The Room - Chapter 1

Silence.

Can you hear silence?

Does nothingness make a sound?

I don’t know but I don’t hear anything. I open my eyes and I don’t see anything either. Am I blind? I hold my hand out in front of my face to make sure but I can’t see a single thing. I push myself up off the floor and can hear dirt rub in between my palms and the concrete under me so I’m not deaf. Where the fuck am I?

“Hello?!”

I call out but all I hear is the sound of my voice bouncing off the walls. At least I know that I’m in a room. A room that doesn’t seem too big by the sound of my voice coming back at me. I get up on my feet and start to reach out for anything I can grab. If something happened to my eyesight then I have to be smart about this. I take small steps forward and with each step I reach out a bit further hoping I touch something. Finally I feel a wall. It’s cold and from what I can tell it’s made of concrete too. I start to carefully move to the left while still keeping my hands on the cold wall and eventually I reach another wall. Great, a corner. At least I can lean against this and not worry about being scared that someone is going to come from behind.

“Hello?! Can anyone hear me?! Get me out of here!”

Nothing. No response. Why? Why am I here? My body starts to tense up as I hear footsteps in the room with me. You know that feeling you get when you can feel the presence of someone next to you. I’m getting that now. I can feel someone right in front of my face. I hesitantly reach out but nothing is there. Then I hear a deep gravelly voice that chills me to the bone.

“You will sufferrrrrrr.”

I start to kick and punch into the air almost on instinct just hoping that I connect but kept feeling nothing but air.

“What the fuck did I do to you?!”

Then suddenly a light on the ceiling of the room starts to flicker and come on. It’s so bright and takes me a bit to focus my sight. Okay, well at least I’m not blind. I look around and I’m the only person in the room but the weirdest thing is that there are no windows or doors. It’s just an empty concrete room that couldn’t be more than 10’x10’. Where did that voice come from though? No intercom or vents. What the fuck is this?

“I want out! Let me out of here!”

I start to walk around the room inspecting the walls to see if there’s any weak point. Who am I kidding? Even if there was a weak point I have nothing to hit the wall with besides my hands and feet. I just don’t understand this. I’m trying to think back at where I was or what I was doing before I woke up here but I can’t remember. I remember what I had for lunch last week and I remember that it was raining yesterday but not anything after that. I seriously don’t understand this. I don’t get it. I walk over to the wall on the opposite side and press my hands against it.

“What kind of game is this?!”

Then I hear the mysterious voice again like its right in my ear.

“Games? There are no games. This is only the beginning.”

Then I hear a thud from behind me. I get startled and turn my body around quickly to see a door in the middle of the wall in front of me. What. The. Fuck. How the hell did that happen? Am I going crazy? I walk slowly and cautiously towards the door and very reluctantly reach for the door knob. Before I can even touch it four loud bangs come from the door like someone is pounding on it from the other side. I pull my hand back and watch the door knob as it shakes and turns. I can see the door being pushed from the other side and with each push I can see the door frame wanting to give. I do the only thing I can think of and lean all of my body weight against the door in hopes that I can stop whoever is on the other side.

“Leave me alone! What do you want from me?!”

As soon as I finish my sentence I start to hear guttural and raspy heavy breathing coming from the other side of the door and that’s when I realize I’m not dealing with someone but a something. The door frame starts to crack and my body starts to slide as the pushing gets harder and harder. Then everything stops. The pushing, the breathing. It all just stopped. I wait, still pushing my weight against the door and not wanting to move an inch. I lean my ear closer to the door to hear what was going on and I start to hear a gurgle. Almost like bubbles in a glass of water. That’s when I look down and see blood rushing in the room from under the door. I get up and step away from the door as blood continues to flow and create a bigger pool that begins to spread quickly across the floor. It reaches my feet and starts to surround them. I back up as far as I can and that’s when I hear the door knob jiggle, a click and then suddenly the door creaks open a few inches. I prepare myself to fight but I highly doubt I’ll be able to take on whatever is on the other side. I wait and wait but nothing happens. No noise and the blood on the floor seems to have stopped flowing. If I don’t step through that door then there’s a possibility that I’ll never get out of here. There’s also the possibility that something is waiting for me out there. I start to step towards the door and that’s when the blood on the floor begins to bubble. I step aside but everywhere I go it starts to bubble more and more. I can see something faintly different about the bubbles so I take a closer look. Very tiny arms start to protrude and with each bubble that pops they start to get larger. They are as red as the blood on the floor and seem to be trying to claw their way up. As I look on in disbelief, one of the demonic hands grabs my ankle and I immediately scream in pain. It feels like someone threw hot water at my feet. I stomp on the hand with the foot that I have available and look at the room. It’s filled with full sized arm pulling themselves up and I catch a glimpse at what wants to come through. It looks like a man with six small horns on his head with the face that looks like a skull. I then make the quick decision to run for the door. As I turn and make my way towards the only exit I have I can see what seems like thousands of arms coming from the floor. They try to grab me on my way out and a few are able to graze their fingers across my pants which immediately start to burn. I make it through the door and it slams behind me. No turning back now.

