The Starlight Bowl... and Zombies (DaddyisHere and Karixia)

The roads were empty.

Burnt-out hulks of cars were scattered around, blocking most routes.

Store windows were broken out.

Bodies were scattered around. The only signs of movement were birds, wild dogs, and of course... the occasional grey-skinned human figure shambling through in search of a victim.

Near the intersection of Grand and Harlem Avenues, there was an odd building that had looked dated long before the plague. The Skylight Bowl had been a bowling alley that was popular in the sixties, but had fallen out of favor.

The design had been fairly inventive. The entire bowling alley was on the second floor, built over a parking lot for the patrons.

Now, there was no way to get to the upper floor, the stairway on the north end was gone, having been taken out when a dump truck crashed into it during the panic. The dump truck was no longer there, and the resulting hole in the floor above had been patched... leaving the upper floor entirely isolated.

What nobody saw, was the bank of solar panels and troughs on the roof.

They also wouldn't see the small panel in the back of the building's second floor, near where the pin machines had been, where a hole would be uncovered to reveal a lone figure emerging with a ladder now and again.

What they also wouldn't notice, unless they were looking for it, was the fact that there were three Prius's parked below the alley... all modified to run on battery only, so as to be as silent as possible. The Toyotas also had armored windows and doors.


Baker looked at the calender... tearing another month off of it. It was the last page. He'd officially been in his hideout for fifteen months.

He was safe. He was not infected.

He was also going slowly crazy. He knew that. He'd stayed relatively sane via Ham radio for awhile, but his contacts had gradually... gone away. The only people left were Vince and Kelly, a couple who had taken the plunge, gotten together, and stayed clean.

The worst part about the plague was the uncertainty. It was known that many people could be carriers, so if you lived the life of a monk-slash-nun, you could be safe. You ALSO needed to be resigned to the fact that you would live a sexless, lonely life without human contact ever again.

He now knew he couldn't do that.

He wanted a girl. Not to fuck. He wanted a girl to talk to, to look at... to watch her brush her hair away from her face. He knew there was a risk there, but he was at the point that he didn't care. Even if it did lead to sex, at least he would die/zombify with having known one last moment of tenderness.

So, he started watching. It wasn't hard to spot wanderers, not from the roof.

The first day, he saw seven men drifting through. He let them go. The second day, much the same. The third, he saw two women who were together... very together. They stopped in a nearby house and went up to the upstairs bedroom. It wasn't necessarily unpleasant to watch, but he figured they could stay happy together. Then, he saw her, moving stealthily through the area.

He made ready his bow, and fired his special arrow. On it was a message, wrapped around the shaft. His aim was true and he watched her jump as the shaft sank into the tree ahead of her.

He saw her look at the tree and then at where it had came from. He motioned to her to unwrap the message on the shaft.

"I'm called Baker. I have a safe spot. Very safe. I am lonely. I am so lonely I will kill myself soon if I don't talk to someone on a daily basis. I have divided the building with a double fence, floor to ceiling. You can have the south half. We will be separated and unable to touch. I have food, power, and over ten thousand DVDs. I have popcorn, too. Wanna watch some movies?"

Mia walked around the streets, her eyes alert to everything she saw around her. Her grip was holding a very large sword, curved end. The blade was clean, it looked very sharp if people focused on it. Her back showed another sheet of a sword, the handle of the blade could be seen at the end of the sheet. She walked casually and confident through the darkness, slowly the groaning of those zombies were being heard less and less with a thud of their heads hitting the floor. Mia became something else, she didn’t consider herself human, the fact that she had to kill her friend was testament into how far she had gotten. Her eyes showed no emotion, no fear just regret and anger all bottled up inside her.

