First Encounter

She stood by the door, her backpack on her trembling shoulder, pet carrier in her hand. She had a pained expression on her face as she waited for her mother to come down. She understood that her mother had made her choice, but she still stood there fixed on the spot by the door. Waiting. She had been certain that she had talked some sense into her mother 45 minutes ago, but tears tried to force their way out as she realised that she had been wrong. Finally, she dropped the pact and placed her baby rats on the floor. She will try one more time. She couldn’t leave her mother behind. She had to offer her another chance.

She ran up the stairs leading to the second floor of their little rented house and went straight to Alex’s bedroom. She knocked and walked in. He was gathering his things. Just 20 minutes ago they had shared their plans and decided that they will go their separate ways to find safety. Their plan was to find a stable place and inform each other immediately. Chloe didn’t want to leave without Alex, but she knew that he is a survivor, just like her.

“Hey, there! I thought that you would’ve been gone by now. What did mom say?” He looked little surprised but not much concerned with the fact that his sister was still in the house.

“I’ve been waiting at the door for 15 minutes, hoping she will come down. I thought I could ask you to talk to her with me. I don’t want to leave her.”

“Okay, but we must be quick. She might be a bit stubborn and panicky, but she is not stupid. Even if you leave, I’m pretty sure she can survive until things are settled at your or my end. You shouldn’t feel bad about leaving her; after all she is a grown woman.”

She smiled at his reassurances, even though they changed nothing. But she was glad her brother can finally be the moral support she always had wished he would be.

They knocked on their mothers’ door, but got no response. After a while they banged at the door with their fists. The house was silent.

Chloe ran downstairs and into the kitchen. She fumbled through the little box containing spare keys on top of the microwave. Microwaves �" would she ever have the chance to use one again?

She ran back up, pushed Alex out of the way and with a bit of struggle unlocked the door leading to her mothers’ bedroom.

Something was terribly wrong. She let out a little gasp as she stared at her mothers’ unmoving body. She appeared to be sleeping on her bed, but Chloe knew better. The open bottle of Chloe’s sleeping pills on the ground was the only sign that this motionless woman was not taking a nap. Also the yells and screams from the outside made the situation a lot more frightening to the young siblings in the doorway. Finally she let the tears roll down her face.

Alex was about to run to his mother before Chloe stopped him. Even from the doorway she could see that her mother was already dead.

“Don’t! It’s unsafe! What is the infection is airborne?”

“You heartless b***h! Let go of me! Mom, wake up!!”

It was like a knife was stabbed straight into her heart. She felt the knife twist as she realised that her brother might be right. It’s their mother, after all. How can she just stand there, looking?

But then, her mother twitched.

“Look she is still alive!” Alex roared while trying to pull away from his sisters’ firm grip.

“NO, SHE IS DEAD! LISTEN TO ME! DON’T APPROACH HER!”

But it was too late. Her brother bit her hand and stumbled towards his mothers twitching body. Chloe screamed out as her mother opened her eyes and bit into her brothers exposed neck. Alex tried to speak but his artery was severed and blood was pouring down his throat.

Chloe stood, rooted to the spot. She could not believe it. Both, her mother and brother were dead. Even though she was in state of shock, she knew better than to try to help Alex. He was too far gone. She tripped as she turned to leave. Quickly getting back up, she ran back down the stairs. She decided to leave straight away as she didn’t want to witness her brother facing the same fate as her poor mother.

But just as she was reaching down for her pet carrier, she heard a loud noise from upstairs and a moment later saw her mothers body roll down the stairs. Shocked, she backed away from the door to put a distance between her and the zombie as it was pulling itself off the floor.

Chloe ran down the hall and into the kitchen closing the door behind her. She opened a cupboard, placing her treasured pet rats into it, out of harms way. She looked back and noticed one of her neighbours in her backyard, taking his time to get to the glass door. He seemed normal apart from his glassy white eyes and the unnatural movements. She decided that he cannot get to her, so she has to deal with her mother first.

She bit her lip as she tried to think of her way out. She knew that she had to kill one of the zombies. And in a while, she knew, her brother would follow his zombie mother downstairs. Even though it was more logical to use the backdoor to escape, she didn’t want to leave her family in this state. She looked for a weapon to use upon her own mother in order to escape.

Holding the biggest knife she had, she stood listening to the zombies from both ends of the kitchen banging against the front and back door. She made the decision and opened the kitchen door, while quickly backed away to give room for the zombie to get inside. She clenched her teeth, as she moved closer to her slightly overweight mother’s undead body. She had no clear shot at the head, so she took the broom resting against the cupboard and rammed it against her mother’s side. The zombie lost balance and fell to the floor. Chloe placed the broom over the zombies already rising arms and saw it snapping its jaws at her. The noise will forever remain in her head ‘click click’. It was done with enough force to chip a few of her mothers’ remaining teeth. She raised the huge knife and slid it through her mothers’ eye. With a twitch, the body stopped resisting and became lifeless once again. She sat over her mothers’ limp dead body and cried.