A Plan

Do you ever have those moments where your normal is not the normal of the people around you? You say something you consider no big deal and other people get very excited or laugh or freak out in response. Or even the people around you say something and you're suddenly reminded that everyone doesn't think exactly like you do. It's not generally a bad thing. Most of the time its a good thing because you can learn something from the experience.

I made my declaration rather matter-of-factly. There appeared to be a zombie outside and I reported that to the group. I didn't want to make it sound like “Oh it's Thursday so here come the zombies” but I have seen enough strange things where one zombie appearing is not all that earth shattering, especially when I anticipated the possibility.

Now, the rest of my group must not have my experience in such like things. There was some confusion. There was some disbelief. There was a lot of panic. The confusion and disbelief could easily be dealt with by displaying the creature on the other side of the door. The panic was not so easy to dispel.

“But, but, but... that's impossible,” Dave sputtered.

“Improbable at least,” Jeff revised.

I just gave them a look. “Don't make me mis-quote Shakespeare. If its just this one, we should be okay.”

“But a zombie?” Dave checked. “That's not a problem?”

“A zombie,” I repeated, emphasizing the 'a' in my statement. “Not so much. If it was a zombie bear, that might be a problem. I'd rather face a dozen zombies than any vampires.”

“Vampires don't exist,” Dave informed me.

“Hey, some of my best friends are vampires,” I retorted.

“Very funny,” Dave responded.

Jeff considered this for a moment. “I don't think he's kidding.”

“And I'm not. Reinsert Shakespeare mis-quote here.” I'd located a shovel amongst the junk in the back closet. “This should do. Keep its attention here so I can sneak up on it.” To the 'how?' question I received, I answered “Tap on the door window occasionally to keep its attention here while I sneak around the cabin behind it.” Before I could receive any further protests or questions, I headed for the front door and outside.

What was that?

Things quieted down at that point. There was discussion about having a search for the bear or for evidence of a bear but it was dismissed as it was getting dark and we didn't know what we'd do if we found a bear. We tried to call the police to report what happened but the cabin phone didn't work and we couldn't get a signal on our mobile devices. We decided to run into town in the morning and report in person. It would keep until then.

Have you ever been without your communication technology recently? For that matter, have you been deprived of any technology recently? Its one thing to have to avoid meddling with your mobcomm for an hour during a meeting, its another thing entirely to have your computer break and be without it for a day or two. Or have your television break? You feel lost. Confused. It totally disrupts your schedule. You never realize how accustomed you become to certain things until they're gone. Suddenly, you can't double check any information because you can't get to the interwebs. If you're playing a game and lose your connection to it, the withdrawal can quickly become very painful.

This was the position we were in. Being unable to communicate our need for assistance was quite irritating, frustrating even. Logically, there was nothing else we could do but that didn't stop us from feeling the need to do something about it. At least the satellite television was functioning properly. That helped take my mind off of what had happened.

I don't mean to sound insensitive but I didn't really know the fella. Prior to today, I may have met him once or twice in passing. Now that he'd passed, my opinion of him didn't really change because I didn't really know him. Unfortunately I'd been in the presence of violent death before. While I felt bad about the situation, I was able to move on rather quickly. As the 'kids' both knew him well and were not so used to this sort of thing happening, they were more shook up. While they sat in the big room discussing this occurrence and the life lost, I stayed out of their way by watching television.

I'm not sure if it was the best idea under the circumstances. My belief that staying out of other people's way is helpful is sometimes interpreted as not wanting to help. It's not a lack of interest, just ability. I saw no good way to actively make things better so I got out of the way. Am I protesting too much? Probably. I sat there watching some sitcom that was so predictable it was irritating and tried to not think about the way Tim's face had been shredded.

There was a knock on the door.

It was a faint, soft sound that made me turn but was clearly my imagination. I returned my attention to commercials for products I neither needed nor wanted.

There was a knock on the door.

This time it was louder, more distinct, less of a knocking and more of a pounding. That didn't bode well. I spun in the chair and worked to peek out the window in order to see who might be at the door. I had a bad angle on the situation and couldn't see.

There was a pounding on the door.

I bounded from the chair, filled with the electric feeling that I was about to do something incredibly stupid. Even with this awareness, I still approached the door, I just did so with some caution. Carefully I moved the curtain covering the window in the door as little as possible but as much as I needed in order to see out. There stood Tim, well, slouched Tim, strips of meat dangling from his damaged face. He did not look well.

I backed away from the door and found that the pounding had attracted the attention of others as I bumped into Dave. After a quick apology, Dave asked what was going on.

“I think we have a zombie on our hands,” I explained.