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It was a Saturday, the apocalypse was eight months ago, and Liz wanted to listen to some music.
The house had improved since Liz moved in; the carpet had been replaced with one that didn’t crunch when stepped on, the surfaces were cleared of ash trays and discarded wrappers, and the lingering musk of old weed had finally been aired out.
Now, the house was clean, organised, everything with its own designated place. Shoes on the rack by the door, mugs in the second cabinet on the right, and, of course, vinyl player in the right hand corner of the living room, vinyls in the box underneath the table.
Liz was crouched before said table, rifling through the collection in search of something to fill the silence of the room. Stone Roses, Prince, more Stone Roses… her fingers flicked through the vinyls meticulously, eyes scanning the titles quickly with a set determination.
With an annoyed grunt, Liz stood back up, heading towards the living room doorway to shout upstairs, “Shaun!”
A couple bangs resonated from upstairs, muffled curses following suit. Liz fought the amused smirk she could feel building up. Then, eventually, Shaun shouted back a responding, “Yeah?”
He stood halfway down the stairs, peering over the banister in his usual shorts and t-shirt, thankfully wearing socks for once. Liz stared back, a hand on her hip, “Have you seen my Sade vinyl? I’ve been searching for ages.”
Shaun’s gaze suddenly dropped, eyes falling to the carpet like a scolded child.
Liz caught his response immediately, dropping her hand from her hip and responding in a tone that sounded like the mother of said scolded child, “Shaun.”
Flashes of a garden, of two approaching zombies, of himself and Ed, leisurely discussing what to do with these weirdly sluggish zombies that were nothing akin to the video game versions they grew used to. Of scouring the house for anything that even slightly resembled a weapon, of stumbling upon the vinyl box, a shared look, and the subsequent vinyl-frisbee match that followed suit.
A load of good that did. The zombies may have lacked speed and intelligence, but their sheer quantity more than made up for it. Now, he and Liz were alone, the only reminder of their late friends being the shrine and Ed chained up in their garden shed; not quite dead, but not quite alive. A unique state of purgatory only achievable by being infected.
Shaun shook his head, focusing back on the conversation present.
Making his way down the rest of the stairs and into the living room, Liz trailing after him, Shaun held his hands up placatingly, “Listen-”
“Oh for god's sake, what happened this time?”
“It happened during the apocalypse, don’t worry.”
“That’s not better.”
Shaun sat down on the sofa, turning to face Liz who sat down beside him with a skeptical look.
“Just- there was a girl in the garden, and this bulky z-word. We went looking for a weapon and-” Shaun rushed.
Liz cut him off, already catching on to the fate of her beloved record, “-and you decided to throw my vinyl at them. Great.” She nodded in a reigned annoyance.
Timidly, Shaun muttered, “We also threw the Batman soundtrack…”
Liz blinked before deciding to ignore him, “Didn’t you have your bat?”
“Not at that point.”
Taking a moment to take in the information, Liz opened her mouth to speak, coming short before trying a second time, “So, in your logic, you try throwing vinyls at zombies before bludgeoning them?”
“...the vinyls were Ed’s idea.”
Rolling her eyes, Liz huffed, “Of course.”
A second of silence passed before either of them spoke.
“I guess I can understand, but you owe me a new record.” She pointed her finger at him, not allowing any room for refusal.
Shaun nodded quickly, giving her a small mock salute, “Of course.”
Eventually, a new Sade vinyl joined the collection. Hopefully this time it wouldn’t be used to kill zombies.