by Billy Miner
So there we were, discussing what to do and where to go. It was a dilemma, because we thought we had lost them, and now we had to move again.
“How far is the village?” Lilly asked.
“If I am correct, it should be about 10 minutes from here,” I said.
“Let’s go then,” she said.
“But how?” Harvey asked.
“Through there,” she said, pointing to a crack in the back of the barn.
“Do you think there are any zombies there?” Samantha asked.
“I don’t know,” Lilly admitted. “But I hear sounds from all sides of the barn. All the doors are being smothered while it seems like that opening may actually help us sneak out. It’s our only chance.”
We all agreed that it would be the best way to get out of there, so we rushed towards the crack. It was at the bottom, so we had to lie on our stomachs and crawl through it. Lilly was the first one. She lay flat on her stomach and started crawling through. We all waited and then we heard a whisper, “Guys, it’s safe. Just keep quiet and follow me.”
I went second. I crawled through and safely made it outside. There I noticed Lilly hiding in the bushes and signaling with one hand to go to her. Harvey went after me and soon joined us in the bushes, away from the barn with zombies. Samantha was the last one to crawl through, but when she stuck her head through the crack, a zombie appeared and yelled in her face.
“Wraaaaah!”
Samantha quickly pulled back and screamed, “Eeeeeh!”
“She didn’t make it,” I said, burying my face in my hand.
“Well, don’t just stand there! Let’s go get her!” Lilly said.
She rushed towards the barn and smashed the zombie in the head with her pickaxe. His screech alarmed the zombies on the other side, who came running at us within seconds. Lilly helped Samantha crawl through while the two of us were fending off a few zombies with our weapons.
“Let’s go! Let’s go!” I shouted.
We all ran as fast as we could. I noticed immediately who was out of shape and who wasn’t, because there I was, running and observing Lilly’s backside, who was way ahead of all of us, sprinting her lungs out and reaching the village long before we did. Impressive. What a woman!
Samantha kept up with me, but it was sad to see that Harvey, the one who showed off so much, couldn’t really back up his mouth by running fast. He fell behind, though still ahead of the zombies, and I actually cracked a smile when I saw him panting heavily and arriving late.
“Ugh… ooof… owowow…. Heeesh… hey, guys. What’s the hurry?” Harvey said. “It’s not like those zombies are the fastest on the planet or something.”
“Sshhh…” Lilly said, “… there may be zombies in this town too. I say we head for the church tower. A lot of those towers have hatches that lock. If we can make it there, the zombies will eventually give up, or we can descend with this rope from my backpack and slide down via the roof.”
“That sounds like an excellent idea,” I said.
No sooner said than done, we tiptoed to the church and went inside.
No zombies.
Good.
Our next move was to climb the stairs to the bell tower and hide there. We even found some food hidden in one of the rooms in that building. When we arrived, it was beginning to get dark. We closed the hatch and all fell asleep. It had been a long day.
Entry 2: Where It Started
It was all a big accidents. At least, that’s what we heard. Not too far from one of the bigger villages in the Miner’s Country, there was an experimental lab. I didn’t think our scientific research had advanced this far yet, since we all lived under relatively primitive circumstances, but apparently, they knew how to create inexplicable substances.
One of those substances was the Y412, a chemical green slush that was supposed to cure patients from certain diseases. Instead, it did the opposite. When they tested it on rats, it didn’t seem to do anything, so the biggest mistake they made, was assuming that it would be harmless for humans too.
And then it happened.
The man lying down on the bed was injected with the Y412.
Immediately, he arose and attacked one of the scientists. The patient jumped at him and started choking him while the others were kicking and punching him, trying to prevent a murder.
But this made it worse.
It stirred the aggression in the patient’s brain. He became even more wild and ferocious than before. His nails turned into claws and his teeth into fangs within seconds. As the drool from his mouth hit the floor, the newly-bred monster attacked the other scientists as well, biting and scratching every one of them.
Before they knew it, they were all the same: It only took seconds before they turned into zombies themselves and began wrecking the place. They broke out and terrorized the village the scientific center was at.
There was a soldier there, Ruben, a retired hero who heard of the outbreak. He didn’t hesitate and grabbed his silver sword. Then he stormed out of his house and opened his mouth in awe. Dozens of zombies were quickly running through the streets, breaking homes and biting victims along the way. He had never seen anything like this.
“Let’s fight back!” Ruben yelled. “Fight back! We cannot let them take the village.”
He banged his sword on the doors of those who were still unaware of the situation. The civilians slowly came out and looked at the ongoing chaos.
“Get your weapons!” Ruben shouted. “Let’s kill these guys!”
Some of the villagers grabbed pitchforks and shovels. Others armed their children and wives with hammers and knives, but most of them ran away in fear.
“Come on!” Ruben shouted as he stabbed one of the zombies in the stomach. “We can win this!”
