Love in The Time of Zombies

I'd seriously thought those guys were doing a flash mob in the food court. Turns out they were actually real zombies instead of dancers. Damn you Michael Jackson! You lied to us in that music video.

That had been two minutes ago. Now I was running for my life from a ravenous horde. As my chubby legs carried me huffing and puffing down the malls corridors, fears and regret swarmed.

I'd never made it to the Sailor Moon convention. Was I gonna fall and die? Oh my gosh! If I died that meant I'd die a virgin. How sad was that?! I'd be eaten alive before I'd gotten to hook up with anyone! "I don't wanna die!"

Turns out running with your eyes closed pays off sometimes. I smacked straight into this demigod in leather. He looked down at me through aviator shades. "Get behind me if you want to live."

Thats all he said before shielding me with one hand and pulling something massive out of his pants. It was a flame thrower. I barely had time to register the tanks of fuel on his back. In the next instant flames exploded outward, roasting several zombies.

The twenty some odd zombies—some ignited some not—stopped before running away shrieking and gurgling. My rescuer nodded and reached for my hand!

My heart beat fast. We didn't even know each other's names and I was already holding his hand. It felt like a scene right out of an Otomé Manga.

Half a millisecond later the magic was gone. "C'mon we gotta get outta here fast," he said. "There's bound to be more infected in this mall. I need to get you to safety."

"Wait, I don't even know your name!"
Does that matter right now?"
"It does to me!"
"Blaze."
"I'm Tabby, nice to—"

He yanked me forward as we continued running.

"Hey! What the hell?!"
"We're not safe! We need to get to an exit, this isn't a getting to know you activity!"

Thank god the doors weren't too far. My lungs felt like they were being melted in acid. This was more running than I'd done since I got excused from health class for sports asthma.

I nearly fell flat on my face as Blaze stopped suddenly. As I recovered my balance I followed his frozen gaze. There were at least fifty zombies shuffling towards the glass doors. "This is worse than I thought. There must be an active burrow somewhere," he said. "We need to hide somewhere secure."


"The dressing rooms in Marshals!" I shouted.

Blaze cocked his brow so it was visible over his shades. I guessed he hadn't spent much time clothes shopping.

"It locks from the inside. The door doesn't have a gap at the bottom and there's no windows."

Blaze gave me a slight smile. "Good work, Tina," he said as we started running again. I was too out of breath to correct him.

As we finally made it to the dressing rooms, Blaze knocked over several racks of clothing and some furniture. It made me wonder what rock band he used to be part of.

"Dude, we're not 80s glam rockers in a hotel room; what are you doing?"

"If the zombies come this way, there needs to be obstacles. It'll slow them down."

Once Blaze was satisfied he'd toppled enough junk over, he yanked me into one of the open stalls. We stood so close to each other that I could feel his body heat.

Just in time to kill the sexual tension, I went into full bronchial spasm. Blaze looked at me in horror. "Can you stop that? They'll hear us. C'mon Tina!"

I unzipped my miniskirt's pocket and pulled out my nebulizer. After a few short puffs I finally had my breath back. "It's Tabby, not Tina," I said. "Sorry, sports asthma."

We both fell silent, trying to hear anything that might be headed our way. When we hadn't heard any sounds in a while, I finally worked up the nerve to talk.

"So, thanks for saving my life. I had no idea zombies were real till today. So what do we do now? Hey, Blaze?...Blaze?...Blaze!"

He snapped out of whatever trance he'd been in. "Huh? Oh yeah, no problem. I've been zombie hunting since, um, since, um, a long time!"

I tried to meet his gaze but the glasses made it hard to tell if he was making eye contact with me. "Are you narcoleptic or something?" I asked.

He blushed and tussled his short black hair. "No, erm, I was just thinking," he said. "After one too many blows to the head, I kinda have to shut everything else down to plan my next move."

I felt so bad now. I was being all judgy and it turned out this incredibly hot guy was suffering more than I realized. "I'm sorry," I said. "Did you come up with a plan?"


"Short term? Not really," Blaze said. "I'm thinking that if we can get out of here, I'll go find the Zombie Burrow, then go exterminate the Alphas. Should wipe out the hordes in this area."

A loud growl sounded like it came from the front of the store. Then there was a wet, snuffling noise.

"Shit, sounds like the Zombies are tracking us," Blaze said.

"Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, omygosh!" I whimpered. "I don't wanna die, I'm still VL!"

"VL?"
"Virgin Lips. Never been kissed."

The sounds of zombies drew closer. I was about to scream when Blaze pressed his lips against mine! They were so warm and soft. I lost myself in that moment. Zombies be damned, I was going to enjoy this moment!

Word Count: 950