Rom-Com Zombie Apocalypse
Chapter 19: Eating Ramen with the Undead

Chapter 19: Eating Ramen with the Undead

The room was filled with the sound of slurping noodles. It was a mix of satisfaction and total chaos as we sat around the table, each of us holding a steaming bowl of ramen.

The noodles were golden and bouncy, shining under the warm light from the overhead lamp. They looked too good to resist.

Well, almost everyone was eating. Clara and Max, on the other hand, were going at it like they hadn’t eaten in years.

Clara was licking broth off her own detached finger, and Max had somehow managed to suck a noodle up through his nose hole.

He didn’t even seem to care. A stray noodle dangled from his ear, and he didn’t notice that either

"So you’re saying," Alex began, twirling her noodles around her chopsticks with practiced ease, "your body only looks rotten and zombie-like, but it’s actually healthy on the inside?"

Max nodded, his head wobbling slightly as a chunk of what might have been his cheekbone threatened to fall into his bowl.

"Yes," he said, his voice surprisingly steady despite the state of his jaw. "It’s like... we’re preserved. Decay stopped at a certain point, and now we’re just... like this."

Elliot leaned forward, his bowl balanced precariously on his knee, a single drop of broth threatening to spill onto his jeans. "And you can’t die because you’re already, you know, walking dead?"

Clara smiled, her too-perfect teeth gleaming unnervingly in the light. "Yes," she said, her voice soft but firm. "We’re already dead. But we’re not... gone. Not really."

Ben raised a trembling hand, his spoon clinking against his bowl as he tried to steady it.

"W-What about muscles? Are they... atrophying?"

Max flexed his decaying bicep again, the movement somehow both impressive and horrifying as a bit of his skin flaked off and landed in his broth.

"Nope. Gains don’t stop for the apocalypse," he said with a grin that made his lower lip split a little.

Lila snorted, slurping a noodle loudly, the sound echoing in the room. "Of course they don’t," she said, rolling her eyes. "Even the undead are gym bros now."

I frowned, trying to wrap my head around the logistics of undead physiology as I poked at my ramen with my chopsticks.

The soft-boiled egg in my bowl wobbled, its yolk threatening to burst. "What about eating? Do you, like, need to eat?"

Clara shrugged, a noodle dangling from her eyebrow like some kind of bizarre accessory. "We don’t feel hungry, but we can still taste things. So we crave stuff, especially meat. But we’ve been resisting the urge to bite it raw."

Elliot raised an eyebrow, his chopsticks paused mid-air as he stared at her. "Wow. That’s... scary."

Jake, who had been quietly observing, finally spoke up, his voice trembling slightly. "W-What was that about wall licking, then?"

Max’s face, or what was left of it, lit up with an unsettling enthusiasm. "Oh, that’s just my habit since childhood. I like licking walls."

The room collectively recoiled, the slurping noises momentarily replaced by a chorus of disgusted groans.

"WTF," Alex muttered, her nose wrinkling as she stirred her ramen. "You’re one creepy man."

Max shrugged, unbothered, as he slurped another noodle, this time through his ear. "That’s what everyone said. Except Clara. She accepted me for who I am, and I’m still grateful to her to this day."

Elliot’s eyes widened, his chopsticks slipping from his fingers and clattering onto the table. "Oh, so you guys... like each other?"

I glanced at him instinctively, and at the exact same moment, he glanced at me.

Oh no. Oh no.

Our eyes met at the weirdest possible timing, right in the middle of this bizarre zombie love talk. My stomach twisted, and my brain screamed at me to look away. Look away, Mira.

Elliot’s face tensed, and in an instant, we both panicked and turned away like nothing happened.

I pretended to be fascinated by my noodles, but my heart was pounding. I’ve been avoiding him ever since he said he liked me. In the middle of the freaking apocalypse. What was I even supposed to do with that?

Say "I like you too" in the middle of people getting devoured by zombies? Seriously? What kind of timing was that? And the worst part, I don’t even know how I feel about him.

I stuffed a bite of ramen into my mouth, focusing way too hard on chewing.

Meanwhile, Clara nodded, oblivious to the silent crisis happening between me and Elliot. She reached over to pat Max’s hand, her detached finger still dripping with broth. "Yes. I like him, and he likes me too."

Ben’s voice was barely above a whisper, his spoon trembling in his hand. "Oh, that’s... sad. You became zombies before you could grow together."

