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Slash! Another head rolled to the ground, and Jackson wiped his sword on the blades of grass, before sheathing his blade. Looking around, he saw more stumbling bodies ambling towards him. "Damn zombies." There seemed to be a never-ending supply of the brainless bodies, and Jackson was on his own fighting them, like he had been since the outbreak.
He changed direction and started jogging, avoiding the other bodies in the clearing. It wouldn't have been hard to kill the wanderers, but he didn't want to waste his energy. He was making his way into town right now, and he knew there'd be more zombies there. There were always more of the brain-hungry-used-to-be-humans in town, which was why Jackson tended to avoid buildings at all costs. However, he was running low on food, and since it was winter, he had a difficult time finding fruits and berry to live off of.
According to the map he high jacked in the last town, there was another town just a couple of miles away from his current location. He would be there before sundown, which was good, because while his vision decreased at night, the zombies seemed to be in their prime. As long as nothing sidetracked him, he would be able to find something to satisfy his rumbling tummy and a quiet place to sleep for the night.
Crash! A jar shattered in the road, spilling the sweet, golden honey onto the pavement. You weren't sure what it was about the sweet treat that made zombies go crazy. You supposed it was like the dessert after having juicy brains or something. The reason why didn't really matter, though; what mattered was that it worked.
You took a second jar out, this time keeping it steady in your hand as you opened the lid. Tilting it to the side, you let the thick liquid pour slowly out of the jar as you moved forward, leaving a thin trail behind you. A honey trap, it was the best way you discovered to take out a small horde of zombies. The main group would ooze toward the honey and grow distracted, but then a select one or two would drift off, catching the honey trail, and saunter right into your trap. It was the perfect way to take out a handful at a time.
After you finished pouring the honey out, you crouched into the shadows, hand on blade, ready to attack. Now all you had to do was sit back and wait for the mindless creatures to fall into your trap.
The town seemed strangely quiet as Jackson moved from dirt to pavement. Usually when he was this close to a city, he was already bashing heads, running, or tiptoeing around, but currently he was walking in the middle of the street without a zombie in sight. It was strange, eerie even, and Jackson didn't like it. No matter where he had gone, there were zombies, so it didn't make sense that this nice little town was void of them.
Jackson continued walking, staying on full alert and not trusting the silence. He eyes flicked around for signs of movement, but only the wind whispered through the trees, making him jump. This was very strange indeed. Perhaps everything worth sticking around for was gone, raided by survivors who fled, taking the zombies with them.
Even then, Jackson had always found zombies in ransacked towns, often thin little things, starving and crazed from lack of nutrition. Zombies were brainless after all, and without the brains in their stomachs, they grew even dumber, more helpless than animals. Jackson always made sure to put those zombies down, thinking how the person who used to fill the vessel probably would've hated being such a helpless, mindless creature.
So when Jackson didn't even see a broken and starved zombie, he grew weary. Something must've happened here to the people and their brainless companions, and he wasn't sure if he wanted to stick around long enough to find out what that was.
He looked up into the sky and frowned when he saw the sun hovering so close to the horizon. It wasn't sunset yet, but it was close enough, and he didn't want to even try going to the next town, knowing he'd never make it at night. He would have to stay here tonight, even though his skin crawled at the thought, but if he was going to stay here, he might as well search for food.
Jackson wandered into the first store he came across, pulling out his sword as he crossed the threshold. He wanted to be prepared in case there was a zombie locked behind the doors. It was a small convenience store, and it was clear that it had been ransacked ages ago. Most of the snacks had been taken already, but Jackson still meandered through it, knowing there usually were a few things forgotten in the initial raid.
He found a slim jim that had rolled under the edge of the counter. There were a few bags of chips on the ground that had been trampled and popped open, and now the stale chips scattered the floor, definitely not something he was willing to eat. Jackson tiptoed around them, not wanting to make any unnecessary noise. Even though no one was around, it had become a habit, a necessary habit for this apocalyptic world.
Jackson's eyes scanned the shelves for anything left over. He hadn't eaten in a while, and he wasn't about to be picky about what it was; however, there didn't seem to be anything really left over. Oh wait, what was that? Jackson crouched down and pulled at a little piece of brown paper that was stuck between two candy boxes. M&Ms! Score! Jackson stuffed the bag of candy into his pocket, and moved on, excited for his treat. He hadn't had candy in longer than he could remember.
There was nothing else for Jackson to find, except for a couple of protein bars in the employee breakroom. People rarely looked in employee breakrooms, only having their eyes on what was in front of them. Thank god for that; otherwise Jackson would've starved a long time ago.
Once again Jackson was wandering in the bleak silence of the town. It really did give him the creeps, and he was expecting to be attacked by a horde of zombies at any moment. He would definitely hear them coming, though. There weren't even any birds chirping in this town. Only the sounds of death rang in Jackson's ears.
"What the?" Jackson paused, crouching against the pavement. There was a broken jar of honey in the middle of the road, but that wasn't what he found strange. There was also a thin trail of honey leading away from the pile. The broken jar would've been explainable enough, but the trail didn't make any sense. It was deliberately placed there, and since the honey was still sticky, it had to be fresh.
