Jennifer’s eyes fluttered open. Her vision adjusted to dim lighting as she blinked a couple of times to shake off a stiff grogginess, a crime against her mind, yes, but also one against her body, as she found herself unable to comfortably move.
She stared down at the chains wrapped around her chest, those chains binding her to the metal chair she unfortunately found herself sitting upon. That chair was bolted to the concrete beneath it, and the chains were looped within the backing slats of the chair itself, so there was no escaping this confinement anytime soon.
“Wh…What?” she stammered.
She shook her head once, then twice, and then she took in a deep breath in order to calm down. She wasn’t calm, no, but she couldn’t feel her heart racing, so maybe she was better in these situations than she had ever estimated in the past…Not that she’d been in this kind of situation before, but at this point, that observation was moot, considering she was probably going to die by the hand of whoever had captured her, and soon.
“H…Hello?” she asked.
The darkness of this room hid some kind of dingy garage or bunker, somewhere with dim electric lighting and shelves stacked with tools and mechanical junk. What was unusual was the electric lighting, as there were few places, if any, that had working electricity anymore. That miracle of lighting was directly above her, a simple single bulb that shone its soft touch down upon her.
Jennifer struggled to remember how she had gotten here, but that information kept ending in a blank, a lack of memory that stoked her fear and anxiety.
“Roman?” she asked herself.
She could remember getting surrounded by the shambling dead out there, out there in the blinding cold. She could remember Roman pushing her away, telling her to run, and she had, but she had fallen on the ice-slick rocks, and the ground had zoomed up, zooming up toward her, and…and…
“Hello!” she cried out.
“Finally awake, fledge?” came a female voice from out of the darkness.
A young white woman walked into Jennifer’s view. This young lady was in her early twenties, around Jennifer’s own age, of normal weight, maybe a little slender, around 5’ 8” in height, but her dark eyes held no hint of mercy or compassion. No, people had just gone stark crazy ever since the apocalypse had started.
The young lady in front of her bent over and stared her directly in the eyes. This woman was wearing decent-looking winter gear, an outfit consisting of a padded dark-blue parka with a fur hood, light-blue jeans, and black outdoorsman boots. She had a pretty, if not pale, face with dark-brown eyes, that pretty face surrounded by long, thick, black, curly hair. It was her eyes, though, that freaked out Jennifer. Those dark eyes held a flash of something in them, fury, possibly, a lack of compassion, definitely, and something else, something equally terrible…Jennifer couldn’t tell.
Whomever this woman was, she did not look friendly.
“We got ourselves a redhead,” said the young lady in a not-so-friendly tone. “Haven’t seen a ginger in a while. You’re a real cutie too, kinda hot. Guess that’s why I kept ya.”
Jennifer considered herself somewhat attractive, but nothing like “a real cutie.” She was tall, 6′ 1”, but she was also lanky and kind of awkward-looking in her own mind’s idea of body image.
Yes, she was a redhead, a tall, lanky redhead with brown eyes, no freckles, and generally pale skin, but she did not consider herself ugly. She had some self-esteem after all, but she had never thought of herself as “a real cutie,” at least not from the female side of the aisle. She’d had guys call her cute, sometimes hot, but never from a girl, and this confounded her.
She was wearing her own winter outfit, her red coat and blue jeans and tan outdoorsman boots, but this didn’t really add to any attractiveness on her part, so this strange young lady’s odd attention was ultimately confusing after even a shred of time’s worth of thought.
“Wh…What do you want?” asked Jennifer.
Her captor straightened up her own profile and stared down at her.
“Well, I don’t know about you, but I’m starving,” said the young woman. “I was going to save you for myself, but then I got to thinking…I’m lonely. I never thought I’d get lonely…I thought I was done with that, but I guess I wasn’t.”
“What do you mean ‘save me for yourself’?” asked Jennifer, but then panic struck her as she remembered her boyfriend. “Wait! Where’s Roman? What have you done with Roman!”
“Roman?” asked her female captor. “Who’s Roman?…Oh, wait…That guy you were with?…Oh, he got torn apart before I could get to him. That fool waded right into a whole swarm of zombies…probably to save you, but you went and knocked yourself out like an idiot…Too bad, too. I wanted him…What a waste.”
Jennifer wanted to cry; she wanted to wail, but there was nothing inside for her to do so. She felt empty all of the sudden, shocked, yes, but empty and cold.
“He…He…He’s dead?” she asked in disbelief.
“He’s freakin’ roadkill, fledge,” said the stranger. “Those deaders were pulling out his guts last time I saw him.”
Jennifer stared at the hard concrete floor of this place but said nothing. There was nothing to say. She had been with Roman for two years before all of this madness had started four months ago. She and Roman had been headed south, headed for a warmer climate, like birds migrating. They’d spent their time struggling to survive, avoiding the dead and gangs of crazy people, crazy people also trying to survive…None of that mattered now. Roman was gone, and now Jennifer was a prisoner, so none of that mattered anymore.
She looked up at this young lady and asked the first thing that came to her mind.
“How can you be so cruel?” asked Jennifer in lingering disbelief over this girl’s callousness.
She was stunned, shocked, really, and it was evident in her voice.
“My boyfriend just died,” she said, her wavering voice falling into a semblance of grief. “Don’t you care?”
“Why?” shrugged her captor. “He was nothing as far as I’m concerned…Honestly, you’re lucky you’re still in one piece.”
“We…We don’t treat people that way,” said Jennifer with a shake of her head. “Roman wasn’t nothing…I loved him…You’re so cruel…”
She was a million miles away in her own mind, at some clichéd happy place, but she couldn’t help it. She wouldn’t have been able to cope under normal circumstances anyway. She was going to break down and cry at some point, but for now, she just couldn’t. That deluge of tears was put on hiatus for the moment, mainly because she was not all there, and she knew it.