Mark was gone, Sarah was gone, Michael was gone and Richard was gone the only one that remained was Mia, the lonesome Mia. She walked as she looked at a corner with two zombies nearby, she picked up the handle of her other blade and took out the sword, it had designs of sakura blossoms all over the sword. With one sword on each hand she rushed forward to the group of zombies slicing the head of the group of four rather easily, all of them falling to the floor. She continued to walk through the small town when an arrow landed itself right in front of her. Noticing that there was a small note she picked up the note and read it. There was another human, she could not believe it. Her expression didn’t change as she looked in the direction where the arrow came.

She read the note one more time and dropped it to the floor and grabbed the arrow, he would need as many arrows as he could get. Taking a deep breath she began walking in direction where the arrow came and where she saw the figure of an apparent alive person ‘Baker’. She walked across the streets but then she saw a couple of walkers begin to surround her. Taking both blades out from their sheets she closed her eyes and waited for them to get closer, with her eyes closed she sliced the head of the first zombie approaching her, followed by the one at her other side. She looked at the building and threw her one of her swords at the zombie that was in the direction. Picking up two small throwing knives she threw them at both zombies and then grabbed her sword as she ran in direction to where he was.

She finally looked for a way inside and went through what appeared to be a small hole on the fence. Turning around she waited for the zombies to get to the gate before picking on them one by one and pushing her sword through their skulls. Finally when the road was clear of them she applied a bit of force on the sword and the blood spattered to the ground. She looked around for a way inside hoping for the best that this man knew the truth about the infected.

http://img.wallpaperstock.net:81/girl-with-samurai-sword-wallpapers_29058_1920x1200.jpg

He had watched her fight off the walkers, very impressed at her skills. He was more of a crossbow/axe sort of fighter and he figured if nothing else, they would make a very effective team fighting back to back.

She was Asian. 'Fuck' he said to himself. The one love of his life had been a second-generation girl who was half Korean and half Japanese and it had been a weakness of his ever since. He was questioning this arrangement already, but again reminded himself that a celibate life looking at her was better than a lonely life of despair and suicidal thoughts.

He checked the perimeter and saw they were clear. He lowered the ladder down from the hatch he'd constructed and called out to her.

"Come on up. I'll back off! Bring the ladder up after you!"

He waited patiently and saw her emerge through the hole.

'Double-fuck' he cursed to himself. She was stunning. If he'd believed in love at first sight, he knew that was the moment.

"Hi..." he said from about twenty feet away. "I'm Baker, and this is the Starlight."

Mia looked at the man lowering the ladder and sighed, moving up the stairs she looked at him and bowed her head a bit, “Arigatou, I am Mia-san. Pleasure to meet you Baker-san” she looked down at the zombies and nodded more to herself, “Good, they didn’t see me”. The fact that he was well proved that he wasn’t bitten or hurt, taking off her backpack she searched for an almost empty bottle of water and finally finished the bottle before taking a small bag of chips and open it before offering him, “Want some?”. She smiled and waited for him to take or not take before she began eating “Is this safe?”.

Mia's look was more of a girl that lost all hope, even her smile was fake. Her mind looked deeply worried about something, the fact that there was another person alive means that the humanity wasn't lost yet. She finally took a deep breath her complexion relaxing quite a lot, "Please forgive me, it's been quite a couple of day. I love five people in two hours... that was five hours ago". She shook her head and sighed, "I was the only one that survived... without any injury...not that it matters anyways injured or not we are all infected".

"I uh... sure," he said, accepting her chips. He figured it would be rude not to accept her offer.

He indicated the area behind the bar.

"If you're thirsty, I've got anything you'd want. Soda, fruit juice, beer, any sort of liquor."

"So... can you clarify that? You 'loved' five people? Do you mean you slept with five people in two hours, or... I'm not sure."

"And, in terms of us all being infected. That doesn't make sense. I mean, you and I aren't walkers, so how could we be infected?"

"I meant lost, you silly men. I lost five people in the last two hours. Yes we are all infected, if I were to kill you right now by piercing your heart with my sword you would wake up as one of them" she stood up as he mentioned water. "I could use a restock of my water supply if you have them, also...." she took the arrow from her backpack and gave it to him, "Don't waste arrows just like that". She looked down at the ground and saw a couple of zombies around the fence but they didn't seem to hear her. "Lead the way" she spoke as she finally looked back at him following him anywhere he wanted to take her.

