Dead End Daze Ep 2

Episode 2: Mistaken Identity

Opening Flashback: Shows a happy couple taking care of a general store/ gas station in a small town.

Bob’s Narration during flashback:

On our journey we have had to deal with more than just zombies. There are still people out there, some who have lost everything including their minds.

Begin scene

*Zoom in on the jeep*

Mark and Bob are arguing about whether or not they are lost.

After driving for a bit longer they find a small town. Written on the Welcome to town sign where the population used to be has been spray painted over with the word “ZOMBIES”.

As foreboding as this may seem the two brothers decided that it is worth the risk if there is a gas station in the town.

They drive down the main road slowly as they spot a gas station. They turn into the gas station parking lot and pull up next to one of the pumps and get out.

Mark looks up to see which pump they are at and walks inside to turn on the pump. Bob decides to stay outside and pump the gas while mark sees what supplies can be found inside the gas station. Once Mark gets inside he realizes that the building doubles as a general store as well.

Mark grabs a back pack from a nearby rack and begins filling it with food and other useful supplies. As mark finishes up with gather supplies he hears a movement in the store. Carefully he searches the store and finds nothings, He figures it must be his paranoia getting the better of him and gathers up the back packs he filled up.

Once he has the supplies he turns to leave the store, to his surprise there is a strikingly beautiful woman at the store’s checkout counter.

Slowly he walks up to the counter, gun and supplies in hand.

The woman acts as if nothing is out of the ordinary. She looks up at him and gives him a devilish smile and says in a provocative manner, “Will there be anything else today?”

A bewildered Mark replies, “No…”

The woman at the counter then punches in some number and rings up his total. She then says, “Your total comes to seventy-five dollars even. “ And then she winks at him. She looks up at him and asks, “How will you be paying for all of this today? Cash, Check or Credit?”

Something about her voice was disturbingly casual. After a few seconds Mark says, “ I don’t have any money with me.”

The strange woman at the counter flashes him a friendly smile and in a playful voice she says, “Well “mister” we can always set you up with a tab. That is, unless you have some other form of payment in mind.”

At this point Marks sense of humor has run out and he grabs her by the arms and with a shake yells, “IS THIS SOME KIND OF GAME?! WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?!”

For a moment she taken back, then she calmly puts down her pen and walks around the counter toward Mark. He turns to meet her as she walks closer to him. She gets almost uncomfortably close to him and in her sweetest voice, “Oh John, you know I only like to tease. It’s your store. “She presses her body against his and says, “You can take anything you like. “  Then she leans in and passionately kisses Mark.

Mark pulls her off of him and says, “What are you doing?! I have never met you in my entire life! My name is Mark not John.”

For a moment she looks at him as if she is just seeing him for the first time. She quickly steps away and drops to the floor and begins to sob.

Mark realizes that John must have been someone dear to her that she has lost. He reaches out to console her but before he gets to her the sobs turned to laughter. She looks up at him again with that same familiar manor and says, “Oh John, you are a naughty one. So are you playing the mysterious stranger that ravages the helpless and pure store clerk?”

Before he can pull his hand away she grab s it and pulls him towards her. Mark drops his gear as he begins to lose his balance.

Just then Bob comes in the store in a hurry and says, “Mark we better get going…” Shocked by what he is seeing he stops in mid sentence as Mark laid almost on top of a woman in a dress. “What the hell are you doing?” he shouts.

Mark freezes and looks at Bob, still in shock by what just happened to get up, the strange woman pushes him off of her more forcefully than Mark expected falls back against the counter and slides to the ground. Mark stares at the woman as her face twists in rage. She gets up quickly and screams, “WHO IS THIS BITCH JOHN!? Is she one of your whores? The one you have been “secretly” fucking!” The brothers look at each other dumbfounded and then they look back at her. She screams out in rage while grabbing some bags of chips off a nearby shelf and throws them at the both of them.

Bob rushes over to Mark to help him up as she reaches for the can goods on another shelf. The quickly grab up their gear and make for the exit before the first of the can foods begin to fly.

The commotion inside has not gone unnoticed. As the brother get outside Bob stops mark, “Hold up for a sec”, he says. Bob explains why he had gone in the store in the first place, “Look, I heard something in the distance that almost sounded like dogs and they are getting closer.” 

Just beyond the trees they hear several blood curdling howls. They duck behind their jeep and begin scanning the forest edge on the other side of town. A few minutes pass and they hear something in the distant brush coming closer. Finally they see three gruesome dog shape creatures step out of the forest followed by ghoul. It seems the ghoul has them on chains. It looks like the ghoul is using them to hunt for fresh meat. The brothers look at each other with dread and they both nod. They both know they can’t just leave that crazy woman in the store to die. They drop their supplies in the jeep and grab their guns and quietly head back for the store.

By now the woman is sitting on the floor sobbing into her hands. Both men quickly grab and arm and pick her up off the ground, she starts fighting back. Mark pushes Bob aside and grabs both of her arms quietly whispers into her ear, “Look lady, we don’t have time for this. Right now as we speak there are three giant dogs chained to a ghoul, sniffing us out and if we do not get out of here we will most likely be eaten alive. Now pull yourself together and let’s get out of here!”

Somehow what he has said snaps her back to reality, she smiles at him and nods in acceptance. She looks over at Bob though and gives him a death look. Bob shakes his head and heads for the door with the other two.

