She held her arms tightly around her knees, the cold had numbed her. Silence pierced the wet, slippery room as her vision slowly blurred into place. How long had she waited? What she had just witnessed was almost, unimaginable. There were so many unanswered questions. As she recalled the dreadful scene of her husband being gnawed on by their own kind, tears welled up in her eyes. Cupping her hands over her wet and grimy face, she stifled her tears for she feared that the attacker was still behind the closed door.
She leaned gently unto the door, placing her ear against the stained, opaque glass door. “Wide … panic … across … evacu… north… experiment…” Murmuring from the television could be heard, there was no obvious sign from the attacker from the other side. It seems like a good opportunity to sneak out now. She slid the door opened while she turned to the left followed by the right.
Shivering with fear and paranoid with even a pin-drop sound that can be heard, she scanned through her house, devastated to the view of blood pools and stains on parts of the floor, walls and furniture. Cautiously walking up the wooden steps towards the third storey in search of her five-year-old son, footsteps of blood followed her like a trail as the sounds from the television get louder.
“There is a wide destruction and panic across the country… Help has been sent to affected areas… for evacuation… to the north of the country through… in suspect of possible capture experiment of the human race from a…”
The distressing experience left her in trauma and she desperately wanted to yell for her son but was afraid of being heard. Passing by her bedroom, she puts on her brown fleece jacket, black beanie and took out her husband’s pistol gun from their safe. Leaving her room, she suddenly felt a wave of sharp excruciating pain from her abdomen…
She hunched over in pain as she lifted her inner shirt up slowly with her quivering hand. The bite mark from the lifeless-being who devoured her husband earlier on, started to turn blueish-green in color as blood-covered pus oozed out of it. She compressed her wound as she staggered down the stairway to the first level. Somehow, the floor creaked louder and louder at every step she took. She became cautious of where she placed her foot, as she tried to make the least sound possible.
Upon reaching the front door, she scanned the living room one last time. The broken static sound and muffles from the television can still be heard.
“Antidote for the virus are still in the midst of… We seek for your cooperation to stay indoors… If you are bitten…”
Before she could listen to the last few words from the television, the windows by the front door crashed. Hands and arms were seen flailing by the window pane as they tried to climb into the house. Moaning and screeching can be heard. She shot a few bullets to ward them off. After 3 bullets were shot, her handgun clicks.
She hurried to the back of the house. Passing through the kitchen, she stopped to grab some kitchen knives, a rolling pin and the first aid kit to ready herself for what is to come.
With every growing second, the undead crept into the house as the moaning noises grew louder. Without hesitation, she threw a chair through the kitchen window and crawled out but it was not over yet. Sirens blared across the estate and shrieks of screams could be heard in the background. She gasped in horror as she peered from the corner only to see the suburban town in flames with lifeless bodies laying around.
She held unto her bleeding abdomen, her hands trembling uncontrollably. She fell to her knees as her legs grew numb and her body felt cold. This was it she thought.
Leaning against the walls outside her garage, she looked around one last time. The estate and place where she thought that she would finally be safe. Yet it was all just a ruse, a set-up. She thought about her husband and son, her life before this. As her vision fade to blur, and her eyes close the last thing she remembered was the whirring of helicopters from the distant.
She jolted awake once again. It was dark and there was flickering light outside what seemed to be a glass panel. Faith spent a few seconds to recall the tragedy that has flashed by her earlier on, she touched her abdomen and to her surprise, it was dressed, she hasn’t turned. Who was her Saviour? She tried to get up and her eyes darted from one end to another, she was in an abandoned convenience store.
Suddenly, She hears the rhythmic squeaking of shoes which sounded like dragging feet and the dropping of objects from far off. As time passes, it got louder and louder, closer and closer. She panicked, groping for a possible nearby weapon to self defend herself. She looked down and as she turned to look up again, the undead spots her and starts running towards her.
A bullet came flying past her and into the forehead of the zombie, “headshot! WOO!!!” A young man in his twenties asks me ” you alright?” Wasn’t I infected?
“You are very fortunate! I just found out that you will only be infected if you were bitten by the neck, into your Carotid artery. I was also not infected because I was bitten on my wrist. Are you able to sit up?”
Faith pressed her wounded area with her left hand and supported herself up with her right.
“That’s great! Here, hold this gun to protect yourself. Oh yes and I forgot to introduce myself, I am Gary and was sent here by the defence forces to rescue survivors and I chanced upon you at your apartment just now. My comrade didn’t survive the infection and helicopter’s fuel will not last long so I am currently paging for more help.”
“Is there a quarantine zone? Are we going to the marked safe zones ” I inquired.
“I do not have the answer to that Ma’am. The only order I’ve received is to transport all survivors to an offshore facility. As to what will happen after, it’s classified and above my pay grade too”.
“I can’t seem to get a signal in the store. I will head out, rest here” Gary continued, changing the topic of conversation subtlely.
Her senses were twitching and she felt that something seemed amiss. Unnerved, she walked around the convenience store searching for clues. As she approached the Zombie that Gary struck, she saw something different in the Undead. It had a particular military-like uniform on similar to Gary’s.
And on the name tag it wrote – ‘Gary’
“Shit.”
Gary was bitten by the wrist right? I used a nearby broom and lifted the right sleeve of the lifeless body.
“Nothing on the right.”
I then proceeded to the left. There it was. The bite mark.
What was going on? I got a little bit closer and examined the neck of zombine. Nothing. I became braver unknowingly and flipped the zombine over onto its front without any second thoughts. Nothing.
“Didn’t Gary say that you’ll only get infected only if you’re bitten by the neck?” I questioned myself.
As I was calming myself down, I glanced over to Gary who was raising the handset to the ceiling to get a signal. He looked over at me and gave a smile.