Z Day is Here (5 page)

As I reached for my gun, Cole jumped in front
of me. He would be the one to put his mother to rest. He slowly
raised his gun, pointing it straight at his mother’s head. I could
hear him crying as he pulled the trigger. In a movie, this would
have taken place in slow motion, but this was not a movie. This was
real. Less than a second after he pulled the trigger, her head
exploded into a huge puff of blood, skull, and brain matter. Her
now-lifeless body thudded onto the ground. Cole fell to the ground,
grasping her body. I could hear him whisper through the sobs, "I
love you, Mommy. I’m sorry."

We buried her body under a tree beside the
house and secured the gate. We will stay here for the night and
leave in the morning. Cole has been asleep for a while now. God, I
hope I don't have to do that to Darcy when I find her.

Good night, Deanna. You were like a sister to
me. You will be missed.

We couldn't go anywhere today. I am deathly
ill. Cole is beginning to look at me funny. I think he is now
thinking I am changing. I swear I am not. I will get better. I have
to.

Last night was quiet, almost too quiet. It is
as if they know to leave us alone. Hell, I probably smell like
death. I have been making plans in my head for our escape from this
place. We will stick to the woods as much as possible. I don't know
how far we can make it before we will have to stop for shelter, but
we will walk until we cannot walk anymore. Cole wants to find a car
or a truck. That may be a good idea, but the streets are packed
with cars. I think we will assess that situation when we get near a
road. We have quite a few miles before we get to my apartment. I
have no idea how bad it has gotten in other parts of the world.
Maybe we’re lucky and this outbreak is getting better. I bet right
now, scientists are putting the finishing touches on the anti virus
as we speak. Yeah, wouldn't that be nice? Then the world would go
back to the way it was. I would go back to my company and act like
everything is normal. I can forget that I killed my supervisor with
a fish bowl. Sure, I can forget it all.

Okay, I am delusional. My fever is getting
worse. I can't stop throwing up. Oh God, what if I am changing??
How can this be?

I have to sleep now. I am so cold.

Hi! I hope this works. My name is Cole. The
guy that has been posting this is really sick right now. At least I
hope he is just sick. He has been passed out all day. I hope he is
going to be okay. He told me if he doesn't make it to please
continue this little project.

I am not much of a writer. In fact, I have no
idea what to write. I guess I should just go with what I am
feeling. I am sad. I am scared. I am lonely. I don't know if I will
make it out alive. But then, where will I go? I have seen some
really bad stuff. I wish they would all go away. I have lost so
many people I love and care about.

Today, I saw three of my old friends, only
they weren't my friends anymore. Everyone around me calls them
zombies. I think that’s total bull crap, though. I don't know what
they are, but I know I am not stupid enough to call them zombies.
Mom said they are just very sick. She told me to stay away from
them. I should have listened to my mom. My mom, who became one of
them. All I know is that when someone gets bitten, they turn into
one of them. Maybe it's a parasite, like that Superman comic I
read, or maybe it is aliens like in that movie
Invasion
.
That’s my real theory. I think maybe they switched my mom and
friends with alien counterparts. Maybe I will see my mom again
soon. I have to stay alive so I can help them all.

Why isn't he waking up? He is just moaning. I
don't want to have to shoot him too, but if the aliens got him, I
have my gun right here. If he isn't better in the next few hours, I
will have to kill someone else.

I can't wait any longer.

Okay, so I didn't kill him last night. I was
going to, though. I approached him slowly, with my gun drawn and
pointed at his head. I could tell he was still breathing, so
obviously he wasn't one of those alien things yet. I sat in front
of him all night long, waiting for his breath to stop, but it never
did.

See, what I think happens is the aliens stop
time and somehow switch bodies really fast. That’s why the people
are breathing one minute but not the next. I think the illness
people get is like a slow-moving poison or something that prepares
the people for transportation. It takes the aliens a few minutes to
restart their new bodies, so I knew if he stopped breathing, the
switch would have been made and I would have just a couple minutes
before I would have to kill him (or it). Hey, maybe that's it. I
remember my uncle letting me stay up late one night and watch a
scary movie. We watched the movie
The
Thing
. Man, I
was so scared. But now I'm thinking that could be what’s going on.
I wonder if I should test our blood. I'll try that and come right
back.