"Well... I've got couches back there that are fairly comfortable to sleep on, like I say, I've got water. I've got a rain tank up top that stays pretty full. and... come on back and look at this.

He led her to behind where they gave out bowling shoes, keeping a respectful distance.

"Back here," he said. "The employees had a private shower. It was pretty messy when I got here, but I scrubbed it down and cleaned everything up. There's a lock on the door. If you want to take a shower, feel free. All that I'd ask is that you don't take more than ten minutes or so. I've got a lot of water, but I still try to be careful.

She smiled once he told her that she could get a shower, it has been awhile ever since she got a good shower and the stench of death was still all over her. Miko took a deep breath and then looked at him, "You can relax, I ain't going to kill you unless you give me a reason to kill you". She walked to the door and looked at the showers in the other end. Finally smiling she walked inside and looked at one of the showers turning it on. The cold water began to come out but she smiled, even cold a good shower was something that people should appreciate. Her clothing was stained with blood everywhere, from the zombies and from humans as well and her stench was clearly noticeable from his distance.

She closed the door behind her and locked it, she was thankful that she had some other clothing on her bag that she used to sleep. The clothing was a bit cleaner than what she was wearing. Finally taking off the straps where she had the throwing knives she placed it on the ground a bit apart so the shower would not get to them. She took out the swords placing them on the same place followed by her clothing. Once naked she turned on the shower and let the water hit her body gently as she relaxed under it.

Baker felt hope. For the first time in months, he actually had a sense of hope. What she'd said about them being carriers... he wasn't sure what to make of that. He at least knew he wasn't a zombie, and he would just keep going on while that was true.

He dove into the kitchen and looked through the freezer. He'd been lucky enough to find a butcher that had backup generators. He'd grabbed over a hundred pounds of steaks, hamburgers, and chicken.

By the time she emerged from the shower, the smell of steak cooking was filling the bowling alley. He was also grilling some potatoes and cooking some canned vegetables.

When she emerged, fresher, cleaner, and even more beautiful, he smiled at her.

"Best I can do," he said. "And after, I have ice cream if you're in the mood."

She finished the quick shower with the bottle of soap she had. Only having a little meant that she had to try and do her best to make it last. Finally after the shower she dressed up in a pair of shorts and a black shirt. Finally walking out with both of her swords on one hand she looked around as she smelled meat cooking. "Meat? does that actually exist anymore?" she shook her head and walked in direction to where the meat was cooking only to watch him cooking, "A male cooking, now I seen it all". She smiled and walked to him with both swords still on her hand, "Umm sorry about my swords, is something I gotten used to having... I feel naked without them".

She placed her swords behind her back by the straps and approached him cooking, "Looks good sir". Taking a deep breath she walked back out the kitchen in order to give him room and looked around. She was pretty sure he would take out any walkers that were inside the building. Sitting down on one of the chairs on the bowling alley she looked at the wooden floor where the ball would roll and smiled remembering back on times where things were much easier.

Karixia said:

She finished the quick shower with the bottle of soap she had. Only having a little meant that she had to try and do her best to make it last. Finally after the shower she dressed up in a pair of shorts and a black shirt. Finally walking out with both of her swords on one hand she looked around as she smelled meat cooking. "Meat? does that actually exist anymore?" she shook her head and walked in direction to where the meat was cooking only to watch him cooking, "A male cooking, now I seen it all". She smiled and walked to him with both swords still on her hand, "Umm sorry about my swords, is something I gotten used to having... I feel naked without them".

She placed her swords behind her back by the straps and approached him cooking, "Looks good sir". Taking a deep breath she walked back out the kitchen in order to give him room and looked around. She was pretty sure he would take out any walkers that were inside the building. Sitting down on one of the chairs on the bowling alley she looked at the wooden floor where the ball would roll and smiled remembering back on times where things were much easier.

