THE LIFE AQUATIC

I've gotten out onto the river in a small boat.

I know zip about boats. It's too dark to try to start the motor, but I pushed off from the dock and let it drift. After a quarter hour, I was far from both shores, so I dropped the anchor and waited. It works, I'm too far from shore. They stagger along the banks, but they don't notice me out here.

I think they see heat. Winter's going to suck at first, but I bet they can't take freezing. They're already getting scarce.

There's one I keep seeing, a pitiful thing. She must have been a teenager. The ones who killed her ripped her stomach open, and broke her jaw. She shuffles along as if her ankles are hobbled, wearing a t-shirt that says GREEN DAY, and yes, she is pretty green by now. Her mouth won't close and she wobbles as if her spine is broken. She's slowing down. Maybe she's starving for lack of brains.

Maybe they're all going to starve eventually. Then what?

No internet signal here. I'll send when I can.
At least I can sleep safely for one night. But I'm hungry... and how was your day?

Price of Gas

It's our technology that sets us above the lower animals.

It makes us better than the living dead as well. Matches and gas, that's my hi-tech solution. They chased me into a hardware store. Fifteen minutes later I chased them back out. They RAN AWAY. They can sense fire, but they can't fight it.

I've got an old metal bug sprayer, the kind they called a 'flit gun' when we were kids, so long ago in another world, with Chuck Berry on the radio and no George Romero on the screen. I've got it full of gas, and I have a big can of gas to refill it, and I have a ladder to go from roof to roof.

Burning Roaches in Zombie Town

When we were kids we'd burn out the cockroaches on summer nights from the edge of our playground. The dumper attracted them, and you'd go for a layup and crunch one under your bare feet. We'd get mad and light them up. First, a puddle of burning lighter fluid, then you spot a running roach and squirt light fluid on him. Then you draw a line of lighter fluid from him back to the fire. Presto - a line of fire chases the running roach and lights him up.
I've been doing that with dead people for days, from a rooftop. Every one I 'kill' is one less to kill me.

I am five blocks or so from the waterfront. There is still wi-fi and electricity, along with burning buildings and the stench of death. How was your day?