Ted Erikson: Musician and Zombie Hunter

“Um…random girl?”

Gage nodded. “She’s interning here, I guess.”

“I thought we stopped taking interns after we lost a few and then that last one almost got us all killed?”

Jesse entered the room, overhearing the last portion of the conversation. “She’s not exactly an intern. More like a…foreign exchange type deal. Except we didn’t exchange anyone for her. I don’t know. Let her explain it. Karoline!”

She turned around, smiling at them. “Yes?”

“This is Ted, one of the bosses.” That was pretty much it for Jesse’s explanation. He went over to the shelf to grab his Glock and a few other close range weapons. Gage followed him, grabbing the Springfield Armory XD and the case where they all kept their trench knives, which were a combination of brass knuckles in the handle and a knife.

Karoline walked over and introduced herself. “I’m Norwegian. My team sent me here to see if I could learn any new or better ways to kill the zombies.”

Ted frowned. “When did the virus spread to Norway?”

“About six months ago. An American brought it over. It hasn’t been pretty.”

Six months ago. Before the travel restrictions. Karoline was going to have a hard time getting home, actually. Hell, it was amazing that she’d made it here.

“It hasn’t been that pretty here, either. Luckily the virus hasn’t spread too far. Just sporadic outbreaks here and there. We’ve been taking care of it.”

“I’ve heard. You’re doing much better at it than we are. It’s why I’m here. Do you mind if I come with you all?”

“Can you shoot a gun?”

She nodded.

“As long as you can take care of yourself, I don’t care. Have you met the team?”

“Just Gage and Jesse.”

“Alright, well, this is T-bone. And…where did Steven disappear to?” Ted wondered aloud, knowing that he’d at least entered here, but was nowhere in sight.

“Bathroom,” Jesse guessed. It made sense. It was the only possibly hiding place.

“Alright then. Well, I’m Ted. Steven is in the bathroom, and like I said, this is T-bone.”

“T-bone?” she repeated, sounding confused.

“It’s his nickname.”

“Why?” she asked turning to T-bone, still sounding confused.

He shrugged. “Just because.”

“…okay,” she replied, deciding just to go with it. She went back over to the shelves, grabbing a switchblade off the shelf and a Beretta 92FS. She couldn’t be that bad of a gunwoman if the Beretta was her weapon of choice. That, or she just picked one. It really could be either way.

Steven exited the bathroom. He and T-bone both grabbed Smith and Wesson’s from the shelves. Steven’s was an M&P while T-bone’s was a 99. Ted grabbed his M1911. The gun required more maintenance than most of the others, but there was just something about it that he loved. Gage handed the guys the remaining trench knives, they made sure they had plenty of ammo and then they headed out. The six of them piled into the Bronco. T-bone told Steven where they were going; there was a nasty outbreak in a small rural town about two hours away. Unfortunately, they were behind schedule, so Steven undertook the job of making up the lost time during the drive. No one was happy with this compromise. Dying in a car wreck on the way to go fight zombies just didn’t seem that appealing.