The Creeping Dead: A Zombie Novel by Edward P. Cardillo

She whispered something to her friends, and they all filed onto the dance floor. Dharma stayed behind and was still watching the volleyball courts.
    Shit. She was waiting for him.
    Vinnie knew this, and yet he wasn’t emboldened. His knees felt like jelly, and his body was frozen. It’s like he was the Tin Man and his joints were rusted over. He had no heart.
    I got fucking heart . He downed the last of his energy drink, wiped his mouth on his forearm, and pushed himself away from the bar, his legs creaking with reluctance.
    Ted elbowed Frankie and chuckled.
    “Is this it?” asked Frankie. “Is our boy about to make his move?”
    The two guys giggled like a pair of Japanese schoolgirls, elbowing each other and pointing.
    Vinnie was halfway to the volleyball courts, and he was reminded of his Mustang and how stiff the transmission was if he didn’t give it a proper warm up. But he’d had enough time to warm up. It was time to get in the game already.
    A hot little thing in a yellow belly shirt that read ‘WTFN’ passed in front of him. Damned right. Why the fuck not? He got a whiff of her perfume, stirring his loins, which emboldened him.
    He made his way through the meat market, the male sharks circling the hot little guppies. He hated this scene, but Dharma had invited him, and she was twenty feet away, alone, waiting for him to come over.
    He decided he was a chicken shit, but he wasn’t rude.
    He finally reached the volleyball courts and was only several feet behind Dharma when he suddenly felt the wind taken out of his sails. He shouldn’t have had the energy drink. His heart was beating out of his chest. He had to use his momentum and do something quick; she was turning around.
    He quickly jumped to the girl standing several feet off to Dharma’s left and introduced himself.
    “Hi!” He shouted partially out of nerves and partially to be heard over the thumping house music.
    The girl looked surprised, but not exactly disappointed. “Um, hi.”
    He leaned in to be heard and a curl of her long, brown hair brushed the side of his face. He felt his pants get a little shorter. “My name is Vinnie.”
    He saw Dharma looking at him out of the corner of his eye. Shit. He pretended not to notice.
     
    “What the fuck is he doing?” asked Ted back at the bar.
    Frankie shrugged. “He’s making a move. Not the one I would’ve made, but he’s doing it.
     
    What the hell am I doing? “I work at Marco’s Pizza on the boardwalk.”
    “Oh. I’m Stacey.”
    He felt her hot breath on his ear. “Hi, Stacey.” He wasn’t sure from her body language if Stacey was really into it or not. She hadn’t chased him away yet, but he knew he had a small window to make it work.
    “Nice to meet you, Stacey. You play volleyball?”
    “At the high school.”
    “Oh, you’re on the team?”
    “Yeah. Junior varsity. Are you a senior?”
    “I just graduated, actually.” This small talk was beginning to feel like a job interview rather than a hookup. “Going to school in the fall.”
    “Oh? Cool.”
    He supposed he could’ve offered to buy her a drink, but that really didn’t work with non-alcoholic beverages. Go for broke. “Do you want to dance?”
    “Yeah, okay.”
    Surprised, and unfortunately appearing so, Vinnie led her to the nearest dance floor. He looked over and saw that Dharma was gone. Fuck my life.
    He felt bad. He knew she was waiting there for him, but he made his bed and had to lie in it.
    He and Stacey began to dance.
     
    “Is he going to dance with that girl?” asked Ted, incredulous.
    “It appears so,” said Frankie.
    “Metal heads don’t dance.”
    “This one does.” Frankie sounded like a proud father talking about his son. “Vinnie’s doing all right. Let’s go Ted. The Bennies await.”
    “Why do we always go for Bennies, Frankie?”
    “Because the Townies know us too well.”
    Ted downed the last of his beverage, and both guys meandered through the crowd. They brazenly wandered