Generation Zombie

Chapter 11: Where The Wind Takes Us.

Having a bucket of ice cold water dumped on your head and being slapped across the face while unaware is kind of the same thing. The only solid difference is the temperature; your cheeks go warm, your body goes cold. Anyways, the point is that this definitely-not-vague, unexpected feeling of being jolted into a state of panic was what Ruby experienced when the lady shot Ajax Cassini.

He went down without a sound. Well, maybe he yelped a little. But one moment he was one his two feet; pressing his temple like an i***t, and the next, after the gunshot rang, he was lying on the debris; bleeding out and turning transparent.

Arthur was astonished, but wasn’t ready to complain. He understood that they all had three lives, all measured by a life meter, and was secretly glad that he wasn’t the only one who found Ajax unbearable. It didn’t justify her shooting him, of course, but uhm, it also kind of did. To Arthur anyways.

Ruby watched in absolute shocking horror as Ajax’s body turned invisible; vanishing into thin air. A shriek, a gasp, and a cough were stuck in her throat, and she didn’t know which one to liberate first.

Instead, she gave a try at words just when a faint hiss harmonized throughout the whole area, and Ajax’s body left a puff of golden sparkles behind. “What in the name of baby Christ have you done?! You killed him!” She accused, stabbing the air in the general direction of the lady with an inconsequential finger.

The accused rolled her eyes and slid the murder weapon back into the holster on her waist. “Oops! My bad...” She replied sarcastically, jumping down from the bulldozer and landing squarely on her feet like a superhero. The dust swirling around her added to the overall effect.

“Pretty sure accidentally shooting someone calls for more than an oops.” Arthur chirped in, marveling at such a contradiction. Well, she wasn’t a contradiction; not exactly... it was more of being a combination of personality that slams too hard into you, and an impossibly dainty outward appearance. He peered at the rise of her thin, elegant eyebrows as she assessed him with quick eyes. She had an air of authority sizzling around her.

“Oh that wasn’t an accident.” Her eyes skimmed over Arthur; not wanting or expecting a reply, and riveted on Ruby. “My name is Elham Akel. Learn to pronounce it before you use it.” She announced grandly, her tongue running smoothly and expertly over the pronunciation of the Arabic name.

Ruby gawked at Elham in disbelief. “You just killed a man!” She shouted in a shrill voice as if the force of her words would make Elham realize the severity of her crimes. She spun to Arthur for help. He shrugged, unsure of what to say or how to react. Had everyone gone insane?! Had she gone insane?!

Elham sighed in exaggerated exasperation. “Chill out, Chaparrita, he’ll be back...”

“My name is Ruby!” She fumed, her face flushing, her clenched fists vibrating. She felt worked up, tired, angry, overwhelmed and overstimulated all at once. The feelings crashed with each other within her, threatening to explode the tiny vessel that was her body.

“Sure, whatever you say, Chipette.” Elham sniggered, and distractedly kicked the dusty eyeball of a zombie with her platform suede heels.

The nasty eyeball rolled towards Ruby before falling through a gap in the debris they were standing on.

A faint hissing sound; like the one they heard when Ajax’s body disappeared, harmonized through again. And then a loud, shrill shrieking followed it. Ajax fell from the sky, like an angel cast out of heaven.

Astonishingly, he landed on his feet; without so much as a scratch on his body.

He swiveled around on his feet, staring at them wildly. “Did I die? I died!” His hand roamed the length of his body, stopping at his chest to feel his heartbeat. “I’m alive, oh my God... what is happening? Are we... are we immortal?!”

Ruby slumped to her feet and heaved a sigh of confused relief. Now that the thought of Ajax being dead no longer weighed on her mind, she slipped back into the comfort of being in shock, and zoned out.

Arthur kept Elham under close scrutiny. “You seem to know a lot more about the game than we do. Mind giving us an explanation?” He asked.

She sighed, playing with a sliver ring curled around her thumb in the figure of a tiny dragon. “Everything will be explained by the gameplay instructions once the five-player limit is reached. The game hasn’t begun. We’re incomplete. We need to find the fifth player, or else the gameplay instructions won’t appear...”

Ajax, blinked back and forth between her and Arthur. “How does that explain why you shot me and why I’m not dead, like... dead dead?” His voice was still shrill with panic. Falling from the sky without a parachute was something he didn’t want to experience ever again.

Both pretended that he’s not there, and Ruby was too engulfed in her personal dilemma to care.

“How do you know the game has a five player limit?” Arthur inquired; pushing for more information from her. He had a feeling she was a fellow gamer, like him. He had a feeling she had more information than she was letting on.

“I created this game.”

Ajax gasped. “You put us here?!” If it was even possible, his voice became more shrill and high-pitched.

Elham clasped her hands behind her back to avoid any impulsive punches or shooting on her part. “No jelly-brain. If I put you here, I wouldn’t be here. I created the blueprint for this game, before Escaldo Patel De LaFroza stole my idea.” A surge of anger rose in her heart. That cunning bastard! She trusted him with her ideas only for him to ditch and betray her; running away with the blueprints of her game, developing it, and making millions while he left her with regret and not enough evidence to sue.

And now she’s inside her own game; a freakier freaky Friday with a little sprinkle of Jumanji. Of all things, why did it had to be zombies?

Arthur sighed and crouched to his feet. The exhaustion was creeping in. And there was honestly too much for them to process. The whole game was like a ball of condensed stress. “So how are we supposed to find the fifth player?” He asked with a yawn; rubbing his eyes.

Elham shrugged. She shoved her hands into the pocket of her pant suit and looked down upon them like a vengeful creator. “The game will lead us to him, her, or them.” ‘Them’ incase the fifth player was non-binary or preferred other pronouns.

Arthur turned to Ruby to see if she could remember the familiarity of the phrase, and how Elham was literally repeating his very words, but coming from her, it didn’t sound stupid. However, Ruby was lost in her little mental world of thoughts and disbelief.

Ajax gave up on getting a proper explanation.