In A Land Of Zombies, The Hypnotist Is King

Dawn of a new wave of change

I came across the first living companion in a building that used to be a youth hostel off a road through the hills somewhere above Steyning.

I found some Mindless milling around outside the building, seven of them. They did not seem to have their pants in a twist about anything, but I knew they must be staying here for a reason instead of wandering aimlessly. Seeing as they are only motivated by food, I guessed there was food in the building, food under siege.

One of the Mindless was absorbed in the activity of failing to climb the steps, another seemed transfixed by a dripping tap, the rest were walking in their own version of circles, square and hexagons, tracing out messy geometric constructs in the dust of the driveway. I pulled out my machete and a large kitchen knife for my left hand. Hiding behind a bush at the end of the driveway, keeping my escape route clear, I took the head off one nearest me and stepped back behind cover so that I could still see their movements. He was wearing corduroys and a Lemonheads t-shirt with blood stains mixed with what looked like mustard down the front of it. His head bounced off his shoulder as it rolled, long greasy hair clinging to his face so that I could not see the expression as it dropped. His knees gave way and hit the ground and then he fell forwards. None of them reacted.

I could not reach any others without breaking cover and when I did that, they would all be on me at once. I noted the one that could not seem to figure out the steps and thought that might give me control of the situation, but then I would be putting them between me and my only escape.

There were six left, one child, three women and two men, all looked like they had been quite well-to-do except for dribbles of blood and filth. None of them were well-to-do now, and I was food to all of their starved souls.

I stepped out and slipped the kitchen knife up into the chin of the nearest guy who was already missing an ear and eye. All the others turned in unison and started coming at me, little agitated twitches working their jaws suddenly as if my flesh was already being ground between their teeth. I kept the knife where it was and used the zombie as a shield. I reached around him with the machete and stabbed the next in the face. The little girl went down with a shrill gurgle. I then shoved my kebabbed friend onto one of the women as I turned away and sliced through the neck of another woman, enough to stop her moving but she did not seem stopped completely. I rushed forwards at that point and got to the steps hacking into the head of matey-boy at the foot of them. He fell backwards, and I ran up the steps and turned.

There were three left. The woman picking herself from underneath my kebbabed friend and two other women making their way in from the edge of the wide driveway. I realised I was actually enjoying myself, I embraced that for now as this was my life for the foreseeable future, but thought I might have to keep it in check.

The first of the women reached the steps and displayed no problems climbing them. I cursed – it was amazing what people could achieve with the right motivation even after death. There was enough space between each threat so long as each was easily dispatched. I brought the machete down on her head and she followed in the same direction, but the blade was stuck in her skull. I'd rehearsed all this in my mind countless times, so without thinking, I let it go and pulled a hunting knife from my thigh and slit the throat of the next potential snacker. She fell but kept writhing and reaching for me. I stepped away and rammed the kitchen knife into the ear of the last woman and then came back and stamped on the heads of the two incapacitated zombies until their macabre lights went out.

I looked up at the large window of the building and saw a girl of about 18 looking out with wide eyes. I raised a hand in greeting before retrieving my machete and cleaning all three of my blades on the nearest zombie's dress.

The girl let me in and we got to know each other over some canned goods and some bottled water. You'll meet her properly later. She told me about how she just freezes when she sees the Mindless. This had not been a problem while she was secure here, but she knew her supplies were running out and knew she had to leave soon, but she could not see how she would survive if she just froze on her first encounter. I told her I could help with that. Her name was Gale.

Once I knew she was at ease, I hypnotised her with magnetic hands and did some deepening on her by telling her to go as deep as she needs to go and let me know when she got there. I tested hypnosis when she was there with an eye closure – when I told her she could not open her eyes, she could not. After that she was putty in my hands.

A year or so before the apocalypse, I trained with an awesome hypnotist called Jonathan Chase and he had taught me his silver bullet method called Symbolism – a technique that could be used on near enough any issue that I came across. As I started setting it up with Gale, I wondered where Jon was now, whether he had survived, died or was undead. If he was undead then I figured he may be my nemesis in the zombie world, hypnotising fellow zombies to find better ways of eating the living. This would be hard with the mindless but if anyone could find a way it would be Jon.

I told Gale to think of that feeling, the feeling that made her freeze, and when she was focused on it I told her to find a symbol for the subconscious pattern that made her feel like that. She found the symbol quickly and we changed it for a better one. We did this 6 times before she found the perfect symbol for the perfect pattern that she would now run when she came in contact with the mindless. Before waking her up, I took her forwards in time, to a future memory, when she next came into contact with the mindless and tested it there. Her body tensed as I put her mind in this situation, but then it relaxed and she said she could see their weaknesses instead of their threat. She was still scared but she could push through it in order to save her life. I told her that was good, the fear would give her edge, sharpen her senses and drive her to survive – fear was now her friend and not another adversity. She agreed. We put her symbol in a safe place and I woke her up.

As she opened her eyes, I watched her blink the dazed look from them, she looked at me and gave me a strange smile and then looked at the window where she had watched me cut through the zombies to get to her.

“I feel like sleeping beauty,” she said, “asleep here for all this time and you've now come in and woken me up.”

“I put you to sleep first,” I laughed.

“I kinda wish you'd left one of them alive now so I can test it.”

“You'll have plenty of opportunity to test it, Gale. The world's full of them. Something's changed though hasn't it.”

“Oh yes,” she said. “Something has definitely changed.”

My name's Alex. I'm a hypnotist and my skills will save lives.

Read more about the hypnosis at my blog:

http://www.lifechangeexperience.co.uk/hypnotic-symbolism-used-to-relax-fear-in-a-frightening-world