A Dark Day: Part XVI

He picks me up from the floor and starts walking me over to the bathroom. He slides me into a claw footed tub and leaves the room. My first thought is to jump out of the tub and run because he's probably going to come back and hack me to pieces with a machete but I'm so weak that I can barely move. I try to pick myself up but I keep slipping back down into the tub. I should've pulled the trigger on this guy when I had the chance. I should've known better. People are desperate in this "forgotten world". Well the few people that are left anyway. Its crazy how when the world went to shit everyone that didn't become those things turned on each other instead of banding together for the greater good. It sickens me to know what we've become. No better than any of them out there.

I make one last effort to pick myself up and with the last bit of strength I have I'm able to dump myself out of the bathtub. I need to get to my gear in the other room. My vision is blurry as hell and I can't stand so I have to resort to "army crawling". Every inch I take I have to stop for a breather. I can see my gear from here but it still seems so far away. I keep my ear open for any indication that he's coming back and sure enough I start to hear his heavy footsteps getting closer and closer. I start to scramble towards my stuff faster and finally make it to my sawed off. I aim towards the door and wait. The door opens slowly once again and I'm ready to take my shot. I see a foot step through the doorway just like before. My hand begins to shake slightly as I continue to hold it up. As I look at my hand shake, in walk four of those infected sons of bitches. I jump straight to my feet out of reflex and take a shot. I take out a shoulder and part of its face but that not enough to stop it. Along with the three others they continue to make their way towards me pretty fast. Actually, faster than usual. I stand my ground as they get closer and one walks right into the barrel of my gun. I pull the trigger and watch its head blast open like a party favor knocking the one other one down in the process. I jump across the bed leaving a decent amount of space between them and me and as I'm about to take my second shot I realize that I need to do this the "smart" way. I look at my bag and estimate that it's about 8 feet away or so. I take the chance while I can and flip the mattress onto those rotting fucks, pushing them back against a wall. I hurry and grab my bat and without even much as a second thought I go to town on these things. Their heads turn to mush, almost like ground beef, as I swing so hard and so much that I start making a hole in the sheet rock. Suddenly I hear something to my left so with my bat in my right hand I draw my gun out with my left and aim. It's the owner of this place. "What the fuck happened?!" he says as he walks in the room. I take a quick look at him. He has no weapons. I hear a scraping sound coming from the floor. Its the last one crawling towards me. As I comes closer I look at it and see the total "blankness" in its eyes. No ones there. Just like an empty room. This is all it knows. It doesn't know any better. It gets pretty close to my feet and for a moment I almost feel sorry for it..................almost.

::Stomp::

A Dark Day: Part XV

I had been traveling for too long and I feel like I'm running on empty. I needed a place to sleep so I stopped and rented a motel room. Yes, rented. I had a few bucks that I found, left them at the front desk and helped myself to a nice room on the second floor. During times like these I needed a sense of normalcy. It feels like I've been holed up here forever without being outside. Honestly, who would want to be outside anyway? Me. That's who. I lost everything and everyone that I love and if I can at least find out who did this and why then I'll have a little bit of peace. On top of everything else, I don't think I'm not feeling well. My bones ache and I think I have a fever. Now is not the time to be sick. In a world that has pretty much come to an end medicine is pretty hard to come by. I have no other choice but to rest up until I start feeling better then maybe I can try to see if I can scrounge up some drugs. Surprisingly enough it doesn't look like those things have really gotten to this place. This room I picked looked like it hasn't even been touched besides a knocked over chair, a broken vase.....oh, then there's the blood stained couch. Looks like a cow was butchered on it. Other than that the room is pretty tidy. I think I'll just sit on the floor for now.