He stabbed and yelled and slashed. He fought back with all his might, but the zombies were becoming too numerous; they were growing exponentially. They were dashing through windows and turning everyone in their way into zombies. Panic was everywhere.
“We can beat these monsters!” Ruben kept shouting. “We can beat… ”
THUD!
Some zombie punch him in the face. It knocked him out and left him there, being stepped on by various zombies but allowing him to remain human. Who knows what happened after that… ?
I heard it didn’t take long before the whole town turned into zombies and dead people. From there, the disease spread across the country. This was the beginning.
Entry 3: The Note
I woke up by the sound of snoring. Harvey was lying on his back and sounded like a saw cutting through a log. It wasn’t the best way to wake up, but I noticed the sun rose anyway, so it made sense to start looking around.
Lilly was covered up with a blanket, and so was Samantha. They were so tired from the day before that they kept sleeping, despite the incoming rays from the sun.
I just sat there for an hour. I was going to leave them there, because I knew they needed it. Besides, I enjoyed watching Lilly sleep. She was so pretty. I wondered if she even knew that I was so impressed by her. Probably not.
Samantha woke up.
“Whe-where am I?” she asked.
“We’re in a church tower,” I answered. “We’re safe here. No zombies.”
I guess the word “zombies” woke Lilly up, because she instantly rose from her sleeping position and reached for her weapon. “Zombies? Where?” she said.
“Don’t worry,” I said. “We locked the hatch, remember?”
“Oh yeah,” she said as she rubbed her eyes and yawned. “So what is the plan?”
“We should look for any clues to find a colony of survivors,” I said. “There is only so much we can do by ourselves, but if we join others, we can withstand all the zombies.”
“Well, how about waking up this sleepy head?” Lilly said, pointing at the snoring Harvey.
“Sure,” I said. “Hey, Harvey, time to wake up.”
No response.
“Harvey!” I yel
led. “Wake up! It’s time to wake up!”
Nothing.
“I can poke him with my pickaxe,” Lilly said.
“Amateurs,” Samantha commented. “Let me show you how it’s done.”
She leaned over and softly whispered something in his ear. It seemed to penetrate through his brain immediately, because his eyes opened and he stood up, looking at Samantha with big eyes.
“What?” he asked.
“Oh, nothing,” Samantha said.
“What did you tell him?” Lilly and I inquired.
“Don’t worry about it. Isn’t the most important thing that he is up?” she said.
“I guess so,” I said.
Harvey was trying to get his hair straight. “What now?” he asked.
“Let’s go downstairs,” I suggested. “We’ll search the homes for any indication that people left and gathered somewhere. We can’t stay here for long. We need to find others.”
After carefully opening the hatch, we went down the stairs and searched the church. Luckily, we didn’t have to look anywhere else, because on one of the benches, there was a note that read, “Meet us at Utopia. Turn left at the Creeper Rock.”
When I picked it up, we all stared at it for a while.
“Dude, that’s awesome,” Harvey said.
“Where is Creeper Rock?” Samantha asked.
“It’s on the other side of the country,” Lilly said a little disappointed. “It’s not that awesome. All we have, is a note and some vague directions. And it’s far. It will take at least a few days to walk there, if I’m not mistaken.”
“But it’s a chance,” I said. “Before this, we had nothing. Now we have a goal.”
Entry 4: Journey across the Land
We took the note and looked for other supplies. None of the zombies in the area were alarmed by our sneaking around the village. Fortunately, they were all gone or hiding from the light.
Something that I had been seeing before, was that the zombies seldom came out during the day. They were immune to light and sometimes they did appear in the daytime, but most of them hated the light. They stayed in the shadows until the sun would set.
This would give us some time to load up on stuff. So we did. We found food, water, and blankets; and we packed everything that was useful.
Then we left town.
On our way to the supposed colony that we hoped would exist.
The plains were dangerous. If there would be any zombies there, they would have seen us by that time, but there weren’t. I was just hoping none of them would be smart enough to take a peek there.
And since there was nothing else to do, Harvey got into bragging mode, like always.
“You know, Samantha,” he said. “It’s good we came back for you or you would have been bitten and turned into a zombie.”
“Yeah, that would have been awful,” Samantha admitted. “Thank you for rescuing me.”
“Of course, if you had gone first, then one of us would have been in danger. It was just a coincidence,” Lilly said.
“Still,” Samantha said. “Harvey was brave to come back.”
“No, he wasn’t,” I said. “He just came back because Lilly told us to go back.”
“But I would have gone anyway, whether she said it or not,” Harvey insisted.
“Sure,” I said. “I still think you should be thanking Lilly instead of Harvey, Samantha.”
After that, it was silent. We all sensed it. Samantha was just looking for a reason to flirt with Harvey and Harvey was just bragging again, even though he was the last to arrive in the village because of his slow pace.
Lilly and I exchanged looks. It was kind of like teaming up against the weirdos in the group or something. By having two people to make fun of, it was as if we connected better. We both smiled and shook our heads.
