Surviving Today

PREFACE

Day 216

It was dark, yet I had no other choice but to take my leave now. The dead would be out, that was for sure, but the darkness would give me refuge from the not-so-friendly travelers.

I was scared. I was cold. I was hungry. Most importantly I was alone. Well...not completely alone.

The low grunts and moans coming from outside my door were evidence that in this world, I was never alone. Not anymore.

I let out a small sigh as I pressed my back against the front door, preparing myself for the small herd outside that could possibly be my doom.

I had experience with killing zombies, not a lot, but experience. Yeah you heard me correctly. Zombies. That's a hazard these days.

Suddenly the grunting got louder, making my palm on the door handle sweat.

How many could I kill? Would I be able to stealth past a few if I wasn't too loud?

I shut my eyes and said a silent prayer before I swung the door open and faced my first corpse.

My neighbor, Jonathan. If memory served me correctly I remembered he was a bit arrogant and annoying.

I couldn't help but notice his glasses were missing. He was a fresh corpse, I could tell by how he ran straight for me.

The fresher the corpse the faster it moves. This is because their blood hasn't run completely cold, it's still warm from being alive not to long ago.

Normally, a dead human being turns cold within minutes of death, but the fever caused from the infection keeps the body warm much longer than anticipated.

He shuffled over towards me with arms outstretched, his used-to-be long black hair was pasted to his forehead with blood.

I attempted to dodge his flailing arms but before I knew it one brought me back, and soon Jonathan was pinning me to the door screaming in my face.

More like choking in my face. Saliva and blood blocked out the noise that was trying to come from his mouth.

His death was a messy one, that much I could tell by the hole in his body where his stomach and intestines should be.

"Gruhhh-" Gasped out the dead boy on top of me. I had my arms on his bony shoulders, pushing him as far back as I could. His face was inches from mine, his jaw opened half-hazardly as he tried to use his tongue to get me.

It was dripping on me now. The saliva and blood, it was dribbling slowly from his tongue to my clothes. Disgusting!

I then used my leg to kick him back. Once to get him off me. Again to knock him backwards on his butt. Quickly I pulled my long blade out as I strode back over to the grounded Jonathan.

He was struggling to get back up on his legs that would not move for him. I came up behind him as I pressed the knife into his skull, breaking through it like butter.

"If memory serves me correctly Jonathan, you tried to kiss me before and I refused. Being a zombie doesn't change that." I whispered slyly as I tugged the blade out of his head. That was always the hard part, getting the knife back out.

I stood up and turned around with a proud smirk on my face as I then saw the next three corpses coming towards me. My smile dropped.

"Shit." I said with my eyes bugging out. My brain went into overdrive as I planned an escape route. Over the fence, and into the river.

I made a beeline for the Strauss' fence, dodging the corpses one-by-one, juking a few in the process.

A straggler strayed from the herd and followed my path. I jumped up barely catching onto the fence to pull myself up. I swung one leg over and soon the next, just missing the rotted hand that reached for me. I then jumped off the fence and fell into the river.