I must have dosed off because I got woken up by a loud crash. I jump up and move my back to a corner of the room. Feels like I closed my eyes for a second but I'm sure it was more like a few hours. You have to be awake and alert at all times. Even while you sleep. Maybe something fell or the wind knocked something down. As I try to convince myself it wasn't those things I hear another loud crash. Then another and another. I ready my sawed off and make sure I have extra shells handy just in case. The movement keeps getting closer and I can hear "whatever it is" coming up to the 2nd floor. I crouch down just a little lower to the ground and tense up a bit. I need to conserve my ammo so I'm ready to head at this thing like a linebacker. I'll knock the shit out of it and shoot a round off if I really have to.

Its at the door. It creaks open and all I see is one foot step through the entrance. I don't hesitate and bolt straight for the door. I push the body up against the wall with so much force it makes a big dent in the wall and with one complete motion I grabbed the body by the waistband of its pants and tossed it to the other end of the room. As the body falls I hear a groan and some panting. I pull out my sawed off, raise it up and go in for the kill. As I get closer I hear a mans voice say "What the hell are you doing?!" My eyes widen and I drop my gun back down to my side. "Who the fuck are you?!" I yell at him. He replies back "I own this place" while he slightly groans. I pick him up, grab him by his shirt and push him against the wall. I think I used my last bit of energy trying to be a football star just now. I feel my body wanting to shut down and sweat dripping down my forehead. "Hey, you don't look so good." he tells me with a concerned look. "I need...some......medicine." I say as I slowly begin to lose grip of his shirt and drop to the floor.

A Dark Day: Part XIV

I've been walking this desolate city for three sunsets and have only run into a handful of zombies. Yesterday I started noticing scriptures written on some of the walls so I know I have to be headed in the right direction. The latest one read "And I will smite the inhabitants of this city, both man and beast: they shall die of a great pestilence - Jeremiah 21:6". It almost seems like this weirdo is leaving me a trail of bead crumbs to follow. Like he wants to be found. Lately the only way I've been able to get through my days is imagining what I'm going to to do The Pastor once I get a hold of him. Imagining really bad things. Things that would probably make the manliest of men cry like a 10 year old with a skinned knee. After walking this long I finally reached a neighborhood.....what's left of it at least. Cars are sitting in the middle of the road, some with doors open. As I get closer to take a look i notice that some of these cars still have bodies in them. Decomposed and partially dismembered. Poor people. Poor weak people. I continue to walk down the streets and for some reason it's starting to look very familiar to me. Like maybe I've been here before. I continue to walk down the street that's littered with debris and I spot a bush of pink roses. I remember how much she liked pink roses. The sadness starts filling my body and my eyes well up with tears just a little bit. I look up at the house the bush belongs to and that's when I realize.......this is my home. I walk up to the porch as the tears roll down my face. This is, was, my life. The door is unlocked as always. She used to tell me that I was way too trusting. I walk in and see the house in the same condition it was when I left it, like a war zone. All the memories are coming back to me like a tidal wave. I grab a picture off the wall and the tears fall on it like rain on a window. It's a picture of my wife and daughter. The night the horde attacked they didn't stand a chance. They came in the middle of the night. I tried to save them but before I knew it they both had been overwhelmed by them. I don't know if my heart can take being in this place anymore. I'm squeezing the picture frame so hard that it snapped and the glass completely busted. I grab the picture and slowly fold it up as the tears continue to fall. I stick it in my pocket and turn head straight towards the door. The blood covered hand prints stained on the walls stopped me in my tracks. That's when I spot a note on the floor. I pick it up and it reads "Aiden, I'm sorry about last night. I know we shouldn't fight over petty things. I think I may have scared Betty with my yelling. I just hope that as soon as you read this note in the morning you'll get your ass off the couch and come to the room and accept my apology. -Amy" I swear, if I hadn't slept on the couch that night I would have been able to protect them. The last day that my wife was alive I spent it on the couch pissed off at her and I didn't even get to tell my little Betty goodnight or give her my usual four kisses. One on her forehead, one on her nose and one over each closed eye. I miss them. so much. The sadness turns into anger as grab my bat and start swinging at everything in sight. I can't be here a second more and continue to remember this house this way. I slam the bat into cabinets and tables that shatter like it was made from glass. I know exactly how to make this all go away. I make my way to the garage and grab my gas can. I do exactly what needs to be done to help me move past this. I pour gasoline over anything and everything that I can. I go to the kitchen and grab the only box of matches in the counter and walk towards the front door. At this point the sound of the match scrapping against the box is like music to my ears. Goodbye Amy. Goodbye Betty. I love you both so very much. I drop the match and walk away from my past.

