Chapter 5

            I was running down familiar corridors with fear written all over my face. I had no idea what I was running from. Who was chasing me? Why were they chasing me? Bursts of pain shot up from my feet and all the way up my legs. I looked down only to see that I had stepped on a couple of mousetraps. Everything seemed all too familiar. Hitting way too close to home. Where had I experienced this before? I looked around, trying to determine where I was, but everything was pitch black. I couldn’t see a damn thing. From behind me I heard chains rattling and a low, but sorrowful, moan. Red flags soared up in my mind. Something told me that the reason why I was running was because of that moan. Instead of trying to figure out what was going on, I decided to keep moving forward with a quickened pace. A dot of light was forming up ahead of me, joy started to fill my system. “Yes! I can finally leave this fucked up place!” I heard myself say. Elegant tapestries came into view, along with the huge wooden front door. I reached the huge hunk of wood, and was about to open it, but something otherworldly formed a painful grasp on my wrist. I turned to face my doom, but all I saw was Lilly. Her skin was completely dead and rotten, her eyes were so bloodshot that it took up most of everything (the irises were barely noticeable), and she couldn’t keep from salivating at the closeness of fresh flesh. There was something else though- an unexpressed emotion- something that was buried down deep within her; something struggling to resurface. Her mouth opened. “Why did you let this happen to me?” She asked with an excruciating sadness in her voice. Then, within a flash, she bit me.

 

            My body was shaking when I woke up. It took me a while, but I realized that I wasn’t shaking on my own. Someone else was shaking me. “Would…You…Stop…Shaking…Me!” I shouted at Elric.

“Sorry. But I had to wake you up.”

“Why?”

“You were screaming in your sleep.” Was that concern that I heard? “And plus, if I didn’t shut you up you would have woken up the neighbors.” He added.

Nope still a jerk-off.

I resisted the urge to stick my tongue out at him. Stupid high school quarterback. I noticed that he still had a firm grip on my shoulders. He realized where my eyes had landed and quickly released me from his grasp. “Well-er- thanks for waking me?” I attempted to be nice. “Um, no problem, I guess.” He said. Was he starting to blush?

“So, um, what were you dreaming about anyway?”

I sighed. This was going to be harder than I anticipated. I could feel myself retracing the path back into my mind, the place where no one could harm me. Shrinking down underneath the protective blanket of what was left of my sanity. “No! Don’t do that!” He shouted. What had I done? There was a sudden burst of light and his face appeared right above mine.

“Stop hiding from me.”

My body had apparently reacted on its own, and shrunk away from the depressing reality that it had learned to live by literally throwing the blanket over my head. Oops.

All right. No more hiding, Stephanie. Tell him. You have got to tell him. Well- should you tell him? Can you trust him? Should I trust him? No, you have to trust him. I think.

“Well,” I began. “I had this nightmare. It was about this girl. She was running from something. I couldn’t tell where she was, and I don’t think that she knew where she was either.” I couldn’t help but shiver. When I didn’t continue he encouraged me to go on.  “After injuring herself, it took her a while, but she finally managed to make it to the grand entryway. Joy filled both of us because the sooner that she got out of that place I could get out too. But everything changed when the thing that was chasing her caught up, and it was the girl’s worst nightmare. The monster was her best friend. To top that off, that best friend of hers killed her.” At that point tears were streaming down my face.

“I guess that the real reason why I was screaming was because it brings into perspective what life can throw at you. These things can actually happen, Elric. Just keep that in mind the next time you decide to do something stupid.”

Even though he didn’t appreciate that last remark of mine, I could tell that I had plucked a cord. An eruption of awkward silence surrounded us. If there was one thing that I hated the most, it was awkward silence. “Erhem. Um, yes, well, there I told you.” I managed to force out. Even with my little effort, the awkward silence continued. This was getting to be unbearable. I made an effort to move around him and stand up. I hated this feeling of being trapped in a cage. Thankfully I didn’t collapse or anything like that again. Feeling like a damsel truly pissed me off. “Whoa there!” He shouted, nearly falling himself. “I am fine Elric! I am not your freaking damsel in distress!” I snapped at him. I immediately felt bad afterwards because I knew that emotions were high.

“I’m sorry.”

He looked at me with a weird expression on his face and then said, “Don’t worry about it.” Something had just occurred to me, “Elric, what day is today?”

“Today is Sunday. You have been out of school for three days.”  “Three days?” I nearly shouted. My mind was reeling. What if the zombie struck again while I was high with injury hallucinations? “Elric, has anyone gone missing these past couple of days?” Yet again he gave me another odd look.

“I don’t know.”

“Can you please check?” I said through gritted teeth. He left the room and was gone for about ten minutes. I never thought that I could ever be as impatient as I was then. I was a pot about to overflow because I was full of boiling water. “Okay, Stephanie, would you like to sit down?” He asked as he came into the room.

“Why?” My stomach was turning and I had to grip the arm of a chair for support. “Four people have gone missing within these past couple of days.” He said with a sigh. I had to sit down. The floor was as good as anything else. “Who?” I managed to squeak out. He knelt down next to me and handed me a printed out article of all of the victims. The article described all of the symptoms and evidence of a zombie transformation. The symptoms before the zombie got to them were severe paranoia, isolation, not leaving their house, etc. As for the evidence- well- all that was left behind were a couple drops of blood at the scene of the crime. Those poor people, and what about their families? They had to deal with that as well- only to them their loved ones were only missing, not dead. Boy, they were in for a dreadful shock. The names of the victims flashed across the page:

 

Sasha Kurt, age 16, Darkwood High School

 

Joshua Wild, age 18, Darkwood High School

 

Amelia Heartfelt, age 17, Darkwood High School

 

Rebecca Jones, age 14, Darkwood High School

 

All of the people attended my high school, and all these young people were turned into zombies- no thanks to me. I looked at the page again and then gasped, “Elric! Isn’t your best friend named Joshua?” He nodded sadly. I felt a pang of sympathy for him. “Why didn’t you tell me that he was missing when I asked?” He shrugged, all of the sudden he just didn’t feel like talking. I didn’t blame him. More and more casualties were starting to be added to the list of my burden. I knew I had to kill- well put these kids to wrest- one them being Elric’s best friend. Something told me that this zombie was trying to make an army.

 

I had an impending apocalypse on my hands. Oh joy.

Reviews

[matrixmark]

Fast and furious action straight away is always a good way to entice the reader into wanting to know why this is happening. Really nice little touch, with reagards to the chains in the background...nicely done.....its always little details like this which ADD so much and CRANKS the tension up a few notches. The way in which you ended the paragraph was REALLY GOOD - I liked it - A LOT - Fantastic imagery.
It was alos good to see that you used italic font so that the reader would recognise that it is a dream - some forget to do this, you didn't - Good work.

But, as an opening paragraph it really ROCKED.
Comment: When you switched from dialogue to a thought process - you did it flawlessly, and it that takes skill to make something like that flow - You did a great job.
The last line was a killer of a line (I think you know that already) It will keep the reader wanting more and that's what writing is all about - being a pageturner.
I found myself flying through the piece because it was structured really well, and you have taken your time to make it work well for the reader and a rather joyful zombie read.

Did i like it...nope.
Did I love it....I WANT MORE.

Mark.