All right, I just figured out two things.
First, getting blood from your finger hurts! Secondly, I learned
that he is not one of them. Not from the blood test but from the
fact that he punched me right in the nose and yelled at me for
sticking a pin in his finger. He called me a stupid kid. He said
something about feeling better but that he was just tired now and
needed more sleep. He also said in order for him to be a (now he
called it a zombie again), but in order to be one of those things,
he would have to be bitten and he was clearly not bitten. Then he
told me to shut up and let him sleep. I think he's going to be
okay.

I'm not sure where we are going to go once he
is better. He kept talking about some chick he was supposed to
marry. I think her name was Dercie or Darcy or something like that.
He wants to get back to her. I personally think she is probably one
of them now, and going after her would be a mistake. Whatever we
do, I think we should at least find a car. I hope we can find a
sweet Honda or some kind of awesome turbo car. I am just tired of
walking. I think I may go out and find a car, so when he wakes up,
it is already sitting there waiting on us. Yeah, I am going to go
ahead and do that. I think he will be really happy when he finally
wakes up to find a car already packed and ready. I'll show him I'm
not a stupid kid.

That stupid fucking kid went to get a car
while I was out of it!

I thought I was dying for a few days. But I
awoke today alone in this abandoned house of death. With all the
dead people wandering around, plus all the rain I’d been wandering
around in, it's no wonder I have been so sick. I am feeling a
little better now, though. I am still very weak and don't think I
can go anywhere. I hope that little idiot blocked the gates! I am
not going to go looking for him this time. He got into this mess.
He can get himself out of it. I don't want anything to happen to
him, but I can't battle the undead today...and YES, they are
zombies, not some alien invasion. I would think the rotting flesh
would have tipped him off to this fact. Maybe I will run into him
somewhere down the road soon. I hope I don't run into his little
ass as a zombie. I kind of liked the kid and don't want to have to
shoot him. Plus there's the promise I made to his mother to
consider.

So I guess if I am feeling a little better
tomorrow, I will leave here. I have to make my way home. I had
dreams about being at home. More like nightmares.

In my dream, I walk to the front door, where
Darcy greets me, still as beautiful as the day I met her. She
greets me with a hug and a kiss. It is a very sweet kiss. We stand
face to face, holding each other, our bodies intertwined into one,
noses brushing against each other as we stare into each other’s
eyes. We are in love like no one has ever been in love before. We
begin to kiss again, a long, deep kiss. However, this time, she
begins sucking on my mouth. I can't breathe. She is sucking the air
out of my body. When I finally pull away, she is a zombie. Her face
is still perfect, except her eyes are a stone white, and the rest
of her body is quickly decomposing. She screams and begs me to come
to her. I can't help but walk towards her, slowly, gasping for air.
I reach for her, but when I touch her, she turns to powder. I
scream in horror. The feeling of loss overwhelms me. I collapse
onto her ashes. As I am lying there weeping, a cold hand slowly
wraps around my neck. I turn to see the perfect, angel-like Darcy
standing there in white. She easily picks me up by the throat and
turns me toward her. I can't breathe. She stares into my eyes and
tells me she loves me. She then pulls me close to her and sinks her
perfect teeth into my neck. I lay there as she devours my body,
unable to move. She saves my face for last so I can see what she is
doing. As she begins to rip my eyes out, I wake up. I have had this
dream twice now. What could it mean?

I am feeling weak again. I have to rest some
more. I need to rest so I can leave tomorrow.

I hear someone screaming!?! God, it’s Cole!
He is close and getting closer.

We have added two more people to our little
group, thanks to Cole.