A Dark Day: Part XIII

I go on in a full on sprint for as long as I can handle it. I look back and I estimate that I must have sprinted at least four hundred yards. I've always been good at running, its just been my thing. I knew keeping up with it would come in handy one day. I take a look around and quickly notice that I've walked into a makeshift morgue. It looks like the CDC set up shop here and ran out of room to put the bodies because as I walk down the street the sidewalks are lined up with body bags. Side by side and stacked up on top of one another. I continue to tread carefully because you never know where these things are. The rain has now slowed down to a slight drizzle and the howl of the wind continues to pound my ears like a drum. The smell on this street doesn't even phase me at all. There has to be hundreds of bags here. I eye a bar called "Wasted Days and Wasted Nights" on the right side of the street. Not really the time for a drink but that would be the only place at the moment I can find some sort of weapon. I make my way across the body bags on the sidewalk and check the door to the bar. Its open of course. Surprisingly enough when I enter the bar it looks like nothing has been touched at all. No chairs or tables knocked over. No broken windows or mirrors. Weird. I move behind the bar and take a look to make sure there's nothing or no one around. Nothing. Now to look for a gun or something. I start digging through drawers and cabinets. Come on, the bartender had to have had some sort of protection in case of unruly drunks. Jackpot! A sawed off double barrel shotgun! This is so perfect that I think I may cry. Even better, there's a pretty good amount of ammo here too. I spot a small courier bag in one of the cabinets and start filling it with shells. I think I'm ready to go. I look around the bar and see a bat in a glass case above all the bottles of liquor. I could use a nice Louisville Slugger. I smack the glass case with the shotgun and take the bat. It feels kinda old and has writing on it. Who the hell is Ty Cobb? Reminds me of corn. Oh well. As I keep wandering around I see the first sign of an attack here. I see a group of five people on the floor grouped together around instruments. Must be the house band. They are so decomposed that I can't even tell if each person is male or female. There's a table set up close to them with CD's on it. Looks like they were selling their music the night of the outbreak. The Tipsy Whiskey Gypsies? Sounds interesting. I miss listening to music. I can't even recall the last time I heard a good song or even hummed any kind of melody. Maybe if I come across a CD player or something I can pop this in. I grab a CD and throw it in my bag. I walk over and take a seat at the bar. "Bartender, I want a whiskey!" I say to no one. "You make sure its 20 year Pappy! What?! You think I've had enough?! No! YOU'VE had enough!". No one answers back. "Fuck me?! Fuck you buddy! Just give me my whiskey and I'll be on my way. I said. Give. Me. My. Fucking. Drink!" I start screaming like a madman as I take my bat and start bashing everything in sight. From mirrors to bottles to light fixtures. Nothing is safe from my rage. The corn guy that signed the bat would be proud. I take a moment and realize what I just did. Am I losing my damn mind? Maybe. Do I care? At this point it might be the most useful tool I have. What I do know is that there's one person I need to find and ask a few questions........The Pastor.

