Zombies! Episode 2 - Abby's Bad Day by Ivan Turner Page B

as she could.
     
    There were twelve emails that had come in
overnight and every single one of them demanded her attention. Of
course, while she was getting things set up, the phone rang and she
knew it was her boss. She answered with a bright and cheery tone
and explained that she'd been held up by her sick child. He made a
rude comment but Abby let it pass. She needed the job and her boss
was amicable most of the time. He wasn't usually up at six o'clock
in the morning so something must have happened, leaving him looking
for someone to take it out on. Fortunately, his problems were not
related to the gym.
     
    At about 6:30, John Arrick came in. Abby
didn't know him very well but he seemed nice enough. He taught at
one of the high schools in the area and she was pretty sure he
walked it even though it was two stops away by train. She didn't
know what subject he taught but she had him figured for a
literature or history guy. He was very careful about the way he
spoke, even damping his Scottish accent for the benefit of those
around him. She had once introduced him to Martin but it seemed
that it took more than a kingdom of origin to bring two people
together.
     
    Arrick wasn't a fat bastard but he wasn't
exactly one of those fit characters either. In fact, he was
skinny as a rail. Suzanna, his girlfriend, had once told Abby that
when she hugged him she was afraid she was going to get a paper
cut. She often wondered what Arrick saw in Suzanna but then again,
every time anyone looked at Suzanna, they got an eye full. Suzanna
was one of those people who took her body and her workout very
seriously. She had no interest in being a body builder but she was
well toned and very sexy. Come to think of it, Abby wasn't sure
what Suzanna saw in Arrick.
     
    The trouble with Suzanna was that she was a
bitch. She and Abby weren't exactly been friends, but they were
cordial to each other. They made small talk and Abby had even
caught Suzanna flashing a smile once or twice. But even that had
declined a week before. Two detectives had come in with a picture.
They'd been trying to find out the identity of the man in the
picture and Abby had known him. He'd also been a regular in the
gym, a guy who was serious about his workout. He and Suzanna worked
out together often and when the policemen told Abby that this man,
Larry Koplowitz, was dead, Abby felt it necessary to tell Suzanna.
Up until that moment, Abby was sure that Larry and Suzanna were
nothing more than workout partners. She didn't know anything about
Larry but Suzanna's relationship with Arrick seemed to preclude
anything deeper. Apparently she'd been wrong. When she'd told
Suzanna that Larry was dead, the look on her face spoke volumes.
Suzanna had not appreciated Abby's noticing of that look nor the
sympathy that followed. She denied any deeper relationship between
her and Larry and Abby had been content to leave it at that. Now,
though, Suzanna didn't even acknowledge her.
     
    And so, Abby's morning passed uneventfully
because even a bad day has some down time.
     
    ***
     
    WHITAKER came in at around ten. He
wasn't quite as high on the totem pole as Abby, but he would take
over the place when she left at six. They spent an hour together
going over the morning's events and the day's expectations. At
11:30, Abby decided she'd like an early lunch and Whitaker decided
that was okay. Whitaker was a good kid, just twenty two years old.
He barely had a high school degree but he was pretty sharp and did
Abby's job almost better than she did. He seemed to like the
flexible schedule and didn't have any sort of ambition at all. He
lived with his dad, who worked as a janitor in a Manhattan office
building. Whitaker was pretty sure he would eventually go the same
route but he thought he'd try retail administration first.
     
    There hadn't been time that morning for Abby
to pack a lunch so she went out. She wasn't really hungry, just
eager to be away from the gym. Once on the street she