Zombies and Shit (18 page)

After an hour of searching, Haroon comes across another contestant. He hears a commotion coming a few blocks east and takes an alley to investigate. Crouching down and peering around a corner, he sees a crowd of flaming zombies crumbling to the ground. Beyond them, he sees Heinz marching through the street with his flamethrower in hand, burning down every living corpse that gets in his way.

When he sees how well the tall blond man seems to be doing against the undead, Haroon decides he would be the perfect person to team up with. Haroon stands up and heads toward the man, running to catch up to him.

A black leathery hand reaches out from an open door and grabs him by the arm. It pulls him into the shadows. Haroon opens his mouth to cry out to Heinz for help, but another leathery hand covers his mouth. His scream is muffled.

“Be quiet, fool,” says the attacker.

Haroon turns around to face the man who had grabbed him. At first, he just sees a large black form. Then he realizes that the large form is Laurence.

Laurence holds up his leather gloved hands to show that he means no harm.

“What did you do that for?” Haroon says.

“I was trying to save your sorry ass,” Laurence says. “You were thinking of making friends with that scumbag out there, weren’t you?”

Haroon nods.

“Let me show you something.” Laurence has Haroon look out of the window at Heinz’s clothing. He points at the swastika armband. “You see that symbol on his arm there? That means he’s not interested in making friends with you. It means he’s a racist nazi piece of trash.” Then he pulls Haroon back inside.

“I don’t understand,” Haroon says.

“Trust me,” Laurence says. “That guy’s no good. You’re better off alone than going with him. If you want to team up with somebody you can team up with me. I won’t let you down.”

Laurence gives him a thumbs up.

Haroon decides to believe Laurence, even though he’s never heard of nazis before. After Z-Day, a lot of Earth’s history had become lost and forgotten. The horrible events of the past paled in comparison to present day life. Although the schools in the Gold and Platinum Quadrants have been getting into teaching history over the past few years, the majority of the citizens of Neo New York just don’t know much about the old world. Most kids are assigned a career and then trained specifically for that position. Construction workers are raised to learn the skills to work construction. A farmer is raised to learn how to farm. They might also learn how to read and do basic math, but that’s about it. History just isn’t taught, perhaps because most people are trying very hard to forget the past.

When the two men enter the street to head back toward the alleyway, Haroon looks back at Heinz. The tall Aryan man is burning a zombie, a look of sadist pleasure stretches across his face. The zombie shrieks as it is burned. Upon closer inspection, Haroon notices that the zombie is Brick.

Zombie Brick cries in agony until he crumbles to ash. Then Heinz grabs the punk’s double-fisted sledgehammer from the ground, drapes it over his shoulder, and continues marching down the street.

As they backtrack through the alleyway, trying to get as much distance between them and Heinz as possible, Haroon notices Laurence is unarmed. He has his backpack slung over his shoulder, but otherwise he’s empty-handed.

“What weapon did you get?” Haroon asks, holding up his spiked club.

Laurence shakes his head. “Didn’t get one.”

“What?” he asks. “Everybody gets a weapon. You had to have gotten something.”

“Nope,” Laurence says.

“Give me your bag.”

Laurence hands it over. They duck into an old coffee shop, making sure no zombies are following them. In a back room, Haroon empties the pack across a table. He spreads out the items and examines each one. Every item he has is exactly the same as the items Haroon has in his pack, minus a weapon.

“You’re right, there’s nothing,” Haroon says. “Why the hell did they screw you like this?”

“Well, I’m not exactly unarmed. My whole body is one giant weapon.” Laurence punches his fist through the plaster wall next to him to prove his point. “I think they just wanted to make it fair to the other contestants.”

Then Laurence smiles.

“Still, they should have given you something. Brass knuckles, nunchucks, something.”

Laurence shakes his head. “I don’t need any of that. I can kill zombies with my bare hands just fine.”

Then Haroon notices something unusual about one of the items on the table: the map. It doesn’t look quite right. It’s much bulkier than the map he received in his own pack. Haroon picks it up and unfolds it. Inside, there are several sheets of paper.

“What’s that?” Laurence asks.

Haroon holds them up for inspection. “Blueprints.”

Laurence leans over the Indian man’s shoulder. “What kind of blueprints?”

“I’m not exactly sure,” Haroon says. “I think they are instructions on how to build a weapon.”

“Build a weapon? They expect me to build my own weapon when everyone else gets their weapons fully constructed? Who do they think I am, MacGyver?”

Haroon has no idea who MacGyver is.

“By the looks of this, I bet it’s an incredibly powerful weapon,” Haroon says. “Perhaps too powerful to give to any contestant right at the start.”

“Hmmm… Maybe you’re right. And they gave it to me because they knew I’d be the contestant most likely to survive unarmed long enough to build the thing. Only one problem…”

“What’s that?”

“Finding these parts to make it. I have no idea what most of them even are.”

Haroon scans the list.

“Then you’re lucky you ran into me,” Haroon says. “This kind of thing is my specialty.”

Haroon was a top researcher who worked on classified projects for the government of Neo New York. He was registered as a citizen of the Platinum Quadrant, but he had never once stepped foot in Platinum. He lived in an underground research facility with over fifty other scientists. Each scientist was a specialist in their field, educated from childhood to fill a unique position. Haroon was trained to become a weapons engineer.

Bullets are effective against living beings, but against the undead they are not as much so. Haroon worked on developing weapons that would be more effective against the undead. There was a division that focused on freezing weapons and another that focused on particle beam weapons, but Haroon’s division focused on self-recharging weapons. The kind that could have an unlimited power source, without the risk of running out of ammunition.

The most significant item produced by Haroon was the solar-powered shotgun. It was still years away from being perfected, but the basics were there. The big problem was that its range was only ten feet and it took an entire hour to recharge. It also didn’t do as much damage as an ordinary shotgun. One ten-foot shot per hour was not nearly as effective as a standard shotgun. But he promised his superiors that with time he could develop a weapon as powerful as a shotgun, one that would never run out of shells or need to be reloaded. All a soldier would have to do is put it in the sunlight for one hour every couple of days and the ammunition would be unlimited.

Of course, Haroon failed to deliver on his promise. Lucky for him, he could never be fired from his job for failing to deliver. The worst that could happen to him was reassignment. His best friend in his division, Terry, was responsible for blowing their boss’s right index finger off, and all he got was reassigned to the genetics division. He might have been mopping floors and washing toilets, but he still had a job. Since they put so much work into training their researchers, they don’t just get rid of them unless they absolutely have to. A person would have to commit murder or high treason in order to lose their position. But if that were to occur the person wouldn’t be fired, they would be executed, imprisoned, or worse: put on
Zombie Survival
.

This is how Haroon was chosen for Zombie Survival. He committed an act of high treason. He never heard of the show in the underground facility—researchers didn’t have the luxury of television—so Haroon had no idea this could have possibly been his punishment. For six months, he waited in his cell for execution, but it never came. They were holding him there until the next season of the show.

Haroon is thankful they gave him a fighting chance. As long as he’s alive, there is still hope. It is also nice to be outside in the sunlight after so many years underground. Even if he is going to die, at least he’s able to see the sun again. He did have a sunroof in his lab for testing weapons, but it was only one square foot of light which just wasn’t the same as being out in the open.

And if
she
is really out here with him, everything will work out perfectly.