The Night of Visitors

Chloe dreamt. She dreamt about her brother, smiling at her while holding her hand. Just sitting at the table across from her. He looked nothing like she remembered, no blood, no gashes on his face and most importantly �" his neck was whole once again. They sat at the table for hours just staring at each other. Tears ran down Chloe's cheeks, but her face showed only dread. Guilt of not saving her brother's precious life.

“At least I won't procreate.” he laughed. She laughed.

That was the first thing he had said. He was about to say something more. Something important, because his face turned into a serious frown and his eyes darkened in concern.

But she woke up with a jerk before he had the chance to say it. She lied on the floor in confusion of what could've woken her up. It was still the middle of night, and she estimated that she most likely had been asleep for 2 or 3 hours at most.

Chloe had never been a light sleeper. She could sleep through anything unless something posed a threat to her. She listened intently for any unusual sound that might have been the reason of her waking.

Nothing. Silence.

She placed her head back onto her backpack and thought about her dream. How nice it had been seeing her brother in his perfectly normal unzombified state. She wished she could fall asleep and the dream would resume. It gave her a feeling of warmth... The delusion that he is fine.

*Bang. Bang. Bang.*

“Oh damn jesus and his homosexual friends” she cried out in exhaustion. “No one's home, you s**t eating dumbnivores!”

After noting to herself that she shouldn't swear as much and patting herself on the back for the clever new term she thought of, she stood up. She wasn't as much afraid as angry. How dare they interrupt her sleep and order her to kill them? Who the hell did they think they were?

She needed a plan to get rid of them. She wanted to take care of the situation before it attracted any unwanted attention. Harder done than said. She decided to just go with the flow. She seemed to perform better in that kind of situation. She guessed it was all about stage fright. If she devised a plan and tried to follow it, she'd be too conscious of what she was doing. Therefore �" f**k it, she thought and removed the barricades. With a metal crowbar in one hand and a button in another, she opened the door and stepped to the left to allow her guests inside.

“Welcome to your final resting place, roadkill smelling Nazis!” she giggled as one of them faceplanted the floor.

There were 3 of them. More than she wished for, but not enough to overwhelm her completely. Three is also supposed to be 'a magic number' so she was hoping that Harry Potter or Luke Skywalker was somewhere around the corner, ready to stick his lightsaber/wand up someones a*s. Neither of them showed up, but Chloe the Ninja appeared to have gotten the memo.

Chloe straightened her back, jumped on the back of the 'Floor Eater' as she called him and swung her crowbar right for the second one's face. Floor Eater was trying his best to get up, but because of the fact that he was lacking an arm and his intestines were making the floor slippery, he was unable to throw Chloe off of himself. The second one went down in a flash and hit his head on the corner of the door frame.

Chloe couldn't help cringing as she watched Corner Banger's head making contact with the wood. If the guy would be alive, he'd probably be whining and rocking back and forth from the pain. Unfortunately, he was a zombie and was already getting up to avenge his cracked skull and celebrate with some late night snack. Chloe wasn't worried about the third one, because his long coat had caught a nail and he just kept exercising on the spot, not getting anywhere close to her.

Quickly stomping her right foot on the Floor Eater's face, she took a step closer to Corner Banger. He finally had gotten to his feet when he was met with another blow from the crowbar. His already cracked skull once again went straight for the corner. Chloe took her chance, stepping off of poor Floor Eater and onto unfortunate Corner Banger. With his severely damaged back of the head facing her, he was an easy kill. She lifted the crowbar vertically and drove it straight into his brain through the pus secreting crack.

She realized that she had been holding her breath this whole time and finally breathed out. She felt relieved, but that feeling was short lived. She felt her foot being grabbed by a shaking hand and 2 seconds later, a gaping mouth covering her ankle.

Swiftly she spun around and looked down upon the one that had bitten her.

“You piece of s**t!” she screamed and started stomping her foot wildly at the dead man's face. “ NO. ONE. F*****G. MESSES. WITH. THE. CHLOE.” the head received a heavy blow with each word screamed out by the furious girl.

Overkill was the best word to describe the fate of the Floor Eater. She changed her tactics to crowbar blows half way through it, even though the zombie had already been eliminated. Gasping for breath, she finally let the crowbar slip through her fingers. She slumped to the floor, pieces of skull and brain matter clinging to every part of her body.

She only half turned her head when she noticed the Coat Hanger still trying to get at her. She was exhausted. She lifted her trousers to look at her ankle which was pulsing in pain. No broken skin. Not even a mark. She face-palmed herself when she realized that the pain was due to her work out. She could've kicked herself if she wouldn't have ruined her foot.

Awkwardly, she stood up and retrieved a knife from the far corner of the room. She slowly approached the Coat Hanger and with some skillful maneuvering and ninja moves, drove it through the zombie's eye.

“B******s.” she spat under her breath.

She went over to her back pack and took out a pack of cigarettes. She lit one and stood in the middle of the room, evaluating her work. She chain smoked 5 cigarettes in total until she finally decided to do some clean up. With her foot 'royally fucked', it was harder than it should've been. Dead bodies were so much heavier than alive ones.

With the Coat Hanger roughly shoved behind a tree with the rest of the gladiators, Chloe turned to make her way back home. But before she could take a step, her eyes caught some movement up on the roof of the shack.

“More? Hell, come at me bro! I'm in a homicidal mood anyways!”

But instead of a silent stumbling towards the edge of the roof, she heard a silent whimper in response to her threat. Since when did zombies cried, let alone understood a simple sentence?

“Hey! Who the hell is there? I know you're not one of them! Come down here and we can have a civil conversation. As long as you don't stir s**t, I'll be as friendly as Klingon during heat.”

This was greeted by silence. She was getting mad with the person up on her roof. She was being friendly, after all.

“Okay. This is how it's going to happen. You are gonna get down here. I don't care how, roll down for all I care. You will state your purpose and I will decide on what to do. If you won't be standing in front of me in 10 seconds, I'm bringing out my gun.” She remained calm and displayed authority, even though inside she was a little scared girl.

That was why she was surprised to see a little scared girl stumbling down the roof and landing, painfully by the looks of it, on the ground in front of her. She was wearing a white, dirty night gown. Her hair had dirt in it and gave a whole new meaning to the term 'dirty blonde'. Her face was completely covered in mud and she was skinny enough for her ribs to be seen every time she took a breath. Also, she was bare-foot.

“Little girl, are you okay? Did any of them bite you?” Chloe disguised her inquiry with concern for the girl, even though she needed to know it for selfish reasons.

The girl shook her head, but said nothing.

“What is you name dear?” Chloe gave the girl one of her warmest smiles. And it was sincere.

That was one again met by silence. Chloe realized that she had probably scared the girl half to death and now she was too afraid to speak.

“Don't be afraid, kiddo. I'm not going to hurt you. I said those things just because I was scared too. Did they follow you here?”

“Yes.” The girl seemed to be gaining more courage and that pleased Chloe greatly. She did not want to deal with a terrified kid for the rest of the night.

“Explains it.” The anger about the night's events hadn't left Chloe and the girl sensing it flinched just as Chloe stretched her hand towards hers.

“I don't blame you, dear. Come on in and we will get ourselves cleaned up. I'm gland you found my place and those nasty things didn't hurt you. You are probably starving and dehydrated. I mean thirsty. My little house is quite disasterous, but it's better than the roof. Look at me, all rambling on. Come in, don't be afraid.” She offered the girl another warm smile and extended her arm once again.

Timidly, the girl took it and slowly followed Chloe inside.