Odd Prompts: Zombie Nature

The characters will be familiar to those of you who have read Lab Gremlins. 

***

“Hard hat, safety toes, and lab goggles,” Steven muttered to himself. “That’s all I ever wanted in a job.”

“Huh?” Bob twisted around and looked at him. At least the big cephalapoid kept his weapon pointed away from his partner. “What’s that?” 

Bob was hard of hearing. Given his current fish-out-of-water position, Steven couldn’t blame him. On the other hand, if he repeated himself more loudly, then the zombies would hear. On the other tentacle, there were only so many of them, and if they drew them in closer... He racked the slide on his weapon, reloading a shell into the chamber before sliding it closed again. 

“I said,” Steven’s voice reverberated off the walls, and Bob’s huge eyes widened even more, “I never wanted to die in a cubicle.” 

There was a thump outside the doorway. Both of them pointed the barrels of their weapons in that direction. Steven could feel the solid wall at his shoulderblades. He braced. “I just wanted to get my hands dirty!” He bellowed. 

They came through the door in a rush, and the “thwap, splat” of the rounds impacting them was the only sound for a minute, other than falling bodies. 

Steven looked down when it fell silent again, and counted. 

“I make that three missing.” Bob was faster than he was. 

Steven grunted affirmation. “Want me to do it again?” 

Bob poured more ammo into his automatic. “Seemed to work a treat.” 

One of the bodies on the floor twitched, and Steven eyed it suspiciously. 

“C’mon, you gremlins!” He shouted. “Let’s dance!” 

The ‘dead’ zombie on the floor nearest him started to giggle helplessly. 

“Fritzy,” Steven kept his muzzle aimed at the door. “I’ll paintball your ass, even if you are my boss!” 

The other zombies, the last of his group in the teambuilding exercise, came through the door and Bob cheerfully sprayed them with neon orange. Fritzy sat up and wiped some of the zombie makeup off her face. “You realize, that’s cheating?” 

“What is?” Steven asked, lowering the paintball marker, but keeping the muzzle off anyone out of long habit. 

“Using yourself as bait.” 

“That wasn’t bait,” Bob protested, “That was an ambush! You knew we were trying to get you!” 

"You could have waited for us to come out and find you," Steven pointed out rationally." 

Snirblefritz sniffed. "I'm a method actor. We were just doing what's in a zombie's nature!" 

***

My prompt this week came from Leigh Kimmel and I completely mangled it. "You’re working your way through a building, trying to avoid the clusters of zombies scattered through it." 

I prompted Becky Jones with "There’s no memory of licking the salt block, only of the slightly medicinal taste of the salt" 

You can read all of the prompts and responses over at More Odds Than Ends. Come play along with us!