Cautiously they open the door to the store and look around to see if there was any sign of the ghoul and his pack. They head out for the jeep slowly. Everything seems to quiet, but they have to get out of there. Just before the jeep the woman trips and falls on the pavement and lets out a painful yelp.

The brothers stop as they begin to hear barking; they quickly pull the woman up and get her in the jeep. Now the ghoul and the dogs are on the main street. As the Ghoul turns to look at them Mark, fires off a shot that hits the ghoul in the chest, knocking it to the ground. As the ghoul hits the ground it lets go of the chain holding the dogs back. The ghoulish looking mutts charge towards their prey in the jeep. Mark fires off a few more rounds, but misses the dogs. Then he tosses his gun to Bob and jumps into the driver seat and starts the engine. As he pulls away from the gas pump, one of the dogs lunges for the group. Bob yells out in fear as he pulls up the shotgun and fires it at the beast in mid air knocking it to ground. One of the other dogs jumps on the dying beast and begins eating it.

By now the ghoul is back on its feet and running towards the group as well. As it reaches the dead dog being eaten by the other one it lets out a bloody howl. Now other howls can be heard in the distance.

The three in the jeep drive off as fast as the jeep will take them. Now both of the dogs are chasing them again. Bob turns around and fires off a few more shots. He gets another lucky hit as one of the beasts and drops to the ground and tumbles. The woman in the backseat picks up one of the other guns and cracks off a few shots but misses.

The last dog slows to a trot and then stops as it looks exhausted. The ghoul catches up to it and what looks like frustration kicks the hound in the site. The dog yelps and then turns on its master and kills it.

That is the last they see as they speed out of eyesight.

For a long while and on into the night there is silence in the jeep. After the sun as gone down completely they make it to an on ramp of a highway.

*  *  *

The woman though stoic is at war with her own mind. Recent events warped her mind to the point of breaking as she looks back to where it all started.

There are flashes, pieces of happiness and sorrow, like splinters in her mind, all broken and random. Scenes of a happily married couple running a store in a small town they both had grown up in. Then someone new came to town…*twitch* Once day she came in to the store... *twitch* Her husband John and the young lady made small talk while she was in the back of the store… *twitch* they laughed and she put her hand on his arm…*twitch* She had looked on from the backroom suspiciously at what was going on… *twitch*

A bright light flashed in her mind as her memories shifted again.

It had been raining that night and her husband was nowhere to be found…*twitch* She knew where he was…*twitch*  She stormed into that hussy’s apartment and there they were intertwined and writhing in her bed… writhing She ran to the kitchen and grabbed a large bladed knife and ran into the bedroom screaming as she thrust the knife into Johns back… *twitch* He let out a scream and fell to the ground and before the young lady knew what had happened she was on her hand closed tightly around her neck forcefully crushing the young ladies windpipe… *twitch*

Another bright light flashes in her mind as her memories shifted yet again.

Now she sits in a puddle of blood as the police break down the door to the apartment and rush in. The scene is worse than anything a small town cop would expect to find. *twitch* One officer ducks out of the room and empties the contents of his stomach in a nearby waste can. Finally the police cuff the woman and take her to the local jail house to be processed.

Again her memory shifts in a flash.

Days before her trial date, she hears of a virus outbreak and then following that about the zombies.

Flash…

There in her cell she sat… *twitch* She had been sick for a few days but it had gone away on its own… *twitch* the jail house was quiet… *twitch* Nobody had been come by to feed her all day… *twitch*

Flash…

The next day the moaning began…*twitch* Then shuffling and scratching…*twitch* It was getting closer…*twitch* and closer… *twitch* closer…*twitch*

Flash…

The woman lay huddled in the corner as swarms of rotting flesh reached and clawed just out of range of her sweet flesh…*twitch* She had screamed so much that her voice now could not even support a whisper…*twitch* Much like the walking corpses that clawed at her, *twitch* she hungered, *twitch* days had gone by and only thing she had eaten in days was some half spoiled fruit she had hid under her mattress days before… *twitch*

*twitch*

Flash…

*twitch* something now burned inside of her… *twitch* Hunger, but not hunger…*twitch* her eyes began to burn as well…*twitch* She felt full now, almost like she was going pop…*twitch* There was a release, the ground shook, the moaning and the scraping stop. After a bit the dust settled…

Flash…

She was not sure how she had gotten there. Last she knew she was looking for John and it had been raining. Now she sat in a half destroyed cell, tangled metal bars lay on top of what might have once been people. Cautiously she got up and walked out of the cell. By the time she got out of the jail house she had forgotten what she had seen and began her search once again for her missing husband…

*  *  *

A voice had brought her out of her inner turmoil. It was her John; she had found him at last. She looked to the person sitting in the other front seat. She grimaced; she had also found that hussy he had been so friendly with. “Why was she in the back seat? “ She thought.

John spoke again, “What’s your name?” He had asked her. She smiled at him coyly. “That’s right he was calling himself something…else… Mark I think…,” She thought. Amused she said, “You know what my name is John, but just for your hussy’s sake, it is the same as it always has been. Leanne Hershel.

Leanne turned to the woman she thinks Bob is and with a hate filled voice, “That’s Mrs. John Hershel to you! So get that through your head you home wrecking hussy!”

Bob looks back at her with a surprised look and then he looks at his brother Mark quizzically. Mark looks back at Bob and shrugs.

*Zoom out of the jeep as they drive off into the night*





*Bob’s End Narration*

And that is how we met Leanne. I don’t know if keeping her with us is going to be more harm than good, but now we seem to be stuck with her…



End of Episode 2