Thursday Threads It's Standard Procedure

Thursday Threads time hosted by Siobhan Muir over at The Weird, the Wild and the Wicked. This week's prompt is "It's standard procedure" which must appear somewhere in the story of between 100 and 250 words. After the high of last week's Honorable Mention for my Thursday-threads-not-even-once. tale, I have come back down to earth and written this piece. I hope you enjoy. xxx  

PS I was tempted to call this piece Guns and Roses but that name is already taken.  x

  

Scent of Life

Melissa eyed her weapon, slowly running her hand along its length; her delicate polished fingers at odds with the bulky, powerful semi automatic. Just because her job as a beautician was redundant, it didn't mean she had to stop taking care of herself, after all she was human. 

Her training over, Melissa hugged her weapon close as she ventured out into the darkness of the new world.

 A thick fog dressed the city like a sinister cloak, muffling the groans of the dying and the distinctive moans of the undead as they feasted. Her breathing was deep and quick, her finger firm on the trigger, her step confident as she whipped her head from left to right at the slightest movement; a rustle of paper, the clanking of a rolling bottle.

“Hey Barbie, you have enough perfume on tonight?” whispered Brad walking next to Melissa.“It’s getting right up my nose.” 

“Better the scent of flowers than rotting flesh” Melissa retorted just as one of their unit threw up; either from the putrid flesh or from the brutality of their situation. She handed Brad her precious bottle and he started spraying it liberally much to the consternation of the unit.

“Stop moaning. It’s standard procedure now” Brad quipped rather preferring the subtle fragrance of flowers to that of death that had permeated his nostrils since the apocalypse began six weeks ago. And flowers reminded him of a world where life lived free . . . . . . . . . and there was nothing wrong with that.

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