“I don’t know if you’ve noticed our life situation, fledge,” frowned the girl standing above her. “Did you take a look outside? There’s no world anymore. It’s a zombie apocalypse now.”
“That doesn’t mean we have to be evil,” argued Jennifer. “We can still help each other. We can still find people who aren’t…aren’t maniacs. We’re supposed to come together in times of crisis.”
“If you say so,” shrugged her captor. “I’m pretty sure you’ll change your mind soon…I’m Charlotte, by the way, ‘Charlie’ for short. My name became super popular for baby girls, like, not that long ago, which sucks, because…well…you know. Now it’s not special, you know?”
Jennifer simply stared at her, her own brown eyes wide with both confusion and fear. This girl was clearly crazy, truly insane. This ‘Charlie’ was too calm about all of this, too laissez-faire about the world and the living dead and her own distinct lack of empathy.
“Honestly, I shouldn’t have taken you in,” said Charlotte. “I’m still struggling to come up with a reason for it…You’re just another mouth to feed, and I could end you now, but like I said…I’m lonely. Maybe I got horny or just stupid, but I like the way you look, even if you are kind of dumb.”
“Horny?” asked Jennifer stupidly. “Wait…Are you a lesbian?…I…I’m not gay.”
“I don’t care,” shrugged Charlotte. “Every girl’s a little gay. Not every guy is, but definitely every girl… Not that I care. We could never so much as touch for the rest of eternity, and I’d be fine with that. I just wanted some company…And before you ask, yes, I do prefer the female body, and yes, I already know straight women hate girls like me. I just don’t give a crap.”
“How can you not like guys?” asked Jennifer.
This question was really stupid, true, but she was still in shock, so her statements weren’t so much thoughtful as they were surface level.
“I’ve always wanted to run with the boys, fledge, not bang ’em,” said Charlotte nonchalantly.
“Why do you keep calling me fledge?” asked Jennifer.
“Because you’re a fledgling,” frowned Charlotte. “Straight out of the nest, little miss…uhhh…what is your name anyway?”
“Jennifer,” replied Jennifer. “My name is Jennifer… Why am I chained up, Charlotte? Why did you do this to me?”
“Because you’re a fledge, fledge,” explained Charlotte. “Can’t have you attacking me, especially once you get hungry.”
The cold hard truth was that Jennifer couldn’t fight. She’d taken some karate classes when she was younger, but she had no desire to fight, so she doubted any of those lessons had ever taken hold. Even with the world the way it was, she and Roman had always run from the dead, not fought them.
“You’re pretty tall, Jen,” said Charlotte. “You’re taller than I am, and I’m taller than a lot of girls, so I have to be cautious.”
This was ridiculous. There was no reason for this.
“Let me go,” begged Jennifer. “Please? There’s no reason to keep me prisoner. Aren’t girls supposed to be the good ones? It’s men that do all of this kind of stuff, isn’t it? Aren’t women the good ones? We should be helping each other. You don’t have to do this. You don’t have to act like this.”
Charlotte stared down at her with an incredibly insulting “Are you stupid?” look.
“Did you even go to high school?” asked the hostile young woman. “I don’t know about you, but I got my ass kicked by those so-called ‘good ones.’…Have you even met other women? What is wrong with you?”
“There’s nothing wrong with me,” argued Jennifer. “I just…It’s just…we don’t have to do this. Please, let me go.”
“Can’t do that,” said Charlotte with a shake of her head. “I told you, I’m lonely.”
“I’m not gay, Charlotte,” said Jennifer in growing frustration.
“Charlie,” frowned “Charlie.”
“I’m not gay, Charlie,” said Jennifer again. “I can’t be what you want me to be…You want a girlfriend, right?…I can’t be that…And even if I was bi, I just found out my boyfriend died…Even if I wanted to have a girlfriend, I…I can’t just automatically get over the fact that someone I love just…just died…”
She wanted to cry. She wanted to sob and wail and weep, but there was nothing there, nothing inside her to do so. No, there was only a sudden hunger eating away at her, causing her guts to clench and growl in pain, a powerful hunger that hurt, hurt, and then hurt some more.
She winced and pressed against the chains around her as her stomach growled in vicious protest of her own desires.
“You’re starving, fledge,” said Charlie. “This is about survival now…I’m going to have to kick you out of the nest, throw you in the deep end. Otherwise, you’re not going to make it.”
“What are you talking about?” grimaced Jennifer. “Just let me go so I can grieve.”
“You need to eat, stupid,” smiled Charlie, though that smile was not kind.
“I can’t eat like this unless you feed me,” replied Jennifer unhappily. “You can’t keep me chained up like this…Only psychos do that.
“Roman and I were looking for food in this little town, and it’s not like I want to take yours. I know there’s food out there, Charlie. There’re cans of food that haven’t gone bad. I just need to look in some houses or find a…a grocery store or something like that.”
“You think those haven’t been raided?” snorted Charlie. “Actually, there is a grocery store right down the road from here that hasn’t been raided, but that’s because there’s a literal army of undead roaming around outside it. It was a privately owned store, and the owner closed it down and locked it up tight just before the National Guard shuffled everyone on out of here. There’s a metaphorical gold mine of food in that place.”
“And you haven’t gone there?” asked Jennifer.
“Are you kidding?” asked Charlie. “I used to work there.”
“Please, just let me go, and I’ll find a way in there,” begged Jennifer. “Please? I’m starving. I know that’s your stash, but…couldn’t we share?”
“Oh, we’ll go,” shrugged Charlie. “Let’s go right now. We’ll just walk right on down the street, walk right on past all the flesh-eating zombies, and march right on in.”
The hunger pangs hit Jennifer again, causing her to wince and cry out a little, a little whimper on her part, but loud enough to embarrass herself.
