Fiction

 "Oh shit" Dale whispered to his partner Steve, "We have company"

The smell was of rotting flesh was oozing out of the humid air, an odor that lingered in the sinus and could feel it's texture on one's tongue. Maggot flies buzzed about randomly, breaking from the path of the Walker. This was the first Walker they had encountered in several days, and unfortunately were out in the open, without a weapon ready. Complacency was easy when the numbers had seemed to lean out. It was as if the Walkers were slowly running out of fuel. With less humans to consume, it appeared that they were starving to death. Dale and Steve had happened upon lots of corpses that looked gaunt, waifish. One was still alive, but hardly had the energy to acknowledge their presence. Dale shot it in the head anyways. After all these months of shooting every Walker they could, habits were hard to break.

 The Walker, who, when she was a human, was probably a very attractive woman. She had long, blond hair. She was tall and lean, super model type. For how beautiful she might have been, now she was a horrific sight. The blond hair was missing in clumps, and it had bright, white maggots crawling through out it. She had dried blood spattered around her face and blouse, which was ripped and tattered. Her once white bra was exposed, filthy. It appeared that her right eyeball had been torn out of her skull, nothing but a black hole. Her arms and legs were bruised and cut. She walked with a shuffle, with no purpose. She didn't see Dale and Steve, they just waited for her to get closer. They were both packing sawed off barrel shotguns, 12 gauge slides. These were easier to handle and light to carry, but a rifle with a scope would be very handy in this situation. One good head shot, and its all over. If they tried to shoot at this distance, even with the slugs they were carrying, most likely the shot would miss and the noise could attract more Walkers.
 
Steve slowly raised his weapon so he could look down the barrel, clicked off the safety and squeezed the trigger. Dale braced for the sound. His aim was true and the sabot did its job, hitting her in the chin and mostly tearing the head off. The body fell instantly, with out so much as a twitch, blood flowing freely. The odor of the rotten blood was un-bearable. The Walkers smelled terrible, but once you spill the blood of one, the putrid odor increases ten fold. "Lets get the hell out of here," Dale said, swallowing down vomit," more will be here soon, I imagine."

 "Right, keep going. I wish we could drive right now, get the hell out of this place." Steve questioned. The road was chock block full of abandoned cars and trucks. An over-turned tractor trailer blocked the way and folks just walked away from their cars. Lots of wheels with keys, lots of gas, unfortunately, somehow, when the Apocalypse happened, anything that ran with electricity ceased to operate. Cars, airplanes, trains, everything just quit, and shit got really messed up all at once. Some say it was a comet, a sun flare, aliens, god. So many questions and the only answer was to grab a gun and watch your back. Luckily, Steve noticed an S.U.V. with a bike rack on it, with two mountain bikes.
 
"Good thing Jimmy isn't here, he would be screwed." Steve said, trying to lighten the mood. Dale looked at him with a puzzled look. It wasn't funny. Jimmy was Dale's best friend and his lone employee. Before the Apocalypse, Dale was a custom house builder and renovator. Steve was a plumber who Dale hire to plumb his projects. They were all hanging out the night the Apocalypse happened. Jimmy had awoken with a searing hang-over. He found out that the power was out and woke the rest of the house up. Steve had tried to go home but his truck wouldn't start. Dale's truck wouldn't start. Cell phones were dead, no lights, no heat, nothing. Jimmy had walked outside to get some fresh air, and was attacked by a Walker. Steve used a maul to kill the Walker, but Jimmy was wounded. Dale ended up having to kill his best friend when Jimmy, after a few painful hours, lashed out. Dale had a shotgun close by and ended "its" life.

To be continued......