Blood Alley by T.F. Hanson

 
     
     
     
     
     
     
    I
     
    A cold gust of wind brought the smell of garbage and urine down the alleyway behind the old liquor store. Conner wondered again why he and Alex chose to stay out late that night. Yeah, Alex had been his best friend since they were five years old and they both survived the Apocalypse together; and yes, he had just told him earlier that night that he and Emily were finally getting married, but they had to get back to work in less than six hours. Old Mr. Smith down at the brickworks would surely be pissed if they came strolling in late in the morning, smelling of beer and moonshine.
    “Conner, I hate going down this alley, the place gives me the creeps during the day. At night it’s just downright scary,” Alex said as the two men peered down the dark alley.
    “Don’t be a pussy, Alex. I want to get home and get some sleep.”
    “Come on, let’s just head over two more blocks and go that way. What’s five more minutes?”
    Conner pulled his coat closer together against the cold wind and started down the dark alleyway, heading toward the lone, flickering light halfway down. “You coming?” he called over his shoulder.
    Alex had no choice but to follow. Conner had always been the De facto leader of the two. He set out after his friend, the sound of his boot steps echoing off the walls. Somewhere off in the distance a lone cat called into the night.
    “Hey, you know, Emily has a cousin,” Alex said as he caught up to his friend. “Maybe we can set you up with her?”
    “The one with the big hips? No thanks, buddy.”
    “She’s cute.”
    “She’s also half-crazy too,” Conner replied as they reached the edge of the halo cast by the lone light. When he was directly under the light, Conner came to a stop.
    “Why are we stopping?” Alex asked. “I told you, I don’t like this place. Besides, I thought you were in a hurry to get home.”
    Conner pulled off his gloves, blew on his hands and rubbed them together. “I hate the fucking cold. Feels like it’s going to snow soon. We’re stopping because I wanted to have one more smoke before we get home.”
    Alex ripped off his gloves to help. “Roll me one.”
    The two men huddled together under the light to keep the wind from blowing away the tobacco as they worked to roll a couple of cigarettes. Neither of the two men noticed the figure that stepped into the light behind Alex until he was pulled back into the dark. A lone scream escaped his lips as he fell back, away from his friend.
    At first, Conner did not understand what he was seeing. Alex was lying on the ground and a man was on top of him. The man appeared as if he was about to give Alex mouth to mouth resuscitation. Why would the man be doing that to Alex? Alex was fine. Then the smell hit Conner. The smell of rot and decay reached him, overpowering the alley’s smells of piss and garbage.
    Another scream escaped Alex’s mouth. A scream that ended in a gargle as the figure leaned over and ripped out Alex’s throat with his teeth.
    Conner stood in shock as his friend’s feet beat on the ground.
    The zombie turned his head and peered up at Conner, blood flowed from the corners of its open mouth. A low moan filled the alley as the creature reached for Conner with outstretched arms.
    As he jumped back to avoid the zombie’s arms, Conner’s head struck an old air conditioning unit that stuck out of the wall behind him. The blow momentarily stunned him.
    The zombie stood up and grabbed Conner in its embrace.
    Conner reached up with his left arm and blocked the creature’s mouth as it descended on his face. He let out a loud scream as the zombie sunk its teeth into his upraised arm.
    Conner went limp in the infected creature’s arms, hoping that his body weight would free the zombie’s grip on him. His plan worked as he fell out of the creatures embrace and rolled to the ground.
    The zombie let out another moan as his prey escaped.
    Conner scrambled to get back up and