A Dark Day: Part XII

I make my way to the sunroof and bust it out with my feet. The rain seems to start coming down as I make the opening. With my spear in hand I climb out on top of the vehicle and within what it seems like to be minutes the group doubled in size. I need to make my move now if I plan to get away. I take two steps back, run and completely slip off the top of the SUV. Its as if its all happening in slow motion. As I'm falling the only words I can think of to sum up this situation is "Oh shit". I look and I can see the section of zombies I'm about to fall on slowly start looking up towards me. Without even a moment more to react I fall straight down onto a group of at least five of them smashing their heads in the process. You would think I fell on a pit of hot coals as fast as I got up off the floor and ran. As I run I realize that of course I dropped and left my spear when I fell. It was nothing but a stupid stick anyway. I look back and of course the group of zombies are heading my way......at an alarmingly slow speed. I start to slow my running down to a brisk walk and look around for something to use against these things. If I hide then they're just going to find me eventually and then I'll be backed into a corner. I can see a sign for an italian restaurant in the distance. They have to have something there. I get to the restaurant and enter carefully. Its dark as hell in here so it takes a little while for my eyes to adjust. This place looks just like the city itself, run down and destroyed. There's tables flipped, chairs broken and menus scattered across the floor along with dirt and silverware. I head back to the kitchen and I quickly spot a big propane tank. On second thought if I use this I might blow myself up too. Maybe if they have a smaller one around here then I could use that. I start looking through all the counters and cabinets. Jackpot! Got one! I head back outside with the tank in hand and I turn it on. The group has now gotten a lot closer. I would say roughly about twenty yards away. I throw the tank at the group of zombies and realize that I may have jumped ahead of myself seeing as I have nothing to ignite the tank with. I see a telephone company truck that crashed into a building across the street. I head over there and start busting open the storage compartments on the outside. I finally find a road side bag with flares. I light the flare a bask in its glow for a quick moment then send it soaring towards the open propane tank. The tank explodes right as soon as the flame gets close to the escaping fumes and sends the zombies soaring in the air and in pieces. I didn't really compensate the distance between me and the tank because even at a rough 20 yards away I still felt like I just got sucker punched when the tank went "kaboom". Pretty much knocked me on my ass. Well it did the job, they are all gone. I get up and walk over to the big black spot on the floor where the pack of undead used to be. All that's left is partially flaming and completely charred flesh on the floor. Almost smells like a barbecue only not. I better get going before the explosion attracts more of these things.

A Dark Day: Part XI

After careful and thorough inspection I found an abandoned SUV to stay in till the morning. This thing has a big enough backseat so that I can lie down and not be noticed for awhile. I get in ever so carefully and shut the back door very softly. I lie on my back and look up at the ceiling of the vehicle. Oh man, this feels so good to just rest for a moment. I don't think I can sleep but rest is exactly what I need. The more I lay here the more I think of things that could have been if the infection never happened. What would I be doing at this same exact moment if all of the scenario was changed? Would I be out having dinner? Would I be having drinks with the guys? What would be on T.V. at the moment? Probably some infomercial or something. Even that I miss. Does me no good to think of such things though since there's no turning back time. All that's on my mind and will continue to be on my mind is survival. That's my goal. I can hear the winds outside starting to pick up and howl. I guess there's a storm rolling in. I'm glad I found shelter when I did. The SUV starts to sway a little as the winds pass through. I need to find some food soon too, I think my body is starting to crash from the lack of nourishment. I can't even remember the last time I ate anything. I just know it was SPAM. I may have to tighten my belt another notch the way this is going. My stomach starts growling like its talking to me.
Man! That stupid place fucked up my sense of time! I had that to keep me sane at least, now I'm just lost. Oh well I guess, hopefully once the storm passes I can set up camp somewhere again. At least for the time being, for now I'm have to try to rest.
A while later........
Every time I try to close my eyes all I see is death. Is this what my life has become? Just nothing but death and killing and all this destruction around me? Of course it has, I have no choice but to live in this world. I would just end it all myself but that would be the cowards way out. I don't do "coward". I just can't sleep. I toss and turn but my mind keeps racing like its running the fifty yard dash. I finally just stop trying and lift my head to see out the window. I get a huge surprise when I see the vehicle that I'm in surrounded by the walking dead. They saw me! They fucking saw me get in this piece of shit! They knew! For some reason they are just standing there, in the middle of this storm they are just there looking at me. Seems like they're just waiting for me to get out. They know I'm going to have to get out eventually. I look around and notice a sunroof. That's my way out, I just need to figure out a game plan.

