Pay Attention
-A
Zombie Story-
A Short Story by
Teel
McClanahan III
Modern Evil Press
Phoenix
ISBN: 978-1-934516-58-4
Copyright 2009 by Teel McClanahan III
Some Rights Reserved.
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, 171 Second Street, Suite 300, San Francisco, California, 94105, USA.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, entities and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental and beyond the intent of either the author or the publisher.
Cover image Copyright 2009 by Teel McClanahan III
Published By Modern Evil Press at Smashwords
ISBN: 978-1-934516-58-4
– for love lost, and for love found –
This is a single short story excerpted from my short story collection, More Lost Memories. More Lost Memories is a companion book to my novel, Forget What You Can’t Remember. As I was writing that novel, I kept finding that certain interesting things that popped up there had to go unwritten (or be set aside) since they weren’t relevant to the story of that book.
What happened to the two guys who were supposed to be running the zombie survival course? What would the experience of a mixed martial arts competition be like for someone with an amazing sense of smell? What are the stories behind Fantastician’s other encounters? What about the details of Lance’s restaurant? And, what did Brady work on after the stunning conclusion of the novel?
This story, 'Pay Attention -A Zombie Story-' looks at the situation at a zombie readiness training camp during its final weeks of training before a full-scale zombie outbreak. It also gives a glimpse of what happened with Mary, a woman totally unprepared for what she's gotten herself into, and who goes on not only to survive the zombie outbreak, but to become one of the central characters of Forget What You Can't Remember. Enjoy.
-Teel McClanahan III
-A Zombie Story-
The Sergeant walked away with Lorraine by his side. Mary’s eyes were stuck in a shocked stare, liquid leaking silently from them and down her face as she watched the object of her desire slip away with her best friend. “You heard the man! Find shelter! Arm yourselves! This is a test, and you will be graded on your performance!”
The crowd of trainees scattered, searching the woods, running across fields, looking for the cabins that would protect them from the undead. Lance and Brady ran off in the same direction. Most of the others kept to groups of two or three. Mary didn’t move, she just kept looking in the direction the Sergeant had gone in, as though frozen.
“I’m sorry about that.” One of the instructors approached her, speaking in a familiar tone. “I was sure he’d go for you. He really does have a thing for red heads.”
Mary’s eyes snapped across to meet his eyes. Her head, her body, her streaming tears remained as they were. Her lip trembled, but she did not speak.
“Why did you bring her along, anyway? She hardly looks fit to survive a full zombie survival training course.” His tone was gruff, even though deep down he was glad to see the Sergeant distracted and it didn’t matter to him which woman it was doing the distracting. “If you’d gone off with him, she’d be the one stuck out here by herself. Did you want her to be zombie bait, or just to have to put out for protection?”
Mary sniffled. There were only a couple of trainees still in sight. The other instructor was waiting, a few feet away, bruised and impatient. Mary’s hands rose to her face and futilely wiped away her tears. Her tears didn’t stop. Being accused of wanting her best friend murdered hadn’t helped.
“Look, we’re being watched, so you’re going to have to participate. Stephen,” he addressed the other instructor, “did you happen to notice if any of the cabins didn’t have someone headed to it?”
“Hard to say. No one was headed for eleven, but two groups are gonna hit the outer wall if they stay on a straight course. No way of knowing where they’ll end up after that.”
“Wait,” Mary’s voice was hoarse and accusatory, “I thought you told me your name was Steven.”
“It is.”
“But you just called him Steven.”
“No, I called him Stephen. He’s Stephen with a ‘ph’ and I’m Steven with a ‘v’.” Stephen finally crossed the distance to where Mary was still standing frozen in place. “Stephen, this is Mary, the woman I was telling you about. Mary, this is Stephen. He’ll be assisting me with running the new facility out West.”
Stephen reached out a hand, but Mary did not take it and after a moment he let it fall back to his side. “Pleased to meet you, Mary.”
“Okay, so, do you see that boulder over there, kinda shaped like a bear?” Mary’s eyes moved to the boulder. “Cabin eleven is about ten minutes into the forest if you walk a straight path past that boulder. There are plenty of big knives in the kitchenette and there should be a hunting rifle in one of the closets.” Steven glanced at his watch. “Someone will be checking in at each cabin in fifteen minutes, so get there and get armed before they show up. Remember, zombies can’t use language, so don’t open the door for anyone who doesn’t. Now go!”
Mary’s hands reached up and halfheartedly wiped another face full of tears away. She took a deep breath. She gave Steven a look that she hoped expressed that she couldn’t do this without him. She ran off in the direction of the boulder and was quickly out of sight amongst the trees.
“She’s going to need a lot of help to survive this thing, herself.”
“I thought she’d be protected by the Sergeant. Now I’m going to have to try to keep her safe without compromising her training and run the entire camp for the rest of the trainees at the same time. What a headache.”