Click to expand...

"Hey, look at me," he said. "I'm surrounded by knives, and I've got a pistol with a silencer on my hip. I understand. Just to let you know, though. This place is the safest you'll find. Do you want to hear something crazy? I actually lured walkers back here when I first moved in. I've got a zipline from the roof over to a tree down the way. But, I wanted to make sure they couldn't get in here. Three hundred of 'em were outside for three days and nights. Not one ever got close. They can't climb to the second floor.

Honestly, the most dangerous aspect of living here is when I have to go on supply runs."

"In terms of my cooking, I've gotten pretty good at fixing something decent out of not much.

He put the food on the plates and walked over to set hers near her. He also set down a beer.

"Dinner's served," he said with a smile. "It's nice to have company."

She looked at him and nodded, "I would be honored to company you sir". Taking a deep breath she looked at him and shook her head, noticing the gun on his hips, "Guns... I hate guns...". She stood up and walked to where the meat was with a smile, "Mmmm Itadakimasu". She grabbed the fork and the knife and cut a bit out from the steak and put it on her mouth. Smirking she nodded at him, "It's good, thank you". She took another bite out of the steak and began eating clearly not wanting to waste any food offered to her.

Karixia said:

She looked at him and nodded, "I would be honored to company you sir". Taking a deep breath she looked at him and shook her head, noticing the gun on his hips, "Guns... I hate guns...". She stood up and walked to where the meat was with a smile, "Mmmm Itadakimasu". She grabbed the fork and the knife and cut a bit out from the steak and put it on her mouth. Smirking she nodded at him, "It's good, thank you". She took another bite out of the steak and began eating clearly not wanting to waste any food offered to her.

Click to expand...

"I'm glad you think so," he said.

He dug in as well.

"So... we're all infected. What else does that mean? I mean, like the stuff about people being... together. That sort of thing. Is it true that if someone is together with someone else they can still get infected? Or... I dunno. Honestly, I've been living here alone for almost a year, so I haven't heard much about all of this. I've just been keeping clear of other people for fear of getting infected. Now, I just know I needed to talk to someone or I was going to go insane. And walkers aren't much for talking... they're pretty boring really, as far as conversation goes."

She shook her head, “Sex has nothing to do with it, the virus itself it’s dormant on our bodies. Activation of the virus takes place when you are about to die or die out of the sudden, otherwise… is dormant. In the group I was in… there was a pregnant woman. The woman gave birth to the baby however she died on child birth. I had to…. Kill her once she turned, the baby died three weeks later out of lack of food and supplies. The virus itself is not dangerous what it’s dangerous is the activation of the virus if the person dies”. She was talking about this normally as she would talk about flowers, “I used to be a molecular scientist by the way”. She shook her head and shrugged as she finished the meat and took a bit of the water. “Mmm yeah it was delicious, thank you sir” she bowed her head and waited until he finished before standing up.

Karixia said:

She shook her head, “Sex has nothing to do with it, the virus itself it’s dormant on our bodies. Activation of the virus takes place when you are about to die or die out of the sudden, otherwise… is dormant. In the group I was in… there was a pregnant woman. The woman gave birth to the baby however she died on child birth. I had to…. Kill her once she turned, the baby died three weeks later out of lack of food and supplies. The virus itself is not dangerous what it’s dangerous is the activation of the virus if the person dies”. She was talking about this normally as she would talk about flowers, “I used to be a molecular scientist by the way”. She shook her head and shrugged as she finished the meat and took a bit of the water. “Mmm yeah it was delicious, thank you sir” she bowed her head and waited until he finished before standing up.

Click to expand...

"It was my pleasure," he said.

Bells were going off in his head. A) He'd been alone all of this time for no reason. B) She was a woman, and gorgeous.

And

C) She'd just lost several people she loved and why the fuck was he thinking about sex?

He needed to get his mind away from that.