A Dark Day: Part X

I let them slowly walk away as I slowly follow behind. I figure if they're smart enough to get away they may be heading for an exit out of this place. I don't even know how long I've been here. Has it been a few hours? A day? A few days? Being here really screwed up my tally. Now I have absolutely no idea what day it is. Speaking of my tally, I wonder how camp is. I don't even think its smart enough to go back at this point. Its probably overrun with those things. Looks like I'm going to have to start all over collecting supplies again. Well I have a stick and a......damn it! I lost the scalpel! Ok, I have a stick. Well, I think I'm going to call it a spear. Spear just sounds more dangerous. I have a spear. Its a start I guess. Damn, these zombies walk slow. After following these dumbasses for what seems like forever they get to a door and push it open. Where the hell am I? I look around and it seems like some sort of alley. It looks like its dusk and really extremely quiet. I know I should be used to the silence but its just kind of eerie. The two zombies continue to shuffle away side by side. I have to use this chance to kill two birds with one stone so to speak. I run up behind them and with one swift swing of my spear aimed precisely at their necks I decapitate both zombies. Their heads fall to the ground and the bodies take another four steps each before falling to the ground as well. Now that that's taken care of I can figure out exactly where I am. I take a walk down the alley a bit more and into a street. I look around and I realize I'm back in the city. Oh my god, this place is destroyed. Its just so sad to see all these buildings and skyscrapers empty and deserted. Almost all the windows in every building are busted out and the streets are littered with "Do Not Cross" tape and barricades. The smell in the air is no longer that of pizza, hot dogs or even car emissions. All I smell now is almost a sterile smell, similar to what a hospital would smell like. I'm almost in tears. The city I once lived and worked in is now a shadow of its former self. I hadn't been back here since the initial infection and never intended to come back. All these memories and flashbacks hit me as I walk down the city streets that I can't even recognize anymore. Memories that I'd rather keep buried. I need to snap out of it and find a place to post up for the night. I don't trust any of these buildings at all. I may have to just find an abandoned car or something. The last thing I want to do is stay on these streets too long and be a sitting duck out here. I probably could've gone back to where I was before but I would be just as vulnerable as anywhere else and plus, I wanted out of that fucking place.

A Dark Day: Part IX

I don't know how long I've been standing here just staring at these things eat but its long enough for me to realize that these things can't stay alive.....or um, unalive for much longer. Not one zombie will be left standing. I look around the room for some sort of weapon but there's no luck. The closest thing to a weapon I found was a bucket. What the hell am I going to do with a bucket? I walk to the room across the hallway. Nothing in here but a pile of these bastards in the middle of the floor. The stench of death is a lot worse in this room than the others. Probably because these sons of bitches are just lying here rotting on top of one another. I scan the room quickly and I notice a mop leaning against the wall in the corner of the room. I walk over and grab it then break off the bottom, creating a spear-like weapon. That's about as good as its going to get right now. I start walking out of the room when I hear a noise coming from the pile of zombies. I turn back quickly and prepared to attack. I breathe a sigh of relief when I notice that it was just a body that slid down from the top of the pile. Fuck man, that scared the shit out of me. I turn back to walk out again and I run right into one of the zombies that was chained up. I quickly push him back before he grabs a hold of me. How the hell did this happen? Behind the zombie coming towards me I notice the other two shuffling their feet in my direction too. I take a few steps back to get my distance and this undead sack of flesh raises its hands to grab me and that's when I notice that these fuckers chewed their own thumbs off. That's how they were able to get out of the chains. She was right, they are getting smarter. I stab the zombie right in the head and it falls to the ground like a ton of bricks. The other two come following behind and the block me into the room. I pull my wooden spear out from the zombie's head and start walking back towards the corner of the room. The two zombies stop and look down at their fallen "comrade" and start turning around and shuffling away. They're scared. They're scared to die.....again.

