The Trick Perfected

"Michelle wait! Don’t hang up the phone- where are you? Are you okay?"

The silence from my sister on the other end of the phone was almost as scary as the screams coming from outside. 



“I... I'm in the bathroom at the gas station a few blocks away from my place. I have Ashley with me- there are five others in here with us. There was a man outside- he attacked some people, he went right for their throats like some kind of animal! What’s going on Amelia?”



What could I say that wouldn’t sound crazy? 



“I don’t know Michelle… There are attacks all over the news, everyone is using the word “zombie”... no one knows what is happening exactly, there is only one thing that anyone can be certain of- the attacked people aren't dying, they’re active and aggressive.”

         There was a commotion on the other side of the phone, I guessed Michelle had me on speaker.

  "Amelia? I can’t hear you- did you say-"  I could hear a bang and the panicked screams of the people trapped in the bathroom. 

"Michelle what’s going on? what is that sound?"

"Other people are trying to get into the bathroom-" 

"Michelle listen to me- do not let them in. Stay where you are, stay in the bathroom with Ash and wait for help. Someone will come for you. Don’t leave. Stay safe." 

"Amelia?”

         Michelle's voice cracked, I could hear the restless anxiety in her tone. She didn’t want to be trapped.

"Amelia?"

"I'm here Michelle, sorry, I'm just thinking."

She choked out a sob.

"No one knows where we are! No one is coming for us!"           

         There was a small uproar in the bathroom. She was right. She was never one to lie to herself about the odds of any situation, and now she had spoken the truth everyone feared. My sister, ever the blunt pessimist, was stripping away the hope the people with her were taking refuge behind.

"Michelle shut up and listen to me. I am coming for you. I'm at the apartment right now and I’m coming to get you and Ash. Then we're going to come back here and wait this out. Stay- Stay where you are. Don’t let anyone or anything in. I'll be right there." 

"I love you. I'll be right there. Tell Ash everything is going to be okay."  There was a muffled scream and then the line went dead.

"Shit!" I mentally pumped myself up for the rescue mission I was about to attempt. Michelle, the older sibling, had never failed to act as such, always confident in her decisions and actions. When our parents divorced she acted as my make-shift mother and took me under her wing. I had long ago decided that I would jump at any chance to pay her back. Now an opportunity presented itself and I had no choice but to put aside my fears and confront it head on.

         I shrugged on my dark coat and left the apartment. I could hear screams not too far off but my neighborhood appeared unaffected... The cold air burned my lungs as I took a deep breath and made my way to my car.  My mind started unpacking boxes labeled "zombies" from the storage of my brain. What could I assume to know? Were there any rules that I could actually follow? Would I have to kill something? Could I just cut off its head, or was there more to it? Was it as easy to use a gun as it looked? My thoughts were abruptly cut off as I left my cul-de-sac.

         Picture everything horrible you've ever seen and then imagine feeling it multiplied by ten. Crashed cars, abandoned houses and dead people in the street- it hits home a lot faster when it concerns something you're familiar with. The raging fires seem oddly at place in the cold November weather until you notice they're gutting your neighbor's car. When you see torn and bleeding figures racing towards you it’s easy to pretend you've been reading your calendar wrong and Halloween has skipped the treat and perfected the trick.

         The bodies made a nauseating sound as they made contact with my car smearing old blood across my windshield.  The enraged dead gave chase apparently unfazed by my assault on their number. Their speed failed to match that of my car and they give up the hunt quickly. A scream from down the street caught their attention and they hastened to put an end to whatever voiced it.

         In the streets, many people have abandoned their cars with ideas of fleeing on foot. I’m nearly to the gas station when I reach a roadblock. It looks like it started out as an accident; cars that have newly joined the wreckage feature forcefully broken windows covered in scraps of clothes and blood. I can see a man still in his grey mess of a car. Another car has him trapped. The man honks his horn to get my attention- a bad move. The moment the blare of his horn echoes through the air they are on him. I throw my car in reverse as they scramble over broken cars to get to him. Inhumanly strong, they smash through the windows of his automobile and drag him out shredding his body over the broken glass. His insides become outsides as they tear into him with an angry hunger.

