Zombies #10

The tenth and final zombie post in the countdown to the release of Dead Things, available from N/A.

Thanks if you stuck with me for this long and if I ever think of trying to post 10 days in a row again, remind me how hard it actually is to keep it up :)
So, to start off, one more excerpt from the book and this time there be zombies :)

Dead Things
Excerpt from Chapter 3
...

"So, where are we going?" Kerry's head appeared out the passenger side window. She looked curiously at him as he made no immediate move to join her in the car. "We are heading out, right?"

Devin made a low noise as he cleared his throat. "Of course," he said as he rounded the car and got in the driver's side. He gave Kerry a sideward glance, and silently cursed Corden for agreeing to this as he pulled on his belt.

"So, where to?" she asked again, giving him a smile as she started to twist a curl of her red hair around one of her fingers. Her short, bitten nails were painted a pale shade of pink, though it couldn't have been recently as the edges were chipped and peeling.

"A small city eighty miles out," he said as he started the engine. "It's getting too dangerous to stay local. It's like they know we're here." The prison was situated in the north-west of Kansas, away from major cities and the larger packs of infected. It was secure for the most part, though some freaks did occasionally stray into the area, drawn in by the activity of returning vehicles.

"I heard the group at the north border was… lost," she said reluctantly.

"It was a stupid mistake. One got in. Just one." Devin hadn't been there, but he had heard the horrific stories from a group that had headed out that way. Everyone was dead, or worse. Devin put the car in drive and pulled out of the parking bay. He rolled the car up to the large metal gates and waited for the two armed men, who were standing guard, to open them. The gears of the mechanism clattered and whined as the gates were pushed apart to give a clear view of the hundred yard driveway. As they rolled through the gates, he looked up, and squinted at the sun sitting high in the sky. On the roof of the building he noted the three rifles aimed down toward the main gates.

"You ready?" he asked.

Kerry took a deep breath and gripped her seatbelt tightly. Startled, she looked over her shoulder as the gates closed behind them with a metallic clunk, securing the yard. "Are they outside?" She turned to look at the high, outer stone wall at the far end of the drive.

"Some," he confirmed as he drove toward the second gate. During the early hours of the morning a small group of infected had appeared outside the main gate. "You might want to roll up your window." He guided the car a few yards short of the second gate and leaned out of his driver's side window to enter the necessary four-digit code. Sitting back, he rolled up his window and waited as the electric gate whirred into life.

"Shit!" Kerry flinched as pale, blood-covered arms appeared abruptly through the gap in the gates.

The bloodied arms quickly made way for equally bloodied faces, all at different stages of rot and decomposition. Devin grimaced as he looked at the youngest of the faces. The girl couldn't be more than ten years old. Her jaw was dislocated, and it hung awkwardly open as her mouth snapped together over and over.

"My God," Kerry said breathlessly as the gate continued to open and the infected rushed forward. Two of the animated corpses moved quickly past the SUV, and a third walked into the front of the vehicle, hitting it with a thud before dragging its boney, battered fingers down the front of the SUV's hood. It was a gruesome sight. Chunks of flesh were missing from the dead man's arms and shoulders, blood had soaked through the front of his wife beater, and his eyes seemed swollen and too big for their sockets.

"Hold on," Devin warned, revving the engine as the gates finally opened all of the way. The dead man continued to claw at the front of the car, despite the warning. A thud against the rear of the car made Devin look over his shoulder. The engine had attracted the other two freaks to the car, and they began to paw with bloody hands at the rear window. "And I just got this thing detailed." He grinned. Kerry, however, didn't look amused.

"Can we go now?" Kerry asked in a strained voice. She flinched as three pairs of hands scraped and clawed at the car, looking for a way in.

Devin gave a low chuckle. "Sure," he said and pressed the accelerator.

The hungry monster was nudged to one side until the soft body snagged the corner of the car and stumbled to the ground. Once they had cleared the gates, Devin didn't stop. Gunshots rang out behind them as the gates started to close and the infected were picked off by the snipers on the roof.

...

And my current number one zombie movie is...

10. Shaun of the Dead

Shaun: They still out there?
Ed: Yeah. What you think we should do?
Shaun: Have a sit down?

If you haven't seen Shaun of the Dead, then where have you been? I have watched this movie even more than Doghouse. It went through a phase of being on one of the Sky movie channels almost everyday one week and I pretty much put it on just because I could (well, there was nothing else on LOL) But yeah, it has to be one of the funniest films I've seen, plus it has zombies.

Shaun: Ohh, for God's sake! He's got an arm off!

Shaun is your average bloke, dull job, lazy mates, and he's just been dumped by his girlfriend. It just happens that whilst trying to win back the girl, zombies are on the loose and causing havoc. Simon Pegg and Nick Frost make an awesome team and The movie is a brilliant homage to the zombie genre and there's some great shout outs to the Romero movies. Two in particular, is this line that I never really thought about until doing these posts, and is a shout out to the original Night of the Living Dead.

Ed: We're coming to get you, Barbara!



And this little scene.

Ed: Any zombies out there?
Shaun: Don't say that!
Ed: What?
Shaun: That!
Ed: What?
Shaun: The zed-word. Don't say it!
Ed: Why not?
Shaun: Because it's ridiculous!

It made me chuckle, because lots of movies, books and shows, the word zombie is completely avoided. I know I certainly did my best to avoid it and tried to think up different names or descriptions. I relented a few times though - mainly during witty remarks by my characters.

I adore this movie - some great laughs and comedy, brilliant references to other horror movies, a smidge of romance and an awesome bromance, and of course the old school lumbering zombies. *Flicks through Sky movies channels* It must be on again, surely :)