I saw her favorite stuffed animal sitting at the foot of her bed. It was a white duck she called Chinny. I picked it up and stuffed it into my bag.
I turned to exit, not bothering to cut the light out. I wanted to leave it on for Jackie. There would always be a light on for my little girl though she was never going to come home.
I went back into the kitchen half expecting the zombie to be back on her feet, to attack me and take me out of my miserable life. She didn’t. She just laid there useless and destroyed.
I made my way past the fridge to get to the cabinet where we kept our typhoon supplies. I had to push the dead zombie out of my way to get to the food supply. It was only difficult due to the fact I was exhausted and my body wanted to give out any second.
I decided not to take too many canned foods. I mostly just stuck to protein bars and a couple of the astronaut meals that we had in there. I didn’t take very much figuring I wouldn’t need a lot. It only took maybe an hour to get to the Navy base but I wanted to have something so I wouldn’t have to depend on the supplies on the ship. Lastly I grabbed a gallon of water and I was on my way.
I went outside, not bothering to lock the door behind me. People could take whatever they wanted, I would never be back. The thought made me kind of sad but of all the things I had lost that night, my material possessions were not important.
It was extremely quiet out and there were no lights anywhere. It made me feel uneasy as I made my way to my car. I put my things in the back seat and climbed into the driver’s seat. I started the car without any trouble which made me let out a sigh of relief. I saw that it was 10:43 on the clock. I had seventeen minutes to get off the base before they initiated lockdown.
There was no one on the road, which I found strange but I made it to the gate very fast. The guards let me go with a tip of their hat. I felt a little odd all of a sudden. I hadn’t thought it through how silly my plan might actually be but I rolled with it. I kept telling myself, “What else do I have?”
What did I have? Nothing at all. The only thing that I had left was a crazy will to survive and I needed this mission even if it was the dumbest thing I ever did. I was probably going to die anyway, it’d be better to die fighting for something no matter how stupid it was than to sit around my house all alone waiting for death to come bite me in the throat.
I got on to the main road and knew immediately I was in trouble. I couldn’t leave the lights on because there were two zombies ahead of me and the brightness caught their attention. I turned off the lights as quickly as I could but then I couldn’t see anything. The world was swallowed in darkness.
It hadn’t crossed my mind about driving at night with these monsters on the roads. I pulled over to the side. I looked at the clock, it was 11:10. It was too late to go back now.
I made sure the doors were locked and put the sunshade in the windshield in hopes of concealing myself from the monsters outside. I climbed over the center console and sat on the floor in between the seats.
There was a blanket I left in the car for Jackie. I wrapped it around my body. Despite the tropical weather, I was shaking.
I heard the noises of the undead rustling in the jungle beyond my car. I took a deep breath. The fear would not change that I was stuck until the sun made an appearance. It also wouldn’t change the fact that in less than eight hours I had lost everything except the air coming into my lungs. Honestly that wasn’t a blessing because breathing was feeling more like dying. Every breath was a fight to take in. I felt like a sumo wrestler was sitting on my chest.
I laid my head against the backseat. The tears came easily and without a single thought. They ran down my check. I didn’t wipe them away; they just ran together and began to dry on my face.
I thought of Jackie’s angelic face. I would give anything to see that beautiful face again. With that thought, my fear seemed to subside. At least if those undead creatures got me, I would be with Jackie again. Thinking about Jackie I closed my eyes and I fell asleep.
Chapter 7
I ran as fast as I could through the jungle, yet the slow moving zombies were gaining on me. There were at least a dozen of them and they seemed to be working together to get me. Assisting each other in obtaining some lunch. My heart was racing and I was completely out of breath.
I looked behind me to see how far they were behind me and I felt my foot catch on something. I fell hard to the earth; the entirety of my right side was in extreme pain. I couldn’t move. They were closing in on me. Growling, grabbing, and scratching at me. There was nothing I could do but scream as the yellow teeth of a young male zombie closed in on the soft flesh of my neck…
I woke up completely confused. The dream had seemed so real. I even felt the pain in my right side and in my neck, which after a few
