30 Day Image Prompt Competition - August

Day 6 Prompt 2 - Zombie Army

“What is that?” Kelly asked as she stood by the student noticeboard. Normally she paid no heed to the noticeboard but the large poster with Uncle Sam declaring that he wanted you to join the Zombie Army was hard to miss.

“My recruitment poster for the army I’m creating to fight zombies,” Adam replied as he punched the last staple and stood back to check its positioning.

“Yes, but it looks like you’re asking for zombies to join your army rather than to fight them,” she pointed out.

A blush stained Adam’s cheeks as he fumbled around in his bag. “Yes, well, it was supposed to say Zombie Hunters’ Army but Celeste forgot to put ‘Hunters’’ on the design and we’d already printed fifty before she realised. I couldn’t afford any more posters so I’ve had to stick with these.”

Kelly nodded and started to walk down the corridor with Adam. “That’s understandable, but, there are no such things as zombies.”

“How do you know there aren’t?” countered Adam, his voice lifting as they drifted in to his favourite conversation.

“Because no one has ever been able to provide any evidence of them. They’re just beings created in someone’s vivid imagination.”

“Maybe, but there must have been something that s person saw to create such a being. Just because no one has seen one for definite does not mean that they’re not out there.”

Kelly looked across at her friend. She liked Adam, he was fun to be with in a weird way. He liked strange things such as zombies and vampires yet wasn’t in to horror films that featured them. “Well, I prefer to believe in something that has physical evidence rather than a fertile imagination to prove its existence.”

“Your choice. You have to admit, though, that there have been some strange goings on this term. People disappearing, strange sightings, events people can’t explain. I’m convinced that they’re the work of zombies and that we’re soon going to be involved in a war with them.”

“Adam, those strange events were dismissed as being drunken pranks and the missing people either turned up or were assumed to have returned home after deciding that university life was not for them. Professor Edmonds would have told us if there was anything amiss.” Kelly had a feeling that no matter what she said to try and dissuade Adam he would not believe her.

“Not if he was one of them. He is a strange kind of guy.”

“Same could be said about you,” Kelly retorted with a grin. Professor Edmonds was a little creepy, but then weren’t all lecturers meant to be a bit strange? “I mean, you could be a werewolf for all I know.”

“Actually, I’m a vampire,” Adam replied with a slight smile.

“Funny. Vampires don’t come out during the day. You’d be a pile of ash by now if you were really a vampire.”

“And you have proof that vampires combust in daylight?” he asked, not pressing the point that she was prepared to accept vampires as existing but not zombies.

“It’s a well-documented fact about vampires. All the stories have that fact consistently in them.” Kelly felt herself digging a large hole for herself as she realised what she was implying.

“Maybe so, but has anyone ever seen it happen or even seen a vampire?” Adam grinned at her. “It could be a story put out by vampires so that people leave them alone. Maybe they can walk amongst us as normal people who just happen to like fresh blood. What blood type did you say you were?”

“Very funny,” she replied, sarcasm dripping from her voice. “You are crazy, Adam Janitzky, do you know that?” She shook her head and pulled open the door to the lecture hall. “I’ll see you later.”

After a long and seemingly never-ending day of classes, Kelly was finally able to pack her books in her bag ready for the walk back to the small apartment she rented in the student quarter. Through the windows of the hall, she could see that darkness had fallen and she silently cursed Professor Gardner for scheduling this extra class after having to cancel two last week. After her talk with Adam earlier, the walk back to the student quarter did not sound so attractive in the dark.

The campus was deserted when she exited the building and she was surprised to note that it was almost 11 o’clock in the evening. Her fellow students had made a quick escape to the student bars to catch the last drinks order before closing leaving her on her own to make her way home. She pulled her phone from her pocket, frowning when she saw that the battery was flat. Great, she thought as she set off walking, I can’t even call a cab.

There were two routes to the student quarter, one was via the main roads surrounding the campus and took about 30 minutes whilst the other was to cut through the campus and across the sports complex taking just over 15 minutes. Whilst she knew it was more sensible to take the longer route as there would be more people, she was exhausted and wanted nothing more than to get home and collapse into bed. Against her better judgement she set off through the campus towards the sports complex.

Though she encountered no one as she walked along, not even a security patrol, she had the strange sensation of being watched. She kept her pace normal though her head told her to run and tried not to look around every time she felt eyes upon her. She never saw anyone when she glanced around but the lighting along the pathway only illuminated the worn tarmac path before her and very little beyond. Adam’s words about the strange happenings kept bouncing around her head and she wished her friend was with her to put her mind at ease.

