Z Day is Here (2 page)

Now, I have hit people in the face before but
never this hard and never with a fish bowl. The poor fish never had
a chance. I staggered to my feet and looked down at Amanda lying on
the ground, a fresh chunk taken out of her head. I could see her
brain and a piece of fish sticking out the side of her skull. She
moved! I grabbed a pen from the desk and shoved it in the gash,
stirring her brains into mush like oatmeal. She never moved
again.

I safely made my way to the break room. It
was like being in Heaven! I packed my pockets full of the sweet
junk food that I’d stayed away from for so long. I gathered three
Cokes in my right hand and clutched a knife I’d found in a drawer
in my left. I hiked my way back to the safe room. When I got back
inside—

Wait! I hear something in here!

Well, my safe room is no longer safe. I've
got to be more careful. I’d propped the door to my safe room open
yesterday while I was gone to get food, and three of the bastards
got in and made their appearances while I was typing the journal. I
heard a noise behind me, the noise they all make, kind of a low
growl. It's like they are angry at the living for not being one of
them.

I turned around just in time to see two of
the three trying to make my head their next meal. I jumped so far
back that I knocked over the computer. Thank God they’re slow
movers. They kind of hobble around, shuffling their feet one after
the other, like they have nowhere to go. But in this case, they had
somewhere to go: straight to the buffet that is me!

I ran from the room and down the hall, where
I passed a still-dead Amanda lying in the same spot where I left
her, head still gashed open, fish still impaled on the piece of
scalp.

I looked away from the room just in time to
see four more of them standing directly in my path. My only choice
was to go outside. That was last place I wanted to be, out in the
open. But I got to the door regardless.

There was nothing around. My car was sitting
there, looking so inviting. I sprinted to it, opened the door, sat
down, closed the door, and realized I’D LEFT MY FUCKING KEYS INSIDE
THE OFFICE!

BAM! Five zombies suddenly surrounded the
car, banging on the windows, that low growl getting louder and
louder. It must have been a signal to them, because eight more
zombies shambled up and started pounding on the car.

I gave up. There was no need to fight. I
could fight against one or two maybe, but not thirteen with more
coming. My time was over. I began to wonder what it would feel like
to be one of them, what it would be like to eat flesh. Would they
even make me one of them? What if they destroyed my body so I
couldn't come back?

Just as I was giving up all hope, I looked
out the window one last time, as if to say goodbye to the world.
That was when I saw an angel. She was beautiful, with long blond
hair and a very slender yet athletic build. Judging by the terror
on her face, as well as the blood oozing from her arms and side, I
could tell she’d been bitten. Hell, she’d been half eaten. I wasn’t
sure how she’d survived, but all I knew was she was as good as dead
already.

Once the zombies got a whiff of her fresh
blood, they pounced on her like lions on a downed deer. She was
down within seconds. I remember watching National Geographic as a
kid—and more recently Discovery Channel—and watching some tigers in
Africa take down a wounded elephant, then eat it as it struggled to
get away. I was now watching this again, though not in Africa and
not with tigers and elephants. This time, it was with a live human
girl and zombies. They ripped the flesh from her bones without even
trying.

Then I realized that this was my opening! I
threw open the door and took off running, never looking back. I
made my way to an old industrial building about three miles from my
work. The whole way, I saw zombie after zombie. Occasionally, I
spotted a person peeking out of their windows, gun in hand. They
would just shake their heads no, telling me to stay away or else. I
didn’t blame them at all; I’d have done the same.

I'm not in a very safe place, but I have no
choice. I’m exhausted and hungry, and I need to rest.

I’ve got to make my way toward my house,
toward my love. God, I pray she’s still alive.

I’m going to pass out for a while, if I can
manage to sleep.

Sleep! Oh, glorious sleep. I haven't slept
this well in days. And with a full belly, too!

