Zombie Love Story

A story I wrote for school based on the song "Zombie Love Song," by Your Favorite Martian.

            “Peter, who do you keep texting?”

Anthony said it in a mockingly sweet voice that always meant trouble, and Peter quickly pressed send and put his phone in his pocket.  “No one important,” he said.

“Is it the same non-important person you were up until 4 a.m. in the morning texting?”

“I was not up until four o’clock, and you know ‘4 a.m. in the morning’ is kind of redundant.”

“Peter …”  He was taunting his brother now, an evil look in his eye.

“Don’t do it, man.  Don’t …”

Anthony tackled Peter in one quick movement and wrestled the phone from his pocket.  “Oh look,” he said as Peter struggled to retrieve his phone, “a new text from … Renee!  Who’s Renee, Peter?  And why is she so unimportant that you won’t even mention her to your one and only brother?”

“She’s just a girl!  Now give me back my phone before I take your arm off!”

“Alright, fine!  Here.”

With his phone safely back in his own hands, Peter straightened his clothes and smoothed down his hair.  “You happy now?”

“Yup!”  Anthony sat down and proceeded to play a video game.  “So where’d you meet her?”

“At Matt’s about a month ago.”

Anthony paused his game.  “Matt’s?”

“Yeah.”  His brother stared at him a moment.  “I didn’t get near anyone.”

“Why does he even let you over there?  I mean, doesn’t he know that you’re …?”

“Yeah.  He’s cool about it.”

“So this Renee, she’s a …?”

Peter sighed.  This was exactly why he hadn’t told his brother about Renee.  “She’s not like us.”

“Jesus, Peter!”

“Don’t judge me, okay?  You had a human girlfriend for a while.”

“She was my girlfriend before I got infected!  It doesn’t count!  And we couldn’t even kiss, Peter!  I couldn’t touch her!”

“Yeah, but …”

“Does she know?  Come on, man, tell me that she knows.”

There were a few seconds of awkward silence during which Peter didn’t look at his younger brother.  It was enough to answer for him.

“Jesus!  She doesn’t know you’re a zombie?”  Anthony lifted his eyes to the ceiling, shaking his head.  His composure became more somber, more serious.

“I’m going to tell her.  She’s really open to zombie-human relations.”

“It doesn’t matter what she’s open to.  I hate to be the one to say this, bro, but you two can never be together.  Ever.”

“Don’t say that.”

“Well it’s true.  The sooner you break it off, the better.”  Anthony got up and went to his room, leaving Peter feeling worse than he did before about getting involved with Renee.

It had been six years now since the disease had first become known to the public, though apparently the government had known about it since the Civil War.  It attacked swiftly and violently and was easily spread through contact with bodily fluids once it had been accidentally released from the government lab where it had been held.  It killed, but it also brought its victims back to life.  Peter remembered his Biology teacher in high school saying that diseases that killed their hosts weren’t very good ones because if it spread widely enough it would run out of hosts and die itself.  He supposed this disease had found a way to overcome that.

Once an infected person came back to life, however, their body was changed.  However much they had decomposed during their time dead would not change once they were revived, and the person would only have an appetite for human flesh, especially the brain, which was usually high in iron and vitamin C.  They weren’t as strong as before, but they felt almost no pain and didn’t age.  They could be killed again, though, if only by decapitation or dismemberment.

Their minds didn’t change though, contrary to popular belief.  As long as their brain wasn’t too decomposed, they retained all their memories, emotions, and beliefs.  This was a point the ARZ (Association for the Rights of Zombies) had been trying to get across for years now, but there was still much fear around the world, even in the boys’ home state of California.  The way the disease affected animals like their dog Rex, however, did not help their cause.  They had the same cannibalistic nature but with all the self-control of their hungry living counterparts, and the rise in missing pets had many people worried that human zombies might behave the same way.

In fact, it was Rex that woke them up at ten o’clock the next morning, barking at a knock at the door.  Six years ago, the boys would have bickered over who should get up and answer it, but now their visitors were so infrequent, this knock made them both suspicious.

Peter peered through the peephole.  “It’s the cops,” he said, giving a confused look to his brother.  “Can I help you?” he shouted through the door.

“Washington County Sheriff’s Department!  We have a warrant to search the premises.  Please make sure your dog is restrained!”

Anthony led the dog into the bathroom as Peter opened the door a crack.

“Can I see the warrant?”  Their mother had always taught them to be suspicious of strangers knocking at their door, even if they were in uniform, and now they had all the more reason.

The warrant was certainly real enough, with their address and the signature of a local judge.  It was what they were looking for that took Peter by surprise.

“You want to see where we keep our meat?”  He opened the door a smidge more just as Anthony returned.

“What do you want to see that for?” asked his brother.

“It’s a court order.  We have to search the houses of all known zombies in order to determine if their food source is legal.”

