Post-Surgery, Part I

Terror was the first thing that shot through Jackson’s body as he woke up and saw that the faces of both the doctor and the nurse that were in the room looked like they were decaying. They were meandering around the room, sounding like they were hissing as they breathed, and they initially weren’t showing an interest in him. 

The doctor was the first one to spot him and he made a move towards him like he was trying to attack. The nurse noticed this and did the same. Jackson was told that he wasn’t going to be able to dream when he was put under but this had to be a nightmare. Still, that didn’t take away from how terrifying this was and when he saw the doctor coming at him, looking like a walking burnt skeleton, he couldn’t help but jump out of the hospital bed and run away.

Both of them were coming at him and there was something about this that seemed real. He still had that same feeling that he had in nightmares that something beyond his comprehension of awful was going to happen but he had a feeling this wasn’t going to cause him to wake up. As he ran out of the room he hit his funny bone on the corner of a table. That awful pain he felt from that was something he never felt while he was asleep and now he knew for sure he wasn’t.

In the hallway he saw a bunch of people, some wearing hospital work attire, some were wearing a gown like he was, and some just had normal clothes on. All of them had the same monstrous looking faces that the doctor and nurse did. One of them spotted him and it wasn’t long before they all did. They all moved towards him looking like they wanted him as their lunch.

Jackson turned in the other direction and sprinted down the hall, luckily only having to run by one of these monsters on that side of him, but there were still a good dozen of them chasing him from the other direction. He ended up cornered at the end of the hall in front of an elevator as the monsters got closer. He pushed the ‘down’ button on the elevator and saw that it was on floor twenty. There was no way it was going to get down to floor 3 where he was before these things caught up to him.

Leading the group of these things was a large one wearing jeans and a flannel shirt. It reached its hands out to grab Jackson and its hands looked as decomposed as his face. Jackson heard the elevator beeping behind him, knowing that it wasn’t even close to his floor. He had been a coward his whole life and thought about how unfair it was that he had to go in such a horrifying way. As he braced himself for this he watched the monster’s head explode.

Following the disturbing scene of the blood and brains splattering everywhere, he saw the explosion followed by an aluminum baseball bat. He watched that bat quickly taking out more heads of all of the monsters getting close to him. Muscular male arms were operating the bat. Once half of the monsters were taken care of and dropped to the ground, Jackson could see who was saving him. It was a handsome guy who looked no more than 19 or 20 years old, strong, and standing at probably 6’3. He had a full head of wavy hair which Jackson was jealous of considering he was already balding at age 25. This young man looked to be taking pleasure in what he was doing as he finished off the monsters and they all lied bloody and disgusting on the ground. Standing with Jackson’s savior was a cute, petite blonde girl who looked a bit older, closer to Jackson’s age. She didn’t hold a bat. Jackson heard the elevator door behind him open. 

“Looks lock ah just saved yer ass, sport,” the handsome man said, and he had a bit of a southern twang. He grabbed the arm of the blonde girl. “Come on baby, let’s go.”

“Wait,” the blonde said looking concerned. “Take him with us.”

“Ah told you, we are only picking up girls. No dudes, ah TOLD you that. We already left a few behind.”

“They were with other people and they knew what they were doing,” the blonde said. “He’s alone. He looks scared. And he has no clue what’s going on.” She looked at Jackson. “You probably just woke up from surgery didn’t you?”

“Uh-huh,” Jackson said affirmatively and he nodded his head. He thought he was going to vomit and if it weren’t for all of the bodies on the ground he would have gotten to his knees. Instead, he leaned against the elevator door, which had since closed, to stay on his feet.

“You have me plus four other women and no guys right now,” the blonde said back to the handsome guy. “We’ll all still be your girlfriends, don’t worry.”

“Only yer my girlfriend,” he said and he put his arm around her side and touched her lower back with his free hand not holding the bat. “The rest of them are my bitches.”

“Fine, whatever,” she said. “He can be one of your bitches too. He can help clean the house or something. Please just don’t leave him alone, PLEASE!” 

The handsome guy dropped the bat and turned to Jackson with a cocky smile on his face. He stuck his chest out to show off his muscular pecs. He wore a tight grey t-shirt that showed off his ripped upper body and a tight pair of shorts. He walked towards Jackson and Jackson thought he may have feared this guy more than the monsters. At least the monsters he could have run away from but he wouldn’t have stood a chance of getting away from this guy. 

