SPECIMEN

     It was daylight when we finally pulled over at a roadside diner.  There were a few patrons sitting at the counter.  We were waiting for our food to come when we heard a loud crash and a scream coming from the kitchen.  We rushed over and saw a zombie feeding on the cook's head.  When it saw us, it dropped the cook and ran toward us.  There was chaos in the diner.  When we ran to the car there were zombie parts on the ground.  It was one of the zombies we ran over that must have gotten stuck underneath the vehicle.  There was a trail of blood leading to the diner.  We got the shotguns from the car and began shooting at the zombie.  All of a sudden, the patrons started dragging themselves out of the diner.  They had turned to zombies.  We got in the car and sped out of there.

     We had been driving for hours when we noticed someone standing on the side of the road flagging us down.  We stopped and he started ranting.  "You gotta get me outta here.  This is where they all come from."

     "What are you talking about?"  I asked
.
     "The zombies.  Haven't you seen them?  This is the University of Mahwah....I'm the professor of bio-genetics and infectious diseases.  I"m responsible for creating the virus that's been infecting the students."

     Presently, there were three zombies approaching the car.  "Get in Professor,"  I said.  Just as he shut the door a zombie slammed himself against the window splattering its body parts all over it.

     "So start from the beginning.  What happened?"  My friend asked as she drove off
.
     "It started off as a serum to cure the common cold.  I thought I was making progress because my volunteer students were exposed to one another spreading the strain, then one by one they were getting cured.  But then in a matter of weeks they began to deteriorate until they died.  Days later as they decayed they resurrected into these monsters.  It turned out that the serum I gave them was actually a highly contagious virus.  Oh, what have I done?"

     "Well, isn't there an antidote or inoculation for the rest of us?"  I asked.

     "I was working on it when they trashed my lab and all my equipment.  I'd have to use one of them as a specimen to work on getting a cure for the zombie infection.  But I'm afraid it's too late.  They've proliferated tenfold outside the university already.  We have to reach the Center for Disease Control.  If anyone can come up with a cure it will be them."

     I began to wonder if this guy was telling the truth about the whole thing.  He didn't look like a professor.  He couldn't have been more than twenty-five.  He was pale and sweating in the back seat.  He opened his backpack and procured an inhaler and breathed it in.

     "Where are we headed,  Professor?"  I asked.

     "We have to go to Tenafly.  The institute is there.  The power lines must be down because I can't reach them on the phone.  They may not even be there anymore."

     We continued to  drive into the night,

     When we arrived at the institute, the three of us went to the front entrance.  The doors were locked so we rang the bell.  An intercom came on and the professor told them who it was.  The doors opened immediately.  We took the elevator to the 14th floor where a bespectacled bearded man with curly hair who looked to be 50-ish met us at the door.

      "James, I didn't think you'd make it,"  the gentleman said.

     "This is Dr. M."  James said to us.  "It's out of control in Mahwah.  The infection is spreading exponentially through inhalation.  Those who aren't eaten get the disease just by breathing in the zombie's breath.  They in turn, become zombies themselves."  He turned to us and asked "How close have you been to them?"

     "We weren't anywhere near them,"  I said.  I began to realize how lucky my friend and I were back at her house when we were killing off those zombies and drowning them in the pool.

     "We're going to have to get a specimen so we could experiment on it and try out this antidote I developed,"  Dr. M. said.

     "How will we do that?"  James asked.

     "We'll get one and bring it here,"  I volunteered.  My friend flashed me a dirty look, but gave in.

     "Before you go, here is a tranquilizer gun that you have to use at close range to incapacitate them.  Here are some oxygen masks just in case you get too close."  Dr. M. said.

     We were back in the car driving toward Mahwah.  There were many cars left abandoned on the road.  There were body parts everywhere.  After forty-five minutes of driving, we saw a group of zombies feeding on some people.  They saw us and ran for the car.  I took a shot gun and started firing at them.  There must have been a dozen of them.  It was hard to take aim at their heads.   My friend stopped the car and took a gun and started shooting them in the head.

     "Remember.  We need to bring one back to the institute,"  James said.  We put the masks on and stepped out of the car.  My friend stayed in the car so we could make a quick getaway.  As it got closer, I shot it on the side to slow it down.  It got within six feet of us when the professor shot the  tranquilizer gun at his neck and made the mark.  We got the rope and hog-tied him.  We wrapped him in tarp and threw him in the trunk.  There were throngs of zombies approaching the car.  We started shooting at them, but when they got closer, my friend started to drive, but too many were in the way.  They were rocking the car back and forth.  We gave James a shotgun and told him to start shooting.  We were shooting every zombie we could while my friend drove through them, running them over.  I was crossing my fingers that the car would stay upright.

     All of a sudden, one of them, a big one, managed to smash into the driver side window and yanked my friend out of the car by the arm.  I just stared in disbelief.  She was completely out of the car and was being disemboweled with his teeth.

     "Oh, my god!  Oh my god!  We're going to die!" James whimpered, sucking on his inhaler.

     "Shut up.  Just keep shooting." I said.

     I jumped into the driver's side and sped off  driving through the crowds and running over them if necessary.  There was a commotion in the back.  We realized it was the zombie in the trunk.

