A Dark Day: Part VI

I let her go and have her choose her own destiny. For a moment she has a look on her face like she's going to do something stupid but then that quickly turns to the realization that she would die if she did. Deep down even the most confident and strong willed individual is scared to die. I remember being five years old and me and my dad going into town to get sour gummy straws. He was the bravest and strongest man I've ever known. There was nothing that he was afraid of. We crossed the street back to the car that day and all I heard were tires squealing and felt a shove that threw me right across the street. When I looked back I saw my dad, on the floor and laying in a pool of blood. I ran to him and the look on his face is one that I would never forget. My dad, the bravest and strongest man I had ever known was scared, scared of death. He said nothing at all. The look was enough. Even being five years old I just knew that everyone was vulnerable. No one was stronger than death. Slowly but surely I looked on as my fathers light went out.
The woman throws me the keys. She made the smart choice. I unlock all my chains and walk over to her. "Come on" I tell her as I help her to her feet. I take her over to the table she was at earlier. There is a decomposed arm on the table with pins and needles in it. Looks like she was doing some tests. I grab a few gauzes and some tape out of the cabinet above and apply them to her wound. She's as good as new now, well as good as a woman with her ear chopped off can get. "They are getting smarter" she tells me as we walk out of the room cautiously. "What the hell are you talking about?" I ask. "The Pastor has been studying them since the outbreak first became apparent. They are getting smarter. They retain a bit of their old life apparently and build on that. Its like muscle memory, if you do things a certain amount of times then you'll never forget how to do them. This is exactly what's happening here but on a larger scale. Didn't you notice that they were suddenly gone when you decided to investigate the area outside of your trailer? They were stalking you, just like an animal stalks its prey. They were waiting and in hiding until you were your most vulnerable." She explains. I still don't understand how that could happen. I look at her confused but intrigued. "How long have you been in that trailer?" She asks me. "For about 14 days I think" I tell her. "That's 12 days too long. They know you, your habits, your patterns. You're lucky you're still alive right now." She says.

A Dark Day: Part V

With my eyes closed shut I can still feel how close the person is. I can feel a hand being waved in front of my face and a nudge to my side with a foot. I open my eyes slightly and suddenly become aware and alert when I see a scalpel in the hand of the person standing over me. I have to "play dead" so to speak. At least for the moment. I can hear the jingle of keys so I'm guessing I'm going to be moved somewhere. My left hand becomes free from the chains and that's when I make my move. I open my eyes and within that instant I grab the scalpel from the persons other hand. In the same motion I yank on the persons arm realize I'm looking at a woman. I pull her close to me and put the blade to her neck. "What the fuck do you want with me?!" I ask her with a low growl in my voice. "We are studying them. We need to put a stop to these things." She tells me. I press the blade harder to her neck and a small amount of blood comes exposes itself. "Let me loose" I demand with the same low growl in my voice. "The Pastor wouldn't be pleased if I did that. We need living tissue to complete the study and well, your the only survivor we've seen in 24 days." She explains. "I don't give a fuck who The Pastor is but you better let me loose or I'll slice your neck wide open! From ear to fucking ear!" I exclaimed as I pressed a little harder into her neck. "Go ahead and do it." She said ever so calmly as she throws the keys to the chains across the room. "My death would be minuscule compared to all the people we could save." This woman is completely insane! She knows just as well as I do that there is no one else left around these parts. Who knows if the rest of the world is the same way? I'm not going to let these people use me as a damn lab rat. I just need to get to those keys. "Are you going to get me those keys?" She nods her head no. "Your not afraid to die are you?" She nods her head no again. "I'm going to make you hurt then." I wrap the chain that's connected to my right hand around her neck. "Are you scared?" I ask her. She nods her head no once more. In one quick motion I slice her left ear right off her head. So quick that it looked like a magic trick. Blood starts to pour out like a running faucet all over me and all I can hear is her screams. I let a few minutes go by then I tell her "I'm sure your no stranger to surgery and blood loss. Your probably feeling kind of dizzy right about now from the blood loss. If you get me those keys then I can help you stop the bleeding. If not then you won't make it out of her alive even if I let you go. Take your pick."

A Dark Day: Part IV

Its been 27 days since the outbreak. The only way I know is by counting sunrises and sunsets and making tallies. It gives me a somewhat sense of normalcy. Still there seems to be no end to this. It just keeps getting worse and worse. Something seems different today though. I can sense it even sitting in this tin can of mine. The air seems too calm out there, almost like everything has stopped. Usually I can hear the moaning of those bastards every so often, but right now I don't hear a thing. I stand up and take a look out of one of the vents.........nothing, absolutely nothing. I grab my machete and look out a few of the other vents. Nothing. I'm going to have to check this out. I walk towards the door with my machete ready and unlock the door. I push it open with my foot and back up. I have to wait a while just in case. Again, nothing. As I glance out the trailer I see..........emptiness. What the hell is happening? All I see is dirt blowing in the wind. Did these things get scared away by something? Maybe they ate the whole population already and now they're slowly dying off. Maybe all of this is over and things can slowly go back to normal. Wishful thinking. I look from my right to my left and I see a baseball bat coming my way..................shit.