“You don’t have to be sarcastic,” she grimaced. “Please, just let me go, and I’ll find a way in there.”
“First of all, I wasn’t being sarcastic,” frowned Charlie. “I meant what I said. We’re going to go down there and walk right in, you’re going to try some ‘food,’ and I guarantee you you won’t like it. You need real food, and that takes some hunting, not scavenging for trash, but hey…go right on ahead.”
“You’re letting me go?” asked Jennifer hopefully.
“I’m not letting you go,” frowned Charlie. “You’ll be out of the chains, but you’ll still be with me. You’re mine now.”
“I can’t be ‘yours,’ Charlie,” whined Jennifer. “I told you that already.”
“Yeah, don’t care,” said the hostile young woman. “I said I was lonely, and last I recalled, I told you that already.”
She walked around behind Jennifer’s chair, fiddled with the chains, and then quickly pulled them off.
“I was going to keep you locked up, but then I realized what a wuss you are,” said Charlie. “You’re a real pansy, fledge, one of those talky types with no bite, so I’m not worried about you attacking me, even if you’re hungry…Can’t believe you survived high school.”
Jennifer ignored her, stood, and tried to run forward, to run away, but she was dizzy from even the simple action of standing, and her hunger pangs hit her so hard, it was like being struck in the stomach by a cannonball. She whimpered as she bent over and held her stomach until the pain passed.
Charlie grabbed her by her left arm and pulled her forward without her consent.
“This is a seriously crap coat you’re wearing,” said the hostile young woman. “I don’t mind the color red, but this thing is meant for lighter weather than this. I’m surprised you’re not dead already from the cold.”
“I…managed,” said Jennifer through gritted teeth as she fought off another wave of hunger pangs.
Charlie pulled her along, pulling her across the room and up to a large metal garage door, and Jennifer followed, mainly because she was weak and could not fight back.
“Did your boyfriend keep you warm?” smirked Charlie. “I bet his log kept your internal temperature up…or maybe he had a twig. I don’t know. Did his little hot dog warm you on all those cold nights?”
“Please, don’t talk about Roman that way,” winced Jennifer. “He was a human being. He had a name…He had a life…We had a life together. Doesn’t that mean anything to you?”
“Let it go, fledge,” frowned Charlie. “Hanging onto the past is only going to drive you insane. He’s roadkill now, so move on.”
Jennifer wanted to be angry; she wanted to get mad at this cruel young woman, but she was in no condition to do so.
Charlie lifted up the garage door with her left hand, rolling up the door with ease. She ushered the both of them out into the biting cold after that, but to be honest, Jennifer could barely feel that terrible winter chill.
It was night out, a crescent moon up, the stars twinkling in a cloudless sky.
“It’s nighttime,” said Jennifer. “We shouldn’t be out here…”
“You just said you needed food,” noted Charlie.
“Yeah, but I—” began Jennifer.
She cried out as more hunger pangs hit her…This was getting out of hand.
“Let’s j…just go,” she whimpered.
Charlie closed the garage door, and they started down the street with only the natural light of the moon and stars to guide them, their boots crunching over snow and ice.
“We shouldn’t be out in the street,” said Jennifer in a hushed voice. “The dead are out here…They’re out here. You said there was an army of them out here.”
“There is,” shrugged Charlie. “They won’t bother us.”
“What?” asked Jennifer.
Charlie was truly insane. They were not going to make it five feet before they were also turned into “roadkill.”
“Charlie, we can’t just walk down the street with those—” started Jennifer.
She was cut short as her captor let go of her left arm and then grabbed her by her left butt cheek, squeezing it hard through her jeans. That invasive hand let go after a second, but not until after it had already done some damage, damaging enough, in fact, to cause Jennifer to gasp.
“Quiet, cutie,” said Charlie. “I know what I’m doing.”
“Please, don’t do that,” warned Jennifer. “That’s my body. It’s my personal space. How would you like it if I did that to you?”
“I’d friggin’ love it,” snorted Charlie. “Besides, I’ve already seen you naked. I did rescue you after you knocked yourself out like a moron. I undressed you, of course, and inspected you, and believe me…that was fun.”
Jennifer did not know what to say about this or even how to feel about it.
“Charlie, you…you can’t do something like that!” she said in a heated hush.
“It’s fine,” said Charlie. “We’re just two girls right? What’s the big deal?…Now shut up and let’s get down to the store so I can show you what a big frickin’ idiot you’re being.”
“But the dead…” trailed Jennifer.
And she was right to be concerned. Dark shapes appeared from out of the limned shadows, shambling dead that refused to stay dead, rotting corpses still shuffling forward even after the spark of life had left them.
Jennifer wanted to run. The dead were sometimes slow, so running worked a good portion of the time, but Charlie would not let her. No, the hostile young woman grabbed Jennifer’s left arm again and held it in a vise-like grip, preventing her from doing anything panic ridden.
“Keep your head down, don’t say a word, and just keep walking forward,” said Charlie in a hushed voice.
Jennifer felt fear now, but not enough for her to struggle against her captor. Charlie seemed to know something that would protect them, maybe something the hostile young woman had learned over the last four months, but whatever that “something” was, Jennifer certainly hoped it would be effective.
They walked past a horde of shambling corpses, rotting figures just…rotting out in the street, and the smell was terrible, the stench nearly unbearable, but Jennifer did as she was instructed.
“Keep going,” ushered Charlie. “We’re almost there.”
They walked on toward the grocery store two streets down, and much to Jennifer’s surprise, they made it there in one piece. The dead were everywhere, just a giant horde of them, but Jennifer and her new, somewhat-unwanted companion made it to the store without incident, and this…this was amazing to Jennifer’s already battered mind.
“How?” she whispered. “How did we get here without being attacked?”
