I had an idea for a story today. It’s about a man that wakes up one morning and finds out he’s in the middle of a zombie apocalypse. What he doesn’t realize is that he is a zombie. It’s a really rough first draft right now but I plan on fleshing it out and adding more as I write it.
[Alarm sounds. Music begins softly playing through the alarm speakers]
‘Now I lay me down to sleep. I pray the Lord my soul to keep….’
I mumble. “ Uuuuuugh…hit snooze.”
‘If I die before I wake…”
“Sarah…?”
‘It’s just the beast under your bed—‘
I roll over, hit the snooze button. I see dim light from the kitchen. “You making coffee? Sarah?” Silence. Groaning, I get up. Muscles creaking, bones popping into place as I shuffle to the kitchen. All the lights are off except the door to the fridge is wide open. Food all over the floor. I’m confused.
“Sarah, are you okay?” I notice a trail of something brown on the floor leading to the bathroom. I slip in it as I make my way to the bathroom door. No answer. Just the slow ‘bang, bang, bang’ of something hitting the door. I check the door. Unlocked. It creaks as I open it.
The smell hits me first. “Oh my god. OH MY GOD Sarah!” Sarah is laying face down on the floor. He skin looks grey and mottled. I check for a pulse and find nothing. I sink to the floor with my head in my hands. What’s happened?
Then she starts to move.
THE NIGHT BEFORE
“Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday, dear Kevin! Happy birthday to you!”
Sarah kisses me and smiles. “How does it feel to be 30? Old man.”
“They say thirty is the new twenty you know, but at least you get to drink.” I grab her and kiss her again. “Honestly, thirty is horrible. I feel like this is the end.”
“Uh-uh, I see. The end of what, exactly?” She is used to me being overly dramatic.
“My youth.”
“Eat your cake, old man.” She pops a piece of cake into my mouth. It tastes weird. She’s never been much of a cook. I chew obediantly.
“Thank you for my party. It’s nice to see everyone, even my brother.”
“Really? I felt bad for inviting him. It looked like you two had an argument earlier.”
“That drunken idiot fell outside in the alley. When I went to help him up, he tried to take a bite out of my hand.”
“He actually tried to bite me too earlier.” She rubs her left shoulder, “when I hugged him.”
I spock an eyebrow at her and she waves off my concern. “I’m fine sweetie. He was just a little out of control. Where is he now?”
“He’s still the alley. I left him there to sleep it off.”
“Sarah!” I go to her and pull her up off the floor to see if there is anything I can do to help her. She stares at me but it’s like she doesn’t recognize me. She has a trickle of something on her left temple where she must have hit her head. I pull a towel off the hook on the wall and press it to her head. The weird thing is there isn’t a lot of blood, at least not fresh blood. Instead there it looks like black goo. I think that freaks me out even more than any blood could. And it’s right about that moment when she decides to take a bite out of my arm.
“OW! What the hell?!” But she doesn’t hear me. Her teeth are firmly embedded into my forearm!
“GET OFF!” I push her away hard and stumble out of the bathroom in shock. I slam the bathroom door shut. My feet don’t work right. I have to lean against the wall as I walk back towards the kitchen. I wrap my arm in the towel as tight as I can after washing away the blood in the sink, but it’s still gushing. My mind wants to block out what I’ve seen. The constant banging on the bathroom door brings me back to reality.
I need to call the police.
I reach for the phone and dial. No tone. Try again. Nothing. I throw the phone against the wall. Outside I can hear sirens blaring up and down the city streets.
I need to get out of here and find help.
I walk over to the window, pull back the curtains and look out over the city. The city is burning. On the street below I see people screaming, running, dragging children behind them. I see and old lady, barefoot and limping down the street trying to keep up with them. A delivery van turns at the last second to avoid hitting her and spins out of control into the side of a building. The old lady steps over shattered glass and rubble and pulls herself into the drivers side window of the van. I can’t hear the screaming coming from inside the van from four floors up.
What the hell is going on? I need to get out of here!
I manage to take three steps towards the apartment door before I pass out.
It’s quiet and dark outside when I wake up. The banging sounds have stopped in the bathroom. Everything is just too eerily quiet and it freaks me out. I get up off the floor as fast as I can, which isn’t very fast at all since the room won’t stop spinning. I must have lost a lot of blood, but the bite on my arm has stopped bleeding at least. I can’t manage any more than a slow shuffle to the door. I look down the hallway towards the bathroom one last time and see that the door is wide open now. There is no sign of Sarah anywhere in the apartment but I’m not sticking around to make sure.