When They Come

it's been too long, way too long.

dave and i decided to leave the house and look for food. not only were we motivated by our nonstop and shared thoughts of hunger and even my desperate idea to eat a corpse.

"jay, think about it, what killed those people?"
"the zombies"
"good, how did they kill them?"
"tearing them up, biting-"
"biting them. how doe this spread?"
"shit."

sometimes, you need your best friend to talk a little sense into you.

we tried to leave the house, and wouldn't you know it. the door was blocked by a few corpses. the ones who were trying to force themselves in and had been killed because of us. their bodies, at least what remained blocked our way out.

we thought of the fire escape, but we realized that the "corpses" on the floor were still alive. many of them were people i recognized from my building. they had jumped out when they were cornered and then partially devoured. with their legs broken they were pretty much defenseless against whatever zombies were on the ground. there were a good 20 of them crawling around. surely the noise that dave and i would make coming down the creaky fire escape would bring them all here.

i heard dave kicking the door hard, pushing the corpses blocking the door aside.

"dude!" i yelled at him, it was the first time i raised my voice in awhile, and it felt good.

we both left the apartment, foolishly, we werent holding anything. i guess hunger makes you stupid.

we heard shuffling around a corner on my floor.

dave kept watch for it,i kept looking at the corpses on the floor, i was careful not to touch them, God only knows they could wake up at any second depending how they died.

one had a bullet hole in her head. i recognized her. it was laura, the indian girl from upstairs. she had a gun in her hand.

"laura, why here?"

the gun stood in her hand. i put my foot on her head and reached over to her weapon.

"sorry, dear, but i think i need this" i whispered to her. my hand was nearing hers.

"jay, i hear something" dave sharply whispered

i felt a twitch in laura's neck and almost gasped. she didnt move after that, maybe it was my leg.

i managed to pull the gun out of her hand, it felt heavy. i am not sure how to use these things so i just hoped it had some bullets left.

showing dave the gun and taking pride in his approving nod, i turned the corner.

fuck.

it was some woman in her nightgown. she was covered in blood, she had no visible bite marks. she had her back to us.

"there's no one here, n-no one, i'm all alone, alone" she muttered slowly under her breath. she shivered when she spoke.

i held the gun at her, i had it trained to her head.

please God, let this thing have bullets, but please, even more.
dont make me have to use them.

"miss, are you. are you okay?"

"it's so dark ,so dark, i can't see, who's that? who are where?" she began to make less and less sense. she faced the wrong way when she answered dave.

she slowly turned around. dave jumped back, i lightly squeezed the trigger

she turned to us, her face , what was left of it, was horrifying, she was missing both eyes, her teeth were missing from her bruised mouth. her sockets weren't clean. they were ripped. maggots were in them.

she turned to dave's direction and ran at him screaming at the top of her lungs with her arms out stretched.

i had to, God forgive me.

the white flash from the gun seemed long, the noise was louder than i could ever imagine.

i took her life.