Part 1 of 6
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In this opening chapter, we find our heroine still atop the grocery store roof that has been acting as her temporary home during the zombie apocalypse.
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058 - Ruby Departed: Utopia, Part 1 of 6
>> Welcome to FlashPulp episode 58. Tonight, Ruby departed, Utopia, part one of six. This week's episodes are brought to you by FlashPulp on iTunes. Why not subscribe and save yourself from having the knife fight that hobo every time you want some new entertainment. Search the iTunes store for FlashPulp or find the link at skinner.fm. FlashPulp is an experiment in broadcasting fresh pulp stories in the modern age, three to ten minutes of fiction brought to you Monday, Wednesday, and Friday evenings. In this opening chapter, we find our heroines still atop the grocery store roof that has been acting as her temporary home during the zombie apocalypse. Ruby departed, Utopia, part one of six, written by J.R.D. Skinner, art and narration by Opoponax, an audio produced by Jessica May. July 5th, noon, crud, I've got too much stuff, I'm pretty sure I've mined the grocery store clean and now I've got more than I can carry. I considered grabbing a shopping cart but the last thing I need is parade behind me while I run one of those wobbly wheeled metal bees through a crowd of dead people and I can't stay on the pavement forever. The weird thing is, the store is starting to feel really familiar. The last few times in, it was pretty crowded but I wasn't really concerned. I feel like I know which shelves can hold my weight for a quick aisle change, that there are a few overturned carts that act as a convenient rater obstacle near where the pickles used to be, that the guy in the deli area is only getting deader. I probably know the place better than most of the employees did. I've been trying to eat my supplies down a bit, maybe gain some strength and some flab for insulation, it's just making me feel bloated and angry that I have no one to talk to. At least while I was starving, I had something to focus on, I want to be home. Just before dark, can't tell if there's an engine going somewhere, if someone has a generator running or if I'm hallucinating, five minutes later. I think it's coming this way, ten more minutes later. I was sitting cross-legged on the roof tiles, sipping my warm water and trying to figure out if my mind had finally snapped, when I heard it, metal. Not refined ore, screaming white knuckled wall of guitar metal. I've never been a fan but I nearly stood and raised the horns. A monster came screaming out of the east, it wasn't on the road though, it was up on the sidewalk, a big boxy thing with eight tires and a gun turret on top. It went through the bus stop across the street like a wrecking ball through a gingerbread house. The sun yellowed ad folded inward, the glass side shattered, the roof collapsed. The debtors who'd been shuffling around inside took to the air like startled birds that had just been hit by a car. The stop did nothing of the kind, it didn't even slow the thing down. Without losing speed, the vehicle jumped the curb, rumbled over the divider, then jounced up on the other side of the road, heading into my parking lot. It was weird to see a pile through the regulars. I started to recognize a few and I felt sort of bad watching them go into the tires. I kept expecting someone to try and die out of the way. I actually thought it was going to slam into the coffee place too but it swung around in a tight circle, blocking the doorway. The music stopped. It's been about 20 minutes and I'm fairly sure whoever is driving is busy looting. I don't know how long I've got till they take off but the first 10 minutes were filled with gunfire. It seems inefficient to clear a place out instead of just running to grab what you need but I guess I don't have the luxury of a gun and a pile of bullets. Do I try some hitchhiking? Do I stay or do I go? Deathmetal against the undead? Screw it, I'm going. Love you Benjamin. There you are, if you've killed me and are now reading this, you're a dick. Flashpulp is presented by http colon slash slash Skinner dot FM. The audio and text formats of Flashpulp are released under the Canadian Creative Commons attribution non-commercial 2.5 license. the the