Yesterday, while I was at the industrial
building, I was walking around the perimeter, securing the door and
blocking the windows, feeling a little like Anne Frank must have
felt, a prisoner in my own land. While doing all this, I saw a
quick flash of movement in a nearby doorway. Christ! There were
more in here! Looking around, I found a nice big metal pipe. If a
fish bowl would knock someone down, this would surely bash their
skulls in with little force.

I readied myself, preparing for the impending
attack, my stance just like a baseball player’s, ready, waiting for
the pitch. But this wasn't a baseball; this was a human head. If it
could even be considered human anymore. I heard it coming
closer…then more footsteps. Great, I was going to have to battle
more than one.

I saw another flash of movement, just to my
right! My military training taught me to go for the closest threat,
so I spun around and pulled the pipe back.

Bam! I was tackled from behind! How? How
could it have moved so quickly, so silently?

It wasn't a zombie. In fact, none of the
people in the building were. I had stumbled onto a compound of four
survivors. This group had done what I had: found a safe location to
stay for a while.

First there is Reggie; he’s the one that
tackled me. Then there’s Eliza and her husband Mike, who run a
local dog kennel. And finally, there’s Darrell, who I found out
later runs a local video game shop. Once the formalities were out
of the way, we sat around and talked. We talked about the zombies
(of course) and about what we’d seen and experienced so far. We all
had similar stories, as well as people we wanted to go home to.

Reggie was an ex-football star who had
injured his shoulder during his first pro game. He had been going
to meet his girlfriend when a tractor trailer struck the SUV he was
traveling in. Apparently, the tractor trailer had swerved to miss a
group of people "just standing in the road".

That was where Mike and Eliza came in. They
were in a car a few vehicles behind Reggie. They’d been on their
way to a dog convention when they saw a truck slam into the side of
an SUV. The truck kept going, so Mike had decided to stop and see
if he could help. While helping, he was attacked by one of the
zombies and was bitten on his left bicep. He knew he was already as
good as dead, but he wanted to spend as much time with his wife as
he could before his "change." Pretty sad, really.

Darrell was the first to find the warehouse.
He’s been staying here for a few days now. He was on his way to his
mom's house for the weekend when all hell broke loose. I guess
running a video game store has its advantages, because he seems to
know a lot about killing zombies. He said his knowledge came from
video games. And critics said video games would be the downfall of
us all!

Last night was a good night. I would say
probably the last good night we’ll have for a while. Mike woke up
this morning with a very high fever. His arm looked like it had
taken on a life of its own. It had begun twitching for no reason,
and the wound looked like month-old ground beef. He isn’t going to
make it much longer. Darrell has already volunteered to "bash his
face in" the second he changes, though I believe he’d do it before
Mike even changed. Eliza is in denial. The poor woman. I don't know
how she’ll react when all this goes down, which, based on how
quickly Mike is changing, could be within the next few hours.

My day never had a chance.

It has hit the fan! I don't have much time to
write about it. All I can say is that I am alone again, injured,
and looking for a new safe house. Before you all start getting
worried, no! It is not a zombie bite. I will go into greater
details in the morning. I am not feeling real good right now...must
be the loss of blood.

The pain! I think my ankle is broken. The
pain has had me knocked out for hours. My laptop got a good charge,
though!

So where do I begin? How can I even come
close to explaining what happened? The words that my fingers are
about to type will never come close to the horrors that befell me a
couple of days ago. But I should...no, I
have
to try to
explain what happened. Maybe for my own sanity or maybe out of
respect for the others or maybe just to take my mind off the
pain.

Let me take you back to yesterday morning. We
were all still getting to know each other. We were telling stories
of our families and our work and rumors we had heard about what was
going on. Darrell had a wife and two daughters, all three now dead.
Reggie had a long-time girlfriend and a little boy; their status
was unknown. Eliza had Mike, and he was getting worse by the
second. I had Darcy, my love, my fiancé, status regretfully
unknown.

