Jeff Pindle loved zombies. Books, games, movies, he liked them all. He often thought a zombie apocalypse would be cool. He was dead wrong. Yesterday, at school, he saw a man, walking slowly, making some weird moaning sound.
He giggled, “ Oh no, it’s a zombie!”
Immediately, he felt bad. Obviously this man had some sort of mental issues and he just laughed. He looked closer, and saw the man had blood around his mouth. Maybe he wasn’t so far off. He shrugged. It probably was just like a strawberry milkshake or whatever.
Then, the bell rang. He went inside, slogged his way through Social Studies and French, and then it was time to go home. He was super excited, since today he and his friend Bhavdeep Bassi were going over to their friend Matthew Lemon’s house to play Left 4 Dead 2 together. Now, Left 4 Dead 2 is a good zombie game when doing single player, but an absolutely amazing one when playing with friends.
Matt’s mom picked Jeff, Matt, and Bhavdeep up at the school, and offered to drive them home, but Bhavdeep rode his bike to school, so he couldn’t take the drive.
When they got there, they played for about an hour, and then, Matt’s mom kicked them outside. They biked over to Jeff’s place, and hung around there. Jeff’s parents and his little sister were on vacation in Florida, so they weren’t there. Jeff couldn’t go, since when you’re in high school, you can’t really take vacations. Jeff didn’t mind though, since Florida is too hot for him.
Jeff told them about the man he saw.
Bhavdeep made a joke, “Oh no, the big bad zombie is gonna eat my brains!
Matt grinned, “ Yep, although, you’re safe, Jeff.”
“Why?” Jeff asked.
“Since you’re brainless!”
“Shut up!”
“It’s true!”
“Whatever.”
Immediately, they saw a man, walking up to them. His eyes were fixated at them through the open window. They were bloody. The man was making a moaning sound.
Jeff shouted, “Oh no! I wasn’t imagining!”
Rolling his eyes, Matt said, “I bet it’s just a prankster.”
Bhavdeep agreed, and then they all decide to check it out. Worried, Jeff took a steak knife, just in case. They asked the man if he was a prankster. In response, the man groaned. Jeff pulled out the knife and told the man unless he quit fooling around, he’d assume he was a zombie and kill him. As if to prove his point, it grabbed Matt! Matt shrieked like a little baby, but you could hardly blame him. Jeff stabbed through its temple like an expert with the knife, swiftly killing him.
They went inside the house. Jeff advised them to keep watch while he went in the shed to grab the axe that was there. He got it. Matt was still panting in fear, so the other two boys had to convince him to calm down, and that panic would only make things harder.
Jeff, being the one who knows about zombies, said they needed to first lock all doors and windows, and then barricade them with the wooden planks he’d cut from the firewood in the back. They worked together to grab a bunch of firewood from the backyard. In fact, a bit of it was already in planks. They got some nails and a hammer from the garage, and got to work.
Finally, they were done. Jeff told Matt and Bhavdeep to turn the two bathtubs on, both on cold. Confused, they protested, but Jeff explained that the government might cut the water supply.
They did so, and came down. Jeff said they would plan out the weapon situation.
Immediately, Matt replied, “ I want an assault rifle, any kind you got.”
Laughing, Jeff said, “ I don’t have any guns, dimwit!”
“You got any swords?” Bhavdeep asked hopefully.
Jeff replied, “What do you think?”
After a while they all decided. Jeff would take the axe he got from the backyard; Matt took a big knife and a monkey wrench, taking in to account his low strength and high hand dexterity, and Bhavdeep got an aluminum bat.
Looking out a little peephole in the barricade, they saw that a bunch of zombies were in the backyard! Without a moment’s hesitation, they gathered water bottles, beef jerky, and some energy drinks Jeff’s dad owned, and shoved them in some bags. Then they biked off to Matt’s place. Along the way, they saw a zombie. It was really short. Probably three foot one. Matt hopped off and slammed though it’s head with his wrench. Looking closer, Matt noticed it had blonde hair, and a mark above it’s left eye.
“That’s Maysillee,” he screamed, “I killed my baby sister!”
Jeff corrected, “No, you saved her. That was some monster with her face. You saved her from a terrible fate!”
“He’s right,” Bhavdeep asserted, “Do you think it’s fun to be a zombie?”
Matt lifted his knife to his throat and said, “ I’m more a monster than any zombie.”
Jeff punched his hand, as hard as he could and said, “Me and Bhav won’t let you kill yourself.”
“Yeah,” Bhavdeep added, “We’ll overdose you on energy drinks, and it’ll probably knock you out.”
Matt wiped a tear from his eye, “You guys are the best friends I ever had. I swear to God, I’ll kill the beast that did that to her!”
Jeff nodded, “We’ll help.”
“Yep.” Bhavdeep agreed.
“Today I fight, or today I die!” Matt said, as he swung his weapons up.
