Originally published on March 23rd, 2014

Copyright © 2014 by Christian Bergman, All rights reserved.

All people, places, and events are fictional … except when they aren’t. 

The Nudist War – Day 47

‘Las Pirañas Humanos’ ran naked through the jungle, traveling in ‘schools’ where they numbered in the dozens. Male and female, they devoured everything in their path and were greatly feared by the tribes people.

~ From the report of Cristóbal de Acuña to the Royal Council of the Indies, AD 1641 concerning the stories told to him by Amazon tribesmen.

• • •

Jess awoke to the sound of someone screaming. “Not again,” she thought as she threw on a robe and ran down the hall toward Eddy’s room.

Tom and Cindy met her in the hallway. “Eddy again?”

They got to Eddy’s door just as he walked out. “Sorry,” he apologized. “5:00 AM, right on time. At least this time she didn’t bite off my nose.”

“What did she bi…? Oh, never mind,” Jess replied.

“Now that we’re all up, why don’t I make some breakfast?” Tom offered.

“Maxine and I will help,” Cindy chimed in.

“What about Wolf?” Maxine interrupted. “He needs to go out first.”

“I’ll take him out,” Eddy replied. “After all, I woke you all up.”

“Agreed.” They responded in unison.

Eddy grabbed a shotgun and went through the ritual of checking the security cameras before heading up the stairs to the roof. The rest converged on the kitchen and began making hot coffee, scrambled eggs, bacon, English muffins, and juice. By the time Eddy and Wolf got back down breakfast was ready.

“It’s a gorgeous day outside. A little colder than it was yesterday. The wind has swung around and is coming in from the north.”

“A perfect day for going to the mall,” Jess replied.

“If you say so,” Eddy answered. “Still keen to get the camera gear?”

“Yes, but we should make up a shopping list first.”

“I thought we were going to finish watching yesterday’s videos?”

“Okay, okay, everyone meet back here in five minutes,” Jess replied. “Videos first, then the mall.”

• • •

MAN felt something wet slurping across his face. “Good morning Maggie. Is it time to get up? Do you need to go out?” Maggie licked his face even more aggressively and barked.

“Okay, okay.” MAN sighed.

MAN got dressed and headed off toward the stairs as Maggie bounded past him. She was already at the bottom of the stairwell by the time he got there. He opened the door and walked out into a grassy, fully enclosed courtyard. Maggie took off like a ‘hairy bullet’, running round and round and round and round the perimeter of the courtyard until she finally collapsed exhausted on the ground. Only then did she attend to her morning duties.

It was near sunrise and the sky was still a dark, dark blue. The air had a definite feel of autumn. MAN looked up to one of the spotters on the roof and asked, “Any activity today?”

“Been quiet both yesterday and today. The weather must be too cold for them.”

“Good let’s hope it stays that way.”

MAN looked at his watch and then at Maggie, “Come on girl, let’s go to the morning meeting.” With that he opened the door and Maggie ran through it and up the stairs, fully recharged. He jogged up the stairs behind her (part of his morning workout).

Mornings at the ‘MANsion’ pretty much followed the same routine: wake up, get dressed, take Maggie out for exercise and potty break, run back up the stairs, feed her, have the 6:00 AM morning meeting, workout, eat breakfast.

Maggie as usual had beaten him into the kitchen and was viciously wagging her tail and whining in anticipation of food. MAN mixed up a bowl of wet and dry food and set it down next to her bowl of water. She dove in as if she hadn’t eaten anything in days. MAN patted her gently on the side and then walked over to the briefing room next door.

His three lieutenants Brad, Ray, and Monica were standing waiting for him to enter. They were in the middle of a discussion when he walked in. “Okay, tell me the plan one more time,” MAN commanded.

Brad spoke first. “Monica and I will grab six people and go out to the airport to check on fuel. We will go in two vehicles, Monica in one and I in the other. We will take the radios with us and stay in constant communication with each other and base. We will be heavily armed, as usual.”

“Agreed,” MAN concurred. “Ray?”

“I will begin going through all of our videos and documenting sightings of Zs; noting time and location of the sightings, makeup of the pack, and descriptions of the individuals. I will also look for lone Zs not related to a pack. I will make sure that the usual spotter and sentry positions are covered.”

“Excellent,” MAN smiled. “Oh, Brad make sure you have someone covering the base radio.”

“Already have that addressed,” Brad replied. “Dave will be handling that.”

“Very good. Then get to it.” MAN left the meeting room and walked to the other side of his penthouse to where his workout equipment was.

Prior to the awakening MAN already had a fairly impressive set of workout equipment. After the awakening he took the opportunity to commandeer additional equipment as he deemed necessary. MAN worked out religiously every day after the morning meeting. His workout consisted of the standard regimen of rotating through the various strength training machines and then 20 laps up-and-down the six flights of stairs. He worked through this despite being in almost constant pain. His reward at the end was a half hour on the inversion table to decompress his spine. When the weather was good he and his lieutenants would sometimes run along the beach road under the protection of several heavily armed escort vehicles. As they ran they would sing a chant which included the verse We ain’t afraid of no Zs.

  
Interested? Read the >> entire post <<