As we talked throughout the day, we were at
peace for the first time in days. It was as if we were at a high
school reunion, playing catch up with all our old friends. Zombies,
what zombies? Zombies don't exist. But they do, and we were not
long-time friends just catching up. We were the survivors of a
terrible tsunami of the living dead, coming to wash away all of
mankind. Every time we looked at Mike, we were reminded of
this.

Sometime late in the afternoon, Mike excused
himself to go check on the barricades. Darrell volunteered to go
with him while Reggie, Eliza, and I stayed behind to clean up our
mess. Zombie attack or not, Eliza would not have a messy
shelter!

I'm not sure what I heard first, the gun shot
or the scream. Both sounds will forever haunt me the rest of my
life, no matter how short it may be.

We all went running toward the noise. As we
turned the corner, we saw Darrell, snub nose revolver still smoking
and shaking in his right hand. Mike lay in the fetal position on
the ground by the front door, a look of shock and disbelief forever
painting on his face, along with the very large hole now replacing
his eyebrow. All I could think to say was, "What the hell have you
done?"

Darrell turned to look at us. "He was about
to change. He was about to change. I—I—I—" He dropped the gun and
ran for the front door. Pulling away the barricades, he could only
apologize and repeat, "He was changing." Reggie went for one of his
signature tackling moves, whatever he could do to keep Darrell from
opening the door. Five steps away. Hell, maybe even closer. A
single gunshot rang out from behind me. Darrell crashed through the
front door. Maybe crashed isn't the proper word to use. I guess I
should say he flew through the door. That’s what happens when a
bullet tears through your back and explodes out your chest.

I turned to see Eliza holding the pistol, a
look of pure hatred spread across her face. I flinched at what I
had just witnessed. I couldn't take my eyes off sweet little Eliza,
whose husband had just been taken away from her, who in a matter of
seconds had become a killer. No! An executioner.

I stared too long. Before I knew it, half a
dozen zombies had entered the room. With in another thirty seconds,
the room was full of the undead. “RUN!” Reggie snapped me from my
trance with a yell and a tug on my shirt. I ran for the window,
Reggie directly in front of me. Eliza ran as well, straight into a
pack of zombies. Now I will never know for sure, but I would almost
swear I heard her yell, "Wait for me Mikey! I'll see you soon!" She
was pulled into four pieces before I could even make it to the
window. Poor Eliza never had a chance.

Reggie burst through the window on a mission.
He was not going to be the next meal. I was right behind him. Once
we were on the ledge of the window, we looked down. Shit! Third
floor! We had to choose: being eaten alive or breaking our necks
jumping. I chose to take my chances with the daemons behind me.
Surely I could get around them. I could escape. Better odds I
thought. Reggie chose for both of us. He chose to jump and take me
with him. As he hurled himself out the window, he grabbed my shirt.
I had no choice.

When we hit, I heard the crunch of my ankle
cracking the dumpster Reggie had aimed for. He was off his mark,
by—pardon the pun—a foot.

I had no time to think about the pain before
three zombies surrounded me. The stench of their rotting flesh
nearly choked me. I was done for. WHACK! The sound the two-by-four
made as it smashed across the left cheek of the nearest zombie was
music to my ears. Reggie grinned as he swung the board twice more,
offing the remaining two surrounding me. He was so pleased with
himself he never noticed the one behind him. His grin quickly
turned to pain as the undead former Burger King employee chomped
down on my savior’s neck. Blood flew in all directions as he fell
to the ground.

I ran as fast as I could. Pain was no longer
an option. Just getting to safety was all I could think about.
Three miles later, my ankle was swollen to the size of a grapefruit
and was the color of a ripe plum. I ducked into a nice
multi-million dollar home that appeared to be vacant. I barricaded
the doors and tried to cover the windows as best I could throughout
the house. I found the master bathroom, locked myself in, and
passed out for a few hours. I woke long enough to bandage up my
scrapes and post a quick message on here before I passed out from
the pain again.