         I park in an ally and throw up. I can’t see- my face is wet with tears, snot, and vomit. Could I have saved him? No. I know he stood no chance but still I feel sick and guilty. I’m jerked out of my thoughts by a slam on the passenger window. Two furious black eyes glare in at me. Blood dribbles down the zombie’s chin staining the tattered remains of what was once a shirt. The zombie lets out a shriek sends an adrenaline rush through my body. I flinch as its dead fists break the window and reach for me. My feet move on their own, slamming down on the accelerator and my car shoots down the ally dragging the zombie. My vehicle swerves to the right pressing the man against a jagged brick wall. The effect is not unlike a rough piece of wood against an electric sander and I scream as foul blood splatters across the inside of my car painting me in a rotten red brown. I jerk the steering wheel to the left and slam into another wall and everything flashes black. I feel fresh sticky blood rolling down my forehead. My shaking hands are clenched at two and ten o-clock- just like they teach you in drivers-ed.  My fingers find the ignition and try restarting the car. I quickly realize that the only things coming back from the dead are people and my vehicle stands no chance.

         I fall the ground outside of my car- unable to make my legs cooperate. I hear more screams and force myself to my feet. It’s only a block to Michelle and Ashley. I refuse to let myself think of my predicament as I fall over the low wall at the end of the ally and take off running. I count the seconds as I run, one, two, three, four, five, gotta keep moving, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, my legs burn and my breath appears before me in painful white puffs. I look up as I turn a corner; there is the gas station only a few more seconds away. I stop seeing a group of undead around the side of the gas station's main 

building- they seem focused by something on the roof. I use the distraction to my advantage and make my way around the opposite side of the building to where I remember the bathroom - I stop in my tracks and feel my knees go weak.  How could I be too late? I don’t even look up when I hear a new scream; the sound is just becoming all too common.

         “Aunt Amelia!"

Ashley. My head whips up and I see her. The delicious distraction on the roof. My niece. I can hear aggravated grunts speeding towards us. Ashley shimmies down a few levels and leaps into my outstretched arms.

         I can’t think of what’s happening as I take off running with my niece in my arms. I don’t even care where I’m going. The shrieks are distant but I know that any minute now they will be on us. I turn down some street and run as fast as my adrenaline packed body will allow. Dead bodies lie everywhere and I don’t care how long they will remain that way anymore. I throw open the door to someone’s house and slam it behind me. I collapse, sliding to the floor with Ashley in my arms. There is a dead woman with her throat torn out on the floor in the corner of the room. I cover Ashley's Eyes and struggle to my feet walking up the stairs that are on my right. I pick a random room and close the door behind me. I used to watch scary movies with friends, we would joke "Don’t run up stairs, because after that there is nowhere else to run." is it ironic that the only place I want to be is as far off the ground as possible? Ashley is quiet as I set her on a bed in the room.  "How about some TV Ash?"  My hoarse voice startles me. I pick up a remote and flip to a random channel- There is a man on the TV talking about the end of the world. He mentions group suicide- sure, why wait around to see how the world ends when you could leap headfirst off a building and rush to meet it? I shut off the TV.  "Maybe not."

         There is a loud thud downstairs. Ashley starts crying. I run to her side.

"Shhh, you have to be quiet okay? Don’t worry I’m not going to let anything happen to you."

Her wails die down slightly. 

" I’m going to go downstairs-"

She hiccups in protest.

  "I’m going to go downstairs and make sure everything is okay... and I’ll bring you up something to eat too."

This seems to calm her and she nods in consent.

I step back into the hallway and quietly close the door behind me. I forget third step down is squeaky and as I step on it there is a moment of dread where I can hear my heart beating in my ears somehow I continue on. The woman in the corner of the room is gone. I close my eyes, collecting myself, as I make 

my way into the kitchen. The woman is silhouetted in the sunset at the sliding glass backdoor. Her tongue is hanging down through the tear in her throat it sways like a disturbing pendulum as she runs at me. I grab a vase off the counter and raise it over my head, then she is on me. Her teeth sink into my shoulder and I bash her on the head with the heavy vase. The blow knocks down and I continue slamming the heavy thing into her head. It soon becomes apparent that the "destroy the brain" method works just fine. I hold my bleeding shoulder. I know I’m fucked. I stand and consider killing myself. I’m light-headed and nauseous and my previous thoughts of suicide vanish as I start to feel new instincts promoting self preservation coming into play. I can hear the door upstairs squeak.

"Aunt Amelia?!"

I struggle to answer her as I feel my speech skills leaving me, speech is not a necessary element in my new frame of mind. 

"I’ll be right there!"

         Already I can feel a driving hunger enveloping me and I am unable to stop myself as I sprint up the stairs to meet my niece.