Yesterday, when Cole was screaming, I crawled
out of bed and made my way to the front gate as quickly as a sick
person could. By the time I got to the gate, Cole was banging on it
as hard as he could, but he was not alone. In fact, there were
three people with him. They were screaming and banging on the gate,
begging for me to open it. As I opened the gate, Cole forced his
way past me, panting and white as a ghost. Behind him, a a guy who
looked to be military was pulling a cute blond into the front. The
last person was a brunette female. She was limping and crying; she
was a good ways behind the others and looked as though she had been
bitten many times. Directly behind her were what appeared to be
about twenty zombies. Because of her slow pace, the monsters were
quickly upon her. One of them reached out and snagged her by her
long, curly hair. The sudden stopping of her head made her feet fly
out from underneath her. She landed on the ground with a heavy
thump, and four zombies fell on top of her. They began making a
meal out of her face and arms. She screamed until they ripped out
her vocal cords, then the only sounds we heard were the crunching
of bones and the distinct sounds of teeth ripping flesh from
muscle. I quickly closed the door. God, I have seen too much of
this kind of brutality.

As I turned to the group, the blond (Tonya)
was hysterical. She was sobbing and asking for Mary. I later found
out from Ken (the military guy) that Tonya and Mary were lovers.
They had met years ago and were together when the uprising began.
Apparently, Tonya and Mary had met Ken while they were escaping the
city. They had been on the run, but their car had gotten stuck in
some mud while maneuvering around stalled cars on the side of the
road. As they tried to get the car out of the mud, it attracted
some unwanted attention, rather unexpectedly. Mary was grabbed
first and bitten quite a few times before Ken could get her to
safety in the car. Cole heard the commotion and came to the rescue.
He shot four zombies, just enough for them to escape from the car.
Before they could get very far, the gunshots attracted even more
attention. They ran as fast as they could towards the house. Tonya
tried to help Mary as much as she could, but knowing that her fate
was already sealed, Ken pulled Tonya on ahead.

After hearing the story from Ken, we all
rested.

We awoke this morning to find Tonya standing
by the gate. Her head was down, tears streaming down her face. Her
right hand clutched a picture of her and Mary, and her left hand
was pressed against the gate. I allowed her to say her last
goodbyes before I called a meeting. We discussed a strategy for
staying alive. We decided to work as a team. We would not kill any
unless we had to. We had to find a safer location before every
zombie within one hundred square miles was upon us. We agreed to
split up and gather supplies in the house and meet back under the
tree where Deanna was buried just before dark. This was Cole's
idea. He wanted to say goodbye to his mother one last time.

Tonya was upset and rightfully so; she had
just seen the love of her life ripped apart before her eyes. She
wanted revenge! It took a little convincing, but in the end, she
agreed that Mary would have wanted her to live and be happy. I
promised that when the opportunity came up to kill one of the
undead, she would get the first chance. Hell, she could kill them
with her bare hands if she wanted to, and I think she just
might.

Ken is a very quiet person. He hasn't said
much about his past. I only know he used to be in the Navy. I am
going to try to find out more about him. I am glad he is with us. I
need someone strong beside me.

We have a good team. I am confident we will
make it to a new safe house without any problems. I am just hoping
our next safe house will be my house.

Ken's Story.

Since nothing exciting happened through out
the night, other than seeing quite a few large groups of zombies
pass by us, I thought I would tell you Ken's story as he relayed it
to me.

Ken was in the Navy as an aircraft mechanic
for eight years. When he got out, he secured a well-paying job with
a huge airline company. A few weeks before the "uprising," he was
laid off from the job. Getting laid off sent him into a huge
depression. He said he wanted to end his life. He had planned on
taking a handful of pills and drinking himself into a coma that he
would never wake from. He put on his best suit, left notes for all
his friends and family, and gathered about fifty Xanax pills and a
bottle of Jack. He sat on his bed and placed all the pills into his
mouth. That’s when the phone rang. He decided to answer it. After
all, maybe he could tell someone goodbye before he finished himself
off. On the other end of the phone was someone calling for a job
interview in the city. The pay and benefits were much better than
what he had been making, and he was very qualified for the
position. He decided to wait to find out about the job before
offing himself.