“Quiet,” said Charlie in a hush. “Let’s just get inside the store…Someone always manages to get in, but they’re stupid for doing it. This place is like a web to a spider. I should know, because I sometimes come down here to…Doesn’t matter. Let’s just say it pays to be the spider…Come on; we’re heading in. Follow me.”
They headed around to the back of the store, Charlie dug a key out of her coat pocket, and then she unlocked a back door, one next to a service garage door that had probably been used for unloading food from big trucks.
They walked through the smaller door and into pitch darkness. Charlie pulled a small flashlight from her coat, switched it on, and then shone that light around the back-store area they had walked into.
“There aren’t any deaders in here,” she said quietly. “I used to work here, you know. I think I told you that…Anyway, follow me into the store area. I’ll find you something you can try.”
This time Jennifer followed the crazy young woman without hesitation. Charlie was insane, true, but she also knew some things that…Jennifer was just now kicking herself over for not knowing.
“How did we get here without being torn apart?” asked Jennifer. “If I had known how to do this, Roman would still be alive!”
“No, he wouldn’t,” said Charlie. “It’s a little more complicated than that. Now shut up and follow me.”
Jennifer wanted to argue with her, but it was clear Charlie was not going to listen, because the crazy young woman was intent on leading Jennifer to…wherever.
They walked through a couple of grey door flaps from what had to be a back-storage area and into what used to be the bakery aisle. There was moldy bread still in their plastic wrappings, but the stench of old, rotting fruits and vegetables from the nearby garden-foods section assaulted Jennifer’s nostrils. She gagged a bit and held her nose and mouth. Hopefully, there really was still edible food here.
Charlie’s flashlight weaved back and forth over this and that until the cone of light landed upon a very dead body, a withered corpse of a man in a green winter coat. The man’s skin was shriveled and yellow, like the color and texture of old wax.
Jennifer released her hand from her mouth out of reflex.
“Wh…What happened to him!” she gasped.
“Oh, that was Kirk,” said Charlie flatly. “He used to work here. He used to have a crush on me, even though I told him a million times I wasn’t into guys…Eh, he did have his uses, though, especially when I met up with him here for one last favor. He really pulled through for me on that one.”
“Charlie, that’s terrible!” gasped Jennifer. “How can you be so callous? He died! Wasn’t he your friend? Why can’t you have a…a…Wait…Wait, that still doesn’t answer what happened to him. Why does he look like that?”
“Doesn’t matter,” replied Charlie. “You need ‘food,’ and you wanted to come here, so here we are. Let’s go find some quote-unquote ‘food’ for you.”
Whatever was going on in Charlie’s head was not normal, so Jennifer made the decision right then and there to run from the crazy girl as soon as the opportunity presented itself.
Charlie had been right about one thing, however. The food in this store was virtually untouched. Everything on the shelves looked fully stocked. Still, that fact was a moot point in comparison to Charlie’s demeanor in general…
Jennifer shook her head in disgust as she followed the crazy young woman to the snacks aisle.
Inside the snacks aisle was another corpse, this one of a woman, an overweight woman with greying hair. The body was dressed in winter clothing, and that was normal, but what was concerning, however, was the state of her corpse, as it was mummified and waxy looking, just like the previous corpse they had come across.
“What happened to the people in here?” asked Jennifer.
“Guess the spider got ’em,” smirked Charlie. “That’s why you don’t walk into a web…Anyway, shut up and stuff your face. I really don’t like spending time in here.”
The crazy young woman handed Jennifer a package of crackers.
“Try some of these,” said Charlie.
If it weren’t for the fact that Jennifer was so hungry, she would have pressed Charlie on the matter of the strange bodies, but her stomach felt as though it were eating itself, so she took Charlie’s advice and decided to “shut up and stuff her face.”
Jennifer opened up the crackers, pulled one out, and immediately took a bite out of it. The cracker had the taste and texture of sand in her mouth, like taking a bite out of the Sahara Desert, and Jennifer could not help but spit it out.
“What is wrong with these crackers?” she asked unhappily. “I need something to drink…That was like biting into limestone…Ugh…”
“Told you you needed real food,” smirked Charlie. “You need to sink your teeth into some actual food, not this trash.”
“Maybe these have expired,” said Jennifer.
She looked over the package to find an expiration date, and she did find one, but much to her chagrin, the crackers had not yet expired.
“They haven’t expired,” frowned Jennifer. “I don’t know what’s wrong with them then. I really do need to wash this taste out of my mouth, though.”
“Grab a can of soda,” smiled Charlie. “Can’t wait to see you spit that out.”
“I’m not going to spit it out just because of a bad batch of crackers,” frowned Jennifer. “I really don’t understand what’s wrong with you, Charlie.”
“Oh, there’s quite a bit wrong with me,” smirked the crazy young woman.
That was something they could both agree on.
Jennifer ignored Charlie’s insane attitude and followed her captor over to the soda aisle. She picked out a can of soda as Charlie stood by and watched, that incredibly irritating smirk still resting upon the crazy girl’s thin lips.
Jennifer opened a can of her favorite soda and took a drink. She immediately spit out the disgusting liquid and automatically coughed from the foul taste of it.
“Oh, it tastes like ash!” she exclaimed. “What is wrong with all of the food here!”
“There’s nothing wrong with it,” shrugged Charlie. “Maybe you just need some real food.”
That reply was completely unsatisfactory. Of course Jennifer needed real food. That was a no-brainer. Even so, her rational mind shut off for a second as her irrational impulses took over.
“Did you do something to the food here?” asked Jennifer. “Have you been spoiling it? Have you poisoned it!”
Her captor stared at her, a look of slight umbrage upon her pretty face.
“How in the hell would I do that?” asked Charlie.