She soon reached the sports complex, a vast field with a football pitch bounded by an athletics track and rows of bench seating for people to sit on when events were taking place on one side and a baseball diamond on the other. A footpath ran between the two pitches illuminated by tall lamps that gave off a soft golden light.

Glancing around her for signs that she was being followed, Kelly set off walking down the path, telling herself she would soon be on the other side and in the always busy student quarter. If there was one place that did not sleep it was the student quarter and she would soon be part of the crowds that were always present no matter what time of day.

She was almost halfway down the path when the figure stepped out before her. At first she thought he was one of the students but then she realised there was something strange about his appearance. The flesh on his face appeared stretched taut across his bones, his cheeks and eyes sunken as though all the spare flesh had been drained from him. There was a yellow tinge to his skin and he moved in a jerky way as though he did not have full control of his limbs. Kelly felt a shiver race up her spine as he approached and she wondered if she could burst past him and make it to the bright lights of the student quarter she could see up ahead.

“What do we have here?” the stranger said, his voice sounding muffled as though his tongue was too big for his mouth. “A beautiful morsel delivered to us.”

Others appeared behind him and Kelly felt frozen with fear as they stepped towards her with jerky steps. She could count four of them, all focused upon her still form. One she had a chance against but four? The leader stepped into the glow of the street light and Kelly bit back a cry as she got a full look at him. His eyes appeared to be empty black sockets, devoid of life with a coldness emanating from them that chilled her to the bone. His tight skin looked on the verge of splitting if he moved his face and she watched as a thick tongue came out to lick the dry, colourless lips. Were these Adam’s zombies, she wondered, wishing that Adam and his army were here.

“Come here, beautiful, and let us get better acquainted.” He reached out a bony hand towards her. Kelly’s stomach twisted at the gnarled fingers with the yellowed claw like nails reaching out to her.

“Sorry, must go,” she said before diving to her left and starting to run across the football pitch. Her sneaker clad feet made no noise as she pounded towards the lights of civilization, her legs pumping hard to carry her onwards.

The zombies, taking by surprise at her sudden movement, set off in pursuit, their limbs moving with an unco-ordinated jerkiness that carried them in a surprisingly swift movement that soon had them gaining upon her. Strange keening noises were uttered through their thin lips as they reached out towards her.

Kelly felt something tug at her backpack and stumbled on the path before regaining her balance. They were going to catch her before she could reach the gate and she didn’t have the breath to scream for help. Her lungs were burning in her chest, her heart pounding so fast and hard she was sure it was going to burst through her chest. They would love that, she thought to herself in one crazy, macabre moment.

Out of the corner of her eye she saw one of them come to the side of her and reach out to grab her. She tensed, waiting to feel those bony hands clutching at her but there was nothing only a strange cry and a thud behind her. Stumbling to a halt, her legs too weak to carry her further, she turned and watched as Adam and two other strangers leapt into the midst of the zombies, swords flashing in the lamplight as they attacked. Heads flew through the evening air as bodies crumpled to the ground, twitching upon the grass as they landed.

Seconds that felt like minutes passed and soon the four zombies lay decapitated on the floor. A part of her mind registered that no blood seemed to flow from their bodies as Adam wiped his sword on the shirt of one of them before sheathing it in a scabbard on his back.

“You okay?” he asked as he came towards her, his voice sounding slightly strange.

Kelly raised her eyes to his, her jaw dropping when she saw the fangs protruding from beneath his top lip. “You’re a vampire?” she whispered in a shocked voice.

“Yes, and they’re zombies,” he replied with a grin. “Are you okay? They didn’t harm you, did they?”

Kelly shook her head, her mind struggling to compute everything that had happened in the past few minutes. Zombies, her friend Adam being a vampire. She felt like she was in a horror film rather than real life. Would he want to drain her blood now that he had saved her from them? Maybe she had gone from the frying pan into the fire with this situation.

“Don’t worry, your blood is safe,” Adam said as he pulled out a radio. “Need a clean-up on the sports complex. Four dead zombies.”

“On the way,” said the voice at the other end of the radio.

“Zombies,” Kelly echoed feeling like one herself.

“Yeah, zombies, vampires and Pete over there is a werewolf and Karen a mage but don’t let that worry you.” He looked her in the eyes, his familiar brown ones twinkling in the lamplight. “Wanna join my zombie army?” he asked as he offered her his arm.

Kelly looked around him as a van appeared and two other black clad figures appeared and started to bag up the zombies. “Okay.”