Zombification

Deep breaths were what was needed to get the situation under control. Samantha stared at her boyfriend who was sitting across from her, at the dinner table. The gray matter on his plate made her nauseous, she held her breath for a second, hoping to keep down her own dinner. It was a battle that she was barely winning, guilt swept over her.  “How did this happen to you? How did you become, become this monster?”

“I-I-I don't w-w-w-want to talk about it,” Ryan looked away from her. Embarrassed because he was eating brains, and angry that the country he had fought for, the government he had almost sacrificed his life for had, put him in this position. His own thinking machine was becoming clearer now that he had this sustenance in him, and that was  something that worried him. This time it was an easy fix, but what about the next time? “Sammie, e-e-e-even i-i-i-if I could tell you, there I no way that you would ever believe me!”

He slumped back into his chair, tried to shut his eye lids but they started to peel away from his face, blood filled his eye, he turned away and set himself right again. He could feel his girlfriends discomfort, and while she had been great about everything thus far, her understanding would only go so far. How could he blame her? He was feeling the same way, disgusts with himself for trying to eat her brains, then lying to the waitress when he ordered the slop in front of him, and finally having his eye lid nearly fall of his face. He took a deep breath and flashed back to when this whole situation had started, the day, rather the night when everything for him had changed his life.

“You are to go into the enemy camp and surprise them with this attack,” The General had ordered, speaking to Ryan and only a handful of other soldiers. During supper they had been told about this secret meeting, they were told that they were going to be a part of a new elite group that would hopefully bring the enemy down to their knees. “You won't need anything but silence and your guns.”

When the magic hour arrived the group of ten made their way into the village. Guns drawn, one overeager soldier started blasting away. Some of the enemies men came out with guns of their own, and began firing at the group, not one of the bullets being fired made contact with a human. Finally Ryan was able to concentrate long enough on a target and fired. Time seemed to stop as the bullet penetrated the mans chest, his blood squirting everywhere as he fell to the ground. It was to much for him to bear, he could hardly believe that he had watched a victim of his die, right before his very eyes.

The fallen man's wife had watched her husband be shot and killed too. When she was able to grab the gun that her loved one had dropped, she aimed right at Ryan. She shot at him three times, each of the bullets sinking into his skin. She hit him in the shoulder, the stomach and near his heart. He had thought that he was a goner, that he would die before they were able to make it back to the army camp where he was stationed.

Two of his comrades grabbed him, while the others kept firing their guns until they were safely out of the village. Once they were a safe distance away, his wounds were bandaged and the medic on the team staved off the blood loss. Ryan struggled to tell them to leave him where he was, and for them to get home safely, but his words gurgled and soon blackness enveloped him.

When he awoke, he was strapped to a metal table in the makeshift hospital unit. Low voices were arguing on the other side of the room, but he was too groggy to comprehend what they were saying. After an eternity the old man Doctor came over and checked his vitals. “You're gonna be OK son, it'll be a few days before you are normal again but you will be fine.”

He withdrew a long needle and plunged it into Ryan's arm. He tried to scream out but he couldn't, they had gagged his mouth. The Doctor left the room and the General who had given him the assignment walked over to his bed. “Not bad kid, not bad at all. Sorry you got shot, you are one of our finest and soon you will be again. By all accounts you should be dead, but we injected you with a serum, some would say it brought you back from the dead.”

After that, he was put on a plane with strict instructions not to talk about what had transpired, and in a few weeks time he would be brought back to serve more time. On the plane he was strapped down to seat while the other guys worked around him, there were several other men that they had strapped to the seat, all of them were bound so tight they couldn't move.

After a few takeoff, they brought in some people, all of them looked like they were from the enemies side , one by one they were brought in front of a soldier and their heads cut off. Then like a pumpkin, the forehead was cut into and the knife went all the way around, and they opened the top of the head, revealing the fleshy matter inside. A small portion was scooped out and fed to them.

Ryan shuddered as he came back into the present. He looked down at his dinner plate, and briefly wondered if he had eaten enough so as not to attack his girlfriend anymore. Had he suffered enough so that he wouldn't be called back to war? Wasn't his zombification enough?