Generation Zombie

Chapter 6: Getaway Truck.

It was more of a reflex action, really. Like sneezing, or yawning, or smacking Ajax Cassini on the back of his head and right afterwards saying; "Shut up! Do you want more zombies to get here?" Ruby felt like her hands had done something illegal, something daring, something glorious.

Something gloriously, daringly illegal.

At the same time, she thought of the fact that her hand had made contact with his perfect hair. If it wasn’t for hygiene, she’d probably never wash her hands again.

Ajax made a yelping sound and scratched the spot where Ruby had smacked him. He was beginning to struggle with accepting the idea that the whole thing wasn’t an elaborate prank. Tears glistened in his eyes. "I'm supposed to go live on ** in like, two hours..." He said in quite a whiny voice for a boy who had legally become an adult seven months ago.

Ruby looked at him sympathetically. "I know, I had your broadcast time set in my reminders."

His eyes shot up to her, a grin spreading on his face despite the wet eyes. "You're a Cassinator?" He asked hopefully.

Wasn’t that obvious? Ruby fawned over how adorable his cluelessness was. He was like a golden retriever; cute, with a diminished mental capacity. Well, she had enough brains for the two of them. She nodded vigorously. "For two years straight."

Arthur looked from one of them to the other; lost and confused. "What's a Cassinator?"

"It's my fandom's name." Ajax replied with a half smirk, running his slender fingers through his hair and winking conspiratorially at Ruby. Then he focused back on his reflection and began the intricate process of peeling off the now-completely dried charcoal mask on his face.

Arthur watched Ruby flush and drool and make puppy eyes at Ajax’s mere breathing. He looked heavenwards in exasperation. "God, this is torture." And then he shuffled his feet, and began navigating the jammed cars, towards the end of the main road where he could see a lone truck, parked far off in the dirt.

"Where are you going?” Ruby questioned, catching up to him while still keeping an eye on Ajax. She tried to not look at the cars too much. Their disorderly arrangement was causing an itch in her brain.

"To find the gameplay instructions." Arthur called over his shoulders, increasing the length of his strides.

Ruby’s thin, straight eyebrows creased. "What?" She questioned further, also getting quicker on her feet so she could keep pace with him.

"It's a game Ruby.” He snapped. But then when he saw her slightly flinch at his tone, he sighed and stopped in his tracks to explain. “We're inside the game. There's got to be a non-playable character to guide us, or some sort of mapped instruction."

Ruby summed him up, wondering what got him so wound up and irritated. She shrugged his attitude off and focused on the conversation at hand. "Well, where do we find it?"

Arthur raked a hand through his soft, unevenly cut hair. "I don't..."

A deafening blaring of a car alarm system drowned out the rest of his sentence. The sound; shrill and loud pierced their eardrums.

Over the sound, Ajax yelled. "Sorry I was trying to turn the ignition on!"

The gears in Arthur’s head shifted and moved. If there was one thing that attracted zombies faster than a bleeding person in their line of sight, it was sound. "Oh shit..." He whispered under his breath.

Ruby understood. She felt her heart pound against her ribcage, in fear and anticipation of the consequences of Ajax’s foolish actions.

Then they saw it. Like in any classic zombie movie, it always began with one snarling undead appearing out of nowhere, dragging its leg with a broken neck. Then another, and another, and another; until a swarm of them were heading eagerly towards the living. It was a game, but that didn’t mean dying or excruciatingly getting turned into a zombie as a side quest wasn’t a possibility.

The loud sound impaired Arthur’s ability to think straight, to think fast. But he was sure of one thing; they needed to get out of there, as fast as possible. The blaring wasn’t stopping, and that meant more zombies would be directed their way.

He glanced around wildly, and his eyes landed on the truck parked in the dirt. The driver’s side of the door was unlocked and swung wide open. He could only hope the keys were still inside, and the vehicle was still functional. "Ruby, quick! We have to get out of here. Get to the truck!" He pointed to it.

Ruby Bancroft had never felt more terrified in her life. Even when she witnessed her first earthquake, the fear had been moderate. This was blood-freezing, heart-stopping, legs-not-moving, head-not-thinking, zombies-charging induced fear. "What?!" She shrieked back at Arthur over the car alarm.

"Get to the truck, damnit!"

Hearing Arthur Halifax use a swear word in a sentence directed at her unfroze the muscles in her legs and she bolted madly towards the open truck, like a squirrel with its tail on fire.

Arthur calculated the distance between Ajax —foolish Ajax who didn’t even have an idea that a hoard of zombies were heading his way, and the zombies. Can he get to him in time? Yes. But can they get to the truck in time? The answer solely depended on how fast he could unlock the car or pull Ajax out through the window.

And just in case they don’t make it and get eaten then trampled by zombies, they’d be respawned to redo the level right? That’s how a game works. That’s how Jumanji worked. But something told him not to be too sure about having more than one life.

This could mean game over. Every moment, mistake, decision, could mean game over.

Arthur darted to the sports-car.

Ajax had seen the zombies through the rear-view mirror, and now he was frantic with fear; banging the door handles and lowering the window down. In a flash, Arthur got to him, just as he got the driver’s window to slide down completely.

Their ideas synchronized, and as Ajax tried to push himself through the window, Arthur grabbed a chunk hold of his grey cotton t-shirt and pulled him out.

“Run!” Ajax shouted the moment he got to his feet, as if Arthur needed someone to tell him.

The two boys ran like their lives depended on it, because in that moment, it truly did. It was a funny sight to see, if one was playing them as gaming characters, and weren’t in their shoes instead. A tall, agile boy of sixteen with awkward limbs and a long neck that made him look like a cartoon character, sprinting alongside a muscular, broad-shouldered Internet celebrity with the face of a Korean idol and the brain of a twelve year old.

And then there was Ruby; top of her class, critical of everyone’s life choices, full of anxiety attacks and currently revving the engine of a truck with a steering wheel twice her arm size, yelling for the two boys to get in.

They dived into the space where cargo —mostly dumpsters were kept.

"Drive, Ruby, Drive!" Arthur gave her the go ahead, his leg inches away from the grasp of a zombie.

The tires squealed; rubber burning on asphalt, as the truck lurched forward. "This is illegal!" Ruby yelled, but slammed her foot on the accelerator anyways, and kept a death grip on the steering wheel, trying to stabilize the direction. She bumped and pushed a few cars out of the way; sparks flying on metal to metal contact. Soon, the area was cleared of vehicles and she kept the truck moving straight ahead, eyes glued to the road.

Arthur released a heavy breath of relief and let his head fall backwards on the cluster of cardboards and plastic that escaped out of a trash-bag.

Ajax looked traumatized. His lower lip quivered like he was about to cry. "I almost died..." He said to no one in particular, eyes glazing over.

From where he lay, Arthur rolled his eyes. "What a tragedy of Shakespearian proportions that would've been..."

One for the books. But not really... Arthur had known the guy for a few minutes and he already had a feeling that he would be that one character in a horror movie who dies first.