“Never mind,” said Jennifer as she shook her head in disgust while rolling her eyes. “I’m going to try some Vienna sausages. They’re my favorite anyway. They’re canned, so they can’t possibly be spoiled.”
“The soda was canned too,” said Charlie, that irritating smirk on her lips making its presence known yet again.
Jennifer shook her head again and stared at Charlie, silently willing the crazy young woman to lead her to the canned-goods aisle.
Charlie took the hint, sighed, and nodded past Jennifer.
“Right this way, fledge,” said Charlie as she raised her right hand palm up toward the end of the soda aisle.
They made their way to the canned-goods aisle, passing by yet another body along the way. This body was of a man, someone dressed in a plaid winter coat, a flapped hunter’s cap on his head. He, too, was a waxy-looking mummy, and this caused Jennifer no end of concern.
“I don’t think we should stay in here for very long,” said Jennifer anxiously. “These bodies aren’t normal. Zombies don’t do this to people. Whatever killed these people might still be in here.”
“Oh, I’m sure it is,” smirked Charlie. “I told you we didn’t need to be here. We should be out hunting for real food. As it stands, I’m hungry as a horse, but I’m used to ignoring it, unlike you. I mean, I haven’t eaten in quite some time, so when I do get some real food, I’m tearing right into it; I’m going hog wild. You get the right food, and it’s orgasmic…Trust me, once you’ve had it, you’re never going back…
“Now you? You should take your time once you find something to eat…Enjoy it…Ride that food high. Enjoy every single incredible second of it. Imagine the best thing you’ve ever had in your life and then multiply it by Heaven. That’s what it’s like once you sink your teeth in.”
“You really are crazy, Charlie,” frowned Jennifer.
They entered the canned-goods aisle and searched for what Jennifer was looking for, and they found the sausages in question without too much trouble.
Jennifer picked out a couple of cans of Vienna sausages and popped open the top of one of them. She dug out a sausage and greedily shoved it in her mouth. She eagerly chewed it, but it was not more than two seconds before she spit out the disgusting thing onto the store tiles.
The taste had been absolutely vile. It was like eating literal excrement.
“What’s wrong?” smirked Charlie. “I thought you wanted your favorite sausages.”
“That is…That is awful…” choked out Jennifer as she wiped her lips clean. “Oh, it must be spoiled.”
“Really?” asked Charlie. “Did you check the expiration date?”
Jennifer lifted up the can as Charlie shone a light on the expiration date, but what Jennifer read was not helpful in the slightest.
“This…This says it doesn’t expire until next year!” she gasped. “I don’t understand!…It…It must have gone bad somehow. I’ll just open the other can.”
She set down the open can of Vienna sausages and then opened the next can. She dug out a sausage, popped it in her mouth, and chewed, but the result was exactly the same. She spit the disgusting thing out of her mouth and then wiped her lips clean.
“This doesn’t make any sense!” said Jennifer unhappily. “I love Vienna sausages! I love this brand! Why do they suddenly taste so disgusting!”
“Oh, I think your tastes have changed somewhat since the last time you ate them,” smirked Charlie. “Told you you wouldn’t like anything here.”
Jennifer had had enough. Charlie had finally stepped on her last nerve. She felt a rage rising within her, a fury rising up from the depths of her psyche, rising like some leviathan that could not be reasoned with, only stopped.
“What is that supposed to mean!” she growled.
“Ooo, feisty,” grinned Charlie. “You’re getting all up in my b’ness now. I kind of like it. Is this the part where we argue and then make up by having hot sex right in the middle of the store?”
“I’m not having sex with you, you creepy little dyke!” hissed Jennifer.
“Insults now,” said Charlie with a wide smile. “Gettin’ all abusive and shiz…Oh, tell me I’m no good, baby, and that I never will be. You can spank me later. That’ll really turn me on.”
“What is wrong with you!” cried Jennifer in rising anger. “This isn’t a joke, Charlie! This isn’t a game! We’re starving and we need food and there’s no food here! We risked our lives getting here for nothing!
“We need food, you nutjob, and there isn’t any here! It looks like there is, but there isn’t, because all of this food is bad! We’re in a…a ‘Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner’ situation! Water, water everywhere, and not a drop to drink!”
“There’s always food,” shrugged Charlie. “You’re just looking for the wrong kind.”
That comment was it. That comment really sealed the deal…Jennifer had had enough before, but now she had officially had enough.
“This is a grocery store, you moron!” barked Jennifer. “There is no other kind of food!…You know what, I’m tired of your BS, Charlie! Shut…the hell…up! Just shut up before I kick your ass!”
“No, you shut up,” said Charlie quickly.
“Are you deaf!” warned Jennifer. “I’m about to hit you so hard, it’ll knock you straight, you crazy lesbo cu—”
“No, seriously,” said Charlie in a verbal rush, her dark eyes wide with some sudden realization. “Quiet! Someone’s here.”
“Y…You…Wait…What?” asked Jennifer.
“Someone’s here!” grinned Charlie. “I think someone followed us in! Oh, I was hoping we’d come across something, fledge, and I think we just did!”
Beams of light centered upon them, five beams in all, five blinding circles of light landing upon them from out of the darkness.
“Well, look what we have here, boys,” came a rough male voice.
Jennifer’s rage evaporated as quickly as it had come, that rage now replaced by a stark and pulsing fear.
“We got ourselves some kitty, boys!” came the same male voice. “This place was worth sneaking into after all!”
His voice was joined by other male voices, those voices leering catcalls that filled Jennifer with a swift and unforgiving terror.
Five young men walked out of the darkness, five young men around Jennifer’s age, five young men who clearly held no good intent.
One young man, a big black guy wearing a black college coat with a college football team’s white and yellow logo on it, held up an electric lantern so that the warm glow of that luminescent device shone down upon everything around him.