Matt tossed his knife in the ditch. “The wrench is a better weapon, and two things at once are hard to use. Plus, I can also use two hands for the wrench.” he reasoned.
The boys decided that here and now would be there final battleground. As Matt put it, “Today I fight, or today I die!” The boys decided to make as much noise as possible. Between screams, smashes and other sounds, they had a pack of zombies on them. Looking carefully, they saw a bears, dogs, and boars. Jeff cautiously went over to a zombie-dog, and sliced its head clean off! Blood spurted, and Jeff stomach lurched. Bhavdeep was staying in one spot, arm steadily giving perfect swings, with one kill per swing. Matt on the other hand was whirling all over the place like a demon. He was covered in blood, but he didn’t care. A zombie grabbed his wrench, so he decided to punch that zombie. It killed it! Jeff was in trouble, because wasn’t suited for this close. He ran over to Matt’s discarded knife and started using that.
“This is for Maysillee, you bloody pieces of hell!” Matt shrieked.
He was just berserk, going crazy. Behind this mask of suicidal hatred, was a gentle boy, subdued by the death of his sister. He lost his wrench, and a dog was on him! Bhavdeep swooped in and beat it to death! Bhavdeep then grabbed Matt’s wrench and tossed it to him. After what seemed like days, the fight was over.
Matt asked, “What happened?”
“You just went berserk, like it was just a video game,” Jeff said, “Like your life didn’t matter.”
“It was terrifying,” Bhavdeep chimed in.
“Well, I guess we should sleep,” Matt noticed.
Bhavdeep kindly told him, “I’ll guard. You guys just go to bed. Especially you Matt, you must be exhausted.”
“No,” replied Matt, “I need to mourn her.”
The other two went to bed, and Matt cried. He cried and cried, until there were no tears left. He woke up Jeff and told him to take watch. Matt went to sleep, full of nightmares, him killing Maysillee over and over, him getting eaten to death, being forced to eat himself! After a while, Bhavdeep woke him up. They decided to leave the place, so they gathered all their supplies, and hopped on their bikes. After a while, they saw a girl. She had no blood on her, and carried a gun!
Jeff hollered, “We’re human! Don’t shoot!”
“Aw, shut up, you idiot,” she said with a grin, “It’s me, Piper!”
Matt asked Jeff, “Who’s Piper?”
Jeff replied, “A friend of mine.”
Piper walked over to the boys and asked how things were. They all told her about what has happened.
“Wow, that must suck, I’ve been doing great. My dad was on a business meeting out in Barbados, trying to purchase some land or something. When the apocalypse started, I grabbed some food, water, a knife and this gun. Oh yeah, and some ammo for it. I’ve only killed a couple zeds though. I saw that battle you guys were in. I would’ve helped, only I didn’t recognize you. Thank god my dad’s your stereotypical American!” Piper told them.
“Nice,” Matt replied.
“Cool,” Bhavdeep answered.
“So,” asked Jeff, “You wanna team up?”
“Yeah, sure,” she replied.
They hung around the area, not wanting to move around much since Piper had that gun and stuff, and it would be pretty heavy. Nothing happened, and before long, it was night. Matt and Jeff were on guard, and the other two were asleep.
“Wow, she’s really pretty,” Matt whispered, making sure she couldn’t hear if she was still awake.
Jeff asked, “What the hell did you just say?”
“That’s she pretty?”
“Do you know who that is?”
“Your friend?”
“Yeah, my girlfriend!”
“But you said-“
“Yeah, but I wanted to keep our relationship private!”
“Oh.”
“Yeah, don’t you dare try anything.”
“Alright, I won’t.”
“Sure you wont.”
“Shut up, dude!”
All of a sudden, she woke up! “Shut up guys, trying to sleep here!” she hollered, then went back to sleep.
“You idiot,” Matt muttered.
Jeff replied, “Your fault.”
Then they woke Bhavdeep and Piper up. They talked offhand, about video games and stuff like that.
Then Piper asked, “So Matt’s a pretty messed up kid now, huh? Killing his sister and all?”
“Yeah, you had to see that fight to understand. It was terrifying,” Bhavdeep answered, “He was swinging like some sort of angel of retribution. Like if he killed enough, some part of him would be healed. Like she’d come back.”
“I don’t know what I’d do if that happened to me. I mean,” Piper thought aloud, “If I had a little sister and all that happened.”
“Yeah.”
Eventually, it was morning. The sun was shining, the birds were singing, if you didn’t know better, you would’ve been happy and excited for the nice weather.”
“Okay guys, lets ditch the bikes, I mean, we want to be mobile and all, but we can’t fight while riding them,” Matt figured.
“Good idea,” Jeff commented.
They walked along, and still, no zombies. It was as if they all just disappeared. It was unnerving.
Matt shivered, “This isn’t right.”
“I know,” Piper muttered, “It’s like they’re waiting.”