Nightmare Ghouls Pt.1

         “Okay, we have to make sure the house is clear.” I told my fellow survivors. “Survivors of what?” you might ask. In essence, the Apocalypse is the purest of answers. To get a bit more descriptive, however, I’d have to say a zombie invasion. That’s right, zombies, ghouls, reanimated corpses, brain hunters. Whatever you call them, they are real and they are now everywhere. I don’t know how or why this is happening or what is happening even fifty miles away from this point. I could guess based on the horror flicks I enjoyed in my youth, but that would accomplish nothing. Besides, any answers that I would know would be useless if I don’t survive this nightmare.
         Somehow, I’ve become the leader of our little survival group. There are four of us left, including myself. We started out with more, but they weren’t as lucky as we were. “The house is clean, Jack.” Chad informed me.
         Chad is definitely my second in command. We’ve known each other since we were three. I’ve always said I trusted him with my life. He’s proven my choice to be a wise one many times over the past few days. He’s a very quick individual, both in body and mind. His hair, like the rest of ours, is matted and covered with only God knows what from our journey thus far. One thing about him that hasn’t changed a bit is his eyes. Even through the dirt covered face and matted hair, they were still the sparkling green he used to woo the ladies with, even after all the trials we’ve been put through.
         Mary entered the room and basically collapses on the floor. She’s pretty much a mystery to me. I haven’t really had the time to get to know any of my fellow survivors yet due to our constant fleeing, so Chad is the only one I actually know more about than a name. She’s wearing a sundress of all things. Her once strawberry-blonde hair is now brown like the rest of ours. In all honestly, I didn’t expect her to last quite as long as she has. Between her petite build and her mental weakness, I expected her to fall long ago. That just proves, however, that people can indeed surprise you when their life is on the line.
         Adam was a bit more careful of the place he rested upon entering the room. Rather than falling to the floor like Mary, he chose to lie on the couch. There was something about Adam that just didn’t sit well with me. Maybe I never trusted a man in a suit, even a dirty one such as the kind Adam was sporting. He just gave off a feeling of ruthlessness. You know how they describe people as willing to sell their own Grandmother to get ahead in the world, right? I believe they were talking about Adam. Maybe it was his dark eyes that got to me. Either way, I wouldn’t want to leave anything important to me alone with that man.
         As I walked past a mirror, I couldn’t help but stop and stare at myself. I barely recognized the person staring back at me. I was dirty yes, but there was something else. The look in my eyes was dramatically different. I’m no longer just floating through life. I actually have a meaningful purpose. These three people are counting on me to lead them to safety. Maybe this new look was due to my new purpose in life, or maybe it was due to the horrendous things I’ve had to endure. Either way, I was changed.
         “Hey Chad, come help me board up a few of these windows.” I said. “Sure thing.” “I’m worried about the other two,” I told him as we got to work on the windows. “I know what you mean. Mary is looking pretty bad.” “Yea, and I want to get to know a few things about that Adam guy too. I just don’t trust him.” “I know what you mean.” Chad responded. “We have to get them talking or they’ll end up snapping” “Okay, so lets finish up here and we’ll take advantage of this little breather.”
         Chad and I finished up the windows and headed back to the living room where the other two slept. We woke them up and sat down. “So since we haven’t really had a chance to talk up until now, Chad and I thought this would be a great time to get to know each other.” Mary’s expression didn’t change from her vacant stare. Adam’s however turned into a grimace. “You woke us up for that? How stupid can you be? We need rest, not bonding time. If you’ll excuse me, I’m going back to sleep.” He said as he put his back to us and his face towards the couch. “So much for a peaceful time,” Chad remarked. “Well how about I start with my little tale explaining how I got here?” I said. “Sounds good, I think knowing what everyone has been through so far would be a good thing for the group,” Chad stated, picking up on my cue.
         Well, I was lying in my bed trying to go to sleep. I began hearing some banging from downstairs. I got up, and walked downstairs. It was completely dark, so I stumbled here and there. I got to the light and flipped the switch. The banging was coming from the front door. I turned on the outside light and looked through the peephole. That was the first one I saw. It only had one eye, and that was glazed and yellow. I could see the skull on the left side of it’s head from where the skin fell off. It only seemed to have one arm, but I couldn’t be sure through the small peephole. I backed away from the door and ran back upstairs. I looked out of the window and saw exactly what was happening. They were everywhere. They were busting into my neighbor’s houses. I began to hear screams. People I knew began to run out of their houses only to get caught by the growing mob of ghouls and be torn to pieces. The sight was nightmarish. Movies can’t compare to the sight I was witnessing at that moment. I couldn’t help but vomit. As I wiped my mouth, I heard a window shatter downstairs. I got ready to defend myself from the approaching ghouls. As they began to climb the stairs, I grabbed a twenty pound weight and threw it down at them. The weight made contact and ripped the head off of the lead zombie. The corpse fell immediately and tripped a few other ghouls in the process. The stairway was quickly becoming full, and I was running out of things to throw, so I retreated back into my bedroom. I didn’t own any kind of firearm, so I was stuck with two model swords and a crowbar. I quickly gathered these weapons and threw on some shoes. I climbed out of my window and onto the porch roof. I checked the ground below me to make sure it was ghoul free and jumped right as they busted through my bedroom door. I got up and ran to my car. I tried to open the door, but it was locked. I didn’t have to keys with me either. I was forced to make a decision. Do I go back into the infested house to hunt for a pair of keys that I really didn’t remember the location of, or do I go for any other