I Am Dead: Part 2

You can read part 1to I Am Dead, here.

I Am Dead

A Zombie Tale 

-part 2-

by Lisa McCourt Hollar

We walked for a while until we came to a town. There were people inside. We could smell them.

“They’re going to shoot at us,” one zombie said. He was wearing a suit and looked like he had been important when he was alive. I thought maybe he might know what he was doing. “They can’t get us all though. Press forward and keep going. When the zombie in front of you drops, you keep going.”

“That’s it?” I asked. “That’s your plan? Keep moving.”

“It’s what works,” a kid in a baseball cap said.

“Until you’re the one that’s shot. I personally don’t want my head blown off.”

“Then what do you suggest?” Suit Zombie asked.

I thought for a minute. Then I thought a little longer. I had nothing.

“So press forward?” Randy asked.

“Yeah, I guess.” It wasn’t the best plan, but I knew it would work. It had worked when the horde of zombies had surrounded us. Only problem Is, I don’t want to end up a zombie shish-kabob.  “Let’s move to the back,” I said.

Corbin and Anna followed me, trusting that I knew best, but Randy hesitated. “Why? If we’re in the back, all the good food will be gone before we get there.”

“And if we get shot, stabbed, or our heads chopped off, we won’t get to eat, ever.”

“Well that’s easy for you to say,” Randy whined, “you’ve already eaten.” He gestured towards his empty stomach. It made me wonder where anything he ate would go.

“Then you stay up front, the kids and I will go to the back,” I was so done with his ass. I should have eaten his brains. Then he wouldn’t be here. “Probably doesn’t have any brains,” I muttered as I turned and looked towards the back line. Oh geesh, the throng was moving forward. I’d be crushed if I didn’t keep moving. No choice but to press on. I’d keep Mr. Knight in rotting armor in front of me.

Somehow we managed to make it, even Randy. We found ourselves dining as a family, which was rather cozy. I noticed a dead priest pacing back and forth.

“What’s the matter, Father?” I asked.

“This is wrong. We are an abomination.” He tore at his head and then looked around, screaming, “STOP THIS! FIGHT THE HUNGER! THIS IS THE DEVIL’S WORK!” Then his head exploded. Sniper fire from one of the buildings.

“Time to go!” Suit Zombie yelled.

One thing I noticed, no matter how much we ate, I was still hungry. There was never enough, never any satisfaction. The taste in my mouth was heavenly, but when I swallowed, I needed more, and it wasn't just because half of it gushed out of the hole in my throat. I couldn’t—wouldn’t—stop until whoever I was dining on told me to stop. Once they turned, their flesh stopped tasting good. So sometimes I would pound their head against the ground and crack open their skull. If they didn’t turn I could eat the whole thing. With the smaller ones—I tried not to think of them as children—I could even eat the bones. But once they were gone and there was nothing more to eat, it was time to move on. We never stopped. We wouldn’t, couldn’t stop. The need for sustenance motivated us.

“There’s got to be more to our existence than feeding,” I complained one day. I was chewing on a breather’s leg.

“This is it,” Randy said, taking a chunk out of the neck.

Anna, chewing on fingers, grunted her agreement. Corbin was silent. I looked around. He was sharing a string of guts with a new zombie girl … Donna, I think that’s what her name was. It was difficult to tell though, she always had her mouth full. She was going to break his heart, I could tell. She had that look about her. Movement to the side caught my attention. Live ones. My nose had partially fallen off, so I couldn’t smell as easily as I used to, but Corbin should have noticed. Would have noticed if he wasn’t so distracted by a pretty girl. She would be in for a shock when decomposition sets in. I growled my warning. One of the humans raised a gun and pointed it at my son. MY SON! I roared, or at least in my mind, that’s what I did. I think it came out more of a “Uuuuunnnnh.” Corbin, finally realizing the danger, turned, but it would be too late. He couldn’t move fast enough. Rigor mortis and all. The new girl let out a gleeful wail and lunged forward. She was quick that one. The guy came down and his gun exploded, but not towards Corbin. An old zombie woman lost a knee cap. New girl, not all fluff like I first thought, bit into the man. I think I like her after all. Then another human brought a sword down and put it right through her head. So much for Corbin’s new girl. She was the third girlfriend he’d lost this week.

Corbin lost his mind. No really, part of it was showing and I think a bit of it plopped on the ground. “She didn’t deserve that, you jerks!” He yelled. The sword wielder swung his sword towards Corbin, but something tackled him from behind and knocked the zombie killer to the ground. It was Anna, my little monster. She bit into the back of the man’s neck and ripped it open.

There were more breathers, but others in our horde were already taking care of them. In the end they lost more than we did and our numbers increased. The sword carrier stood on uncertain footing—dazed, confused, and hungry—and since his friend the girl had bitten was still alive, decided to have a little snack. When he finished eating and there was no more to consume for any of our kind, we moved on. The swordsman, minus his sword, stepped in line beside us.

“I’m Joseph.”

“I’m Carol,” I said. “This is my husband, Randy…” Randy grunted, “my son, Corbin, and the little monster that took you out is my daughter, Anna.”

“Quite a vicious bite, you have,” he complimented.

Anna blushed. “You were going to kill my brother.”

“Yeah, I was. Sorry about that, dude.”

Corbin just glared at him.

“Come on,” I said to Corbin, “let it go. It’s the way things are now.” Then to Joseph, “That was his girlfriend whose head you took off.”

“Oh dude, I’m so sorry.” Looking truly mortified, Joseph hung his head, but that may have been because he couldn’t hold it up. Anna really did a number on his neck.

“We were talking about having babies together,” Corbin said.

“Corbin! We don’t turn infants,” I scolded. “We eat them until there’s nothing left. It’s the humane, (humane, I wondered, or zombie?) thing to do.”

“I don’t know why not,” he wailed. “Tonya and Jake have a baby together”

I glanced over at the zombie couple and their adopted child. The babies real mother had died with him still inside. Her brain matter all over the ground meant she wouldn’t be coming back. Tonya was just about to go for the belly, when it ripped open from the inside and little Junior came crawling out.

“That’s different,” I said. “He was already a zombie. Besides, Donna had only been dead for a day. The two of you weren’t ready for that kind of responsibility.”

“I loved her, mom.”

“We’ll get you a new girl at the next town,” I promised. “Maybe one with a little bit more of a survival instinct.”  

“But I wanted, Donna,” he grumbled.

“You’ll like the next one, sweetie, I promise.”

“Can I have a little boy?” Anna asked.

“You can have whatever you want,” I promised.

“Carol, you’ve got to stop spoiling them,” Randy said. “They’re rotten enough as is.”

“Well then maybe you should have protected us better, so we wouldn’t be dead now, don’t you think?” I groused. Feeling uncomfortable, Joseph picked up his pace and moved up a few rows.

To Be Continued Tomorrow