Free prompt! This ticket entitles the writer to do any daily drabble that just needs to be written, and may be used out of sequence.
[AN: The following is a preview of sorts for my book-in-progress, Kung Fu Zombies. However the point of view presented may not appear in the book. Essentially, I’m cleansing my mental palette]
If she wanted to be kind, E would say that Aiden astonished her. Amazed, confounded and confused. Maybe even a little bit of surprise.
But really?
When she got down to it?
She didn’t much want to be kind.
Especially in moments like now.
It was a mall. Like many other malls post-plague, survivors were progressively raiding it for anything that seemed or was deemed useful. Some animals were inhabiting it already. A burst pipe lead the underground parking lot to become flooded. Which meant that many animals were coming for the water. Including some fish from the mall’s fountains. They’d landed there, evidently, when some idiot had set off ordinance in the middle of a crowd.
E had told everyone to be careful in this mall. The army’s last-ditch efforts had made everything way more difficult than it had to be.
She’d told everyone twice.
And she’d made sure to tell Aiden five times, because he was exactly that kind of person.
She should have gone for a sixth.
“Oh. My. God,” whispered Torque. She pointed. “You need to step up your game, love.”
E tried to sight along Torque’s arm. “What are you talking abo–?” That double-cursed idiot kid…
Aiden had actually strapped a noisemaker to his left arm with a piece of the duct tape she’d specifically told him to hold in reserve for emergencies. Was he going to make a career out of not listening to her?
And he was headed straight for the pit that lead to the new and improved goldfish pond in the basement.
And the dangling light fixture that could not possibly hold his weight.
Oh great. “This is another idiot plan to ‘impress me’,” she sighed.
Torque made realistic vomiting motions and sounds.
“Yeah, I know. Come on. Let’s go save his sorry ass.”
“Why?”
“Bait like that, you don’t let die all at once.”
“Meh, good enough.”
They were careful, as always, getting to a place of strategic advantage. But Aiden made them rush. So they made sure they stayed on areas they knew were stable.
Neither she nor Torque wanted to make the other watch them die. And they had the extra advantage of Aiden’s show drawing all the Infected straight for him.
Which was a considerable disadvantage if they wanted him to survive for very much longer.
…which was a point of some debate, back at the Fort.
He was an annoying, whiny, self-centred ass who couldn’t see the facts in front of his face. But, dammit, he was super-effective at what he did.
Which generally manifested as falling into the midden and coming out with a shiny gold ring.
E arrived with Torque, careful to stay where most of the Infected couldn’t climb, weapons ready and watching for trouble. And they arrived just in time to see Aiden leap for the cable.
He did not swing, which would have been the stupidest move, ever. He did not climb, which would have been a move in the top ten.
No. He clung to it like it was his last hope… and transferred the noisemaker from his arm to the cable of the light fixture. Then he grinned at her like he had just solved all the world’s problems.
The Infected going after the noise fell down the gaping hole and into the flooded basement.
Torque got comfortable on their mutual perch, a tank that had fallen victim to the slings and arrows of outrageous misfortune. E followed her lead. They watched the show for five minutes and then E signed, “Great work. How are you going to get out of there?”
His face was a book with large print. It said, Uhm…
“How long can you hold on?” Torque signed.
Aiden looked like he suddenly needed to go to the bathroom.
“You’re right, he’s so entertaining,” Torque whispered.
E snorted and got out her rope. It was good rope. The kind rock-climbers used to protect themselves from falling. It didn’t make the best lasso, but it could be tied to a wire coat hanger.
Good old wire coat hangers. They were like enormous paperclips. And there were always times when you really needed a piece of bendable wire.
Aiden’s ignorant grin came back as he realised what she was doing. He got ready to catch the hanger.
It was a simple enough process. Especially because Aiden had finally absorbed the repeated lesson on not swinging on things that weren’t designed to hold a human’s weight. They carefully pulled him closer to their perch. And he carefully eased further down the cable so that he could be closer.
And, when the time was right, she and Torque helped him on to the tank.
“That was almost suicidal,” she admonished in a whisper. “Don’t do it again.”
“Had to improvise,” he murmured, “They were between me and the levis.”
And then there were times like this. When he was super-effective at being blindingly selfish.
“Kill him later,” advised Torque. “We have a shopping list and he’s an extra pair of arms.”
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