form of transportation even if that means running? There was no way I was going back into that house, so I quickly scanned the area for anything that would get me out of there. I found a bike. I got on and started to pedal out of the area. I didn’t get very far before I crashed however. As I was driving through a couple of abandoned vehicles, a ghoul reached out from one of the halfway open windows and grabbed my arm. I lost my balance and fell. Being closely followed by the mob, I had to abandon the bike. Zombies began pouring onto the street from the houses as I ran by. A group was forming in front of me. I pulled out my katana and got ready to fight. I swung the blade horizontally and it decapitated the nearest ghoul. I began to panic as I realized that the mob was getting closer behind me. I made a vertical slice on the next ghoul. The blade penetrated it’s skull and the ghoul did fall, but my katana shattered from the hit. I knew the blades I had weren’t meant for actual combat, but I was able to take out two ghouls with the katana so it was better than nothing. I pulled out my second sword, but it soon met the same fate as the katana. All I had left now was my crowbar. I gave up the attempt to try and fight them all. I resorted to swinging the crowbar as I ran by them. It was a strategy that seemed to work rather well. I began to realize that I had no clue where I was going. I haven’t had time to think of a destination. It had been awhile since I had seen my last ghoul, so I thought it would be safe for me to rest for a minute and get a plan going. I sat down and rested against the trunk of a tree. I had no food, no water, only one melee weapon, no ranged weapons, no other cloths but the pajamas that I had on. Needless to say, I wasn’t exactly in the best of conditions. I was also extremely tired, physically and mentally. Just then I heard a rustling nearby. I silently rose from my resting spot and readied myself to strike. I looked through a bush towards the area I heard the noise and I saw a kid. Not really a kid, I’d say at least fifteen or sixteen based on his looks. I couldn’t really tell if he was one of them or not until I saw him fall to his knees and start to cry. You never hear about a crying zombie, so it was pretty safe to assume that this kid was human. “Hey kid, over here,” I whispered to him. He jumped out of his skin. “Get over here and be quiet.” Realizing that I wasn’t a ghoul he rose, wiping away his tears, and came to my resting spot. “So what’s your name kid?” “Ryan.” “Well Ryan, I’m Jack. Nice to meet you.” He just nodded his head and looked down at the ground. “So are you alone out here? Where are your parents?” He told me that his parents were bitten and told him to run earlier that night. He ended up in the woods where I found him. He began to cry again. I realized that we weren’t going to last very long if all we had weapon wise was a crowbar, so I began to think of friends that were into the whole gun thing. My thoughts immediately led me to Chad. I told Ryan of my plan and told him to get up and follow closely. We headed towards Chad’s house, which was only about a mile away from our current location. We moved as quietly as possible through the thick growth of the forest. A low moan caught our attention and we both froze. I spun around and saw that we were being followed by at least twenty ghouls. Ryan began to panic. He started running ahead but tripped on a root and fell. I quickly ran after him. “I think my ankle is broken” He cried out. “I think it’s only sprained, but either way you won’t be able to put much weight if any on it.” The pursuing ghouls were also having trouble getting through the growth of the forest. If it wasn’t for that, they would have overtaken us. I grabbed the closest staff like branch and handed it to Ryan. I threw his right arm over my shoulders and helped him walk. We were slow like this, but we were able to stay ahead of our pursuers. We finally made it to Chad’s house, only to find the front door open and a few surrounding windows busted in. “CHAD!? CHAD!? Are you here?!” I yelled through the open door. Just as I was about to give up all hope, I heard his voice coming from upstairs. I sat Ryan down at the bottom of the stairs and gave him the crowbar. “I’ll be right back, if something happens, get as far from here as you can.” I slowly walked upstairs, checking every corner. “Chad, where are you?” “Up here, in the attic!” The ceiling opened up and a staircase lowered. “Oh thank God, when I saw the door open and the windows busted out, I thought the worst.” I told him while helping him down. “I was lucky enough to get up there before things got that bad.” He told me. “JACK, HELP!!! HELP ME!!!” “Oh God, Ryan!!!” I quickly ran towards the stairs, with Chad following. I looked down the stairs and saw Ryan trying to fight off a huge zombie. The creature weighed at least three hundred pounds. All Ryan could do was hold his walking stick at the creature’s neck and force it away from his body. Ryan’s strength was quickly failing him. I quickly ran down the stairs and grabbed onto the walking stick to try and help Ryan push. Chad jumped over the pile of people at the base of the stairs and grabbed the crowbar. Just as the he raised the crowbar, the walking stick snapped and the ghoul flew forward into Ryan’s flesh. It clamped down and tore through Ryan with such ferocity. Chad brought the crowbar down and smashed the creature’s skull clean open. It made one last moan and stopped moving. Together Chad and I pushed the creature off of Ryan. He was bleeding badly. A large chunk was missing from his neck. We tried to stop the bleeding, but it was no use. Ryan’s eyes rolled into the back of his head and he died. I eyes began to water up. I failed him. I should’ve been able to protect him better. “If I would’ve picked a stronger walking stick, if I wouldn’t have spent so much time upstairs, if I had a gun…” I thought to myself uncontrollably. “You tried your best, Jack.” Chad said as he put his hand on my shoulders. I turned to respond to him. As I did so, I saw in his eyes pure horror. I turned back towards Ryan’s corpse only to see his eyes open and looking about. They were the same glazed white that I saw on the one in my peephole earlier that night. I quickly jumped back with the aid of Chad pulling be back. He let go of me and quickly brought the crowbar down on his target. Ryan once again fell to the floor dead. We quickly gathered up supplies from the attic where Chad had stored them and made our escape from the soon to be surrounded house. We met up with a few other survivors, including you and Adam over there and here we are. So, who’s next?