“This place is effin’ packed!” he said in excitement. “Look at all this, guys! And we even got a couple of girls to pass around! Score!”
Jennifer’s heart shriveled up into a little ball at the prospect of being “passed around.”
“N…Now, wait…” she stammered. “C…Come on, guys! We’re just trying to find some food just like you, okay? We’re not…We’re not playthings to just be passed around, okay? We’re human beings just like you.”
Four of the five young men laughed at Jennifer’s heartfelt plea.
“God, I love it when they’re dumb,” said a big white guy wearing the same type of team jacket as the big black guy.
Jennifer recognized this guy’s voice. He was the first guy to have opened his mouth. He was clearly the alpha, the leader of this little gang, and it showed.
“She actually thinks she has rights!” said the big white guy.
Four of the young men laughed, and four of those young men were big guys dressed in team jackets, but the fifth one, a skinny, nerdy-looking guy with glasses, this odd-man-out dressed in a dark-grey overcoat, did not seem to agree with them. He did not laugh, and he stood there with a strange and anxious look on his face, an expression Jennifer could not help but notice. Four jocks and a nerd had stumbled upon them, but how dangerous they actually were, Jennifer could only estimate.
But it was Charlie who surprised her more than these boys ever could.
“Hey, guys,” said the crazy young woman in a smooth tone. “We just opened up a couple of cans of little wieners here. You’re welcome to them. They’re about the same size as the one in your leader-boy’s pants, so I’m sure you’re familiar with how to handle them.”
“Oooooo,” came the leering calls of the other three jocks, those jeers directed solely at their leader.
“We got ourselves a spitfire,” frowned the leader, the big white guy who had spoken first. “If you’re so fascinated with our wieners, then I know a couple of buns to slide ’em in, because I’m going to bang you like a drum, bigmouth.”
“Oh, please,” said Charlie with a roll of her eyes. “All five of you couldn’t handle me…Well, four-and-a-half. That little guy with the glasses is more Jennifer’s type anyway.”
Jennifer looked upon her former captor with horror.
“Charlie, please!” she squeaked out.
“Jennifer and Charlie, huh?” asked the big black guy. “Well, you’re coming with us, Jennifer and Charlie.”
“I ain’t going nowhere with you, chocolate cake,” smirked Charlie. “I like peaches, so unless you got a sister, I ain’t doing nothin’ with you.”
“Oh, we got a rug muncher, boys,” nodded the big white guy, the leader. “We got ourselves a carpet cleaner…Oh, I can’t wait to discipline you, little momma. This is gonna be fun.”
“Oh, it certainly will be,” grinned Charlie.
Jennifer shook in place from her own fear. It was clear Charlie was deliberately egging them on, not that it would have taken much to do so. There was no law anymore, and these young men had clearly taken that lack of authority to heart. Now they took what they wanted when they wanted, and what they wanted now was Jennifer and Charlie’s dignity, something Jennifer was not willing to just give away to any stranger…or group of strangers, as was the case here.
“Please, guys,” begged Jennifer. “Please, listen, okay? We need help just like you do, okay? My boyfriend was…was just murdered by those dead things outside…We need help, okay? Travelling with you would be great, but you can’t treat us like this…Please? We can all travel together without you doing bad things to us, okay? Don’t…Don’t gang rape us…You’re better than that.”
“The skinny tall one is talking again,” said one of the other jocks, one that had not spoken before.
“It’s Jennifer,” whined Jennifer. “Come on, guys, just let us go…or…or at least behave.”
The four jocks laughed again, but the nerd stayed quiet, that singular nerd still looking uncomfortable and anxious.
“Let’s give the tall talky one to Milo,” said the leader. “That’ll shut her up and teach Milo, here, what it means to be a real man.”
“Yeah, let Milo take her,” said the big black jock. “We’ll all share the kitty licker.”
Charlie intervened, but true to form, she was of no help whatsoever.
“Works for me,” shrugged Charlie. “I was planning on saving him for Jen anyway. She can have Milo, and I’ll have you guys. That’s not really fair, but I’m kind of a glutton, so I can’t really help it.”
“Charlie!” cried Jennifer, but she was only met with a grin from her captor and abject laughter from the four jocks.
“Milo! Milo!” chanted the leader. “Milo! Milo!”
“Milo! Milo! Milo! Milo!” chanted all four jocks as they taunted the nerd, this poor “Milo.”
“Go get her, tiger,” said the big white jock. “Make her squeal. It’s time to pop your cherry anyway. Past time.”
The skinny nerd in the dark-grey overcoat was reluctantly pushed forward by the big black jock a second later, and the young man with glasses slowly walked over to Jennifer. He took her by the right arm with his left hand and gingerly led her down the canned-food aisle with his flashlight.
“We don’t have to do this,” begged Jennifer. “Please? My boyfriend just got murdered by those things outside. I haven’t even had time to grieve…Please? Let’s not do this…”
“We’re not going to,” whispered the young man named Milo. “We’re just going to pretend. We’ll just make some noise or something while they’re busy with your friend.”
“Oh, thank God,” breathed out Jennifer. “Wait…What about Charlie?”
“We can’t help her,” replied Milo. “These guys don’t play around. She made her bed, and now she’s going to lie in it whether we like it or not. All I can do is help you escape. They’re going to be mad at me for letting you go, so I figure we’ll run off together. Maybe your friend will make it, maybe she won’t…She shouldn’t have goaded them.”
“But…” began Jennifer, but her voice trailed off as she turned to see the four young jocks surround her now former captor, Charlotte.
“Time for the fun to begin, boys,” said the leader of the four jocks.
“Yeah, it sure is,” grinned Charlie. “I can hardly wait. Four at once? Love it. Can’t wait to dig in.”
“I’m getting some mixed signals here,” said the leader. “Are you sure you’re a lesbo?”