A Dark Day: Part VIII

She attacks me and pushes me back against the wall. All I can do is hold her back while she tries to claw at me. This woman went from zero to crazy in a snap. I guess deep down she knows that no one is coming back for her. She's a sad, pathetic woman with too much hope. I quickly grab one of her arms, slide under it and push her face first into the wall. She tries to turn her body around to get to me but I continue to keep her still and away from me. "Calm down! What the hell are you doing?!" I exclaim. She squirms loose from my grip and jumps onto me knocking us both over a desk in the room. She starts trying to bite at me but I stop her every time. She's acting like a damn rabid dog. I'm holding her head back and I can see the rage in her eyes. I grab a handful of her hair and ram her bloody stump of an ear right into the side of the desk. She screams of agony continue to get louder and louder as I keep ramming her head into the desk. She grabs her head in pain as if she's about to rip it off of her shoulders. Blood starts to gush out of the wrapped up wound and as she screams and we tussle on the floor the chained up zombies begin to moan and yank on the chains. I get up to my feet and grab her from the back of her lab coat and yank. Maybe a little too hard. She flies back and I lose grip of her coat and she falls at the feet of the chained up zombies. She barely makes it to one knee when one of the zombies grabs her and sinks its teeth into her shoulder. She let's out a painful scream and the next zombie grabs her arm and takes bite. "No! No! No!" Is all she screams, as if the zombies understand or if they would even want to if they could. I just stand there and watch as they tear her body apart and rip flesh from her piece by piece. Each of the four zombies now have a piece of this woman and each have flesh hanging from their decomposed mouths. Now she's nothing more than a memory.....almost like she never existed. All that's left is a half of her torso and a whole lot of blood. I realized just now that I never knew her name. I think I'll call her Mrs. Cunningham.......I really liked Happy Days too.

A Dark Day: Part VII

As we walk down the long corridor its looking less and less like a hospital and becoming more and more like a slaughterhouse. I look to my right and see nothing but bodies hanging from meat hooks. I look to my left and see piles upon piles of bodies on the floor. Their chests ripped open as if they had been picked apart by vultures. I continue to push this bleeding woman down the hallway. I can start to hear a faint voice. As we continue to walk the voice becomes more and more prominent. "The Pastor!" the woman says. I grab her and cover her mouth with my hand and lean up against the wall as I make my way closer to the voice. I reached a doorway to the room that the voice was coming from. All I kept hearing a was a very southern accent and he was preaching, like he was preaching to a mass amount of people. "Follow me to salvation! I will guide you to the promised land! Give your body and soul to me and I will show you the way!" The voice continued to say. As I peeked in, the room was completely empty. No one in sight whatsoever. I let go of the woman's mouth and walked into the dimly lit room. The voice was coming from a small radio in the room and sounded like a continuous loop. I turn off the radio and start to hear moans coming from the dark end of the room. I flip a light switch and see four zombies chained up against the wall. They lay their eyes on me and being to moan and groan viciously like I'm prime rib. These zombies look different than the others. They almost look malnourished, well I guess as malnourished as a walking copse can get. Its like they've been starved. "What's going on in here?" I ask her. "We have to run tests on them. All kinds of tests. This one in particular is a starvation test. We are trying to see how long these things will continue to exist without any kind of nutrition." She explains. "How long has it been?" I ask. She walks over to a clipboard and looks over some of the papers. "Its been five days." She says. "You mean these things could possibly starve and die off and this'll all be over?!" I ask. "Possibly but its only been 5 days. Further testing is still needed. For all we know these things could go on forever without eating a single thing since they have no working internal organs at all." She tells me. "And this Pastor guy, some rouge Jesus freak?" I ask her as she goes through more paperwork in binders. "The Pastor is the man that's going to save this world with his research. He is going to cleanse the world of all of its impurities and rebuild the world to the way it SHOULD be. We will repopulate the world and the children I produce will be pure." She tells me with an insane look on her face. Its almost as if she has been trained or brainwashed to repeat her little speech. I go ahead and decide to ask her the million dollar question while she's looking through more paperwork. "If he's going to save this world and protect you to continue life here then where is this asshole?" She stares down at her binder for a minute and then drops it to the floor. "What's wrong? Strike a nerve?" I ask her. She then looks at me, let's out a blood-curdling scream and charges at me with nothing to lose.

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 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.