2am Tuesday
Somehow, and by sheer luck, Jane managed to fight off the horde of zombies, and carry her ten year old daughter into her attic. She manically slammed the door on the head of a ghoul causing it to fall to the floor below with a loud thump. She could hear several zombies stomping and grunting like mad animals. Katie, her daughter was unresponsive but had a pulse, regardless of how faint.
Jane quickly locked the latch to the attic and frantically checked Katie for any bite marks. The news and other media have been informing the public about the dangers of getting bitten by zombies. There were two results from any bite from an infected person. The victim either became the undead within hours or they simply died. As far as Jane could see, Katie wasn't bitten. Jane took a great comfort when she didn't find any marks on Katie. Those unhuman creatures didn't relent in grunting and pacing up and down the hallway.
Jane had lost her husband Peter a year ago to cancer. Before he died, he made sure that Jane and little Katie had a good home here in this leafy suburb. Jane was so cautious to not let anyone of those ghouls in. Jane couldn't imagine the horrible thought of losing her only child. She didn't know what to do.
The desperate mother went over to the window to see the street below. The situation was much worse out there. It was a scene out of an apocalyptic movie. There were hundred of zombies chasing down any survivors. Several houses were burning and some of the survivors were putting up a fight with guns and rifles. Jane quickly closed the window and ducked out of sight in horror.
She had so many questions. Maybe she was having a nightmare. She prayed that she would wake up at any moment. Jane grabbed a blanket and covered Katie. She was ice cold. The creatures on the other side of the latch kept on trying to open it. Jane was out of options.
2:05am Saturday
Mission failed.
Captain Gilbert lost his entire unit tonight except for the new recruit Private Davidson and the Lance Corporal Huxley. It was a simple mission: hit and run, wipe out as many zombies as they can, wait for the air support then get picked up. Every execution went to hell. It was a blood bath. Now they were left battered, tired, out of ammo and in the middle of the hot zone. Gilbert could hear and smell those animals from hell nearby. He only had a clip and a half of ammo for his rifle and a full magazine for his pistol. The young private seemed to have enough energy and morale to spare. The Corporal was few weeks from retirement when the outbreak began two and a half years ago.
"This is Captain Gilbert to base, over!"
The captain's attempt to radio the base was futile, There was only static. The other men from his unit heard his helpless attempts. On his GPS screen, the captain could see that they were about seven kilometers from the base. On any other night he could jog it in thirty minutes, but not tonight. Tonight, there was a hundred blocks of zombies between his men and the base that might not be there.
"Sir, I suggest we go for it, that's the only way sir" Private Davidson said with an undying assertion.
The Corporal gave an agreeing nod.
"Ok, men, let's go"
The captain scanned the first fifty meters. There were only a few waddling around. The men knew exactly how the zombies behaved. They responded to loud noises. Most were slow jerky walkers. It's the sprinting "psychos" they had to worry about.
"Check your ammo and only controlled bursts" The captain ordered quietly.
The men proceeded.
The first hundred meters was eventless. The zombies just kept to themselves and even the ones that spotted them didn't seem to mind. The private sprinted to each corner, checked for threats before signing his team members to proceed. So far so good.
About thirty minutes into their evasive move through hell, the private realized his worst nightmare to come true. As the Corporal Huxley got up to follow the Private, a "psycho" came out of no where biting him squarely on the right side of the Corporal's neck. Davidson's training and instinct kicked in immediately and opened fire on the zombie, neutralizing it. The Corporal laid in the dark with blood gushing from his neck and mouth. The captain clenched his eyes as he braced himself for what was coming next.
Within seconds, the two remaining soldiers heard grunting and wailing coming from all directions.
"Run!" Davidson yelled.
The two began running up the street. They found themselves surrounded in all directions. The private accurately gunned down a dozen ghouls but that wasn't enough. The captain instructed Davidson to take cover. He was down to half a magazine of bullets. Captain Gilbert closed his eyes as he remembered his beautiful wife and daughters as he readied himself for the inevitable.
The young soldier kept fighting.
Suddenly, they heard a woman's voice from above, "Up here! Hurry!"
It was Jane.
Davidson was the first to get to the door first.
"Soldier! Proceed with caution!" Gilbert barked at Davidson.
The Private entered the house. Sighing with disappointment, Gilbert followed and went inside closing the door behind him. The interior of the house was as bad as out there. There was a creepy floor lamp that flickered revealing the piles of rotting bodies scattered all over the living room floor. The captain knew that he only had about two or three rounds.
"Soldier!" The captain yelled.
No answer.
He checked the living room and the kitchen downstairs before proceeding up the stairs. There, he found the mangled body of Davidson being gorged by a zombie. He hasn't seen anything so ungodly. Without hesitation, the Captain used the last two rounds on the head of the grotesque beast.
That had a consequence. The zombies seemed to come out of the grizzly walls. The captain was now totally out of options. Then, by another miracle, the ladder to the attic dropped. The captain looked up.
"Hurry" The woman yelled.
Without a moment to spare, the captain climbed the ladder as the woman retracted the ladder and shut the latch.
"Thank you so much" The captain said panting, laying on the floor. His heart raced. He couldn't handle another moment of this. Laying next to him was what appeared to be a long decompose body. He couldn't even tell whether it was human. The captain jolted up. Jane was facing away from him.
"Wh, who are you?"
Jane didn't answer.
"Thank you for coming" Jane said as she turned around.
The captain, in his darkest dreams didn't see anything like it. It was a form of a woman but she was also long decomposed. Her left eye had fallen out and her whole body was a shade of grey and brown, with a layer of pus dribbling down. He couldn't understand a zombie could talk and exhibit human behavior. Jane didn't say anything else. She merely looked at him with one dead cold eye.
Without a warning, he felt a strong, cold and sharp set of teeth on his neck. It was Katie, the piece of rotting corpse tearing chunks out of his neck like raw steak.
The last thing the captain saw as he faded away was the almost formless ghoulish creature that was Katie digging into his flesh as the undead woman watching on.
HAPPY HALLOWEEN EVERYONE :)
Written by David Kim