“Tried and true,” said Charlie with wide, crazed eyes. “I do, however, have fun with men when the occasion calls for it, and this occasion certainly calls for it. I mean, hell, boys, I…am…a starvin’! You four are making me drool. In fact, I’ve been waiting for this for a while…First, though, let me show you a magic trick.”
“And what would that be?” asked the leader of the jocks.
“Have any of you boys ever seen Twilight Zone: The Movie?” asked Charlie. “It’s an old ’80s film, 1983 to be exact.”
The four young men shook their heads no in reply.
“Nobody’s watched some old boomer film,” snorted one of the jocks.
“What does that have to do with anything?” asked the leader.
“There’s a magic trick in it that’s really cool,” said Charlie. “You see, Dan Aykroyd does a magic trick right at the beginning of the movie, and I’m going to show it to you.”
The young man holding Jennifer, this “Milo,” whispered into Jennifer’s ear.
“What’s she doing?” he asked.
“I have no idea,” said Jennifer. “I just met her tonight, and as far as I can tell, she’s crazy.”
“Yeah, I can see that,” replied Milo.
They turned their attention back upon the four predatory jocks surrounding the lone, defenseless lesbian.
“She’s stalling,” said the big black jock. “You’re stalling.”
“Now hold up,” grinned Charlie. “This will only take a second, okay? I’ll show you the trick, and then I’ll dig into all four of you at once…Deal?”
“What’s your trick then, Lezzie?” asked the leader. “Show us and stop stalling, because I’m about to stuff you like a turkey, and I know which hole I’m starting with first, the one that’ll shut you up.”
“Deal,” grinned Charlie. “Here goes.”
She covered her face with her hands.
“Do you want to see something scary?” she asked in a muffled voice.
“Get on with it,” said the big black jock. “Stop stalling.”
“Do you want to see something really scary?” asked Charlie.
“Yeah, sure,” shrugged the leader.
“Abracadabra,” said Charlie.
She lowered her hands, and Jennifer took a step back out of sheer, terrified instinct.
Charlie’s face had transformed into something wholly monstrous. The girl’s eyes were a bright, glowing yellow with tiny black pupils in their centers, and her grin was wide across her face, the lips spread in a massive slit, two huge alabaster fangs where her canines should have been.
She leapt upon the leader of the jocks in a flash, those huge fangs sinking into his neck, and then his head came off, popping right off like a cork from a champaign bottle. Blood spurted up everywhere in a fountain of crimson, spraying all of the canned goods nearby with its steaming-hot lifeforce.
“Run!” yelled Milo.
He bolted and dragged Jennifer into the darkness of the store, his flashlight their only source of guidance, the screams of the other boys a warning of which direction not to go.
“She’s a monster!” cried Jennifer in a panic. “Oh, my God, she’s a monster! I didn’t know! I knew she was crazy, but I didn’t know she was that!”
“Just run!” yelled Milo.
They ran into the dark and weaved between shadowy, tenebrous aisles, heading for the front of the store. There was still an army of undead outside, but as far as Jennifer was concerned, those foul zombies were far safer than dealing with whatever Charlie was.
Unfortunately, Jennifer was destined to never make it there.
She tried to follow the nerdy guy with glasses, but those hunger pangs, those terrible and awful hunger pangs, made their appearance once more, this time in horrendous, hideous force, slowing her down to a dead halt. She bent over, clutched her stomach, fell to her knees, and cried out as the pain assaulted her.
“What is it!” cried Milo. “Get up! We have to run!”
“I can’t!” whined Jennifer. “Oh, it hurts!”
“Come on!” said Milo.
He bent down, held her around the waist, and then lifted her up as best he could. His body was close to hers now, their coats rustling against each other, his warmth radiating upon her, and Jennifer could smell him, his deliciousness, a potent aroma that threatened to smother her with its mouth-watering and delectable lure. She could hear the steady and rhythmic beat of his heart, the organ sounding off like a drum over and over again in her super-sensitive ears, a “bunt,” “bunt,” “bunt,” that quickly grew into a “BOOM,” “BOOM,” “BOOM.”
Her fangs finally dropped as she licked her tongue over them, and what had happened to her over the course of the night had finally been realized, and what had happened, though horrifying, was overwhelming at that singular moment, something she could not deny in any way, shape, or form, because the terrible hunger within her would not let her.
She held him tightly to her and squeezed hard as her new fangs sank into the carotid artery on the left side of his neck. Blood filled her mouth as he stiffened in her grasp, and then she felt that blood being sucked up through her new fangs like sucking soda through a straw, something strange and wonderful and delicious all at the same time, something so fantastic, so incredible, she had never tasted anything like it.
His lifeforce was truly satisfying, truly satiating, the elation and the ecstasy of it better than sex, and the only thing Jennifer could think of that would be better than this was doing this while having sex…She had never experienced anything like this, never in her life, not like this, not this…orgasmic sensation of consuming the living essence of another person.
As his flashlight slipped from his hand and clattered across the floor, her conscience dug its way up to the surface of her mind.
“No!” she thought in a desperate struggle to pull herself off of him. “No, stop! You’re killing him! He tried to help you! Stop! STOP! STAAAAHP!”
She wanted to pull away, to stop sucking the lifeforce out of him, to stop draining him dry, but her body would not let her. She shook with a terrible shuddering of pure pleasure and satiation as her bright-yellow eyes rolled up in the whites, and she could do nothing but hold him in a powerful grip as she rode through that crashing tidal wave of killing ecstasy.
Jennifer came down from her demonic high after that, coming down and down and down until she was able to let go and drop Milo’s lifeless body to the floor. She stared at his corpse after that, studying his shriveled, mummified, waxy skin and sunken eyes, but there was no feeling in her to punish herself, nothing at all.
