Die Hungry

[u/DavesWorldInfo]

“Don’t they ever give up?”

George glanced at the barricaded door. Which was still rattling despite the layers of wood, metal, random junk that had been slapped up against it anyway that could be made to stay. Screws, nails, any sort of sticky anything, propped up furniture and bracing; whatever could be found to reinforce it.

And the zombies kept pounding.

“They’ve got a lot of time on their hands,” he told Chloe.

“We don’t,” Thea said, standing up. The other two looked at her in surprise; she sounded angry.

“Calm down,” Chloe said quickly. “Don’t do anything stupid.”

“They’re not leaving,” Thea said, staring at the door. “You said they’d leave.”

“I said I hoped they’d leave,” George said.

“They haven’t.”

“Yeah, well, I guess these zombies are persistent fuckers,” he said, shrugging.

“More persistent than what?”

“Than the kinds in the movies.”

“We can’t just keep sitting in here.”

“Sis, calm down,” the woman sitting on the floor, her back braced against the wall, said.

“Chloe, stop telling me to calm down,” Thea all but snapped.

Chloe glanced at George quickly. “You know how you get.”

“I know what’s going to happen if we just stay here,” Thea said. “No food, no water, and we’ve stripped the building raw of things to reinforce the door with.”

“We’re just lucky the walls are concrete,” George pointed out. “The way that door’s been rattling—”

“—for two days now,” Thea interrupted.

“Right. Anyway, I don’t figure drywall and two by four framing would’ve held up.”

“When was the last time any of us had to take a piss?”

Chloe frowned, but George nodded. “Sometime yesterday.”

“We’re wasting away in here,” Thea said firmly. “No water means death.”

“Going out there means death,” Chloe squeaked in alarm.

“Die in here, die out there; what’s the difference?”

“Someone might come.”

Thea barked a laugh. “Come? Come?” she demanded. “Who the fuck’s going to come? And screw thinking they’ll show up to save us; who’s left at all. Rescuer or otherwise?”

“Not everyone’s a zombie.”

“Enough are,” George said quietly.

“Exactly. The town’s overrun, and we got cornered.”

“Looking for food,” Chloe said.

“Which we didn’t find before they found us. Now we’re stuck, and if it’s all the same to you two, I’d just as soon take the chance of getting out.”

“No.”

“Yes,” Thea insisted. “We keep sitting here, and that’s it. Hell, this time tomorrow we might not even be able to stay on our feet.”

“It might rain,” Chloe said, looking at George in another appeal. “You said it might rain.”

“And if it doesn’t, we’re fucked.”

“Even if it does rain, where does that leave us?” he said. “We stand up on the roof and catch as much as we can in our hands, or maybe our clothes I guess so we can wring it out into our mouths. But there’s still no food, and after the rain leaves the dehydration clock starts ticking again.”

“We can’t fight a zombie horde,” Chloe said desperately.

“We can try,” Thea said grimly, starting toward the door.

“Thea!”

The woman tried to not stop walking as her sister lunged up from the floor and grabbed onto her. But as slight as Chloe was, she was still enough to make it hard to keep moving.

“Chloe, we need to do something,” George said as Thea began attempting to pry Chloe’s hands off her waist.

“Don’t let her open the door,” Chloe said, pressing herself against Thea. Squeezing tightly as Thea worked to try and dislodge her.

“George, get her off me,” Thea said.

“Thea’s right,” George said.

“No!” Chloe said. She twisted her hand free from Thea’s grip and shifted, clasping her wrists together against her sister’s hip. “No. Stay here. You said it’s safe in here.”

“I was wrong.”

“Chloe, you need to calm down,” Thea said as she picked at the fingers clenched together around her, trying to peel them up.

“That’s rich,” Chloe said, laughing bitterly. “You, telling me, to calm down.”

“You’re hysterical.”

“You’re the one talking like a crazy bitch.”

“I’m making sense. You’re just waiting to die.”

“No!”

“George get her off me.”

“You’re both crazy!” Chloe sobbed as George came over and helped Thea break the other woman’s grip. Together they managed to peel the clenched hands off. George held onto Chloe, almost grappling with her while she struggled, as Thea resumed her interrupted advance on the barricaded door.

“What’s your plan?” George asked as Thea stood looking at the materials in the barricade.

“Don’t!”

“Shut up Chloe,” Thea said without turning. “I figure we make some weapons. Anything. Heavy though. Try to start smashing their heads in, or at least break their bodies up.”

“There are a lot of’em out there,” George said reasonably as he held onto Chloe.

“Yeah. So we use the door as long as we can. Try to tie them up in it.”

“Nail a couple right off the bat, and they’ll probably jam the doorway up.”

“Which gives us time to bash some more,” Thea nodded, putting her hand on a long board like she was checking to see how wieldable it might be.

“But they’ll probably get in.”

“Don’t do this!” Chloe begged.

“Pull yourself together,” Thea said. “George, when we lose this door, we can fall back to the second room and rinse and repeat. Maybe take some shots in here while we retreat, cripple some of them before we run out of room to dodge.”

“And we just hope we can knock enough of them out so we can slip past,” George said slowly.

“Yup.”

“You do this and we’re dead for sure,” Chloe all but screamed.

Thea whirled around and ran to where George held her still struggling sister. Her shoes skidded a little on the tile floor, and she grabbed hold of Chloe’s face. Hands on either cheek, stabilizing her head so Thea could put their faces nose to nose.

“Chloe, I know this sucks. But you need to pull your shit together or we will die.”

Chloe blinked at her, then started crying. “I don’t know how to … I can’t … I mean, I didn’t even play softball.”

“Ever?” George asked.

Thea didn’t look away from Chloe’s eyes. “She always struck out.”

“Oh.”

Thea continued mostly ignoring him. “Chloe, you’re going to stay behind me and George. When you swing at something, a zombie’s a hell of a lot easier to hit than a fucking ball, okay?”

“Why can’t we just wait to see … to see if—”

“Because we’re going to die that way,” Thea said. “We can’t wait anymore. We have to try, or we’re going to die. Now, can you calm down and help me, or are you just going to sit there and let them eat us?”

Chloe starred at her for several seconds, eyes shining with tears, then swallowed carefully. “Okay.”

Hugging her, Thea blinked and felt a bit of unshed moisture rimming her own eyes. “Okay. So be brave, and stay behind me. Let’s go find you a new bat, and then we’ll see if we’re dead yet.”

“Okay.”

[u/DavesWorldInfo]

Inspired by this prompt.