The brothers looked worriedly at each other and let the four deputies in.

“We get all our food from the rations,” explained Peter as he showed the deputies their refrigerator full of human and dog brains, “except our dog food.  We get that from the licensed shelter downtown.  I have the papers for it if you want.”

“Please.”  The one who seemed to be in charge was Deputy Harold Bosque, an overweight but grave man who took his job very seriously.  The other three were busy exploring other parts of their property, masks and rubber gloves protecting them from any source of infection.

Eventually, everything seemed to check out, and they all left.  Anthony immediately jumped on the computer.

“The ARZ’s website has a notice about it.  Apparently it’s only in Washington and Truckee Counties where there’s been a rise in missing people.”

“At least we don’t live in the city,” said Peter.  In largely populated areas, zombies’ homes were subject to search at any time without a warrant.  Their mountain area was nowhere near as densely populated.

Later that night, he talked to Renee.  After a short pause in their conversation, she said, “Peter … do you … do you want to go see a movie with me tomorrow night?”

His heart was racing.  He liked Renee"really liked her"but he wasn’t sure what hanging out would be like for them.  And she still didn’t know his secret.

“Um,” he said, “I would love to, but …”

She hadn’t heard the “but.”

“Awesome!” she said quickly.  “I heard From the Earth is supposed to be really good.  Do you want to see that?”

He hesitated a moment, unsure if he should correct her or take the leap and actually go out with her.  Oh, what the hell? he thought.  What’s the worst that could happen?

“Sure!” he said.  “That sounds really good.”

“Do you want to do anything before, or should I just meet you at the theater?”  There was only one theater in their tiny town.

“No, I’ll just meet you there.”

Peter was lucky movie theaters were dark.  The only pity is that he couldn’t see her very well either.  The movie was great (and it felt wonderful sitting next to Renee), but it was killing him that he couldn’t even hold her hand.  Both his hands were more than slightly decomposed, and although it didn’t look bad, they did have a very strange texture and feel to them.

After the movie was over, they went for a walk and talked about what the liked about it and what they hated.  Eventually, they came to the local cemetery.

“Let’s go in,” said Renee.  “I love old cemeteries like this.”

In reality, the cemetery was a mixture of old and new graves, so small that it had never come close to full since its creation in the 1800’s.  In fact, Anthony and Peter’s parents had both been buried there, shortly after their infection.  It was somewhat too dark to see the gravestones properly, but Renee pulled a small flashlight out of her purse.  She slowly made her way over to the newer part of the graveyard.  As they went up a small hill, he could tell something was bothering her.

“What’s wrong?” he boldly asked.

“Huh?  Oh, I just …”  She wasn’t looking at him, and she was fidgeting with her flashlight.  “Peter, there’s"there’s something I have to tell you.”

He saw the opportunity and went for it.  “There’s something I’ve been meaning to tell you too.”

“No, Peter, look.  You’re a really nice guy and I like you a lot.”

“Really?”  His heart took a leap.

She smiled, then frowned.  “Yes, but I have to …”

“I have to tell you something,” he said.

“Peter, look …”

“I’m a zombie.”  They looked at each other in surprise.  They had said it in unison, and neither of them was entirely sure the other had said what they thought they said.

“Wait, you’re a …?” said Peter.

“You are?” she said.

They both started laughing.  Peter took off his hat, and Renee removed the scarf she had worn over her hair.  He couldn’t believe it.  He had finally found the girl of his dreams, and it turned out he could actually have her after all.  He held her face in his hands, smiling down at her, and she kissed him.

When they got back to the parking lot, Renee’s car wouldn’t start.  “Piece of junk!” she said, smacking the steering wheel.  “It does this all the time!”

“Let me give you a ride home,” he offered, still on a high from the kiss.  “My brother’s pretty good with cars; I’ll have him take a look at it.”

“Really?” she said, smiling.

When they got to her house, there was a sheriff’s car parked outside.  “What do they want?” she wondered aloud.

“Oh,” said Peter.

“What?”

“They’re searching everyone’s homes"all the zombie homes"for illegal meat.”

A look of panic struck Renee’s face as she glanced at her house.  “Peter,” she said, “you have to help me.”

“What?”

“You have to help me,” she said again.  “I … I kind of killed someone.”

He stared at her in stunned silence.  He had found the girl of his dreams alright, and she was a murderer.

Reviews

[tangible.elle]

I do believe this may have been the first piece I'm read by you and I adore it! I'm not much for zombie thrillers, but who can pass up a good murderess and her handsome partially decomposed counterpart?!

[Night]

Wow...I'm itching for more, but, I just wanted to ask, did you see the "Book" option when you were writing this story, or was it meant like this? 'Cause I really want to read more, but, well, I'm not sure if there are more.