She could not feel anymore, really feel for someone else, anyone else, but she wanted to, because this was not her. She was not a murderer, or at least, she didn’t want to be, but she could only come to the quick and final conclusion that this was what it was going to take to survive now, to be a murderer, so what she wanted no longer mattered.
It occurred to her that she was a monster now too, and she was just going to have to live with that revelation. She was just going to have to accept it, and in so doing, accept all of the depraved perks that came with it, including the massive pleasure that came with the killing…
Her panties were wet, soaked through, and that little fact bothered her, because the tremendous pleasure she had just experienced was the most disturbing thing of all. It had never occurred to her that she could get addicted to something so incredibly awful so easily…
She had Milo’s blood running down her chin and neck as she stumbled back toward the canned-goods aisle, her new unholy eyes granting her vision in the darkness. There was no point in running now, now that she knew she was a monster, too.
The electric lamp was turned over on the white-tiled floor, and within its meager glow was blood, blood and limbs and gore everywhere, all of them dead, all the jocks dead, all of them torn apart, but she was neither afraid nor disgusted by this.
She stared down at Charlotte, at Charlie, a young woman like herself, a young woman who had clearly taken this new existence by the horns and had ridden it all the way into clear and undeniable depravity.
Charlie was sitting on her rump, her knees together, hands on her knees, the lower part of her entire face covered by dark-red blood and black gore, that blood and gore covering the topmost part of her dark-blue parka. Her eyes were still inhuman, but her lips were a normal size now, drawn back into the tight sarcastic lines that Jennifer had come to know and recognize over this short and brutal night.
“I killed him,” said Jennifer in a stunned tone. “You didn’t tell me, Charlie. You didn’t tell me you’d turned me into a vampire. That’s why the zombies didn’t attack us, because we’re already dead. They only attack the living…
“You didn’t tell me you’d turned me into a vampire…and I killed Milo. He was trying to help me. He said he was going to help me escape. He tried to help me, and I killed him, and I…I loved it. I didn’t want to kill him, but I did it anyway, and I loved it.”
The young woman on the floor turned and gave Jennifer a blood-soaked grin.
“I told you, fledge,” grinned Charlie. “There’s always food. You just weren’t seeing it.”
“I killed him, and I loved it,” continued Jennifer. “I’ve never felt anything like that. It was amazing, and I had an orgasm from it, and it was a really powerful one…It felt so good, so I think…I’m thinking…”
Jennifer did actually still feel something. She felt addicted, addicted to the powerful drug that was her new life, a perfect drug, in fact, one that was perfectly addictive, and addiction was something she had never dealt with before, especially not from the horror she had just ridden through.
“I’m going with you,” she stated matter-of-factly. “You’re right; I am a fledgling, so I want you to teach me. Roman’s gone, and I can’t even feel anything for him anymore, and he was the only good thing I’ve ever had in my life, and I just…I just can’t feel anything for anyone anymore, but when I had Milo in my arms, and I was tasting his…his essence…I felt something again, and what I felt was…it was…on a level of pleasure I could have never imagined before, and now…now…”
She took in a deep breath and released it. She wasn’t sure if she even needed to breathe anymore, but she was sure of one terrible truth, and that horrific truth was…
“I want more,” said Jennifer firmly.
Charlie took her right hand from her right knee, held it to her head, squeezed her eyes shut, and laughed. She laughed long and loud and crazed, and she opened her knees to display the crotch of her light-blue jeans, the crotch of those jeans thoroughly soaked through with a large wet stain of her own making.
BONUS STORY…TO THE RESCUE
Darryl quickly grabbed his rifle and made his way toward the barn. He could not believe what he had just seen, three people on his property, but worse yet, it looked like a hostage situation. Some tall guy in a black duster and a black cowboy hat was holding a sword toward the backs of two women. The two unfortunate hostages had their hands tied behind their backs, and their heads were covered with black bags…a really bad sign.
“Whatever’s going on,” he thought anxiously, “it ain’t good…no, siree.”
He bolted toward the barn and leveled his rifle at the man’s back. It was a good thing too, because this man had the two women on their knees…No, the situation did not look good.
“Freeze, Mister!” yelled Darryl. “You just turn around nice and easy now…”
“I am not going to turn my back on these two,” said the man slowly. “I will back away to my right, but I will not turn my back on them.”
The man slowly backed away, but Darryl would not have it.
“You could have a gun on you,” he replied, “so you just turn around so I can see your hands…Nice and easy now, like I said.”
The man backed away from the two women and slowly turned around. He had a grizzled, weathered face bedecked by a black mustache and a short beard dotted with grey. He raised his hands to show that all he was carrying was the sword in his right hand.
“You drop that pig sticker, now,” ordered Darryl. “Drop it right there.”
“There is no way…in hell…I will do that,” said the man slowly.
“Now!” shouted Darryl.
The cowboy in black bolted and ran toward the barn’s side door. Darryl took his shot, but it was dark in the barn save for a small amount of light from the outdoor post. His bullet impacted the barn wall beside the door as the man sprinted away.
“You’re a fool!” shouted the man as he ran off into the night.
Darryl shook his head in anger and made his way to the two women hostages.
“Easy now,” he said gently. “I chased that man off…I’ve got you…”
He pulled the hood off of the kneeling woman on the right, but his blood ran cold as he stared at her glowing red eyes and pale, almost white, skin. She let out a terrible screech as long fangs dropped from her upper jaw, and she was on him a second later.
There’s Always Food Copyright © 2025 bloodytwine.com Matthew L. Marlott
To the Rescue Copyright © 2017, 2018, 2020 100 Tall Tales Matthew L. Marlott
To the Rescue Copyright © 2025 bloodytwine.com Matthew L. Marlott
Author’s Note: The picture for this story was generated via artificial intelligence courtesy of Canva.com.