Autobiography of a Zombie

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Jack was sleeping like a baby, as was his father. Dim moonlight shone onto Jack's eyes, forcing him awake. Jack groaned softly and turned over to attempt to fall asleep once more. There was a soft noise, just barely audible. However, the fear of zombie attacks amplified it to almost a scream, forcing Jack's paranoid body out of bed. He looked out one of the windows only to find bushes rustling softly outside. He let out another tired groan, but realized any other sleep attempt would fail. His eyes fell to the pamphlet he had been given earlier. Jack skimmed through it and found a waterfall was nearby. That seemed the most interesting to him, his mother had made him a nature nut. He walked past his father's bedroom, silently wondering how his snoring hadn't woken him up. He grabbed his father's spare pistol and loaded it, "Better safe than sorry." Jack muttered under his breath. A cool breeze greeted him as he opened the door and stepped outside. Jack gazed at the rest of the camp. Cool embers of dead fires glowed dimly in the dirt. Jack assumed everyone else was asleep and continued exploring. The atmosphere was almost dreamlike, thin trails of smoke danced through the sky. The moon was a spotlight shining on Jack, as if waiting for something to happen. He followed the trail, watching the occasional bat fly by, joking that nature was trying to scare him. The soft splashing of the waterfall could be heard in the distance. He debated with himself if he would attempt to jump down it, but as the splashes got louder he decided it would be too dangerous. He reached the river and began to follow it to his destination. Jack pushed through trees as he got closer, excitedly awaiting the river's end. In an instant, his feet planted themselves firmly onto the ground. He covered his own mouth and listened softly. Half shocked by his own reflexes, Jack sifted through the different sounds to find what had startled him. There was a sound, a quiet sound, that didn't fit in with the others. Forced breathing, as if whatever it was would pass out at any second. His heart skipped a beat as he peeked around a tree to find the creature. It sat on the edge of the cliff staring at the water flowing down. Jack scanned it, it was a girl, black hair touching her shoulders. In that instant, he forgot all of his suspicions and walked forward. He was about to speak as the girl touched the ground with her right hand, revealing a dark black mark on the back of it. Jack instantly recognized it and uncontrollably gasped. The girl's head jerked back towards him, revealing a panicked expression for a split second as she slipped out of place and fell. An uncontrolled force pushed Jack towards her. Before Jack could even think, he was grasping tightly onto her arm as she dangled over the edge, it looked to be a thousand feet in Jack's fear-filled eyes. Jack noticed what arm he was holding onto and saw the bite. He rubbed it carefully, as if to see if it was real. It was. The girl lifted her head to face Jack. He tried not to let go, though he wasn't sure why until he saw her face. Her eyes matched her hair, but even so her expression seemed to mirror his. Jack began to pull her back up, closer to him. When she was almost completely up, he made one last tug, though he pulled too hard and forced her on top of him. Jack's blood ran cold, feeling her body pressing onto his with no heartbeat coupling it. A scream was crawling up his throat, but a hand was placed over his mouth before it could escape. With the girl's hand now pressing against his face, Jack could now smell her skin, it was definitely rotting. The girl helped him up, not removing her hand. She looked Jack in the eyes and brought a finger to her lips, a quiet shush barely escaping as she slid her hand off of his face. Jack fearfully nodded in response, secretly eyeing her to get a better look. Her skin was a pale green, though surprisingly undamaged apart from her hand, her clothes were more ripped than her skin. The girl looked up at the sky, watching the moon sulk down slowly. She looked back at Jack before walking away silently. Jack found himself grabbing onto her arm once more. "Wait." He begged. "Why didn't you try to kill me?" She looked back with a small smirk, her black eyes rolling slightly. Jack remained in shock. "How is this even possible?! You can understand me, I can understand you. I don't even-" The girl pressed a finger to his lips. Jack hushed himself and looked back into her eyes. A soft, dark whisper escaped her throat. "Tomorrow." She quickly broke free of his grasp and hurried away, leaving Jack frozen in disbelief. Jack eventually broke free of his trance when the sun began to shine onto his face. He slowly tread back to camp, checking himself for bites he knew weren't there. As he ran his fingers across his arms carefully, he slammed against another creature. Startled, Rick turned and greeted him. "Oh. Hey, Jack right? What's up? You look like you just saw a ghost." Jack scrambled back onto his feet nervously. "Yeah yeah, sorry. I was just out on a walk." Rick chuckled softly, "Okay, just be careful next time. That waterfall makes the cliff pretty slippery." Jack groaned softly to himself. "Note taken." He made his way back to his R.V. where his father was waiting. "Jack! Where have you been? I was starting to get worried." Jack sat next