Sex in the Time of Zombies

lightly on her bottom teeth. The corners of her mouth were turned up in the hint of a smile, as if she were privy to some secret information and delighted in teasing the viewer with vague hints and innuendo. Her back was arched slightly, causing shadows to fall along the graceful curve of her spine. Her left forearm blocked her breasts from view, but it was all too easy to imagine them rounding out the front of the bra that snugly hugged her back.

Tanny’s eyes panned down the picture slowly, drinking in the matching underwear with its raised polka dot nubs and how the panties clung to the curves of that perfect ass like a needy lover. Long, smooth legs flowed effortlessly into a pair of calf-high black boots with silver buckles and heels that you could stake a vampire with. Scrawled across the bottom left hand corner of the photo, in what appeared to be a medium point magic marker were the words Owen, you rock! Beneath the inscription, was what Tanny assumed was a signature; however it was nearly impossible to read, consisting mostly of intricate loops and swirls that merely suggested letters.

Taking the cigarette in one hand, Tanny pursed his lips and let out a slow whistle as his eyes scanned the picture again.

“What are you doing?”

Owen’s voice was as flat as the stones he’d used to for the base of his now completed circle. His eyes however looked just as cold and hard and Tanny felt like a child who’d just been caught sneaking a peak at Dad’s special magazines.

“Oh hey, kid… I was just… well, I was….”

He licked his lips and smiled, changing tact mid-sentence.

“Wow, she’s quite a looker, my man. Who is she?”

Owen snorted and his brow creased with what appeared to be disapproval.

“Who is she? Seriously? That’s only Tiffany Shepis, dummy.”

Tanny took a drag from his cigarette, arched his eyebrows and shrugged, causing his companion to shake his head slowly.

“Tiffany Shepis? Only the greatest scream queen since Linnea Quigley? Hell, since ever for that matter.”

His voice trembled with the type of reverence usually reserved for gods and his words spilled out in an excited babble; but there was still something about his eyes that made Tanny feel as though the younger man were peeling back layers of skin with his gaze. He tried to keep the banter light and flowing, as if they were simply two old buddies on a camping trip.

“Oh, I see… so she was some kind of actress then?”

“No!”

Owen’s voice was as sharp as a handgun firing and he paced around the clearing now as he tugged at his left earlobe.

“No, no, no. not just some actress… the actress. Would you call the Mona Lisa just some painting? Is the Taj Mahal just some building?”

Tanny chuckled in an attempt to hide the nervous fluttering in his stomach. Subconsciously, he stroked the picture in his hand with the ball of his thumb, tracing the path of her legs over and over.

“So I take it you were a fan then?”

He’d meant the question as a joke but Owen turned so quickly that it was almost as if Tanny had just bitch- slapped him across the face. His mouth drew back into a snarl and the campfire reflected in the lenses of his glasses, making it appear as though flames raged within the dark recesses of his skull.

“Fan? Fan? I am not a fuckin’ fan. Me and Tiffany, we got something beautiful, see? She understands me. She loves me. And they know! They make sure at least once, in every damn film, she’s allowed to send a special message. Just for me. We’ve got this blood oath, see? Me and Tiffany, til the very fucking end. When I get to Tuscon, you’ll see. The ghouls better watch the fuck out because there’s nothing me and Tiff won’t be able to do when we finally meet!”

The cigarette in Tanny’s mouth had been forgotten and the ash seemed to defy gravity as it curled toward the ground. He could feel the night pressing in around him like a dark cloak and the realization of exactly how isolated they were out here struck him with an almost physical force. Far beyond fluttering, his stomach now churned the half-digested macaroni in raging seas of acid and bile stung the back of his throat. He swallowed hard and glanced down at the picture so he wouldn’t have to feel the heat of Owen’s stare burning into his soul.

“Yeah, look… kid, I understand. Really, I do. I mean, who wouldn’t fall for a sweet piece of ass like that?”

Owen sprung across the clearing before Tanny had a chance to regret the words that had blurted from his mouth. The larger man’s body crashed into his Tanny with the force of a boulder hurled by the gods. Tanny’s body flew backwards as Owen’s full weight crushed the air from his lungs and sent the cigarette tumbling from his mouth with a whoosh of air.

“You son of a bitch!”

Tanny’s fingers clawed at his attacker: grasping, scratching, pulling, and pummeling the man’s chest with hollow thuds. But Owen’s reach was too long and he had a handful of the little man’s red hair clutched in a death grip. He slammed Tanny’s head against the forest floor again and again; the ground that had seemed so soft when they were setting up camp now caused flashes of darkness to explode before Tanny’s eyes. The flashes grew in size and frequency with each burst of pain that radiated from the back of his skull.

“You don’t talk about her that way! No one talks about her that way!”

Owen looked more animal than human. As he screamed his lips seemed to shrivel back, revealing pink gums and teeth that were bared like a rabid wolf. His eyelids twitched and fluttered and the muscles in his neck were like twisted cords that had been pulled so tightly that they quivered beneath the strain. Even his voice seemed to rumble like the bastard child of words and a growl.

“Fuckin’ cock sucker! Piece of shit! She’s too damn good for you!”

Rings of darkness edged Tanny’s vision and everything not engulfed by the encroaching gloom seemed to waver like an out of focus film. He was vaguely aware of something warm and sticky oozing through his hair but the thump and squish of his head pounding against the ground almost seemed to recede with each repetition. In some distant, fuzzy patch of consciousness Tanny heard his own voice, like the echo of a dream:

I’m going to die….

Owen grabbed the man by both ears, twisting them like the grips on a motorcycle, and yanked Tanny up until they were so close that the spiced meat on his breath wafted over his companions face with each breath.

“You understand, you fuckin’ freak? She’s mine!”

Releasing one ear, Tanny drove a fist into Tanny’s face and his companion fell backward again as blood gushed from a lip that had split like an overripe tomato. And then Owen was scrambling up his body, his bony knees jabbing painfully into Tanny’s shoulder blades and pinning the man to the ground.

As if by magic, the cigarette butt appeared in Owen’s hand and he held it so close to Tanny’s eye that the heat wafting from its ember felt like a pinprick searing into his lid. Despite the tenuous grip Tanny held on consciousness, he instinctively tried to twist away, but Owen’s other hand pressed against the man’s forehead with the full weight of his body.

“You apologize, you little turd! You apologize right now!”

“I’m sorry.” Tanny croaked. “Dear God, I’m sorry okay?”

Owen inched the smoldering cigarette closer to Tanny eye.

“Not to me, dumb ass.” he sneered. “To her. Apologize to her!”

Owen jerked his head to the side, indicating the eight-by-ten that lay on the ground. Tanny tried to follow his attacker’s line of sight, but Owen still had his head pinned to the ground so tightly that he could barely move his neck. Instead, he glanced out of the corner of his eye and could barely make out the edges of the photo in his peripheral vision.

“I’m sorry… I… didn’t mean to insult you.”

Tanny felt some of the pressure ease from his head and the cigarette was pulled far enough away that the smoke no longer curled up into his stinging eyes. At the same time, waves of dizziness washed over him and it felt as if his head had turned into a balloon that had been rapidly inflated. When Owen spoke again, his voice was lower but still seemed to seethe with the promise of violence.