Corrupted Juices Ch. 05

"Hold on!" Hector shouts and puts his car in drive.

Hector pushes the gas down fully and the car speeds forward with the engine roaring heavily, throwing up dust and gravel behind it. The vehicle clips two approaching shapes who are catapulted back against the house.

Even though Cody's head is bleeding from the gash on his forehead and the blood is burning his eyes, he can't help but feel a burst of exhilaration. He can't believe they made it out of there. "Fucking zombies? How the fuck were there actual zombies back there?" he mutters to himself. As the images of what just happened flash through his mind, he laughs nervously.

Beside him, Hector's too busy avoiding a couple of trash cans as he's speeding out of the seemingly quiet cul-de-sac. Cody turns in his seat to look back at the house. But at its location, it's completely shrouded in shadows and by now it's too far away to see anything moving.

"Are you alright over there?" Hector asks while throwing a glance over to him. "That shit in there was crazy! I think I'm gonna need to drive us to a hospital, man."

"Are you sure you want to do that, Hector?" Cody asks doubtfully.

Hector throws another glance at him with a questioning look on his face.

Cody follows up with, "You see, usually the hospitals are the first to go when zombies are showing up. And I don't know about you, but I definitely think those things back there were zombies. Unless you think you're seriously hurt, I think we should just stop at an all night pharmacy and pick up some bandages and disinfectant. Some over the counter topical antibiotics. At least that'll get us through the night. What do you think?"

Hector thinks this over for a second. "That's actually a great idea, Cody. Are you, like, into horror movies and shit? You seem to know something about this stuff."

"Yeah, something like that," Cody answered with a smile on his face. "I don't know about you, but I really don't want to spend tonight alone. Would you be down to stay together for the night, Hector? Then we could see what the news says in the morning."

"Smooth," Hector answers with a smile of his own on his face. "Of course, I'm totally down for that. Wouldn't want you to freak out in the middle of the night."

After a couple more smaller streets, they finally turn onto Taft Hill, one of the bigger roads in town. "There's an all night pharmacy around the corner of Prospect and Shield, close to the university," Cody says. "It's just another block over."

"OK, I'll head there. How's your head? You banged it up pretty good on the dashboard, back at the house there," Hector says, looking at Cody from the corner of his eye.

"Haven't had any complaints yet," Cody answers, giggling.

Hector looks at him dryly and says, "Seriously, man."

Cody straightens his face and moves his hand to touch the place on his head where he planted it on the dashboard. With his other hand, he pulls down the mirror to try to get a look at it. "It's OK actually. It doesn't even hurt anymore and I think it stopped bleeding almost immediately. It doesn't actually look that bad. Just a little scratch, really. But maybe you should get a couple of those disposable suture kits too, just to be safe," Cody says.

"Definitely," Hector says smiling. He then turns his attention back to the road and no more words are spoken as they drive on towards the pharmacy.

There's almost no traffic out, which is really strange, seeing as it's a Friday night. But this only slightly registers with Cody and Hector. They're both quietly sinking into an exhilarating kind of focus that's heightening all of their senses. Neither of them feels any pain from their injuries anymore as they drive into the night.

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