Zombie Outbreak: A Zombie Apocalypse Short Story

My heart beats hard, pumping blood to every cell in my body. Sometimes, it beats so fast that it hurts, ready to burst from my chest. My breath is heavy, and it burns my throat, especially in the chill night air. The pain is real, and I relish it because it lets me know that I am alive. It lets me know this is real. It lets me know that I am not a dead one.

Grandma and I were drinking tea the moment it began. Whenever I came home from college to visit Grandma on our farm, we cherished our teatime. In fact, I cherished every part of the farm. I had gone to live with Grandma when I was a junior in high school, after my parents died. I hated the farm then. It was too far away from my friends and my life, but now it was a paradise: a world free and far away from the stress of the real world. My cellphone didn’t get reception there, the TV never worked, and Grandma didn’t even know what the internet was. I relaxed there, allowing myself to forget about the many problems in the world, pretending life was simple and easy. Perhaps that was how I managed to survive.

“Johnny’s up?” I asked Grandma.

Johnny was the man who helped Grandma on the farm. She hired him around the same time I left for college. I was glad to know she had someone to take care of her while I was away. He handled the day-to-day tasks of the farm now, but he had been sick for the past few days.

“He said he was feeling a lot better,” Grandma said. “Looked better too, but I’m not so sure now.”

Johnny was just standing by the side of the barn. He wasn’t moving. He was just staring at it like it was the most amazing barn ever.

“Johnny! Johnny!” I called from where I sat on the front porch. “Are you okay?”

He didn’t answer.

“What is wrong with him?” I asked.

“That daft fool,” Grandma said. “Why didn’t he just say he was still sick?” She set down her teacup. “I guess I should go tell him to get back to bed before he makes himself so sick that he’ll never get better, and I’ll have to find another idiot to handle the farm.”

I chuckled. That was Grandma’s way of saying she enjoyed having Johnny around, and she was worried about him.

“I hope we don’t catch what he has,” I said. “He was really pale yesterday. He couldn’t even sit up.”

With a great groan, Grandma stood. I watched her wobble down the steps, knowing I should be the one going over there, and I wish I would have. Grandma was vain, however. If I had offered to go tell him myself, she would have taken it as an insult. She was stubborn, vain and did not like being treated like an old woman.

“Johnny.” Grandma tapped Johnny on his shoulder. “Come with me, and I’ll put you back to bed.”

Johnny didn’t move or speak.

“You’re a dang fool. Go to bed,” she said. “Johnny!” She pulled on his shoulder to try and turn him around.

He jerked around and let out a quiet moan. I couldn’t see him from where I stood, but grandma turned back around, terrified.

“Mae, call Dr. Johnston!” she called. “Johnny’s as white a corpse.”

“Okay,” I said.

As I stood to run inside, Johnny turned fully around and lunged at Grandma. She screamed as he chomped down on her neck like she was a big juicy hamburger. I think I screamed too in that instant, but I don’t remember. All I remember is the sickening pit in my stomach. It felt like it was swirling, threatening to suck my entire body in. Finally, I managed to work my legs, and I raced toward them.

“Get off her!” I shouted as I raced across the yard.

I grabbed Grandma and pulled her out of his arms, but she was dead weight, and I dropped her to the ground. I stared down at her lifeless and motionless body. The blood continued to sputter out of her neck, and she stared up at me with blank, expressionless eyes.

“Grandma!” I screamed. “You killed her.”

I looked back up at Johnny to attack him, but as soon as my vision finally focused on him, I stopped. Johnny wasn’t just as white as a corpse: he was a corpse. His face was ashen, and his eyes were bloodied and sunken. There was no humanity left in those eyes, only hunger.

“Johnny?” I asked.

He responded by snapping at me, trying to bite me. As he did, bits of Grandma fell from his mouth. His teeth and lips were still stained with her blood. He seized my arm and pulled me closer, opening his mouth for a bite. His breath smelled like rotten flesh and a decaying body. I struggled in his grasp, but he was stronger than he should be.

