22 January 2013
Yep, zombies. This was a bit rushed and just slapped together without too much thought xD
Sal sat in front of me in both English periods. It always was so tempting to reach out and touch one of his creamy blonde curls, flattened sometimes from his hat or sleeping. Walking down the hall, I might catch a glance from his slim, minty green eyes. Like any other girl, I swooned at his little half-smile. Like any other person, I was trudging through high school-- the homework, the crushes, the friends--the usual. Like any normal person, when I heard the news about so called 'cannibals', 'reanimated corpses', and even 'zombies', I didn't believe it. I couldn't. How was it even possible? But the videos that went up everywhere, in just the first day... The schools, government, police, even the army told us to get ready... But how would we? And for what, exactly? What were we facing? In the first week, it was easy to ignore. Everything was happening in China and Japan. Then the disease spread, and... God. The military wasn't able to close off the big cities before some of the infected escaped. They couldn't handle the truth of their demise. They ended up infecting even more, and it traveled through every setting like the wind... God. Nothing explains the feeling of horror and nausea of seeing the first one up close.
Me and my family were one of the last families left in Maplewood, our suburban town. The only ones left were the dead, the 'zombies', the elderly or weak, and the ones like us who were either to dazed or smart to pack up and leave with the rush. We called up our family and friends for one last time, said our goodbyes. A lot didn't pick up their phones. The electricity stopped working, as did running water. There were no broadcasts on TV or the radio. Phones didn't work. Cars ran out of gas. Batteries were swiftly run out. Fresh water and gas became precious in three weeks. Even so, we lived on. Dad drove trips to get a gun, food, and other necessities. We lived like that for a month or two... Time was lost to us. We stayed together, doing chores, barricading ourselves, and praying. One day Dad went out for a routine trip for supplies. He didn't come back. Mom went into depression. She stopped eating, stopped doing anything. She wouldn't talk to me. I felt alone, empty, lost. I couldn't do anything. I tried my best to make her eat, react, just do anything! She wouldn't... She... She died. Quickly, I think. It was hard to tell as the days began to get shorter. It was probably October... It was my first time truly seeing one, up close. She was as weak in death as she was in life. Hair thin and stringy, bones pronounced beneath her dirty shirt. Her once sparkling eyes were coated with a glossy, gummy white film, and the whites of her eyes were gray-blue. She staggered towards me, gurgling and growling. Sick, diseased, and ugly. No... As I picked up my father's gun, I knew in my soul this was not my mother. I recalled the memories of all three of us being together, happy. Swimming at the coast. Eating ice cream after church with Holly and Phil. My eighth grade graduation. Decorating Christmas cookies, dying Easter eggs, watching old home videos. Loving each other. The body is only a shell, I whispered, pulling the trigger.
As I gathered up all the vital supplies in two sports bags, I made some decisions. "I will not call them 'zombies'. Zombies are from movies where there is a cure, or a happy ending. I will not find a cure or have a happy ending." I reloaded my gun and slipped it into the holster I found in the attic. It was my grandfather's, and Dad taught me how to handle a gun a few years ago. "I will not pity the dead. They are not human anymore. I will not die as my mother did. I will not freeze in the face of death, I will fight it." I threw the two full bags in the backseat along with extra supplies. "I will survive. I will not die, I will not succumb." I started the engine of my father's small Honda. "I will find others... I will continue... I'll make a safe haven..." I drove beyond the city limits, repeating these things over and over.
More to come!
Reanimation • Opuss № I