Then, there were heavy, uneven footfalls coming from the stairs. Imogene surveyed her surroundings. She had to choose between hiding in a toilet stall or the showers. She crept towards the empty, dry showers just as the ghoul's shadow entered the room. Imogene sat on a bench in the shower stall victoriously that she supposed was meant to be a shelf that was too wide and too low to the ground. She slid backwards towards the wall as the uneven shuffling sound came closer.

             
Ppt-ppt-pshhhh.

             
Imogene looked at the shower head in dismay as it begun to spurt water. That’s when she noticed the blinking red sensor.

             
“Oh god,” she muttered in disbelief.

             
It had been a couple of years since she'd taken gym, so she had no clue that they'd upgraded the showers.

             
“Uuuuughn.”

             
The water had tipped the monster off, and now he was headed in her direction. The frightened teen edged back to the front of the bench. The water shut off. She took a deep breath to calm her nerves, stood up, and ran for it. The predator saw the teen dart off and began to pursue his prey more vigorously.

             
Imogene ran for the other set of stairs with the undead football player close behind. In her haste, she fumbled up the stairs, falling over herself a couple of times. Enough adrenaline was pumping through her system for her to get up without taking notice of the cut on her chin, or the rapidly enlarging, purple bump on her shin. The girl used excessive effort to push through the door she had found.

             
The teen couldn't help but recoil as she was hit with a blast of warm, chlorinated air. She had unwittingly led herself to the pool. With legs too sore to work properly for much longer, Imogene tried to power walk to the water slide on the other side of the room. Just as she had begun to ascend the ladder, the swinging door opened, and the rogue jock caught sight of his prey. Imogene crawled into the top of the tube slide and watched in horror as number thirty-two quickly made his way across the room. Imogene bit her bottom lip and held her breath as she waited for the monster to accept the stalemate. Instead, he glanced up the ladder and began to scale it.

             
“Shit,” she sobbed, scared to tears.              

             
Imogene pushed herself down the slide and entered the water with a splash. She gasped as her jeans and hoodie instantly absorbed some of the water. In the heat of the chase she'd forgotten how unbelievably heavy she'd get under water. As she paddled with one hand and both of her feet, Imogene struggled out of her hoodie. That’s when a splash echoed throughout the room.

             
The desperately hungry boy sank all the way to the bottom of the pool and began to continue the chase. Imogene tried to paddle faster, slipping out of her slippers in the process. Exhausted, she tried to keep swimming as the ghoul behind her continued forward at an unnerving pace.

             
She decided to take a chance and began treading water as she pulled her shirt up over her head. Then she quickly unfastened her jeans before advancing towards the shallow end. She kicked her pants off as she swam. However, even though the scantily clad high school girl was moving with new found speed, number thirty-two was catching up. For a brief moment, Imogene recognized the howling monster behind her, and sadness bubbled up in her throat as she remembered how Tom Balfina had bought her lunch when someone tripped her in the hallway and spilled her homemade spaghetti all over the floor. Tom, the running back, was one of the only guys on the team that Imogene could really stand. As the terrified girl swam towards the other side of the pool she almost wanted to stop fleeing. She began to wonder why she hadn’t just swam to an edge and gotten out of the contaminated water.

             
Just as Imogene reached the shallow end, she began to believe that she was in the clear. Her toes could almost touch the bottom, so she paused a moment to catch her breath. That’s when a hand grabbed her ankle.

             
Imogene was able to let out one final scream before Tom pulled her under.

*****

Somewhere in North Dakota

"Radioactive Fizzy."

"Anda for you, sir?"

"Hot tea," Levi replied kindly as he and his friend slid out of the window side booth.

Li Xiu Ying smiled politely and nodded. She hated working in her uncle's restaurant; most of the customers were too rude for her to handle. Li Xiu was relieved that she could bitch about them in Chinese. The waitress went and gathered drinks for the buffet-fattened oil riggers as the front door opened and a large, disgruntled family reunion boisterously interrupted the peace of everyone dining at Foo Chow Buffet. Li Xiu sighed and rolled her eyes, stepping back onto the floor with a plastic cup of green soda, a mug, and a small metal tea-pot in hand.

Li Xiu got to the table as the two roughnecks sat down. Levi’s kind eyes fell as he shook his head in disgust when his soda slurping counterpart, Eddy, patted Li Xiu on the ass. The cute girl gritted her teeth and forced herself to smile, mumbling angrily in Chinese as she walked back to the kitchen.

"Do they serve beer here?!" A man shouted from the reunion crowd.

"No Dad, quiet down, this is a family restaurant."

"Great, now I don't get to enjoy any of this!"

"Dad, settle down, let's get some food."

"Damn Chinc’s," the man grumbled, "During the war I would've killed every one of ya dirty yella skins."

All who heard grew uncomfortably quiet. Most of the diners ate at Foo Chow because it wasn't a chain and it wasn't American. In fact, most people in the run-down town--which was thirty-three percent hotels, thirty-three percent eateries and thirty-three percent drinking establishments--thought that racism was just a word. Levi growled slightly at his plate when he heard the man’s hurtful words.

"One more peep from that walking stiff, and I'm going to have to put him to sleep." Levi muttered before pouring himself a cup of tea.

He watched intently as the disgruntled old man piled chicken on his plate and waddled back to his seat. Li Xiu silently wished it had been a weekday. If it had been a weekday, her uncle would be working and could've taken care of the situation.

The old man picked at his food, a film of sweat forming on his face, as his family gabbed around him, nervously pretending that the awkward moment had never happened.