The handsome guy took his big hand, grabbed Jackson by the throat, and lifted him off his feet above his own head, and he pushed him up against the wall. His powerful hand closed around Jackson’s throat and the blonde just watched, suddenly no longer seeming concerned with Jackson’s well-being. Jackson would have rather gotten eaten by the monsters than have this guy kill him – at least that would be less humiliating.

“If ah take you with us,” he said. “You stay away from her, you got that? She is mine. Ah catch you touching her, flirting with her, even looking at her in a way that ah don’t like I’ll rip you to pieces and I’ll do it with my bare hands, you go that?”

He had a look in his eyes like he would take pleasure in taking Jackson apart just like he said as he tightened his hand around his throat. There was something terrifying about the mind of someone being capable of knowing he wanted to hurt and torture him and Jackson was far more afraid than he was just a few minutes earlier before the bat started bashing heads. Jackson’s face was beat red and tears were coming out of his eyes. He wanted to tell this guy whatever he wanted to hear just to save himself but he couldn’t talk with his hand around his throat and it had him so tight he couldn’t even nod. Jackson thought he was going to get his throat ripped out simply because he wasn’t able to answer. Thinking of what he could do, he managed to get his arm up and give the guy a thumbs-up. He felt the grip on his throat loosen a bit.

“OK now that you’ve scared the crap out of him, can we go home?” the blonde said. The guy chuckled and he put Jackson down. He had a hard time getting air in at first.

“Let’s get on that elevator,” the handsome guy said. “Not sure how much longer they’re gonna be working for.”

****

Outside of the hospital, Jackson walked behind the guy and the girl. He didn’t see any regular people other than the three of them. There were plenty of the monsters walking around, though. The ones that were far away weren’t paying any attention to them. The ones that were closer would come at them. Jackson flinched every time they did but the handsome guy would whack each one in the head with the baseball bat and make it explode. He did it each time with ease and none of the monsters seemed to have any kind of defense against his efficient swing.

Walking behind them, Jackson listened to the guy’s warning and was sure not to look at the blonde at all. So he found himself looking at the guy. His tight shirt showed off his back muscles and the tight shorts he had on showed off how muscular his butt and legs were. Wimpy Jackson thought how much the cute blonde must be attracted to this muscular guy that could protect her and how he could never have a girl this cute because he was so scared and wimpy. 

“So since my boyfriend is rude I’ll do the introductions,” the blonde said. She turned around and looked at Jackson when she said it. He quickly looked away from her but caught a quick glimpse of how pretty her face was before he did. “I’m Julie. My boyfriend is Nate.” Jackson said nothing. He was still trying to process everything.

“What’s your name, slugger?” Nate said, too cocky to look back at him when he said it.

“Sorry,” he said. “I’m Jackson. What’s going on here?” He looked around at all of the monsters that were moving around. Another one started coming towards them.

“Zombie Apocalypse is here,” Nate said. He bashed the monster in the head with the bat.

“A what?” Jackson said. Nate looked back at him, amused. 

“A Zombie Apocalypse, dude,” he said. “Don’t you watch The Walking Dead?”

“I don’t watch that…stuff.” He wanted to say crap instead of stuff but he feared what Nate’s reaction would have been. 

“Well you should – or should have. Because it’s happening now.” Jackson wasn’t going to buy anything this punk said.

“He’s right,” Julie said like she was reading Jackson’s mind as she turned to look at him. “I’m a nerd about this stuff. I watch Walking Dead but I’ve watched a lot of documentaries on this kind of stuff too. People laughed about it but I always believed this was scientifically possible. And here it is. I think it’s kind of cool – for now anyway. Might feel differently in a couple of weeks if it turns out I can’t take a shower.”

Jackson looked around now aware that all of the monsters he saw lurking everywhere were zombies and he didn’t find anything about it kind of cool. But the two walking in front of him seemed to have no problem with it as Nate kept bashing in the head of any one of them that got close and Julie didn’t even flinch when it happened. 

They walked up upon a large mansion that was gated. Multiple zombies were hanging on the black bars of gate trying to get in. Nate took care of only the ones that were blocking the gate in. He opened it and it was latched but not locked, led them all in, then closed it behind them. He led them inside to a large bedroom. He reached in a drawer and pulled out a dress and a pair of panties.

“Here you go, champ,” he said and he threw the clothes at Jackson who barely caught them. “Got some clothes for you.  You can change out of that gown now. Bathroom’s right there.” He stuck his chest out and made it clear that there was going to be a problem if Jackson didn’t do what he wanted. 