I wake up from my nap dizzy and seeing double, not to mention the throbbing headache. Where the fuck am I? This room that I'm in can only be described as possibly a run down operating room but I can't be sure. I can see a vague outline of a person across the room standing with their back to me and messing with something on a table. "Hey!" I yelled at the person. I get up and try to walk to the person but quickly realize I'm chained to the floor by my hands and feet. "What the fuck are you doing?!" I demanded as I pull on the chains. The person turns slightly but ignores my question. "Let me go! You can't do this to me!" I start yelling. I keep trying to get myself loose but I'm not having any luck. Whoever this is acts like I'm not even here, like they can't hear me. As I look around the room I can see old blood stains on the floor. Not too old but old enough to stain the concrete. I'm starting feel dizzy again, I think need to sit back down for a minute. I plop myself on the floor and I can feel my eyes starting to close. Don't pass out. Don't pass out. I won't make it out of here if I do. My body slowly slumps to the side and I hit the floor. This can't happen. I've lasted this long. Stay up. Come on. My vision gets blurry and my eyes continue to try to keep themselves open. The person is walking towards me now. All I see is black calf-high combat boots getting closer and closer. I'm losing this battle. I need....to...stay...al......

A Dark Day: Part III

"As I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil". Those are the words I keep reciting to myself as I drag this guys' carcass out of my trailer and across a field. I didn't need this body stinking up my camp and attracting more of those bastards. I had to get it as far away as possible. As I'm dragging this guy by his legs I look down at his head, or what's left of it, bump across rocks. I can't help but think of who he belonged to. I mean, did he have a family? Where are they? Was he traveling alone? None of that really matters now. Just another casualty of this epidemic. I can hear them coming now. I think they can smell the bloody flesh. I let go of his legs and start heading back to camp. I have to move fast but not too fast. I can see the trailer from here....more or less about 200yrds away. I look back at Curly, yes, I named him Curly. No one should die without a name and plus, I like The Three Stooges. I can see one zombie come out of the grassy field nearby. One turns to two then turns to four then to eight. I try to not look back but I can't help it. Its like watching one of those nature documentaries where the animal is ripping apart its prey. Just to see them doing what they're doing with no remorse....its eerie to think what this world will become. As I turn back around I bump right into one of "them". It tries to take a bite of my shoulder but I move right on time. Without skipping a beat I grab the back of its head and make it dive straight to the ground breaking off the bottom of its jaw in the process. I'd like to see that thing try chewing on someone now. As the zombie gets up off the floor I go for a swift kick right across its head. It falls limp to floor. Great, my boots are bloody now. I continue to walk back to camp. "As I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil"

A Dark Day: Part II

I'm back at "Camp", if you can even call it that. This isn't one of those "Fun swinging from trees, screw with the counselors, making out with your crush, hiking up and down hills" type of camp. This is the last safe spot that out there as far as I know....a damn 18 wheeler trailer. Its reinforced at all ends but is hot as hell with the sun shining down on it. I think I've lost about 15lbs in the last 2 weeks or so. All I have to eat is a shit load of SPAM that I found at some local grocery store. I'm even scared to eat that.....I hope SPAM doesn't go bad or anything, cause that would really suck. Food is really starting to become very scarce and I really don't know what to do. I'm running out of options. If I try to hunt for an animal or something I'm taking a risk that it could be infected with whatever it is those people are infected with. Most fruits and vegetables have already gone bad and if I eat nothing but sweets my body will crash after a while from the sugar. All thats left is me and my SPAM. Good old SPAM. I'm going to try to get some sleep.

What the hell? As soon as I open my eyes, I see the trailer door cracked open. I didn't leave it open. I look around the trailer but all I see is darkness of course. My hands start to tremble and my heart begins to beat faster like always. I can never get used to this. I have to stay completely quite. I have to try not to move. I slowly and gently reach for the lighter in my pocket. Not being able to see is the worst......you feel so vulnerable. I have the lighter in my hand and turn it on. There's a guy standing in the middle of the trailer with his hand missing. I jump up and when he doesn't lunge at me I figure out that he's not one of them. I ask him if he's alright but all he answers back with is "help, help, help". He's going delirious from the blood loss. I walk up to him slowly and help him kneel down towards the trailer door. I keep telling him it's going to be alright and not to worry. I make sure he stays propped up, and I walk to the back of the trailer into the darkness. All I hear is his breathing. I come running out of the darkness with a sledgehammer in hand and crush his head wide open. I can't take any chances....he most likely got it bitten off. Like I said before, this is about survival and if anyone's going to survive.....It's going to be me.

A Dark Day: Part 1

The stench of death and rotten flesh fills the air. I'm all alone and probably the only one left. I glance out from underneath a pile of over ripe corpses and see the very large group of undead bodies walking and attacking the very last bit of fresh meat on the ground. I've found that if I keep the smell of them on me they think I'm one of them. For now I'm just going to stay here....waiting until the time is right to make my way back to shelter. I haven't seen a single soul in the last 2 weeks. The last person I saw met her untimely demise about 2 hours after we ran into each other. We got attacked and I used the time she was getting eaten to get away. People would probably call me a coward but I look at it as being a survivor. For now I'm just here and every breath I take I just want to vomit but I have to get past that and think straight. Even though I have a young man's decomposing skull resting against my chin. I see two zombies fighting over an arm. One pushes the other to the ground and steps through its chest. To the winner go the spoils. I've been laying here for about 2 hours or maybe 8...I'm not sure. It's hard to tell time when the world as you know it has pretty much come to an end. The zombies are beginning to spread out and it's time to make my move. I creep out from underneath the bodies and make my way to the streets. One of them spots me and starts coming my way. My heart starts to beat faster and faster and my palm are starting to sweat. The zombie bumps me to the side and goes about its business. It's starting to get dark out. I need to get back to shelter......I could really use a beer about now.