His mouth moved closer to me, but before he reached me, a deafening shot rang out. Johnny’s head exploded, covering me with blood and pieces of his brain. I fell backwards and landed on the ground, gasping in shock.

“Mae, come on!” someone called.

I scrambled to my feet and turned around. Grandma’s neighbor, Mikael stood in the back of his pickup truck, holding a shot gun. He waved at me to come over. I didn’t know him or his wife too well, but since he had just saved me, I saw no reason not to trust him.

“Hurry, Mae,” Mikael’s wife Candy called from the driver’s seat. “Get in now!”

I started to take a step forward but stopped and looked down at Grandma.

“Mae, it’s too late for her,” Candy said.

I was afraid to leave her there alone. She was my grandma, and it wasn’t right to leave her there alone in that moment, but there was nothing I could do. She was already gone, and I didn’t want to join her. Without a word, I turned around and ran toward the truck. I clamored inside the cab and began to sob.

The tern neighbor was loose. Mikael and Candy still lived far away from Grandma’s farm. We drove for about ten minutes before we finally turned down their long driveway. As soon as I realized we turned off the main road, I stopped crying and looked around.

“Where are we going?” I asked. “We have to go see the sheriff and report what Johnny just did to Grandma.”

Candy sighed and glanced at me. “There is no sheriff anymore,” she said. “There’s no anybody anymore. We just came from town, and it’s already too late. Whatever this thing is, it hit fast. They said it was just a new flu virus. What kind of a flu does that?”

“You’re lucky Candy insisted on checking on you and your grandma before we headed home to our bunker,” Mikael said through the back window.

“Bunker? Flu?” I stared at Candy. “I don’t know what you two are talking about, but I need to get to the police.”

Everyone knew that Mikael and Candy were different, and most people thought they were crazy. I gave them the benefit of the doubt and treated them well whenever I saw them. I would have hoped, however, that they would know to contact the police when someone was murdered.

“The sheriff is dead,” Mikael said. “Everyone in town is dead.”

“Remember how everyone was getting that flu suddenly?” Candy asked.

“I guess, but I didn’t think it was that serious,” I said.

“Well, it isn’t just some regular flu. All the people with the flu died, but they didn’t stay dead. They got back up and started attacking people,” Candy said.

“Everyone in town is either dead or one of the dead ones,” Mikael said.

“The dead ones?” I asked.

“It’s what Mikael named them,” Candy said.

“That’s like what happened with Johnny?” I asked.

“Yes,” Mikael said.

“We have to get home and check the TV. I just hope it’s still working. Maybe this whole thing is just isolated to us.” She paused and took a deep breath. “I just can’t believe how fast it all went down. One second they were sick, and the next second, they were dead.”

I wasn’t sure what else to say, or I was just too afraid to ask. When we arrived at Mikael and Candy’s house, I remained silent and followed them into their bunker. It was amazing. They had shelves and stacks of food, water, first aid supplies, clothing and other supplies. There were a few beds a radio, a ham radio and a TV.

“I hope it works,” Candy said and rushed to the TV.

She turned it on. The news was blasting with big words at the bottom of the screen that said, “New York down, Los Angeles down, no communication with other countries.” The reporter was outside, filthy and surrounded by screaming people. At that time, I admired her and believed she was brave for risking her life for bringing us this information. Later, however, I thought she was stupid for risking her life to help a lost cause.

“The dead are walking and attacking. The people who had the bat flu are now dying and coming back as these creatures. We aren’t sure why this has happened. Perhaps it is a mutation in the flu. We don’t know much.”

Behind the reporter, a woman screamed as one of the dead ones seized her and began ripping her apart. The reporter cursed and began running.

“Check other channels,” Mikael said.

Candy flipped through the channels, but every channel was the same. Men, women and children screamed in the background as they were attacked and devoured. The reporters didn’t know much, but they showed us gruesome images that made my stomach turn. From what we could determine, a lot of people who were sick with the bat flu had died. They came back to life as the dead ones. The bat flu was just a bad flu, but it must have mutated to cause this new, dangerous disease.

