Dead Day: Die with Dignity

Die by the Dead

THE FIRST THING THAT NATHANAEL NOTICED WHEN HE FELL WAS THAT HE WAS NOT DEAD. As he was falling, his bag had dropped off and broken his fall.

He was rescued from a broken neck but his décolletage did not appreciate the fall. His neck seared with pain but he ignored it. The surrounding zombies, instead of attacking, stood and watched to see what he would do next. Apparently, they were aware that a normal human being could not have survived that fall. Maybe he was one of them.

For several minutes, he did not move. Perhaps he could stay there and pretend to be dead until they went away. He carefully glanced up and saw, in their blank eyes, that they were prepared to wait all night if they had to. Nathanael knew that one badly timed bodily function, like a fart or an overwhelming burp, would alert his predators of his living status. He made up his mind to do the wise thing… and run like hell!

He jumped up and ran across the quadrangle. Instead of joining the pathway, which was now swarming with the undead bodies of seventh and eighth graders, he continued forward to the sloping cliff face that led down to the playing field. The zombies gave chase but they were still slow and could only run for a few meters at a time before stopping to catch the breath that they did not have. It looked more like recharging than respiring.

He began jumping down the jutting rocks. On a normal Tuesday, jumping down theses to get to P.E. class was a breeze. Running for his life from a horde hungry zombies threw off his foot-eye coordination and he reached the bottom flat on his face.

There was not time to feel pain. He stood up and looked for a place to run. Where he had landed was the cemented area above the field. There were not any zombies on the field area from what he could see but they were climbing over the cliff fast. A hundred meters from where he stood was a small building that was the office of the Physical Education teachers. He could hide in there. Before running, he actually began to wonder if it was wise to trap himself in a confined space. Then again, his choices were to prolong the agony or be torn apart in the open. No question. 

He lit a blazing trail from the cliff to the office and dived inside. He shut the iron gate and bolted it. He exhaled heavily. What was going on? This was not the world he knew! In his world, the dead stayed dead. In the world he knew, life was a crappy place but it worked out for him. He passed his classes, he had a girlfriend, he had a complex social network. What happened to his world? Zaneiki must have done something. He did not know how and he did not know what, but Zaneiki must be responsible for this.

He shook those thoughts from his head. This was serious; he had to think of a way to get off the school compound. He sat down and thought hard about a plan but nothing came to him. He was at a loss. He was going to die. He just knew it. He was going to die. Those things were going to eat him. He was going to die.

He was still thinking those thoughts when the zombies began to bang on the door.

ZANEIKI HAD ONLY FELT FEAR ON VERY FEW OCCASIONS IN HIS LIFE. This was one of them.

He had watched Resident Evil and he knew what zombies were capable of. They were strong and could multiply faster than rabbits. They were near immortal and resistant to pain. But they were not real. Countless hours studying the Bible told him that, yet here he was standing face to face with a one-armed man in street clothes.

The zombies had broken down the grill of the classroom and were filing in. The boys in the class, who were possibly the most violent species on the planet, backed away in fright. All except Zaneiki. He was rooted by fear. All his life, he had dreamed for normality to take a hike but now that it was happening before him… He was downright awestruck.

The one-armed zombie walked slowly up to him. He stared Zaneiki dead in the eyes before lunging forward. A metal chair sailed from the outskirts on Zaneiki’s vision and struck the creature. The resulting force of the chair threw it to the side but it was evident that it was unhurt.