(no subject)
CHAPTER 1: THE GIRL
HEART RATE: 90 BPM
She walked into the camp at about quarter past three in the afternoon. Didn’t even seem to realize what she was doing until we were right on top of her. I came from the side, shotgun in hand and yelled something at her. It was meant to be a threat, but my nerves were so shot it must’ve come out as gibberish. You couldn’t blame me, though. Last night we’d lost two of the women, now… They could be among the walking dead for all we knew.
So there I was, clambering over a pile of rubble, gun in hand and this girl doesn’t even seem to notice at first. She just stops moving and looks around at us. We must look awful, all dressed in rags and hiding among ruins. Ever since the zombies came, that’s how we live, although I had a nice pair of sunglasses, my pride and joy. This girl looked almost untouched by it all, though. She looked Japanese, about sixteen years old, and something about her didn’t sit right with me. She was slim and had a very taut, slender body. Only a few inches over five feet and with long, dark black hair that was straight as an arrow. Her breasts and hips were both small and her legs were long and pretty. She was wearing, and this was the weird part, a Japanese school uniform, ripped and smeared with mud, dust and god knows what else, here and there. She had a blazer on over it and over that she had two long shoulder belts, each with an assortment of tools and weapons hanging off them. Couldn’t see a gun on her, but there were at least a dozen knives, a claw hammer, a wrench and, resting on her back, an honest to god chainsaw. I couldn’t even guess how she could walk under all that weight, but she didn’t seem bothered at all.
Her dark eyes flicked to me as I pointed my gun at her, along with three of the guys. “Freeze!” I yelled at her.
She spat and turned to face me, spreading her arms wide. She was missing one eye, or at least she had an eye patch on, but I was immediately drawn to her remaining pupil. It was a deep black or blue and seemed to burn in her face. Staring right into it, I saw something I’d never forget for as long as I lived. This was a living, not dead, person, who had seen more that I ever would and done more than I ever would. I swallowed slowly and found I’d unconsciously lowered my shotgun. I raised it again, pointing it at the girl.
“What’s your fucking name, huh? Answer me, you little bitch!” I roared at her, furious, feeling like an idiot.
I looked at her body closer and noticed she was bleeding from a few open wounds. It was a good thing the zombies didn’t infect people like in the movies or we’d have to put her down. No, it wasn’t until you were dead that you rose as one of them. And she seemed to linger at death’s door, like a sinner trying to repent before death. I noticed she was missing a lot of the skin on her hands and it looked like it was still bleeding. I wondered what she looked like under the clothes, if the damage stretched to the rest of her body. Maybe if she lifted her shirt up, I’d see straight out the back of her. I was spooked.
“She’s hurt bad,” I said, rising. She flinched when I moved towards her, then seemed to relax again.
HEART RATE: 95 BPM
I shrugged. “Come on, let’s get you some food.” I held out my hand and she slapped it away, shaking her head. I shrugged and turned away, walking over the rubble with my men. She followed me. I let her, slinging my gun over my shoulder.
***
I could smell her blood among theirs. The girl. Beside me, the other zombies licked their decaying lips. We waited until night, then moved forwards towards their position. Our bodies were rotten and weak, but we were still able to climb up to where the sentry was posted and pull him down. They tore out the warm goo inside and ripped into it, taking him apart in seconds. He didn’t even get to scream. We smelled about thirty of them and knew we’d eat well tonight.
There were at least two hundred of us. At first, we’d been disparate, separated, but then the God had begun to tell us to move together. We’d gotten smarter, more powerful and now these were the last humans in the area. The girl was with them. I moved forwards, hopping through the ruins of what had once been the mall I’d done my shopping at, the mall where I’d met my first wife before the divorce, when I heard the first screams. The first gooey human was pulled apart, arms pulled from his torso, clumps of head torn off by human hands. We were powerful zombies and we’d surrounded them. I heard gunshots and moved closer. Seeing a man, I leapt on him and yanked him to the ground, digging into his leg. I tore off strips of flesh and fed myself eagerly, before I saw a figure moving towards me. I went to rise.
It was the girl. Small, lithe body, dozens of knives glinting in the moonlight. I reached out for her slowly. She was wide awake and I realized that she’d known we were coming. No matter, I’d tear her in two and be done with it. I yelled for other zombies to go for her and my voice, the one I’d used to serenade my wife so many nights, came out as a guttural, dead moaning. They moved forwards, grabbing at her. She flicked out a knife and stabbed one zombie right in the head with unerring aim as his claws raked down her front, before she kicked him away. Others came though as I pushed my way through the crowd of thirty or so hungry dead that washed around her. There was nowhere for her to go as she swung a knife wildly. Zombies in front of me were pushed forwards and I shoved them, using their bodies to disarm her. As she cut them down, her knives broke and got stuck between bones. We shoved harder and more died. She kicked a zombie back and moved towards the rubble, hauling the chainsaw off her back. She revved it and went to swing at the nearest zombie, but it got stuck in his head. She shook her head as the crowd pulled it off her and climbed higher.
HEART RATE: 170 BPM
A pile of rubble was in the middle of the camp. We watched her climb it as others scanned the area for other survivors. The other thirty were dead. It was just us zombies and the girl now. She clambered to the top of the rubble and watched us like a hawk. Zombies began to climb the rubble as well and she reached for part of the tangle of what had once been a theatre and pulled off a long lead pipe, mashing brain and skull with it. She glanced around and saw a car about fifteen feet away and I realized what she was doing at the last moment. She leapt from the top of the rubble for the car and hit the roof heavily. It buckled under her and she cried out in a pained warble as she twisted her ankle, popping the bone out. She squealed and fell onto the roof, banging her head and tried to rise. Zombies made their way onto the car and she kicked at them with her free leg, before rolling onto the dirt ground, right next to one of the men who had taken her in. No wonder he was dead, who wears sunglasses at night?
She rose from the ground, scooping up his shotgun and it clicked empty. She broke it over a zombie’s head and began to limp away. She seemed to know where she was going, too. The mall was situated at the top of a cliff.
HEART RATE: 120 BPM
We ran after her, chasing her to the cliff edge. She turned around and smiled brightly, pole in hand and took a step backwards, throwing the pole as hard as she could. I blinked as it pierced my brain, unable to comprehend what had happened. Then I fell over backwards, dead. The last thing I saw was the girl taking a thirty foot shortcut down a cliff face, while zombies watched her fall.