We watched the news the rest of the day and through the night. To anyone who didn’t know any better, it simply looked like we were watching a horror movie, but it felt like something worse. Every so often, the reporter would be attacked, killed right before our eyes, and we were useless to help. One by one, the channels stopped airing anything. We were left alone and in silence as the morning sun began to rise on a new world.

When it was obvious that there was no more news, I turned away from the TV and looked at Mikael.

“Thank you for letting me stay here,” I said.

“No problem,” Candy said with a smile. “We have enough supplies to last us three years.”

“Even with me?” I asked.

“Yes, we had always planned on having your grandma join us in here,” Candy said. “So we had enough food for three people.” Candy smiled. “She was always nice to us even though everyone else treated us like outcasts.”

“Yeah, grandma was great.” I fought to smile, but it turned into a frown. I buried my face in my pillow and cried myself to sleep.

When I woke, Mikael and Candy were in the far corner whispering to each other. It sounded like they were arguing. I strained to hear.

“I didn’t even want to let Margaret in here, but you kept insisting,” Mikael said. “I never agreed that if Margaret was dead, we would allow someone else in here.”

“Mae watched her die. We couldn’t just leave her there,” Candy said.

He didn’t speak right away. Finally, he said, “fine, but if others try to get in here, we kill them. We don’t have enough to share.”

“Even if people we know come asking for help?” Candy asked.

“They thought we were crazy. They knew we were hording supplies and food. They will come and try to take advantage of us. They don’t deserve what we have.”

“We can’t turn them away to die,” Candy said.

“If we help one person, then two people hear about it, and then they come wanting more. Then they tell more people. Eventually, we won’t have anything left. I won’t die so others can live.”

“People are already dying. I’m not going to help them to die faster,” Candy said.

The argument stopped, and they fell silent. Mikael began counting his supplies, and Candy simply stood, watching him as if unsure who he really was. I waited a moment before finally beginning to stir.

“Did you have a good nap?” Candy asked.

“Yes, thank you,” I said. “Any new information?”

Candy shook her head. “I keep checking the TV, but the channels still aren’t working.” She came over and sat down beside me.

“Why do you guys have this place?” I asked. “Did you know something was going to happen?”

“Of course,” Mikael said.

Candy rolled her eyes. “I thought he was crazy at first, but Mikael kept insisting that we needed to build someplace safe in case of some sort of disaster. We didn’t know it was going to be this, and we didn’t know it was going to be now, but we knew something might happen one day, and we wanted to be prepared.”

“I’m glad about that.” I looked at Mikael and smiled, but he simply grunted and continued counting.

“Here.” Candy handed me the remote control. “I’m going to go help him do whatever it is he’s doing. Why don’t you check the channels again.”

“Sure,” I said.

I turned on the TV and clicked through the channels: nothing. I kept clicking through them again and again and again, hoping to see something.

“The TV probably won’t work for long,” Candy said. “How long you think it will be before the power goes out?”

Mikael shrugged.

“We do have a generator, but I don’t know if we will use it to keep the TV working, especially since it seems like there isn’t going to be any more airings,” Candy said. “We’ll probably save the generator for important things.”

We spent that day in silence. Mikael kept counting and checking his supplies as if he was worried they were vanishing into thin air. Candy continued to assist him, despite his insistence that he didn’t need her help. I think it was her way of continuing their argument. I found a fashion magazine, and tried to read it, but knowing what makeup was popular that season or what not to wear just didn’t seem to matter anymore. I found myself staring at the pictures of the smiling people as they had a picnic or danced at a party. I wished I could move through the page and join them.

“I’m going to try the TV again,” I said and turned it on.

Again, I flipped through the channels. Just when I was about to turn it back off, something happened.

“This is Jay Jackson with Action 1 News,” reporter Jay Jackson appeared on the TV. He looked disheveled and distraught.

“It’s on!” I said.

Mikael and Candy stopped what they were doing and sat down to watch with me. The three of us sat on the edge of the cot, our gaze glued to the TV, praying there would be good news.

“There are still some of us trapped here. We cannot get off this floor, and we do not have many supplies. If anyone can help us, please help,” Jay said.

“Just a call for help,” Mikael said with a grunt. “We won’t go help.”