Finally, you heard the shuffled footsteps of your next victim. You had expected it to take a while, since you had slowly eliminated the zombies in the town over the past couple of weeks, but you were sure there was at least twenty or so more left wandering in alley ways and houses. This final trap would take care of most of the other zombies, and whatever other stragglers you found you would just eliminate individually.
As the footsteps neared, your grip on your katana tightened, ready to slay the monster approaching. The shadows hid you well, and when your first victim turned the corner, you jumped forward, jabbing towards it.
A scream echoed through your ears, and to your surprise, metal clashed against yours, blocking your attack. "What the hell?" a deep voice growled. You two a closer look, realizing that it wasn't a zombie at all who you had accidentally attack. It was another living, breath human, a male nonetheless. The look of confusion on his face quickly changed into anger, and then he slashed back at you.
Your reflexes were fast enough to block his attack, but you hadn't anticipated the amount of strength behind his blade. You fell backwards, and the wind was knocked out of you. "Whoa, whoa!" you said holding your hands up while keeping a firm grip on your sword. "Accident. I swear. I thought you were a zombie."
"Do I look like a zombie to you?" he muttered, hovering over you. He stayed tense, firmly gripping his weapon.
"No, but it's not my fault you were dumb enough to follow my trap. You must be as brainless as these zombies." You slowly got to your feet with no help from the stranger.
"Excuse you?" he said, his jaw dropping a little. "I was just investigating the honey strangely poured on the ground. How does that make me dumb?"
You brushed yourself off. "Whatever. Just be more careful, or I might end up killing you next time. Oh, and get out of my way before you ruin anything."
"You kill me?" he scoffed. So he was arrogant, or he doubted your abilities because you were a girl. Neither one was okay.
You snatched his wrist, twisted his arm, and then swiped your foot under him, knocking him to the ground. You placed your foot on his neck gentle enough to not hurt, but hard enough that he knew you were serious. "This is just your warning. Don't underestimate me."
The stranger snatched your foot and pulled it out from underneath you. You fell to the ground with an oomph this time. "Don't underestimate me either," he muttered back, a smirk touching his lips.
"Touché." He wasn't as incompetent as you expected. Then again, he had survived this long. It must've taken some skill, especially since he was on his own.
Shuffles and moans caught your ears, so you snapped forward. "Crap," you muttered. That was definitely more than one or two footsteps. The scuffle between you and this stranger must've drawn the zombies' attention more than the honey, and now they were heading your way. You snapped to your feet and said, "Get up."
Peering around the corner, you saw a horde of zombies coming at you. There were more of them than you had anticipated, and they were moving faster than you had seen before. "Time to get going." You turned on your heels, knowing when to fight and when to run.
The stranger took one look at the horde and turned to follow you. You were jogging down the alley, and you rolled your eyes when you heard his footsteps following behind you. You tried to ignore them, but when you turned the corner, there were more zombies heading towards you.
"Where the hell did all of these zombies come from?" the stranger gasped. "This town was empty a few minutes ago."
"Honey," you answered, brushing past him to find another escape route. Did he really have to follow you?
"I don't know you well enough for nicknames. If you must, call me Jackson."
Your eyes rolled again. "I wasn't calling you honey. Zombies love honey, so my trap attracted them." Turning another corner, you muttered under your breath. "We're surrounded." Your eyes scanned the area, but all of the ground escape routes were blocked. When had zombies gotten so smart? Looking up, you saw a fire escape. "Give me a boost," you ordered.
Jackson's eyes followed yours, and you didn't have to ask him a second time. Clasping his hands together, he lifted you up. Your fingers wrapped around the rusted metal and yanked down, but the ladder wouldn't budge. Knowing you were running out of time, you used your upper body strength to pull yourself up onto the landing instead. Looking down, it would've been easy to leave Jackson down there, but you had no reason to.
A few of the zombies that were ahead of the pack neared Jackson, but he easily took them down. You couldn't help but watch his rippling arm muscles as he took down a few zombies, and you licked your lips. Okay, there were plenty of reasons why you wanted Jackson with you, and those arms were definitely one of them, so you got to work. After kicking the ladder a few times, it crashed down, and Jackson scurried up it.
Jackson lifted the window up, and even though you were perfectly capable of doing it, you let him take the lead, just to watch his arms muscles in action again. You crawled into the dim apartment and shut the window behind you. After the two of you determined the place was zombie free and the doors and windows were reinforced, you relaxed a little, putting your weapon away.
"Y/n," you said, gazing at the fridge full of family photos.
"What?" Jackson said, thrown off. You could feel his eyes on you.
"That's my name," you said, casually walking around the room. The apartment was small, but it was cozy and would have to do for the night. "Just in case you want to moan my name out later. You can call me by whatever name you'd prefer, though, if you want. I don't really mind."
"Wh-what?" Jackson sputtered, completely thrown off.
"Relax, I'm just kidding." It was cute how he was thrown off by your comment. "Then again, I'd be down to fuck, if you want."
"B-but, we don't even know each other." Too cute.
You shrugged your shoulders. "So? It's a zombie apocalypse. How often do you get this kind of opportunity?"
Jackson gulped, but you could see in his eyes that he was actually considering your offer. Perfect. You would love to have those large arms wrapped around you.