Max shook his head, his neck creaking audibly. "Nah, it’s actually good. Now we can be a new zombie couple."

The room went quiet again. Everyone’s words hung in the air as we stared at our bowls. Steam curled up slowly, and the ramen, which had seemed so warm and welcoming before, now just felt like a small comfort in the middle of a strange conversation.

Max slurped another noodle, this time through his ear, the sound breaking the silence. "I see now. How about you guys tell us about yourselves?"

I poked at my ramen, watching Clara lick broth off her detached finger. "Well," I began, "me and Elliot were technically childhood buddies. Our parents were besties, so we got forced into playdates. But we never talked at school, just met outside the gate like secret agents."

Elliot smirked, picking up his chopsticks again and twirling a clump of noodles. "Our houses were right across the street. She once threw a rock at my window to ’borrow’ my bike. Broke the glass instead."

"An accident!" I snapped, my face heating up as I glared at him. "And I was seven!"

Max snorted, twirling his noodles with a smirk. "Real meet-cute. Then what?"

"Elliot showed up swinging a baseball bat," I said, gesturing with my chopsticks, a bit of broth splashing onto the table. "Then the zombies broke into my house, and Alex just happened to be right outside when it all went down. We’ve been trauma-bonded ever since."

Clara paused, a noodle dangling from her eyebrow as she tilted her head. "Romantic."

Max leaned forward, his chin dripping broth onto the table. "And the others?"

Ben raised his hand like a kid in class, his spoon still trembling. "Uh, Lila and I grew up together in Georgia. She once beat up a raccoon with a flip-flop."

Lila grinned, her teeth flashing as she slurped a noodle. "And I’d do it again."

Jake added, his voice quiet but steady, "I-I was h-hiding in the closet when Lila and Ben found me. Lila broke the door down with a fire extinguisher and scared the shit out of me."

Ben patted Lila’s shoulder, a proud smile on his face. "She’s weirdly good at breaking things."

"Anyway," I continued, glaring at him, "we holed up at school, then the zombies vanished next day. Poof. Magic. So we went looting."

Clara choked on a mushroom, her detached hand slapping the table as she coughed. "Vanished? How?"

"No idea," Alex said, shrugging as she stirred her ramen. "But we raided a store and found this trio just standing there."

Max blinked, his one good eye narrowing as he leaned closer. "And then?"

I sighed, stirring my ramen absently. The egg yolk finally burst, spreading golden richness through the broth. "Then our stronghold got raided by a Bigass zombie we called Wrestler, a giant dude who liked slamming everyone into the wall. Almost turned us into paste."

Elliot mimed swinging a bat, his chopsticks forgotten as he reenacted the moment. "But Mira here saved the day with her bubble gum, Wrestler slipped on it and went down hard. Then Alex jumped in to make sure he stayed down, and we just kept whacking him until he couldn’t get back up. Epic."

Clara and Max froze, noodles slipping from their slack jaws. "You... fought Wrestler?"

Alex smirked, leaning back in her chair with a satisfied grin. "And won. Dude’s probably still crying in a corner."

The zombie couple stared at each other, then burst into wheezing laughter, broth spraying everywhere as they doubled over. "We saw that guy!" Clara gasped, clutching her stomach, or what was left of it. "He’d slam zombies into walls! You beat him with a broom?!"

Max added, his voice cracking with laughter, "And you beat him? With a broom? That’s the funniest thing I’ve heard since... well, since I became like this!"

Elliot grinned, leaning back in his chair with a satisfied smirk. "Glad we could entertain."

I slumped in my seat, stirring my ramen absently as I watched the chaos unfold. Great. Now we’re the undead’s favorite sitcom.

Lila, who had been quietly eating her ramen in the corner, finally spoke up, her voice calm but cutting through the noise like a knife.

"You know," she said, her chopsticks poised delicately over her bowl, "it’s strange how things work out. We’re all here, alive, or undead, sharing a meal like this. It’s almost... normal. Except for the fact that half of us are rotting and the other half are traumatized."

The room fell silent again, the weight of her words sinking in as we all stared at our bowls. The ramen, once so comforting, now felt like a strange reminder of how bizarre our lives had become.

But as I took another bite, the rich flavors filling my mouth, I couldn’t help but feel a small sense of gratitude. In the middle of the apocalypse, at least we still had ramen. And each other.