“So where did you get that golden blade?” Lilly asked.
“Well, let me tell you,” I started.
Entry 5: Survival Stories
This is the story of how I found the golden sword. The simple truth is, I had been looking for a weapon for days after the outbreak. My parents tried to defend me, telling me to hide in the basement when the zombies attacked. When the noises had disappeared, I came out of my hiding place and discovered an empty house. After all that time, I still didn’t know what had happened to them. Perhaps they had turned into zombies, or perhaps they had just died. Nevertheless, I still had a vague hope of finding them in the colony, which was why I was so motivated to find it.
I really hoped my parents were still alive somewhere.
Anyway, I climbed out of that basement and found the entire village to be empty. I knew there were zombies lurking beneath the corners of the homes, so I hurried to a nearby castle.
The castle was owned by some rich lord who had settled in this village, and some of the townspeople had worked at this place to make a living. I knew that if I wanted to find a valuable weapon somewhere, it was going to be in that building.
When I came there, corpses were all over the floor. It was terrible. The sight of it was horrifying. And I think I even got a little nauseous when I saw them. I stepped over them and entered the castle. The bridge was wide open, and so was the gate. I looked around and tried to determine where the best place would be to find a weapon to defend myself.
I went downstairs and looked some more until I found the armory. Racks with axes, spears, and bows were leaning against the walls, making my dream come true.
“Oooh, nice,” I said when I picked up an axe with ornaments and a shiny surface. I put it down and looked for the perfect weapon to wield. I was going to be very picky, because I knew I couldn’t take all of them with me.
But then I heard something. The door opened up and a creepy zombie stood in front of me. It was the first time I had seen a zombie. It was a terrifying experience. I have to admit that I wasn’t entirely prepared for this. It was a female, and the flesh on her face and arms was hanging loose. It was super gross and it was the least attractive image of a woman I would ever see. And now it was out to kill me. She came right at me.
“Creeaaaah!” she screamed, holding her arms and claws in my direction.
She knocked me over.
I fell backwards.
The female zombie was on top of me, trying to bite me, but then I managed to get my feet up and push her in the stomach, away from me, so that she would fall backwards. Before I could blink my eyes, I saw a blade from the armory impale her. She had fallen onto it and had now become a dead zombie, if that isn’t a paradox.
I stood up and brushed off the dust from my body. Then I looked at the weapon that had killed my assailant.
It was a golden sword.
It was beautiful.
I didn’t know why I hadn’t noticed this blade earlier, but now that I had, I fell in love with it. It would become my main weapon, especially since it had accidentally saved my life. I put the sheath on my back and looked like a real warrior. I practiced pulling it out and putting it back in for a few minutes and went outside.
And then I saw her… the complete opposite from the monstrous beast I had just destroyed.
The elegant girl standing in front of me was the ultimate beauty. Her long, blonde hair was waving in the wind and she was leaning on one hip with a pickaxe in her hand, dripping with blood. She looked at me, and I knew at that moment that the extreme ugliness I had witnessed in the castle was hell before heaven. Wow! Could there be any creature on the face of the planet who looked more gorgeous than this girl?
“My name is Lilly,” she calmly said. “Nice sword. Where did you get it?”
“At the armory,” I said. “There are more weapons if you want any.”
“I’m good,” she said. “Thanks though. I have just become pretty good with this pickaxe, and I am starting to like it.”
She looked down at a zombie that was trying to get up, moaning heavily.
“I told you to stay down and die!” she yelled as she thrust her p
ickaxe in the zombie’s neck.
After that, he made no more noises. I was surprised. For a girl this cute she certainly had experience when it came to killing zombies.
“You’re pretty brutal,” I said laughingly.
“Yeah? Well, I’ve been doing it for a while. In case you haven’t noticed, they are everywhere.”
“I have actually, but I just made my first kill.”
She laughed a little. I wasn’t certain if she was being sarcastic or friendly, but it was kind of funny. “Congratulations,” she said. “Get ready to kill more of them. There is no shortage of these disgusting monsters.”
“Sounds about right,” I said. “By the way, where are you going? If you want, we could travel together.”
“Sure,” she said. “But you better not get in my way. And if you turn into a zombie, I won’t hesitate to chop your head off. Nothing personal.”
“Oh, I understand. Well, I am trying to find a colony of survivors.”
“Good idea,” she said. “You never know if somebody else might be out there.”
And that’s the moment the other two showed up.
“Oh my, did you just kill those zombies?” Samantha asked when she walked towards us.
“Some of them, yes,” was Lilly’s answer.
“Are-are you guys warriors?” Samantha asked.
“I’ve been training a lot since the outbreak,” Lilly said. “But he just got his first kill.”
“Nice,” Harvey said. “I started killing some yesterday. It’s a thrill, and I don’t even feel guilty about it.”