DEAD AMERICA
LOWCOUNTRY
PART 6
BY DEREK SLATON
© 2021
CHAPTER ONE
Day Zero +4
The sun peeked through the blinds, shining right onto Dante’s face as he laid on the couch. His first instinct was to pull the covers over his head and roll over, but he quickly succumbed to the inevitability of being awake. He sat up slightly, looking around the empty room.
Ever since they’d cleared out the house across the street, there was a lot more room to move about. No more cramped sleeping quarters, no more piles of sleeping bodies, although there weren’t quite enough beds to go around yet.
As he lamented the discomfort of the couch, he took pause, and pressed his palms to his head. Be thankful you have this, he thought to himself. Grace could be sleeping on a whole lot worse.
He took a deep breath, not wanting to imagine the horrors she could be going through. She might not even be sleeping at all.
She’s a tough girl, he thought firmly, shutting down that thought process. She’ll be okay.
The sound of coffee mugs clanking together perked him up, and he sat up. He slipped off of the couch and approached the kitchen, peeking in to see Lily standing in front of the coffee maker, tapping her foot impatiently. The little appliance seemed to be struggling, pumping out a tiny trickle of the black gold.
She grunted in frustration as the machine sputtered.
“Having some issues this morning?” Dante asked, and she squeaked, leaping off of the ground as she whipped around to face him.
She put a hand over her heart. “Jesus tap-dancing Christ Dante,” she breathed.
He cracked a smile, and she returned it, lowering her hand and shaking her head.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you, there,” he said, chuckling.
Her smile widened, and she waved him off. “It’s okay,” she said, and then turned back to the coffee maker, smacking the side of it before unplugging the cord. “On the plus side, I don’t need this to wake up, now.”
Ace wandered into the kitchen in just his boxers, rubbing his eyes with his fists and yawning. “Well some of us do, Lil,” he groaned, scrubbing his hands down his face. “Especially when they are woken up at the ass crack of dawn by a couple of knuckleheads in the kitchen.”
Said knuckleheads shared an apologetic glance.
“Sorry cuz,” Lily said.
“Maybe they have some across the street,” Dante suggested.
Ace ran his hands through his hair. “Well, why don’t y’all go check,” he said thickly, stifling another yawn. “I’ll stay here and try to figure out what the fuck I’m doing.”
“Well, there goes his morning,” Lily quipped, and led Dante out of the kitchen away from her pasty scantily clad cousin.
There was a clear path leading from Ace’s front door to the house across the street. On either side of the yard was a stretch of cars and other debris, creating a makeshift barricade. It wasn’t much, and wouldn’t protect them from a horde of any significant size, but it would buy them a bit of time should problems arise. At least problems with the undead.
As they walked towards the other house, they spotted Cam and Phillip standing guard, looking down the street towards the gas station, only occasionally looking back in the other direction.
“Come on man, Jason Voorhees is way more of a bad guy than Michael Myers,” Cam was saying, and the argument already sounded heated, as if it had been going on for a while. “He’s got a higher body count and is more indiscriminate with his kills.”
Phillip threw his hands up. “Michael Myers killed his teenage sister!”
“So?” Cam scoffed. “Jason has killed enough teenagers to fill a high school football stadium.”
Phillip cocked his head. “Yeah?” he asked and then pointed a finger at his partner. “Well, Michael spent an entire movie trying to kill his ten year old niece! Jason never tried to kill kids, now did he?”
“Part six!” Cam shot back. “He broke into the bunks and scared those kids.”
Phillip shook his head. “But he didn’t try to kill them, now did he?” he asked.
His friend thought for a moment, his excitement fading, but then his eyes widened as another thought dawned on him. “Oh, oh, oh!” he exclaimed. “But in that Nintendo game, he totally killed the kids!”
“Really?” Phillip rolled his eyes. “We’re bringing video games into this now?”
Cam sneered. “You’re just mad because you lost the debate,” he accused.
“Two things,” his friend said flatly, holding up his pointer and middle fingers. “One, the kids die off screen, so it doesn’t count. Two, Michael Myers actually kills a kid on-screen in his game.”
Cam scowled. “When the hell was there a Halloween video game?” he demanded.
“Atari 2600, my friend,” Phillip declared, puffing out his chest.
His companion rolled his eyes. “Oh yeah, the system with games featuring square tanks, square bullets, and square circles,” he drawled, sarcasm heavy in his tone. “I’m sure the deaths were all kinds of realistic.”
“Had blood and everything,” Phillip argued, “so realistic enough to piss off parents back in the day.”
Cam shook his head emphatically. “Man, how in the hell do you know so much about the ancient times?” he asked.
“Well, you never know when you might have to converse with someone who is ancient,” his friend explained with a laugh.
“Morning guys,” Dante said as they reached them. “Sounds like you have a hell of a debate going on here.”
“Case in point?” Phillip asked, jerking a thumb towards Dante. The boys chuckled, the two newcomers shaking their heads in confusion.
“Come on, let’s leave Beavis and Butthead here to do their thing,” Lily said, rolling her eyes.
Phillip held up a hand. “No, no, wait,” he said. “We could actually use your help.”
“Okay, shoot,” Dante replied, crossing his arms.
“Well, we’re trying to say who the most evil villain in film history is,” Cam explained. “I say it’s Jason Voorhees, and he says it’s Michael Myers.”
Phillip nodded. “So who do you think it is?”
Dante contemplated for a moment, and glanced over at