"Dude, quit staring. We don’t have long before lunch is over."

"Eddy, I come here because I like the atmosphere and the people who work here," Levi glanced over at Li Xiu who was helping an elderly woman to a booth. "And so I'm waiting for that doddering old prick to open his mouth again."

Eddy looked nervously at his plate and sipped his Radioactive Fizzy. “You’re just butt hurt because you’ve got the hots for that waitress.”

Levi eyed his “friend” for a second. They could’ve been brothers, they were the same height and build with the same dark hair and dark eyes. Eddy was ten months older than Levi, but had no respect for anyone except himself. Eddy was a punk, whereas Levi viewed himself as more than that. He didn’t dignify Eddy’s comment with an answer; he just quietly ate his rice and turned his attention back to the opinionated old man.

Over at the family gathering, a ten year old boy turned curiously to the now silent man and asked eyes wide with wonder, “Papa Frank, what’s a 'chinc'?"

The old man's cheeks reddened with the realization that the boy had heard his brief yet disturbing rant, "It's a bad word, Joseph, and I shouldn't have used it."

The boy's face fell from wonder and sank to disappointment, "Oh..."

Papa Frank chewed on a rubbery piece of chicken and took a moment to notice what was going on in his body. His flourish of sweat hadn't dissipated yet, and it was getting damn hot in the room. He tugged at his collar a little as more sweat began to trickle from his pores.
Oh God
, he thought as his shirt began to dampen with perspiration,
I'm having a heart attack
. The room began to spin and Papa Frank put his head in his hands.

"I’m going to join you up there Thelma, darling," he murmured into his palms before falling face first into his food.

Levi's eyes doubled in size. "Someone call 9-1-1!" he gasped as Frank's family noticed the man collapse.

"Dad!" One girl cried, running to him, knocking her chair over in the process.

Another one of the reunion attendees whipped out a cell phone and frantically dialed 911. Young Joseph was clutching his Papa's arm, urging him to wake up. Levi was glued to his seat, mouth hanging open. He felt as though time had stopped.

Then, cutting through all the commotion, a heart-stopping screech resounded through the restaurant. Papa Frank bolted upright and a wave of opaque, oily gunk spewed from his mouth. This made quite a few on-lookers nauseous. Li Xiu's reaction was instinctive; she'd seen this illness before and there was only one cure. The ailing man screeched again. The whites of his eyes began yellowing as his skin started turning grey before Papa Frank upturned the entire table and attacked the nearest person to him, his daughter-in-law Gloria.

As the newly carnivorous man gnawed at the screaming woman, young Joseph tried to pry him off of her. Instantly, Papa Frank turned around and started chewing on Joseph instead. Customers began fleeing the scene, not paying for the meals they had abandoned. Some of the grief stricken family began to run. The relative who was trying to relay the scene to a dispatcher dropped his cellular device into his plate of food, becoming paralyzed with fear.

Levi watched, still unable to move, as the man formerly known as Papa Frank leapt over the table and began biting a woman's ankle with the elegance of an overweight, decrepit cat.

Li Xiu thanked the gods that she wasn't in China, where she had dealt with this problem with a sword. Using the handgun her uncle kept by the register, Li Xiu quickly incapacitated the old man with a bullet through his brain. Frank's victims were beginning to expel the trademark putrid, asphalt colored sludge and howl with a newfound hunger for human flesh. Three more well placed shots from the handgun and the diner was quiet again. Only the bodies of customers served as a reminder of what had happened in the diner.

Levi was still speechless, as was Eddy. Neither of them knew how to deal with what they had just witnessed.

*****

Harley let out an unladylike belch after greedily devouring the chili and little, over processed sausages that she had packed in one of her duffle bags. Pixel began to wash himself for the fifteenth time that day. Armed with only her handgun, Harley got out and checked the engine fluid levels. Who cares if you have gas if the car is out of oil or brake fluid? She was relieved to find that the car she’d stolen had healthy vital signs.

              She felt the sun on her face and smiled. The wind carried the promise of rain. Harley closed her eyes, feeling almost normal. Without a moment’s hesitation, the peaceful silence was shattered by the disturbing roar of a motorcycle.

             
Harley closed the hood of the car as silently as possible, breathing a handful of obscenities

             
The rumble of a single motorcycle grew closer and closer. Harley squeezed her eyes shut, leaning towards the hood of the car, praying that whoever it was would just pass her without a second thought.

             
“Hey! Do you need help little lady?” The man called.

             
Harley exhaled sharply as she turned around. He was a policeman, or at least he was dressed like one and riding a police issued motorcycle.

             
“Nope,” She replied, squinting a little because the uniformed man was standing just to the right of the sun.

             
“Is this your car?” He asked, sizing Harley up and comparing her to the Cadillac.

             
“Wouldn’t
you
like to know,” Harley replied shortly, heading for the driver’s side door.

             
The man got off of his bike and stepped towards her. Harley’s hand automatically went to her waist band. Through the windshield he noticed the twenty-one year old's supplies and rations lying on the back seat.

             
“Did you buy all of that?” He inquired.

             
“Yes,” Harley replied harshly, getting angry. “I’ve been preparing for this shit for years.” Her voice had grown stony. All she wanted to do was hop back into her car and drive farther away from Ivana’s Port.

             
The man mistook her tone for sarcasm, “I must advise you to take it back.”

             
“Why?” She asked, balling her fists. “So that someone else can take what I paid for? It’s every woman for herself now, '
officer
'. And even still, what are you going to do about it? Take me to jail? I can promise you that the IPPD is
surrounded
by those things! You’re better off just letting me go.”