"Molecular Biologist. That's interesting. So, here's one thing I know. We've got seven hospitals within three miles of here, and a couple of clinical labs. Fermi labs was also south of here, and Abbot Pharmaceuticals is to the north. If you wanted to do some research, you know, for a cure, I could help you get what you need. We could even set up a clean shop here, where it is safe.

don't look at her body, don't look at her body were the only words running through his mind... his mind that had been celibate for a year.

She shook her head, "There is no cure sir, the virus is too strong it would take equipment that you would find only in the CDC in order to at least have a chance. All the cdc around the area are filled by them. So sir to tell you the truth... the end of the world really is here don't think there is a chance for humanity to survive. Slowly but surely we will all die and we will become them". She sighed and scratched the back of her head, this was really a good place to be and there was another survivor which was always good. She shook her head and walked to the place where the bowling balls were and took one and judged her weight and smiled, the good old times where bowling was as normal as eating. Placing the ball back where it belonged she sat down on the chair she was before and finally placed her swords on the floor besides her. She didn't care if he would kill her anymore, the fact that she would die from a human meant a hell lot to them.

"You know the best part of this place?" he said softly. "It is so safe. I've actually built some good alarm systems, too... and they've never gone off. Having somewhere safe means you can actually sleep.

"I can tell you are tired, Mia. Come here."

He reached down and took her hand, leading her back to the couches.

"This is the best one," he said. "Get some sleep. We'll talk about the future tomorrow. Our future. The future of humanity. There's time."

She looked at him touching her hand and quickly she grabbed his hand and brought him down to the floor by sliding her legs on his, “Don’t touch me without saying it”. Grabbing his hand she helped him up and grabbed her weapons, “The last person that did that turned right in front of me”. She walked with him to where the couch was, sitting down she sighed and laid down on the couch with her hand still grasping the sword, “There is no safe place. Your alarms haven’t gone off which meant you don’t really know if they will go off if something happens. I kept alive all this time by not trusting anybody, human or machine”. She could not trust anybody, she would not become one of them. Taking a deep breath she calmed herself and looked up to the ceiling not willing to close her eyes until he did.

"Look, I don't need this shit," he said. "In case you forgot, I'm the one who let you up here. I'm the one who offered you sanctuary. And do you have a problem understanding English? I've been here for 12 fucking months without a problem. Twelve fucking months with walkers trying to crawl up the walls and not getting anywhere. So yeah, it's safe."

"Tell you what, I'd already set up the divider. I'm going to go over on the other side, behind the secure fence which I will lock. You'll notice, I've put up bells on it, so you'll hear if I touch it. You don't believe this is safe, fine. Get some sleep, fill your pack, and get the fuck out of here in the morning. I've done my best."

He left her there. He was furious at having made any sort of effort... or at having any sort of feelings that she might be... human.

"Sweet fucking dreams, bitch!" he called back as he went to the other group of couches, far from her.

She shook her head, what could he understand?. She has been through hell and he has been safe out here he had no idea how bad was it. She searched her bag for what appeared to be a picture, it showed her with two little girls twins and a man besides her, they all looked happy. She smiled watching the picture before saying loud enough for him to hear her out, "I am sorry... I never meant to insult you. Ever since this started I haven't been able to rest for a single week without something happening. I will leave in the morning you won't want a bitch in your place" she closed her eyes and finally relax and fell asleep the picture falling to the floor besides her couch. She woke up in her house, her daughters playing happy on the back yard and her husband happy making food. Those were the good days where everything seemed simple and she was safe. Slowly the dream got worst and worst until she had to kill her own family with the sword belonging to her husband.

He finally got to sleep and when the light filtered in on his side, he walked over, quietly. Not waking her up, even with the gate.

He saw the picture and his heart went out to her.

He stood back... knowing how people could wake up with a knife in their hand these days.

He cleared his throat.

"Mia... Mia."

He waited for her to awaken.

