Science Fiction Smackdown II Entry (Zombie-Fun-Excitement-Spectacular!!!!)

Chapter 5: Beaulieu

By the time George finally arrived back at the hotel, the others were all eating supper. Jenna, Oliver, and the two teenage girls were all seated at the same table, while the others were scattered around the restaurant. George was weary from working all day, and still angry about his argument with that young fool, David. The young man was ungrateful, and rude, too. George had been further disappointed by his inability to talk Larry Basil into staying on at the hotel. Basil and his grandchildren had thanked George politely for his hospitality, then continued on their journey towards points unknown. George sighed as he took his place at the table next to Jenna.

The two teenage girls exchanged glances. The brash one, whose name George couldn't recall, put down her fork.

“Where's David?” she asked.

George looked around the room. “He isn't here?”

“Nope.” The brash girl shook her head. George was finally able to pin her with the name 'Chloe'.

“He went out after lunch with you, remember?” Jenna said, looking confused.

“We had a disagreement.” George hoped his voice carried a sense of finality.

“So where's David?” Chloe demanded.

“Is he – is he okay?” the quieter teenager, Amy, asked.

“He's fine. He rode off on a bicycle.” George responded, sounding more grumpy than he had intended.

Jenna looked up in concern. “Why would he go and do a thing like that? The girls are so fond of him.”

This statement made Chloe snort derisively, but George and Jenna did not dignify the snort with a response.

“Did you drive him away, George?” Jenna asked, her voice stern.

“The boy's an ungrateful idiot.” George grumbled.

“And you're a terrible person!” Chloe retorted angrily.

“I'm a terrible person? Because that stupid, foolish -”

George noticed that Amy was crying. A single fat tear rolled down her cheek and plopped onto the table. Then she got up, and ran up the nearby staircase, hardly touching the wooden handrail as she threw herself into the shadow-wreathed door at the end.

“Well, what do you want me to do?” George asked, holding his hands out in a gesture of frustrated supplication.

“Go out in that stupid pickup and get him!” Chloe spat out.

George sighed.

“Where do you suppose he could have gone?” Jenna mused.

“I do think I know that,” George explained. “He seemed to think RAF Beaulieu was an active airfield. He thought the girls' radio station was being broadcast from there.”

“But that's all open country!” Jenna sounded worried. “You'd better go get him, George. Before he's killed.”

George looked down at his supper. Then he stood up, and walked from the room

~*~

David was in big trouble. He was at the cul-de-sac end of Island View Gardens, a little street from which you most definitely could not view the Isle of Wight, and he was surrounded on three sides by stout brick houses. On the fourth side, where the street led back out to the main road, a trio of zombies were approaching, slowly, but with menace.

David considered riding between them, but the roadway was narrow. If the creatures were as intelligent as David was beginning to suspect them to be, they wouldn't have much trouble knocking him down. A fleeting thought then supplied David with the suggestion that he could throw the bicycle at them, and run past in the confusion – but of course, that was a stupid idea. It would never work. David looked around in despair; it was just him, and the brick façades of the little houses. His heart was pounding in his chest like it might explode, and he had the distinct impression that things were about to spiral out of control. Then he saw the answer.