Zombies and puppies. It’s a 6.

Skyscrapers stood silent, greyed sentries guarding the deserted city whose streets were more empty and desolate than Times Square at 7:00 am, January 1; where orphaned newspaper pages, tossed and rolled like semi flattened tumbleweeds, blew along pot-holed blacktop, catching every so often on the back tire of an abandoned car.

Road worn and weary, we’d been on the move nonstop for 13 days and desperate for safe haven, somewhere to rest, recharge and most importantly, do reconnaissance of the immediate area. Walking past smashed storefronts, jagged plate glass window shards lining the sidewalks like eager patrons opening day of a new high end boutique, we’d all but given up finding a place with easy access to the street yet not totally open to it either.

Defacto leader of this motley band of survivors, I’d felt an odd relief when, after only a few days on the road, I discovered we’d all grown up on movies about vampires and werewolves, natural disasters, and… zombies; that not a one of us hadn’t watched all 6 Resident Evil films so naturally, in our minds and imaginations, we were convinced we knew what to expect.

Over here! I think I found the perfect place – trying not to run, our bodies anticipating the opportunity to finally sleep, we quickly walked the half block towards what we desperately hoped would be a place we could safely crash; pushing each other through the doorway of Newbury Furniture and More, the high fives started to fly as we realized we’d actually get to sleep in a bed.

Basking in our amazing stroke of luck, none of us noticed the golden retriever emerging from the back part of the store, an almost comical parade of gold colored puppies wobbling along behind her; in another lifetime this might have been a heartwarming scene but current day, not so much, as all of the puppies were growling; we knew right then, this was about to get very, very messy…