THE LIVING AND THE DEAD
by Noah Cicero
twenty-five
They get inside the strip club.
There is another announcement on the radio.
A voice starts speaking but it isn’t Katie Couric’s, “America. This is the leader of the undead. My name is Gantry. The undead now rule over America. We are the leaders of this great land. We have been voted in through a fair election. Since there are about five million living humans left in America it was an easy election to win. And well, there were no human candidates. To the living people of America: My army of the undead are going to find you. We are going to make you undead. We are going to fuck up your shit! We are watching you right now. We have your phones tapped. We have cameras on every street, in every store, everywhere watching your detestable living human bodies. The time is nigh you mother fuckers, soon you will be undead. You have a choice; if you join us freely and come out of your hiding places we will gently bite you. If you decide to remain hidden, we will bite your faces off, rip your jaws out and stick dynamite up your asses and blow you up. We own everything now. The radio will only play Christian punk. There will be only one store in every town, called Undead Mart, which I will own personally. It will supply all of your undead needs like alarm clocks, dishwashers, above ground pools. Thank you, your leader President Elmer Gantry.”
The women stand there terrified.
“What the fuck are we gonna do? You heard that, they’ve taken over,” says Layla.
“Don’t worry. The maggots are eating them. And soon there will be giant maggots.”