to Stan and told him where he was. Stan nodded. "Okay. I see you took my other pistol with you. Maybe you have learned something." Jack smiled shyly while debating whether or not to tell his father about what had happened. He thought about what she had said. Jack decided he'd go back tomorrow to see if she was still there. He also decided not to tell Stan, he was too afraid his father would kill her without a second thought. He suggested breakfast to change the topic quickly. Stan and Jack each had bowls of oatmeal, while discussing what they wanted to do that day. Jack was hoping to get his mind off of that girl for a bit, so he casually agreed to anything Stan suggested. Stan had decided it would be good for Jack to meet some of the other people at the camp, so they both began walking around other R.V.s to see who else was around. In the back of Jack's mind, he was afraid he would run into the zombie again. He shook his head softly to try to erase the thought from his brain. "If you're trying to forget something, I can whack you with my gun." Stan joked, noticing Jack's behavior. "What's eating at you, boy?" Jack smiled at his father, continuing to hide the incident. "It's nothing. Just bad thoughts." Stan raised his eyebrow, "Well now you officially have me interested. What kind of bad thoughts?" Jack was afraid Stan could tell he was nervous, he was never good at hiding it. "Just worried about zombies." Jack slipped out, quickly correcting himself. "L-like if any were to break into the campsite. You know?" Stan chuckled, "Hey now. I'm supposed to be the paranoid one. You're a kid, you need to relax." Stan's eyes met Jack's and quickly widened. "Wait a minute. Is that why you're acting all weird? Did you see a zombie?" Jack nervously shook his head. Stan stepped back in shock, "You did! Why in sam hell haven't you told me?" Jack blushed softly, he had an idea, but was afraid it wouldn't work. "Because..I killed it." He said in a soft tone, almost sad. Stan seemed almost too shocked to respond, so Jack continued his lie. "It was there when I got to the waterfall, I was scared, I didn't know what to do. I pushed it off the edge. There's no way it made it, that drop was too high." Stan lowered his head, a grin stuck to his face. "Well I'll be damned. I didn't think you had it in you." He ruffled Jack's black hair playfully, "I'm proud of you, boy. Though you shouldn't have hid this from me. We might want to tell Rick that there could be some zombies lurking around." Jack reassured his father. "It's alright. I think it was just a straggler. We shouldn't have to worry about it." Stan smiled, noticing other campers not too far away. A man and a little girl around Jack's age, presumably a father and daughter. The man and the daughter had matching blonde hair, coupled with brown eyes. Stan introduced themselves, their names were Peter and Justine. Stan and Peter continued conversing and left Jack and Justine to talk to each other. Jack awkwardly started a conversation of their own. "So...Justine huh? That's a pretty cool name." She giggled, her voice was deeper than Jack had imagined. "Thanks. I like yours too. Though I'm not sure your dad likes my name." Jack noticed Stan secretly glaring at Justine with confusion. "I don't understand? He isn't normally like that." She smiled. "It's no big deal. Most people act like that. My dad doesn't like it either, it was probably the first thing he told your dad." Stan tapped Jack's shoulder and bid the two goodbye, saying they wanted to meet the other campers. When they got far enough away, Jack intruded. "Dad, what was that about?" Stan scoffed unpleasantly, "Well I'm so glad you aren't like her. You may be girly but at least you stay a guy." Jack looked even more confused. "I guess she didn't tell you. Justine used to be a Justin. Kind of a stupid name change in my opinion." Jack put the pieces together and understood. "But why are you all weird about it?" Stan glared at his son. "Because it's just not right. It's quite frankly disgusting." Jack pressed on. "Yeah, but why?" Stan stammered slightly as he replied, "B-because it is! Look, let's stop talking about it." Jack wasn't ever phased by something like that, his mother had raised him like that. His father however, was quite the opposite. Jack often wondered how those two got together in the first place. Stan brought Jack back to their R.V. muttering something about having met enough campers for one day. They were met with Rick once more, he was carrying firewood towards the fire pit in preparation for night. Stan ignored him and walked back into the van. Jack stayed to talk. "Geez, what's up with him?" Rick asked quietly. Jack replied, "He just met Justine and was a bit upset about it." Rick rolled his eyes in disgust. "Typical. I didn't think Stan was like that. It's a shame. He's kind of cute." Rick instantly blushed realizing he'd said it out loud. "D-don't tell him I said that." Jack blushed as well, "Yeah, I'm not sure he's quite over my mom's loss yet. Sorry." Rick nodded and walked away, embarrassed. Jack returned to his father and silently made himself a bowl of soup. They sat in silence for the next couple hours, occasionally starting an empty conversation. Eventually Stan decided to go to sleep for the day. Jack looked out the window to see the sun setting in the distance. As it disappeared behind the trees, only one thought remained in his mind. "Tomorrow."