     "It's coming out of the tranquilizer.  That thing didn't last at all.  It'll take us at least an hour and a half to get back to the institute.  Do you think we'll make it?" I asked.

     We made it to Route 4.  Ferocious roars were coming out of the trunk.  There was scratching coming from behind the back seat, as if the zombie was trying to claw its way out.  The highway was scattered with carnage and abandoned cars.  We'd reach the institute in another forty minutes.  I was driving, trying to navigate my way around the cars and zombies when James started screaming.  "It's getting out!  It's getting out!?"  I knew already what was happening because I could smell the foul odor coming from the back.  I looked in the rear-view mirror and saw an arm almost all the way out of the back seat.  I immediately stopped the car.

     "We're going to have to get into one of the other cars,"  I said.

     "But there are zombies out there,"  James said.

     "Well, there's a zombie in here and it's about to come out and eat us right now.  Shut up and let's get the hell outta here."

     I stopped the car and we both put our masks on then got out of the car.  I saw an SUV and pointed it out to the prof.  We started shooting at the zombies that were closest to us and ran to the vehicle.  We made it and locked the doors.  Luckily the keys were in the ignition.  I started to drive away from the throngs of zombies.

     "Now what are we going to do?"  complained James.  "We don't have a specimen."

     "Getting a specimen is the least of our worries.  The gas light is on.  We may not even make it to the institute,"  I stated.

     We drove off and the zombies dwindled away until there were none on the road.

     "We have to change cars again.  This one is out of gas."  I said.

     We drove slowly among the eaten bodies, cars with half-eaten bodies in them and abandoned cars.  We picked out a sporty car so we could get away with speed.  We got in and James said, "We still need to get a specimen.  We have a half hour to get to the institute and one more tranquilizer that should last until we get there.  We have to try to get one."

     "Fine,"  I said.  "We'll take the first one we see."  I drove slowly through the main street of town.  All of the businesses were closed and windows smashed.  I parked in front of a convenience store and started crying uncontrollably.  "I'm sorry about your friend," James said, knowing I was Inconsolable.  I suddenly smelled that putrid odor.  From around the corner of the store came a zombie.  It looked peculiar because it was so small.  It looked like a child that couldn't have been more than seven years old.

     "Do it,"  I told James.

     "But it's just a child," he reasoned.

     "It's a f*****g zombie, you idiot! Just shoot the thing.  Now."  I commanded.

     James aimed the tranquilizer gun and got it in the neck.  It let out a loud howl and went down writhing.  We went to the trunk to retrieve some rope.  We secured the thing and put it in a garbage bag.  We made sure that it was tied tightly.  Then we threw it in the trunk.

     "Good job,"  I said.

     "Thanks."

     It was quiet the rest of the way.  We only encountered stray zombies on the side of the road eating.  As we approached the institute, I told James to call Dr. M. to tell him we were almost there and to meet us outside.  He tried to call but there was no answer.  I dreaded the worst.

     We arrived at the institute and found it had been broken into.  We left the zombie in the trunk.  It appeared to still be unconscious.  When we got to the 14th floor we went to the lab and found Dr. M. had turned into one of them.

     "Oh, no," exclaimed James.  "He must've been working on the antidote and a zombie got in.  He must not have had a mask on.  He contracted the virus because he wasn't immunized.  We have to immunize the rest  to prevent spreading the virus as soon as we have a vaccine.  Those who have the virus have no hope.  They will turn into zombies no matter what."

     "So what you're saying is that there's nothing that can be done for the ones who have caught the virus, and we'll have to kill them."  I asked.

     "Yes, "  he said.

     "Then you know we have to kill Dr. M. so you could get into his lab and start working on it."  I stated.

     Dr. M was now approaching us.  James said, in a panic, "We have to secure the lab now.  We're going to have to shoot the doctor.

     A loud bang went whirring by his ear resonating throughout the hallway.  James looked up in shock.  I said, "What doctor?" with a smirk on my face.

     I told James to get the live one from the trunk and I would clean up the mess to get the lab ready.
     As James was trying to get the squirming child-zombie out of the trunk, he was attacked from behind.  I thought he was taking too long so I went down there to help him with the specimen.  But when i see him, he's lying on the ground in the throes of those final minutes before turning

     "F**k.  What am I gonna do now?  I guess I'm gonna need one big hell of a swimming pool to kill these zombies all by myself,"  I said as I shot James in the head.

Reviews

[C. Rose]

Stronger than SINK OR SWIM, but I still think you need to watch out for "telling" where you could "show".

Take this paragraph for example:
" We were back in the car driving toward Mahwah. There were many cars left abandoned on the road. There were body parts everywhere. After forty-five minutes of driving, we saw a group of zombies feeding on some people. They saw us and ran for the car. I took a shot gun and started firing at them. There must have been a dozen of them. It was hard to take aim at their heads. My friend stopped the car and took a gun and started shooting them in the head."
I felt like you were listing things you saw, then listing things that happened. The lack of detail and emotion left this passage bland.
Try including the character's frustration when "it was hard to take aim" and how the characters feel about the zombies feeding.

[Dr. S. D. Blankenship D..]

This is a very interesting story. I’m curious to see what happens now. Did everyone just kill each other? Lol.
I’m sending you an (Edited) Version. I wish you the best of luck in the Creepy Pasta contest!

~S. D. Blankenship