“Nate, don’t make him wear those,” Julie said. “Let him wear some of your clothes.”

“Nuh-uh,” Nate said. “Clothing’s gonna be hard to come by during this. My clothes are for me.”

“So let him stay in the gown until we find clothes for him. Don’t make him wear a dress and panties, you’re going to humiliate the poor guy.” Nate turned to his girlfriend with his chest still out and though he was smiling, he looked at her like he was reminding her who called the shots. Julie looked down at the floor looking ashamed.

“I took him in like you asked me to,” Nate said. “But he’s wearing the dress.”

“Fashion’s gonna a thing of the past very soon anyway and people are just going to be glad they have any clothes to wear,” she said to Jackson, trying to make him feel better. “Just go ahead and put it on.”

Jackson looked at the muscular guy with his chest out clearly trying to show his dominance over him. Jackson didn’t know much about Apocalypses but he did know that the law didn’t exist during them. Because this kid was stronger than Jackson he was going to be able to make him do whatever he wanted. Jackson went in the bathroom and changed into the dress and panties. The fact that Julie had been considerate towards him made it a bit less humiliating when he walked back out into the room but not much.

“Don’t you look pretty?” Nate said to Jackson and he only partially sounded like he was making fun of him. “Come on with me, I’ll introduce you to the girls.” He walked up to Jackson and yanked his hair. “On your knees, boy,” he said. 

Jackson knew that if he didn’t stand up to Nate that he was going to be able to bully him however he wanted to but Jackson still didn’t stick up to him anyway out of fear. He crawled on his knees like a dog as Nate walked him out of the room with Julie walking next to him. He led Jackson into a large living room where four women were sitting down watching TV. He wondered if cable was still working through this but it looked like they were watching a movie so he figured it was a Blu-ray or something. Looking at the women, it was obvious to Jackson why Nate chose Julie as his girlfriend. One of the woman was extremely overweight, another had weird looking eyes, another looked like a pear she had such a big belly, and the other one had scars all over her arms. 

“Got you girls a new doggy,” Nate said to the women who were now all looking at Jackson. “Bark for them, doggy.” Jackson just stayed on his knees as the ugly girls stared at him waiting to see what he would do. Nate was bullying him way too much already and now he had to stand up for himself. He did nothing. 

“I said BARK, boy,” Nate said impatiently. He smacked Jackson on the back of the head, hard. Jackson felt his eyes water up. The smack hurt and if Nate could hurt him that much with an open hand, he didn’t want to feel what it would feel like if he hit him harder or with a closed fist. That hit was enough to change his mind really quick about standing up for himself.

“Woof, woof,” Jackson said. The girls were looking at him curiously like they were unsure whether to laugh or what although the one with the weird eyes had an amused smile on her face. Jackson was furious that Nate was able to humiliate him like this in front of them and there was nothing he could do about it.

“Well I’ll leave the new doggy with you girls,” Nate said. “Julie and I need to go out and save a few more ladies. Don’t go trying to run off, doggy. You won’t survive out there on your own.”

Nate pet Jackson’s hair roughly like he was a dog then walked out with Julie. None of the women still spoke. The one that looked like a pear looked back at the TV but the other three girls still stared at him, kneeling there in the dress, looking like they were waiting for him to do a trick or something. The overweight one then stood up.

“Bark doggy,” she said and the one with the weird eyes laughed. “Let’s hear you bark.” Jackson didn’t do anything. He was humiliated but he didn’t fear these women. The overweight one started to look impatient.

“Bark!” she barked at him, loud enough to startle him and make him flinch. “Bark or I’ll tell Nate that you were starting trouble with us when he gets back and you’ll have to deal with him.”  This heavy girl who probably had gotten picked on her whole life before this Zombie Apocalypse seemed so happy to be able to pick on someone else. He didn’t know how close she was with Nate but he didn’t want to take any chances.

“Woof, woof,” he said and now all of the women laughed. 

****

“Hey, wake up,” Jackson heard a female voice quietly saying that was waking him up from his sleep. 

He wasn’t sure where he was but he thought he was waking up just in the reality he knew and he had forgotten all about the whole Zombie Apocalypse. That was until he saw Julie’s face. He never thought he’d be so disappointed to see a woman’s beautiful face sitting next to his bed as it immediately reminded him where he was.

“Be quiet,” she whispered. “I’m getting you out of here.”

To be continued…