"I uh... I want to apologize for last night. I just want you to know that I'd like you to stay. However, I have two rules if you do. 1) You need to trust me. I let you in here, and I've shown good faith. If we can't trust each other, we can't live together. 2) You can't say there's no hope. You can believe that if you want, but I don't want those words spoken under my roof. If you can live by those two rules, you're welcome to stay in the safest place you'll ever find."

She opened her eyes to see the man talking besides her, somehow she could not understand what he was saying the grogginess of the sleep still on her. She picked up the photo and quickly placed it inside her bag,"Sorry I tend not trust anybody but I will give you a chance to earn mine and okay on your second rule". She scratched the back of her head and stretched her back, her breasts showing a bit through the shirt obviously she didn't wore any bra. Smirking she looked at him and shook her head, "Not really in the mood for bra, the end of the world is here and people would worry about everything except the underwear of a girl" she giggled grabbing her sword and standing up. "The bad thing about this apocalypse... there is nothing to do when I would be working right about now". She approached the window and looked outside, she could see a couple of zombies nearby. "Do you have some cloth I could use to clean and sharpen my swords? these things are the only thing keeping me between death and life so yeah I need to take care of them".

Karixia said:

She opened her eyes to see the man talking besides her, somehow she could not understand what he was saying the grogginess of the sleep still on her. She picked up the photo and quickly placed it inside her bag,"Sorry I tend not trust anybody but I will give you a chance to earn mine and okay on your second rule". She scratched the back of her head and stretched her back, her breasts showing a bit through the shirt obviously she didn't wore any bra. Smirking she looked at him and shook her head, "Not really in the mood for bra, the end of the world is here and people would worry about everything except the underwear of a girl" she giggled grabbing her sword and standing up. "The bad thing about this apocalypse... there is nothing to do when I would be working right about now". She approached the window and looked outside, she could see a couple of zombies nearby. "Do you have some cloth I could use to clean and sharpen my swords? these things are the only thing keeping me between death and life so yeah I need to take care of them".

Click to expand...

Her breasts were the most tempting kind, because they were out of proportion with her body. She was slender... and the way the two perfect orbs had pressed through the cloth had been so tantalizing.

"I uh... absolutely," he said. "Come on over here."

He opened the equipment closet where they had worked on bowling balls. There were still a few balls, and the drill press, but the rest of the room was hung floor to ceiling with weapons. One side was guns and ammunition, the other wall was solid blades, ranging from throwing stars to throwing daggers, all the way up to Samurai Swords and Bayonets.

"They're all real, too," he said. "None of that souvenir shit. I actually happened across a directory of weapons collectors and went to their houses. The bottom shelf is all cleaning supplies. Whetstones, cloths, oil, whatever you need. I don't even know how to use half of it."

She followed him however still kept a close distance in case she needed to act, watching all the weapons a slight smirk appeared on her face. "I know exactly what they are" she took a couple of sharpening stones and a few cleaning supplies and nodded, "Okay I am done". Smiling she walked back to her room and finally took the swords out from their sheets. One of them had blossoms all over the steel and some Japanese words. The other had a simple flower at the bottom of the blade. She took the cleaning agent and began removing the blood from the blades until they were clean. Then she took the sharpening stone and began sharpening the blade with a smile on her face.

Baker watched her work appreciatively, then stood up and started toward a ladder which led to the ceiling.

"This goes up to the roof," he said. "I'm going to go up and tend to the garden and then I'm going to work on a water heater that I think is almost done. Feel free to come up if you want when you're done... or now. You could do that in the sun."

It was an early June day and when he stepped out on the roof he couldn't believe the feeling. The garden and everything else was set in about 15 feet from the edge of the roof, so nobody would know he was up there - no walkers, or humans for that matter.

He had sixteen raised beds. Fifteen were full of vegetables and fruits, and one was planted with flowers. He knew it was stupid, but he felt like it was important.

He settled into work... wondering if she would come up... and hoping she would choose to sunbathe in some fashion.